Godwin Heights — Sixth-grader Weston Minnema picked up a pink marker and leaned over his paper, drawing a large circle topped by a smaller one. He added feet and a tail, working with quiet concentration.
“Are you drawing a pig?” asked Amber Vanden Bosch, his teacher in the autism spectrum classroom at Godwin Heights Middle School.
Weston nodded his head “yes.”
He continued, adding ears and a snout, carefully shaping details — nostrils pressed into the tip and a tight curl at the end of the tail — as the figure began to take form.
“It’s Peppa the Pig,” Vanden Bosch said, one of his favorite characters.
Weston gave a slight smile at the recognition as he continued to draw.
Weston’s passion for drawing recently earned him a Yes I Can! Award in art from the Michigan Council for Exceptional Children. The statewide award recognizes students with disabilities for their achievements, perseverance and potential, made possible through their hard work and the collective support of district staff, said Derek Cooley, Godwin Heights director of special education.
It was Vanden Bosch who submitted his work for the statewide competition. Only one student is selected for each of the six categories: arts, athletics, transition, school and community, academics and self-advocacy.
“He has elements of a photographic memory, as he is able to replicate things just by looking at them once,” Vanden Bosch explained.
She pulled a drawing from a stack.
“Here, he was able to replicate the map of the school, right down to the bathrooms and signs,” she said.
From Marker to Masterpiece
The next drawing in the pile was the front of a Hamburger Helper box, complete with the slogan “Add your own twist.” A third, titled “Sandbox Frog,” showed a sandbox shaped like a frog, like the one Weston used to play in when he was little.
It is that attention to detail from stylized logos of Disney and Bush’s Baked Beans to the characters in such TV shows as “Dr. McStuffins,” “Veggie Tales,” “Daniel the Tiger” and “Bubble Guppies” that Vanden Bosch said makes Weston’s work stand out.
As she talked, Weston took a fresh sheet of paper and began to draw a “U’ with a tail. As he added details it easily became recognizable as a stethoscope. He selected a new color and started drawing other medical instruments.
When someone pointed to a purple drawing and called it an ear thermometer, he responded by drawing one — showing the original image was an otoscope, a device used to examine the ear canal and eardrum.
Weston, who readily answers yes-or-no questions, said he likes to draw. The bin holding his artwork is a testament to that. Vanden Bosch said she had recently cleaned out the half-filled bin, which had been overflowing.
His current favorite medium is markers, he said, although Vanden Bosch mentioned he does like crayons.
“We found it’s also his way of communicating,” she said. “If there are more scribbles on the page, it is a sign to us of frustration, (that) he is not getting something right or he wants to try again, or he is bored.”
Vanden Bosch said she sees potential opportunities for Weston in graphic design, creative writing and drawing as he continues to develop his talent.
“I’m just so happy that he got recognized for his hard work and talent,” she said. “(Weston) and his family really deserved it.”
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