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Whiz Kid: Mary Clare Voreis Creates Colorful Works of Art ... While In Elementary School

The Williamsburg Elementary third-grader got her start at Disney World.

For some, Disney World might be the place “where dreams come true.”  For others, like Williamsburg Elementary third-grader Mary Clare Voreis, it’s the place where dreams are born.

On a family trip to the happiest place on earth, then-3-year-old Voreis discovered her love for art. “She drew a picture of all the princesses and all the characters and made her own autograph book,” her mother Christine Voreis said.

With trademark Disney enthusiasm, the characters gushed over how cute Mary Clare’s pictures were, but her parents were baffled at where her natural talent had come from. 

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“I really don’t know … She’s always been a free spirit,” Christine Voreis said, laughing as she remembered her daughter’s quirky sense of style as a toddler, dressing herself in a variety of patterns and colors.

As she grew up, Mary Clare translated that love for color to her sketchbook. Each work of art practically explodes with blues and reds and greens. Art teacher Donna Falk said Mary Claire knows how to make those colors come alive better than most students her age.

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“Mary Clare is an exceptional artist. She’s very visual and her artwork is just so high quality,” Falk said. “She just goes a lot further than normal artists.”

For someone so young, her eye for detail is impressive. “It’s hard to talk about,” said Falk, “because it’s something you have to see.” The tiny bug crawling up the stem of a flower, the speck of light in a koala bear’s eye, the bright and dark green oil pastels blended to create the perfect shade for grass—they all come from the imagination of a little girl who’s not even 10 years old.

“What’s in your head?” Falk asked her students one day in art class.

Mary Clare jumped at the chance to express everything she was thinking about.   She began filling an outline of her head—soccer balls, rainbows, ice cream, music and math problems—until there was no room left on the page. That piece became one of her favorites because she had no limits.  

“I could use crayon, I could use marker, I could use Sharpie, and I could use every different thing,” said Mary Clare, the words tumbling out of her mouth a mile a minute with excitement. “They can say, ‘Draw a head,’ but you can create it, and not every head is going to be the same.”

And she brings that touch of originality to every project she creates, from a skyline full of puffy pink clouds to a castle she chose to sketch vertically when everybody else drew it horizontally.

She wants to be a professional artist when she gets older, but for now, she’s happy drawing pictures for her friends and family. This summer, she’ll be working on another custom autograph book to take on the family’s Disney cruise. 

She’s grown quite a bit—both artistically and physically—since the last time she made one, so this one might give the Walt Disney animators a run for their money.

Whiz Kid: Mary Clare Voreis

Whiz Kid’s School: Williamsburg Elementary School

Whiz Kid’s Accomplishment: Budding Artist

 

To nominate a Geneva Whiz Kid, contact Tara Knot at tknott3.56@gmail.com or rickn@patch.com.

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