Elkhart-East senior Allison Leiter, for the past four years, has competed in the Scholastic Art competitions. Despite her accomplishments, she had not won a Gold Key–until this year. In the past, Leiter has won both Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions. However, the “golden ticket” for her this year was a piece is called The Story of Redemption.

At the beginning of her process, Leiter had to choose a theme that would create ten pieces of original art. Her theme was, in fact, unique and grounded in her faith. “As I thought about it,” Leiter confesses, “I realized that what sustains me the most is my faith in Jesus Christ.” Collectively, the title of is also The Story of Redemption. “They are each meant to portray a view of reality through Jesus Christ through reflections in water,” she explains. “A Bible verse is the basis for each individual concept.” Continuing on, Leiter adds, “Each image consists of a view of the real world and the image’s reflection in water. The entire body of work is a progression that expresses the story of redemption that each person is offered through the grace and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.”  For her, faith was inspiring and broad; it could be reflected or portrayed in myriad ways. And with that, Leiter took off and began to create her masterpiece.

Sometimes it takes a thousand tries in order to get the perfect end result. Luckily for Leiter, all it took was two hours. While on vacation, she seized the opportunity and decided to take pictures at her hotel. She adds, “My sister and I were in the pool for one-and-a-half to two hours trying to get the picture just right. When we arrived back home, I used Photoshop to create the reflection in the top half of the picture.” In the end, the picture was a reflection of her faith and rung true to her theme.

Although she has received awards for her work in the past, Leiter notes, “I  was excited when I found out about this award. I have competed in Scholastics for the past three years, now earning Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions, but I never received a Gold Key for my work before, so I was quite excited about that.” Thus, while art is simply the beauty in the eye of the beholder, this golden piece with never tarnish in Leiter’s eyes.