By Emily Yager

The AHS art department has taken doodling on your shoes to a whole new level.

Six AHS art students are participating in the fifth annual Vans Custom Culture Art Contest. The contest invites students to design art for Vans shoes. Participating are sophomores Lydia Joseph, Bri Munsey; juniors Harison Richter, Hannah Just; and seniors Garrett Petersen, Chase Jones and Landon Stark.

Once registered, a school is sent four pairs of blank, white Vans. The students then decorate the shoes according to four themes: art, music, action sports, and local flavor. The top five finalists go to New York City. The grand prize is $50,000 towards the winning school’s art program and the chance for the design to be produced and sold in Vans stores.

The idea to enter came from Richter. He showed art teacher Pat Wiederien the website http://www.vans.com/customculture/. Wiederien said, “It gives the students a different avenue to express their art. They can broaden their horizons.” Although Wiederien wishes for a larger art room, if they were to win the prize she said she would spent it on better equipment.

Right now no specific designs are set in stone. “We have a few (design ideas) but nothing certain yet. We’re just tossing around ideas at this point,” said sophomore Lydia Joseph.

Senior Landon Stark said, “I think it’s a great thing for us to be a part of and I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited we get to work on designing shoes for Vans.” Joseph is excited by the contest.“Just to be a part of it and I mean, if we win, we get to go to New York! So that’s cool.”