Mount Greylock junior Anya Sheldon is recognized by U.S. Rep. Richard A. Neal for her artwork that will hang at the U.S. Capitol.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A veteran of elections for more than 30 years, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal knows a lot about the art of politics.

 

But it is not the only art he likes to talk about.

 

"Back in the worst days of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt insisted that artists be paid," Neal recalled on Monday during a tour of Mount Greylock Regional School.

 

Neal was at the school to pay tribute to one of its own, junior Anya Sheldon, whose acrylic painting "Quiet Ferocity" is this year's winner of the Congressional Art Competition for the First Congressional District.

 

Sheldon's work was chosen from among 111 entries from 16 high schools throughout Neal's district, he said. And in addition to Monday's recognition, Sheldon will have the honor of seeing her work hung in a hallway at the U.S. Capitol among other winning entries from around the country.

 

"I can't really picture what it will look like hanging there," Sheldon said after an unveiling on Monday in the school's meeting room. "I really hope to be able to get there and see what other works were selected. I think that would be really interesting."

 

Neal said on Monday that he always enjoys the opportunity to view those works — from his constituents and beyond.

 

"For me, it's particularly important because it's located in a tunnel between the Capitol and the Cannon House Office Building, and as you can imagine, after 27 years, you get pretty good office assignments," Neal said. "So from my office in the Cannon Building on rainy days or cold nights, I go through the Cannon tunnel. And every chance I have stop and look and view the art work, it's just astounding how good these artists are.

 

"And I also take some satisfaction that our office, we were one of the first to participate in the Congressional Art contest. Now, just about everyone in Massachusetts does it, but there was a time when it wasn't embraced with the same enthusiasm. I want the artwork up. I want it published. I want people to see it so we can all take satisfaction in Anya's moment."

 

Sheldon, a quiet teen not given to blowing her own horn, used the moment to thank her family and her teacher, Jane-Ellen DeSomma, for their support.

 

"I was just really surprised [by winning]," she said. "I didn't believe it at first. It's been a shock in general, and it all escalated very quickly. Entering the contest, I did not think I would win."

 

That said, Sheldon did take a lot of pride in "Quiet Ferocity," a painting that she developed on her own, not as a class project, but with guidance from DeSomma.

 

"It's evolved quite a bit," she said. "It's been three different people that I was unhappy with.

 

"It was just something I started on a weekend in the summer time and spent a lot of time on."

 

DeSomma on Monday praised Sheldon as, among other things, prolific, and several works from her portfolio were on display on Monday for Neal's visit. "Quiet Ferocity" stood out as something a little different, the artist said.

 

"I think generally I don't work on very large scale," she said. "It's bigger than some of my other drawings, so it has more of an effect I think, in that way. And also I didn't use a reference photo for it, so I'm a little bit proud of the originality of it."

 

Among the art that Neal saw on Monday was a mural that Sheldon created along with other Mount Greylock students that now adorns the school's library, where the congressmen made reference to the Works Progress Administration artists of FDR's New Deal.

 

DeSomma used Monday's ceremony to note that Sheldon is an example, not an anomaly, when it comes to Mount Greylock's arts program.

 

"We have a lot of kids who work very hard," DeSomma said. "Anya is a renaissance woman. She is good in just about everything she does. She does make things look easy sometimes, however, I think it's really, really important to understand that when someone turns out the level and the quality of work that Anya produces, you have to acknowledge the hundreds and hundreds of hours that have gone into this."