Holley student’s bald eagle from recycled materials wins state and national awards in art contest

Photo by Tom Rivers: Kayla Neale, a senior at Holley Junior-Senior High School holds a bald eagle she made that won first place in the state and national VFW 3-D Patriotic Art Contest.

HOLLEY – A bald eagle made from recycled materials – a coat hanger, fabric, buttons for eyes and sun flower seeds for talons – has won first place in the state and national VFW 3-D patriotic art contests.

Kayla Neale, 17, created the sculpture. She is a senior at Holley Junior-Senior High School. She won $150 in the state contest and then $2,500 in the national competition.

The eagle is well traveled, going to Albany for the state event and Phoenix, Arizona for the national convention.

He is currently back at the Neale home in Holley.

“I like having this guy around,” Kayla said at her sculpture while at Valley View Circle home on Saturday. She is the daughter of Kerri and Krista Neale. “I like the way he turned out.”

But the eagle won’t be home for too long. Kayla is donating it to the local VFW in Holley to be on display.

She will use the $2,500 from the grand prize towards college expenses. She would like to go to Rochester Institute of Technology to study in the illustration department with a minor in sculpture.

Kayla used common objects she found around the art room and her Holley home to make the bald eagle sculpture. She unraveled a coat hanger and used that wire to make a skeleton for the eagle. She made the body out of paper and wrapped it in masking tape to make it more solid.

The beak and feet were wrapped in yarn and then covered in Elmer’s glue. She used scrap fabric to make the feathers. She painted two buttons for the eyes and added sunflower seeds for the bird’s talons.

Her final touch was a small ash log as a foundation to secure the eagle.

The entire sculpture couldn’t weigh more than 5 pounds, or be taller or wider than 18 inches. She estimates she spent 30 hours on the project.

The entry for the contests also included an essay about bald eagles.

“Like this sculpture, America has been crafted with a lot of different material throughout time,” Neale wrote in her essay. “The different fabrics that make up the eagle’s exterior are different textures, colors and materials; she is much like the people of America. Her physical appearance is insignificant to what’s important, her structure and foundation.”

Neale is eager to get to work on the sculpture for the 2024 contest. She said it will have a Statue of Liberty theme.

She also is working on an art project at school. This is a 2-dimensional creation. She would like to borrow mementoes from veterans – hats, medals and other memorabilia. She would take a photo of those to use as a reference for a painting. Anyone willing to let her borrow a memento should contact her father, Kerri, at (585) 749-1926.

Kayla said she likes the artistic process of gradually creating a piece.

“It is fun watching it all come together,” she said.