For Emily Luna, painting has always been therapy, a way to alleviate stress.

 

Turns out, Luna is very good. So good she traveled to Washington D.C. this summer to represent Congressional District 8 as the winner in the annual competition titled, “An Artistic Journey-The Congressional High School Art Competition, Recognizing and Encouraging The Creative Endeavors of Our Nation’s Young Artists”

 

Each year house members choose the work of one high school student in their district to display in the nation’s capital. Representative Yadira Caraveo selected Emily’s “Spring in Colorado” painting as this year’s winner.

 

Art teacher Michelle Music encouraged Emily to enter the competition and traveled with her and her father this summer to the nation’s capital. “She is utterly wonderful,” said Music. “Emily bonded with Representative Caraveo over their mutual interest in pediatrics and she offered to help Emily with a letter of recommendation and career advice.”

 

The colorful acrylic painting shows a hummingbird in the foreground against a beautiful back drop of the Colorado mountains. Most of her work reflects her love of nature and bright colors. “That feeling that I get when I see the sunset,” she said. “It’s like happiness and peace. So I try to do that in my paintings can see it and feel it.”

 

Emily says she will be a painter the rest of her life, but plans to follow a career in nursing so that she can work with children. She hopes to go to Regis University after graduating in the spring. She worked this summer as a student teacher at F.M. Day Early Learning Center.