Bluffton student-painter sells first piece

BLUFFTON - Jessica Sommers didn't know what she was going to do with her 3-foot tall painting of a school bus, but she certainly didn't think it would end up being sold for $300.

"I was pretty shocked that someone would pay that much for it," the recent Bluffton High School graduate said of her first sell. "It was pretty cool. ... Three hundred dollars, that is a lot."

A visitor to the school saw the painting and then told Joe Dietrich about it. Dietrich is the pre-service supervisor at the Allen County Educational Service Center. He trains bus drivers, and the painting will hang in his office.

When first approached about selling the painting, Sommers thought maybe $100.

"My teacher told me $300, and I just stared at her," she said.

The painting, which appeared in the Kewpee Art Show, sort of came about by accident. Her class assignment was to take photographs that she would then paint on canvas. Sommers forgot.

"So I ran outside and started taking pictures of stuff that was colorful, like the school bus and a stop light that would look good on canvas," she said, adding that she was the last one in her class to finish the project. "I'm a big perfectionist, so it took forever."

Sommers was glad to know the painting, which is of the back of a bus, would end up in a fitting place. Up until the offer, she didn't know what she would do with it.

"I didn't know what to do with a big bus in my house," she said. "I'm glad it will be put to good use."

Sommers took art classes all four years of high school. She has done artwork at the school, including painting Pirate-themed things on the hallway walls, an ongoing project at the school.

"I've always liked painting," she said. "It is really calming."

Sommers, who works at Morey's coffee shop, previously played on Bluffton's soccer and softball teams. She'll attend OSU-Lima in the fall, but has not yet declared a major. She's considering something in art. She saved the money she earned from the painting to help pay for school.