Heywire winner, Janet
I remember when I fell in love with art.
I was in grade 1 and my painting of green, purple and golden butterflies fluttering around won first prize at the Grafton Show.
I have painted ever since.
My perfect day is a day filled with painting. Sometimes I paint at home. Sometimes at school.
I pick up a brush and let it glide and swirl on the page like magic.
I listen to the sound of the brushes on paper, blasting rock music as I swish the paint around.
The room is alive with happiness and action. But at the same time, it is calm.
I have Sotos Syndrome, which is a rare genetic disorder. It means sometimes I can lose self control and I get obsessed about things.
Sometimes people just don't understand me.
But I am sure it makes me more creative in my artworks because I can get very focussed on certain things.
This disability gives me an extra ability!
I have painted close to 100 paintings this year — and I have given many of them away.
I love the feeling of joy I get when I give a painting away, especially to my teachers.
I ask my teachers questions about their favourite places, cities and even flowers.
And then I paint them.
One of my favourite things to paint is dogs.
I don't really like spending time with dogs, but I am very happy to paint them!
I have painted portraits of all my teachers' dogs.
When I finish school I plan to move to the city and become an entrepreneurial artist — yep, I'm going to sell my paintings.
And I have another plan, I'm always going to come back to Grafton in October and paint the purple jacarandas.
Source: ABC