Equipment necessary for the favorite hobbies of 10-year-old Isaac Flores, of Centralia, doesn’t show up on the top of the page after an Amazon.com search for “cool gifts for 10-year-old boy.”
Isaac enjoys drumming, crocheting and creating art with a variety of mediums, including pencils, markers and oil pastels. He’s been fascinated by art since age 4, when one of his older sisters taught him to draw.
He’s the youngest of five, including sisters ages 23 and 20, a brother who passed away at the age of 12 and an adopted brother.
Asked how long he’s spent working on a single drawing, Issac said, “Three days and five hours.”
When his fourth grade teacher at Rochester Elementary School told him about the Timberland Regional Library card art competition, he nearly matched that record.
In all three of the competition's age brackets, more than 635 pieces were submitted. With so many other kids competing, Issac said, “I thought one drawing was going to be better than mine. … I won, and I got all excited.”
Isaac spent three days creating a detailed black-and-white sketch of a Carnegie-style library.
For his effort, he was named the winner out of artists ages 6 to 11 from across Pacific, Mason, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Thurston counties. The fourth grader was awarded a print of his piece, a certificate and a library card featuring his design.
Reading, Isaac said, is his most challenging subject in school. He doesn’t spend a great deal of his time in libraries, so he created this one from his imagination.
He spends hours at a time on his art, which he maintains is “better instead of watching TV the whole entire day.”
His family had no idea he’d submitted anything for the contest. Issac was on a trip to Mexico with his mom when his oldest sister, Daisey Flores, 23, received a phone call.
“I was really overwhelmed when they told me about this. I, at first, didn’t have any information,” Flores said. “I called my mom and was like, ‘Did you know about this?’ she was like, ‘Mm-mmm. I didn’t know either.’ But, I’m really proud. He has a lot of talent. He spends a lot of time on every hobby he finds.”
About 7,500 prints of the library card design were created for Timberland Regional Library’s 29 branches, Flores said, and an additional 500 had to be ordered for the Centralia branch due to their popularity.
“I just draw random things, and I like them. I like to draw creatures and animals,” Isaac said, flipping through three sketchbooks full of his art. “Drawing is my favorite thing to do.”
For kids who are interested in art, Isaac said, “just keep going,” because there is nothing to do but “get better and better.”
Issac dreams of one day creating his own anime, which he said would have plenty of “cool things” in it. When he doesn’t know what to draw, Isaac sifts through his 20-year-old sister’s creations and attempts to make his own version.
“There isn’t much more to say about how talented he is,” Flores said. “I’m really grateful. Him and his sister, they’re both really good at drawing.”
View other submissions for the Timberland contest at TRL.org/SignUp.
