How This Year’s Christmas Cover Came To Bee

By Susan Coney

Newtown Bee publisher R. Scudder Smith recently challenged students at Newtown High School to submit artwork to be used for The Bee’s traditional holiday Christmas cover. Past covers have depicted charming holiday illustrations by such noted artists from the area as Steven Kellogg and David Merrill.

This year 16-year-old Tanya Rotella’s rendering of a snowbee was selected to grace the Christmas edition of The Bee. In addition to having her artwork displayed on the front page, Tanya also received a check for $250.

Although Tanya was shy and reserved in accepting the award, she was clearly thrilled. “Art is my passion. I wanted to enter my work to have the opportunity to possibly see my art somewhere in public and see its effect on other people,” she said.

Tanya explained that she knew immediately that she wanted to draw a snowman for the cover. While brainstorming for ideas she decided to flip through the pages of The Bee to get an idea of how to connect her drawing to Newtown and caught a glimpse of the little bee logos that appear throughout the newspaper. “That’s when I knew I would draw a snowbee,” she said.

Specifications for the cover required the students to submit work of a certain size to fit the dimensions of the front page and the work had to be in shades of black, white, and gray, with the possibility of a highlight color such as red or green. Rules stated that the cover must contain a simple holiday greeting and have some tie to the Newtown area. Tanya’s work met all of the requirements and caught the eye of Mr Smith.

Tanya had always enjoyed art, however her interest peaked in middle school under the direction of teachers Sue Ward and Claudia Mitchell. “I was always in to art. The middle school was the right environment for me. When I got in Mrs Ward’s class I got the right materials I needed and kind of took off with it,” she explained. “When I entered my freshman year at the high school, the first thing I signed up for was an art class,” she said.

Newtown Middle School art teacher Claudia Mitchell remembers Tanya, saying, “She was a beautiful, talented, quiet girl, who sat in the corner and did beautiful work.”

Former Newtown Middle School art teacher Sue Ward, who currently teaches art at Reed Intermediate School, said, “It is the greatest compliment an art teacher can have to hear that you have made a difference and inspired a student to continue with their artwork. I’m an art teacher today because of my elementary art teacher Mrs Patterson, who made a difference in my life.” Ms Ward, who has taught art for 33 years, commented that Tanya was a very good art student who was conscientious about her work and extremely quiet. “It made my day to find out that she won the cover of the newspaper. It’s nice to find out that the quiet ones bloom,” said Ms Ward.

Newtown High School art teacher Diane Dutchik has had Tanya in several art classes. Currently she has her in an advanced placement art history course. Ms Dutchik commented, “Because of her artistic abilities and knowledge, she brings a lot of insight to her art history class. Her work has really grown over the years.” She went on to say, “The snowbee was just such a cheery, whimsical piece. Tanya is always really trying to express her inner emotions, which brings a uniqueness to her work.”

Tanya is a junior at the high school and has lived in Newtown her entire life. Outside of school she works at a children’s store at Danbury Fair Mall. After graduation, Tanya would like to pursue further art education. She would like to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York City.