CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When students walk into classroom 212 at Tuloso-Midway High School, they can look up and see the artwork of one of their own on the ceiling.
TMHS Senior Rhianna Anguiano is an aspiring artist, and her drawings are displayed over the heads of students who walk into multiple classrooms in the school.
Rhianna said she grew a love for art at an early age.
“It's been with me since I was a kid, you know?” she said. “Like, I was that kid in the corner of the classroom with all the crayons out and all the coloring books. I drew on the board a lot and my teachers noticed it — so did my family and so it just grew on me.”
Rhianna arrived at school an hour before class each morning to complete her drawings, each one based on books she has read.
She has brightened up more than 100 tiles in her four years at the school.
She said sometimes life is about doing unique things.
"Isn't life our canvas, you know?” she said. “Isn't that why Michelangelo on his ceiling? Isn't that why Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa? I mean he didn't even like the Mona Lisa, but it still turned out famous.”
On top of being an artist she is also top ten her class, a state swimmer and a a writer.
One of her teachers said that the idea for the drawings on the ceiling came after she found ways to get students engaged in the learning process.
"Through the last four years of her high school career, she has worked on tiles withing classrooms so that it dresses up the classroom,” Belinda Covarrubiaz, an English teacher at T-M High School said. “It gives something for students to look at.”
Her dad was a state trooper and when he retired she gave him what he said is the best gift ever: a portrait of himself in uniform.
Rhianna plans to attend Texas A&M University-College Station to pursue a degree in psychology with a minor in art. She hopes to one day become an art therapist.
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