TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- A family member of a service member assigned to Tinker Air Force Base won first place in the 2024 Air Force Art Contest held earlier this year.
Ella Bui, daughter of Col. Cang Bui, 72nd Medical Group commander, won first place in the 3D Art, Youth 13-17 category, with a 3D sculpture titled “Rong”.
Ella brought her winning art piece to the Tinker Arts & Crafts studio where she received recognition from Tinker senior leaders and Tinker Arts & Craft staff.
“Rong” is constructed with a cardboard skeleton that weaves in and out of the paper similar to a roller coaster track and features colorful sticky note scales.
The sculpture is made entirely of recycled materials Bui found around her classroom. The scales are composed of recycled sticky note annotations from the classmates of her Advanced Placement English class on the book “In Cold Blood.” Bui decided to make “Rong” a dragon because 2024 is the year of the dragon.
“I always draw dragons because it’s an easy thing to do,” Bui said. “Dragons are simple, fast, and look nice, so I got the idea to sculpt one. I’ve always wanted to do the ‘coming out the wall’ concept. I wanted to make sure it weaved in and out of the paper.”
Senior leaders from Tinker including 72nd Air Base Wing, 72nd Mission Support Group and 72nd Force Support Squadron were ecstatic and proud of Ella’s achievement of winning an award at the Air Force level.
“Ella’s always been artistic since she was young. She’s been an artist since she was born. We couldn’t be more proud.” Linh Bui, Ella’s mother.
Along with recognition for her creation, Bui also won a $500 gift card.
The Air Force Art Contest is held March 1 - April 30 annually. For more info when the contest opens next year, follow https://www.facebook.com/airforcearts