12-year-old’s drawing earns calendar honors

Sitting in the grass at a Cub Scout Day Camp near Avery Park, 12-year-old Eliza Jandrasi held a small field daisy upside down in her palm, staring hard at its base. Without looking up, she said: “I think the flower looks prettier on this side.”

Eliza is used to looking at things in a slightly different way. She is always noticing subtleties and making keen observations on them, like how the last name of her mother, Mary Shaughnessy, when written in cursive, looks symmetrical to her. Much of her world involves dipping into that rich well of observation and imagination, and producing artwork that is already getting noticed.

Eliza’s colored pencil drawing of an Oregon landscape was picked out of 2,100 entries from all over Oregon as the cover for the Oregon Agricultural calendar for next year. She gets free tickets to the Oregon State Fair for the honor, and she was excited about winning, although she’s not sure how she feels about seeing her work hanging up on someone else’s wall.

It’s not the first time Eliza’s artwork has been honored. She was winner of the 2008 Oregon Fair Housing Act poster contest, for her depiction of a cluster of bright houses bearing flags, with their doors all open in a welcoming manner. Last year, she won second place in the same contest.

Most of Eliza’s artwork is created at the Corvallis Boys & Girls Club art center, where Eliza spends most of her afternoons during the school year, and where she also goes for part of the summer. She loves the art center, and waxes poetic over some of the projects she’s done there.

“We did bunnies for Easter, and it was awesome,” she said, describing in detail how art instructor Nelia Mendonca helped them create three-dimensional rabbits. “I made a purple bunny.”

Eliza’s father, Ron Jandrasi, is a former artist whose large abstract paintings have inspired his daughter, even though her work is much more representational. She doesn’t get painting advice from him, but she does get help with some of her other creative projects, like the animal costume she made for this year’s Procession of the Species parade.

“I was a giraffe,” Eliza said. “It had a purple tongue. It made me about seven feet tall.”

“That was her idea,” said her mother, dryly.

The Cheldelin seventh grader may focus most of her attention on art, but she’s been exploring other sides of life as well. This week, she decided to volunteer at the Cub Scouts camp her younger brother Zach is attending, although she found a little too late that her time would be spent doing babysitting.

“I watch a bunch of tiny people,” she said with a sigh.

She also volunteers her time to help out the Boys & Girls Club art center by making magnets and other crafts to sell to raise money for the center. And this summer, she’ll also be attending YMCA camp, Girl Scout camp and Kid Spirit, and taking art classes.

She’ll also be back in the Boys & Girls Club art center, no doubt creating another award-winning piece of art.

“I really appreciate the Boys & Girls Club having an art program,” mom Mary said. “Nelia is really good about being flexible about what they do.”

At a glance

Who: Eliza Jandrasi, 12

What: Seventh grader, Cheldelin Middle School

Current claim to fame: Award-winning artist

Favorite nonart hobbies: Basketball, canoeing