Florida Catholic | Young Artist Captures Emotion Of Easter Miracle

Young artist captures emotion of Easter miracle

DENISE O’TOOLE KELLY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 03.21.08

On a 10-day mission trip to Nicaragua last summer, Nina Tomlinson, then 14, discovered something she wanted to change about herself.

“There were kids who were so pretty and so amazing and I wanted to draw them, but I couldn’t draw,” said Nina, who soon began looking for a way to work art lessons into her home schooling.

She found a teacher about three months ago and the effort already is yielding success. Nina, now 15 and a ninth-grader, is the winner of the Florida Catholic’s statewide 2008 Easter art contest for high school students. Her interpretation of the account of the Resurrection in the 16th Chapter of Mark’s Gospel appears is reproduced here and on the the diocesan home pages.

The pastel image depicts one of the three women who went to Jesus’ tomb in the morning of the third day, only to find the stone had been rolled away and his body was not there. She peers through the opening in amazement, toward a bright light.

“It’s when she first went and looked into the tomb. That light is the angel,” Nina said by telephone from her family’s home in Miami.

Contestants were asked to base their entries on Mark 16:6-7. That’s what led Nina to draw something other than a likeness of the risen Lord.

“First, I thought, Jesus wasn’t really there at that point,” she recalled.

Maritza Lopez, the Miami art teacher who has been giving lessons to Nina, said the young artist’s depiction of the woman’s face displays her natural ability to capture feeling in her art. She described Nina as a down-to-earth young woman whose art accomplishes more than just pretty colors.

Florida Catholic Art | Family Photo

“Her art has so much emotion. She is so expressive,” Lopez said. “She is able to reflect what she sees both on the inside and outside in her art.”

When Nina came to Lopez for lessons, the native of Cuba immediately recognized Nina’s talent. “She only needed to learn technique,” Lopez said.

Lopez said Nina enjoyed drawing people, especially children, so she worked with her on proportion. She also instructed Nina, who mostly worked with pencils, on how to use different mediums, such as pastels.

The teaching and learning process has been only slightly complicated by a language obstacle, said Maria Tomlinson, Nina’s mother and primary home-school teacher. Lopez, who was interviewed for this article in Spanish, speaks little English; Nina is a beginner in Spanish as well as art.

“It’s all so visual,” Tomlinson said of the communication between teacher and student. Having Tomlinson, who speaks both English and Spanish, there to translate also helps.

Tomlinson also recognized her daughter’s undeveloped talent for portraiture. She said that even before Nina’s art training began, she was able to draw likenesses that people recognized but that lacked polish and depth.

“She always had the talent but she didn’t have the technique that she needed,” Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson and her husband of 20 years, Jim, began home schooling Nina and her now-17-year-old brother, C.J., about seven years ago. The decision came after Maria Tomlinson attended a conference and spent lots of time in prayer and eucharistic adoration, but Tomlinson doesn’t think she and her husband are the ones who made the choice.

“I think the Lord chose us. I think it’s a calling,” she said, noting that inherent sacrifices — such as living on one income — have been more than offset by rewards.

The family belongs to the ARCH-Angels, the Association of Roman Catholic Home-schoolers. They are parishioners at St. Raymond Parish in Miami, where Maria Tomlinson teaches CCD classes and Nina helps.

The mission trip that inspired Nina to pursue her artistic talent was organized by Sister Juana Maria, Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, director of the Archdiocese of Miami’s Mission Office, whom Nina describes as “a really cool nun.”

Jean Gonzalez of the Florida Catholic staff contributed to this article.

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Young artist captures emotion of Easter miracle

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