It started from an idea of bike tires. Sketches. Rough drafts. Two weeks of work to perfectly portray the artwork like he wanted it. Drawings of cities. Drawings of buildings. Drawings of scenery. Ten months of passing each competition level with flying colors. The hard work lead up to this moment.

After enrolling in AP 2D Art and Design last year, junior Ryan Li completed a surreal piece of miniaturized cities, buildings, and scenery along the rim of bike tires. He then submitted it to the Texas Art Education Association (TAEA).

“I entered my artwork for TAEA,” Ryan said. “It won past school, then district, then region. It went through lots of levels because when it finally got to state, my piece had been in judging for about ten months.”

When Ryan’s artwork reached the state level, he went to the Texas State Capitol to attend the ceremony.

“I’d never been to the state capitol before,” Li said. “My first time was for the ceremony. Everything there looked very big and amazing and magnificent.”

After attending the state ceremony, students like Ryan, believed that they had reached the highest level of the competition. However, it was soon revealed that there was a bonus level of the competition where the winners could have their artwork hung in the personal office of the governor of Texas, rather than displayed at the state capitol. To Ryan’s surprise, he was the first student to have their art selected to go on the walls of the office.

“I was the only student from Heritage who won through all those levels and got to where I did, so it felt like an even greater win to me,” Ryan said.

The governor and his wife, the first lady of Texas, invited the winners back down to the state capital for a private party to view all the chosen art pieces. He attended this event over this past summer.

“At the private party, we just ate cookies, snacks, and drinks, met new people, talked to people, [and] took pictures with the art and First Lady,” Ryan said.

Since then, Ryan has looked at art from a different perspective, and says his future works will be greatly impacted.

“It makes me want to work even harder on art and achieve even [more],” Ryan said. “It was a big boost in my self-belief in my artwork.”

His artwork is currently framed and hung in the office of the governor in the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas.

“It makes me happy and proud that a piece of mine is all the way down in Austin and in such a special place,” Li said. “Not just on some exhibit wall or at home in my folders.”