Andrew "Mack" Schroer is everything you would expect a "starving artist" to be. He is frugal with his funds and bicycles around the Washburn University campus where he is a senior fine arts major.
When he found himself in Washington, D.C., as a dinner guest at the White House a few days ago, Schroer had his fill of the food and then some.
"For dessert, they had this awesome double chocolate cake that was triple-layered," he said. "I ate as much as I possibly could."
But while Schroer was filling his belly with delectable dishes prepared by top chefs, he was busier still filling his mind and soul with the beautiful portraits and artwork that were in front of him everywhere he turned in the White House and in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian.
"It was definitely an experience that I tried to soak up every little bit of. To breathe it in," he said.
Schroer's trip to Washington and personal invitation to the White House at its first Christmas party this season occurred because he was the winning artist in a competition sponsored locally by the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.
With the White House's theme this season being "Holiday in the National Parks," all 391 National Park Service sites conducted contests for artists to hand-paint an ornament showing off each facility. Five ornaments from Kansas were displayed on the tree.
Schroer won the honor in Topeka, said William Beteta, chief of interpretive and visitor services at the Brown v. Board site.
"He's a very talented person," Beteta said of Schroer. "He was very responsive to our needs for the ornament guidelines."
Laura Bush spoke to the group of artists and their guests, Schroer said, adding that each got to shake hands with the first lady.
The official White House Christmas Tree in the Blue Room is adorned with 391 handmade, grapefruit-sized ornaments depicting national parks.
"Each ornament on the magnificent 18-foot Fraser fir was designed by an artist selected by the park," said Mary A. Bomar, National Park Service director. "The ornaments tell the stories of our parks, just as our parks tell the stories of our nation."
Schroer was excited to discover his ornament at eye level in a prominent location on the tree, easily viewable to the public. Some of his fellow artists weren't so lucky, he said, as they searched for their work up high and down low.
Schroer said when he began work on the ornament, he gave some thought to Brown v. Board's major icons — a scale, public schools and the idea of desegregation.
"I chose to use the scale and a laurel wreath that symbolizes victory for multiples of ethnic people around the world to come to America and integrate themselves into a desegregated public school system without being discriminated against," he said.
His personal artistic victory in winning the contest and receiving a trip to Washington, D.C., to celebrate his achievement is bittersweet.
"Racism and segregation are still alive and well today," he said. "Who knows if it's ever going to end."
These issues have informed his work as an artist for several years. In 2003, Schroer said he won the Martin Luther King Jr. Living the Dream Contest when he was a senior at Shawnee Heights High School.
Schroer, whose primary mediums are drawing in pencil, ballpoint and ink, said he also wants to get into comics, oil and acrylics, and incorporate digital work into his portfolio.
"I love to do realistic portraiture," he said.
Schroer said the Brown site paid for his airplane ticket and a Washburn grant fund paid for his hotel. His father Gene Schroer accompanied him and paid for most of his meals, Schroer said. His older brother Paul Schroer also went on the trip.
"The thing I enjoyed the most about the trip was being able to see all the art in the museums," the artist said. "One of the cool things about the politics, power and money in D.C. is it can pull in some really great artwork."
But the best part of the whole experience was the moment he saw his design on the tree.
"Getting to see my ornament on the tree for the first time, that's when everything came together and paid off — all the work, all the hours invested into it," Schroer said. "It was a moving experience to say the least for a young artist. It definitely inspired me to seek out projects, getting to see that payoff is motivational."
Schroer hopes his next local work is the Chesney Park Mural Project.
"If art isn't slapping you in the face, then it's not art. It's not fulfilling its cause," he said. "Art is supposed to educate, enlighten and beautify the area."
Julie K. Buzbee is a freelance writer in Topeka. She can be reached at jbuzbee59@yahoo.com.