SHS Junior Rylan Workman Earns Gold Key Honors at Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Rylan to be honored Mar. 16, with artwork on display at Tufts University’s Breed Hall Mar. 15-22 

SSALEM (Feb. 11, 2025) – The image lasted a mere few seconds, but it caught the eye of twin brothers Rylan and Brooks Workman: 

Their father, Jon, a grade 7 social studies and English language arts educator at the Collins Middle School, was relaxing on the sofa reading “The Wisdom of Big Bird” by Caroll Spinney, with one of the Workmans two green-cheeked conures perched over his left shoulder as if it was reading along.

Brooks snapped a quick photo. From the photo, Rylan sketched.

“I thought it would be funny to mix how the birds like hanging out with him,” said Rylan. “He loves Sesame Street. My brother got him the book for his birthday or Christmas.”

Rylan captured every detail of the image.

Titled, ‘A Big Birdie Told Me,’ he recently won a Gold Key award in the 2025 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. With the honor, his piece is in the running for the national awards, which has gold and silver medal categories along with scholarship honors.

Rylan will be honored Sunday, Mar. 16 at Tufts University’s Cohen Auditorium and his work will be on display at Tufts’ Breed Memorial Hall Mar. 15-22.

“I wanted to enter some national art competitions to boost my college resume,” said Rylan, who expects to receive news about the national competition in late March. “I was hoping for an award, but I was definitely surprised.”

‘A Big Bird Told Me’ was one of four pieces of artwork he submitted to the Scholastic awards. He also earned Honorable Mention honors for a sketch titled ‘Flight School,’ which depicts a red-tailed hawk soaring over a prop plane – based on a model his grandfather built – among cool magenta, yellow and orange pastel skies.

The other pieces in Rylan’s AP (advanced placement) art portfolio are impressive in their own right:

• ‘Flight School,’ he said, shows how biomimicry (the design and production of materials and structures that are modeled after biological entities) affects human innovation. “Planes’ flights are based on birds of prey,” he noted.

• ‘A Matter of Perspective’ (in greyscale), Rylan described, illustrates how the belief of humanity as greater than all other life (anthropocentrism) has led to mass extinction. 

• ‘Disruption’ depicts an owl’s hunting disrupted by human noise pollution (hence the speaker).

• ‘Life As We Don’t Know It’ describes “how misconceptions about human-like aliens may prevent us from finding alien life on space bodies like Europa, which is suspected to have hydrothermal vents that create the conditions necessary for life.”

Each piece elicits curiosity. It is his commitment to detail, however, that captivates viewers.

“In all of Rylan’s work, I am continually impressed by his attention to detail and ability to beautifully render a variety of textures,” said Kristen McCarthy, Rylan’s AP art teacher at SHS. “He puts a lot of thought and planning into his idea development, and that can be seen in the multiple layers within his artwork. He is a very focused student and genuinely spends time and energy working to continuously improve his abilities. 

“That desire to improve, willingness to take constructive criticism and his hardworking nature are some of the key qualities that make Rylan such a good artist,” she added. 

Ms. McCarthy has a long history of students winning art competitions such as the Scholastic awards, and noted Rylan is her first student to express interest in competition since she came to SHS in 2016.

“As an art educator, I feel incredibly proud when a student wins an award like this,” she said. “It’s such a rewarding moment to see their hard work and creativity recognized. I am very excited for Rylan to be recognized and look forward to seeing how ‘A Big Birdie Told Me’ does at the national competition.”

For the foreseeable future, drawing will remain extracurricular for Rylan, who plans to study environmental science in college. He and his father will spend February break touring colleges throughout northern and southern California.

“I think (art and environmental science) can intersect,” he said. “I’m interested in the relationship between animals and humans and what they can teach us. That’s definitely some of the inspiration for studying environmental science. I’ve been outside and in nature my entire life.”

About Salem Public Schools

Salem Public Schools is an urban public school district in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is a small, diverse city with a proud maritime and immigrant history. Our leaders and our teachers are all passionate about education and understand the urgency of improving student achievement with equity and social-emotional needs as the lens we view all of our work through. We respect and value the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of our students and their families, and have a strong commitment to the Salem community. Salem Public Schools staff serve all of our students, regardless of ability or language. Salem Public Schools enrolls approximately 4,000 students across its eleven schools.