[title subtitle=”WORDS Jeanni Brosius
IMAGE courtesy Jessie Covington”][/title]
Even though it was a cloudy afternoon, sunlight poured in through the windows of Victoria Covington’s art studio at her home in Batesville, Arkansas. Paintings were stacked and leaning against the walls, and each one had a story. As the fifteen-year-old artist stood at her easel putting the finishing touches on a painting of three black sheep, she talked about what inspires her. Kitty Dog, her service dog, laid close by poised to alert her if a seizure was imminent.
“I started painting when I was nine,” Victoria said. “I was diagnosed with epilepsy, and I was depressed and started art classes as therapy.”
Her art helped with the depression and helped her recover from the exhaustion of her seizures.
“I didn’t think I was good at it,” she said about her painting. “My art teacher said, ‘Holy cow! You’re good!’ And I got an offer on one of my paintings. I was so amazed, and it’s grown from there.”
She had her first art show at age eleven, and she made enough money on the sale of her work that she decided to invest in four acres of land. She later sold that land and bought a mobile home with the intention of becoming a landlady. She said she wanted to be that twelve-year-old who owned property. She ultimately decided not to rent her mobile home, which is near her parent’s house and uses it as a giant “she shed.”
“She is an inspiration to me,” Jeanette Emerson of Emerson Art School said about her student. “I told her that I think she’s at the point where she doesn’t need me anymore.”
Jeanette, who has been teaching art for more than thirty years, said Victoria’s art is large and colorful.
“She has a following,” Jeanette said. “As soon as she puts one up, people come and buy it.”
All her paintings are one of a kind, and inspiration comes in many forms to her. It may be a car, an animal, a tornado or Star Wars that triggers that inspiration, but whatever it is, she paints it with passion.
“I like to paint abstract the best,” she said. “My first painting I sold was hanging in my dining room. My mom was so upset that I sold it.”
“It was mine!” says her mom, Jessie Covington, smiling. “She sells art out from under me.”
Weighing only a little more than a pound at birth, Victoria had her heart surgery at two days old. She stayed in the hospital for three months before she was able to come home. Jessie said Victoria has many issues resulting in being born so prematurely.
“She has epilepsy, chronic daily migraines and arthritis,” Jessie said about her daughter. “They told us that she probably wouldn’t be able to hear very well and that we needed to teach her sign language.”
“I usually get on crutches and hobble around for a few days when my arthritis bothers me, then it calms down,” Victoria chimed in.
Although she hears fine now, she still knows American Sign Language as well as speaks Polish.
The homeschooled teenager is not only a prolific painter, but she also plays multiple instruments; is certified to train service dogs; takes care of nine birds (along with several chickens); has a toothless, skateboard-riding gecko; a cat; a hermit crab and she even trained Lydia, one of her rescue chickens, to play a song on the piano.
Lydia, who later was discovered to be a boy, had fallen off a truck en route to the chicken processing plant, and Victoria rescued him. Lydia would peck at Victoria’s fingers as she played notes on the piano. So, after she put stickers in different shapes on the keys, Lydia began pecking at the various shapes to play the tune he had been taught. Victoria is now training Obi-Wan (another chicken named after Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star Wars) to be friendly. She loves her chickens so much that they often come inside. When her chickens do come in the house, they wear diapers, of course.
“Can you believe they make chicken diapers?” Jessie said with a laugh.
The love between this mother and daughter is evident as Jessie gushes over her daughter’s talent, beauty and kindness.
Victoria has frequent requests for commissioned paintings. One of those requests came from her neighbor, whom she lovingly refers to as Uncle Jim. He asked her to paint his 1970s Volkswagen Bug. Victoria said she spent hours in a hot, smelly garage painting colorful psychedelic images all over the car. Uncle Jim was so pleased with her work that he turned around and presented Victoria the car for her fifteenth birthday.
In addition to painting and training birds, Victoria is also certified to train therapy dogs, one of which she is currently training. She loves to read devotionals and Harry Potter and is a big Star Wars fan. She is also learning to bake.
Jessie said Victoria is an old soul who enjoys vintage clothing and hats, baking and hosting tea parties.
When she opens her closet doors, Victoria has a collection of antique outfits from several eras and a hat to go with anything.
“I’m a hat girl – I like me some hats,” Victoria said with a bright smile. “I have a hat for every occasion because you just need one.”
When asked what she plans to do when she grows up, without missing a beat, Victoria said she wants to keep painting and train dogs.
“I expect she’s going to go really far,” Jeanette said about Victoria’s future in art. “I’ve had lots and lots of students over the years, and she is one of those who eats it up and wants to learn.”
Brittany Bennett is one of Victoria’s regular clients. Brittany has several of Victoria’s paintings throughout her home and office. She said she has also purchased some as gifts.
“We have seven masterpieces painted by sweet Victoria, and they bring a smile to anyone who sees them,” Brittany said.
As Victoria put her trademark “VC” on the bottom corner of the now finished painting of the three black sheep, Jessie showed off the freshly baked, from scratch, cinnamon rolls that Victoria had recently taken out of the oven, proving there’s nothing Victoria Covington can’t do.
