Bond teen's pig photo hits the big time

BOND - Sarah Glass always has a camera with her, even when it's time to feed the animals at the family farm.

One day last year, Glass had her camera in the right place at the right time, and got a close-up of one of her 4-H pigs pushing his snout through the fence.

"I knew he did that, and I wanted a picture of it," Glass said.

That photo, called "You've got a friend in me," won a prize at last year's Eagle County Fair and Rodeo. That's when Glenda Wentworth, who works with the county's 4-H kids, suggested that Glass enter her pig picture in a photo contest sponsored by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Glass did, and earned an honorable mention award in the contest.

"It's a perfect picture about agriculture," Wentworth said. "I'm so glad she entered it. Sometimes you tell kids they need to do something and they don't. I'm thrilled for her."

For Glass, 19, recognition in the state contest will bring a bit more exposure to a budding artist. She's entered all kinds of work in the county fair, some of which has made its way to the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo.

"I do the Minturn Markets in the summer, and I do work for people," she said. Her state award, while not her first, is another way to get her work seen, she said.

That work runs the gamut from her first love of painting and drawing to photography to clothing design. She uses the photos she takes - and she takes pictures just about everywhere - to feed her drawing and painting.

Glass said she's particularly fond of drawing. But Wentworth, who for years has run the sewing and clothing design programs for the local 4-H, said Glass is especially good at clothing design.

"She'd make costumes and model them in our fashion review," Wentworth said. "She'd take some of her outfits to the state fair and sometimes she'd finish in the top 15."

For now, though, Glass is spending most of her time outside, working as a sled dog guide for Mountain Mushers, her dad's company. When time allows, though, her pencils and paints will beckon. And there are always more pictures to take.

More photos Winning pictures from the "Colorado... It's Agricultural" photo contest are on display in the Beede-Hamil Agriculture Building at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. They are also available on-line at www.coloradoagriculture.com. Entry forms for the 2006 contest are available at the above Web site.

Staff writer Scott N. Miller can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 14624, or at smiller@vaildaily.com



Vail Daily, Vail, Colorado