Strokes of Success: Savannah Ballard Sweeps Art Awards

Savannah Ballard prefers sketching, drawing, and experimenting on sticky notes and in old journals— and sometimes, her math worksheets.

Still, she’s one of the most decorated student artists of all time at Grapevine Faith.

This spring, she was named the TAPPS 5A “Overall Art Student” at the Art Championship Competition. The top distinction comes alongside two first-place wins at the TAPPS Championships— one in the “Black and White Drawing” event and another in the “Seek and Sketch Color” event.

She was also recently recognized with a State Gold win at the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) State Competition. In the annual Southlake Art in the Square Youth Art Competition, she earned 1st and 3rd places.

“What led me to success this year was long hours staying up and spending countless hours outside of class to work on my pieces and my skills in general,” Savannah said. “What’s behind every successful piece isn’t just the hours spent on the piece itself- it’s the many failed practice hours before. It takes lots of time ‘getting it wrong’ in order to ‘get it right’ in art.”

“What led me to success this year was long hours staying up and spending countless hours outside of class to work on my pieces and my skills in general,” Savannah said. “What’s behind every successful piece isn’t just the hours spent on the piece itself—it’s the many failed practice hours before. It takes lots of time ‘getting it wrong’ in order to ‘get it right’ in art.”

This year, Grapevine Faith artists got it right. The TAPPS 5A State Championship team win was the third team championship win in recent years. Previously, Faith Creative Arts won the top honor in 2016 and 2021.

“This win was all the more important to show that art is not a solo process. In order to be successful, it takes supporters like teachers, friends, and parents to guide and encourage each artist along the way. All of those ‘behind-the-scenes’ people were finally celebrated and awarded for their hard work just as the artists were,” Savannah said.