Cannon Falls senior's artwork will hang in US Capitol

Brian Todd, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·3 min read

May 26—CANNON FALLS — Makayla Bowen was about to go for a run on Sunday when she heard the good news.

Turns out, a little exercise was the perfect remedy for her excitement.

Bowen, a senior at Cannon Falls High School, had just learned she'd won the Congressional Art Competition for Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District, meaning her artwork will hang in the U.S. Capitol from October through March 2022.

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Bowen isn't the only winner from Southeast Minnesota.

Delaney Alden, a freshman from Grand Meadow High School, was selected as the second-place winner in the 1st Congressional District for her submission "Great Plains Bison." Her painting will hang in Rep. Jim Hagedorn's district office until next year's competition.

"(Rep.) Angie Craig had called me," Bowen said. "She wanted to be the one to tell me. I was just speechless."

Bowen's oil painting, "Mirror of the Soul," took first place, topping 44 other entrants in the district. According to Craig's office, more than 700 people voted on the entries before the top five were chosen. From there, Craig selected the winners.

"I started to draw when I was really young, but it never got serious," Bowen said of her artistic abilities. "Then I took a drawing class, and I learned I liked to draw portraits of people."

Bowen said she enjoys the realism of portraits, and has the ability to look at something and draw it realistically. She also likes bringing out the emotion of a person when she draws or paints portraits.

Nicolette Hernke, one of Bowen's art teachers at CFHS, said Bowen has been a fantastic student, absorbing what she's taught and combining that with her own natural talents.

"She's been doing independent study with me, where she explores whatever she wants," Hernke said. "She chose to do portraits, to study the human face. She's just dived into that."

Hernke said Bowen has been driven during the pandemic, and to help teach Bowen, she's brought in her own teacher to spend time with Bowen.

"She started experimenting with paints, the texture of it," Hernke said.

Bowen had not expressed an interest in art as a career, but Hernke said she's seen a change in her student, a passion for art that wasn't there when she first showed up in a drawing class.

Bowen said studying art has changed her own path. She now plans to study interior architecture and design at Colorado State University in the fall.

"I kind of went back and forth. I liked nutrition, but an art degree is something I'd enjoy over science," she said. "I love to design."

She plans to do some more painting and drawing this summer. In the meantime, Bowen said she is looking forward to knowing that her work will hang in the U.S. Capitol Building.

"It's surreal," she said. "I'm ecstatic."