Meet 12-Year-Old Art Prodigy From Bowling Green, Ky (PHOTOS)
Maddie Graber is a sixth-grader at Briarwood Elementary School in Bowling Green. Her passion for art has taken her to a National level and her art will blow you away!
Let's put this into perspective. Maddie is 12-years-old. Her artistic abilities rank with those of seasoned artists. Her mom, Shelley Graber, said Maddie has been putting a pencil to paper since she was just 3 years old.
Here's what she had to say about her amazing talents and love of art:
She started drawing around 3. Her big sister was in school and when her little sister would nap we would sit and draw together. I’d lay out a toy of hers and teach her where to start and how to look for the light and shadows. I knew she was gifted then. By the time she was in kindergarten, she won her first art competition! She’s won so many since then. She hasn’t stopped drawing but her art really took off during the pandemic. She would spends hours a day drawing in her room. It was her form of stress relief. She’s dyslexic so virtual school started off pretty rough and the pandemic scared her. Art is where she feels like she can relax and be successful. She has definitely surpassed the teacher at this point. She needs to teach me. She’s in GT art at school and it actually took a couple of years to get her in it. I have no idea why it took so long to see her potential but they definitely have now. Her 3rd grace teacher Mrs. Blair saw her potential and pushed and pushed for it. She can use almost any medium to create art. She loves to draw but she also loves to make things using clay.
Maddie showcases her art on her TikTok page where she has over 2,000 followers who are fond of her art. She also has an Insta under MaddieClaireArt.
Maddie has had recognition on many levels for her art:
She won a competition in kindergarten where an illustrator chose the best drawing. She won a bike from Ocharleys, she won at a summer camp, she won the youth art month award for a flag design winning again all ages up to 12th grade, and recently 2nd place for Beta, in the state of Kentucky for a drawing. She gets to go to nationals in Orlando for that one.
Her most recent creation will bring you to tears if you are a parent. Maddie put pencil to paper and drew her version of what she calls Pandemic Pencil drawing.