Capitol tree features student designed ornament
Dec. 10—The Texas State Capitol in Austin is officially ready for the upcoming Christmas season.
Decorations have been going up all over the building. Each session there is a unique opportunity for every State Representative to have a specially designed ornament hung on the House Christmas tree to represent their district.
On Friday, Representative Cody Harris (R-Palestine) and his family celebrated the holiday season during a reception in the House chamber. Harris' wife, Taylor, hung the ornament.
A few weeks prior to the event, Harris reached out to the Jacksonville Independent School District to find a student who would be able to take on the challenge of designing an ornament that would represent his newly redrawn district which covers Anderson, Cherokee, Henderson and Navarro counties.
A junior from Jacksonville High School came up with the original design for the ornament.
"It's a very special occasion when I get to show off the talents of students in my district, and this year I chose someone from the new part of House District 8 to design and paint the ornament," Harris said. "I saw all 150 ornaments and Sekayes Nevayaktewa's is hands-down the best."
Nevayaktewa is part of the 2D AP art program at JHS and president of its chapter of the National Art Society.
"She knocked it out of the park," said Adam Phifer who teaches art at JHS. "She almost immediately came up with the idea of the bluebonnet Christmas trees."
On one side of the ornament, Nevayaktewa painted "Merry Christmas" in cursive lettering above the Texas flag. She filled the background with white paint. The rest of the ornament features Christmas trees made of bluebonnets.
Nevayaktewa plans to get her associate's degree in fine arts from Tyler Junior College and then her bachelor's in business from UT Arlington. She would like to use her degrees to become a tattoo artist, an art teacher or a curator at an art gallery or museum.
The tree with ornaments representing Texas' 150 House districts will be on display in the House Chamber through Monday, Jan. 2, 2023.
