It began with a desire to paint, and a love of horses.

“I’ve always wanted to paint, since I was a little girl,” said Monica Levister, now a junior at Landrum High School. Levister, who recently won the Tom Willis Memorial Award for her mixed media collage, at the Chapman Cultural Center, has considered becoming an art teacher.

When Monica was a young girl, her mom bought her an easel and a set of acrylic paints, “and I would paint my horses.” Levister still has horses and enjoys trail riding “for the fun of it.”

Horses and art have combined to provide a great deal of fulfillment. “Ever since I was a little girl,” Levister said, “I loved horses.” That connection led to her “painting what I loved.” Of her budding art some years ago, she admits that at first, “I was not very good,” though her efforts were special to her. Monica is self-taught. Representing her horses through painting, “made me feel like I was always with them.” Her dad once told her that she had “horses on my brain.”

From painting her horses, “I started painting landscapes.” She is taking Art 4 Honors, a school program, and plans to take an advanced placement (AP) arts class in her senior year. Her paintings, which rendered horses in their natural habitat and grooming each other, were made from memory when she was not actually watching the animals. Painting the animals led to painting backgrounds, and to painting simply landscapes, though Levister still paints her horses “every once in a while.”

Eventually, she began experimenting with representing landscapes though the use of rice paper, which is the main component of her award-winning collage. This medium, available in many thicknesses, colors, and textures, offers limitless opportunities for creativity. In her piece, Levister overlapped layers of rice paper to create foreground and background. “This is a little experimentation that has turned out really good,” she said. “Right now, I’m experimenting with a bunch of media, to see what I want to do for my AP course (for which she needs to create a series of related art as a theme, to finish the course).”

Levister’s thought process and her skills are evolving. As with many artists, “I always start with an idea, and what I end up with is completely different than what my original thought was– more like a learning thing for me.” When she passes by several pieces of her art displayed in the school’s hallways, she will at this stage, see what she might do differently now.

For her prize-winning piece, “I knew I wanted to do a landscape.” Starting with blue rice paper, she added green, and instead of cutting the medium, “I would roll up the paper.” She created the collage, which portrays texture and movement using design principles she learned in an art course. The course helps students compare and contrast design techniques of established artists.

In that piece, each of the three scenes could be seen as separate or continuous. Streaks of luminous paint give a gentle sense of movement through the scene from left through right, as does tinsel paper glued to the rice paper. Varying shades of green also provide a sense of movement. In other words, key elements come together to provide something special. Rice paper, Levister said, “is kind of fun to work with.”

Planning was not a long process, nor was the execution. And the results? “I really liked it!” Levister beamed. “I could see myself doing more,” she added. She will likely be creating lots more art. “I’ve been looking into being an art teacher. She also enjoys working with other people. “It’s one of my other passions. Levister plans to major in fine arts, possibly at Converse College or the University of South Carolina, both of which, she said, have good art programs. “I want to do art,” she emphasized, “but I also want to do something that provides financial stability.”