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If you’ve been wondering who created the colorful and fanciful kids’ t-shirt design this year, here’s a chance to get to know Will Mauritsen, a cheerful, thoughtful, talkative second-grader at Ridgeview Elementary in Belgrade. Will dropped by the Sweet Pea office with his parents and two sisters to talk with us about his t-shirt design, his inspirations, his aspirations, and his gratifications.
As you’d expect, Will enjoys drawing and painting, both at school and at home. He especially enjoys working with colored pencils, and he likes drawing bridges and things he sees around him, like flowers. When his teacher told the class that they’d all be working on designs for the Sweet Pea t-shirt contest, he found inspiration in the photos of sweet peas she showed them, and the class discussions of the spirit of the Sweet Pea Festival and all the activities it offers.
Will put a lot of thought into his t-shirt design. He knew he didn’t want to include a background, since it would look better on a t-shirt without one. He wanted the design to be original, and to include a patch of sweet peas. He first drew the design with pencil, then used a Sharpie to outline it, and finished up with water colors. Will was dissatisfied with his first design and started over, since his first try had sunflowers, and he figured it would be better to use sweet peas instead, even though they are harder to draw because of their irregular-shaped petals and twisty stems. That turned out to be a good decision, because his second try went on to be selected as the winning entry!
This was Will’s first time to enter an art contest, and he admitted he never expected he’d win. He got the email telling him that he’d won while he was out of town visiting his grandparents, so the whole family got to share in the excitement. He made sure his parents were going to save his prize money for him, but Mom told us confidentially they’ll likely be buying him a Lego Ninjago set (his favorite toy of the moment) to congratulate him, as well.
As much as Will loves art and building with Ninjago, he has lots of other interests, as well, including camping and fishing with his family and church group, soaking in hot springs, wrestling, playing Super Mario on his Wii, and bouncing on the family’s trampoline. He’s an avid reader, and especially likes adventure books and bible stories. He’s good at math and his favorite subject in school is science. He’s especially looking forward to growing pumpkins as part of science class this year.
Will has lots of friends. An interesting fact is that his best friend Jim is 64 years old, and is his bible teacher at church. He is also very close to his “twin cousin” Davis, who seems to be a whiz at beating all the levels in Super Mario. And of course there’s Copper, the family’s treasured Golden Retriever, who loves to play and swims with everybody in the pond near the Mauritsens’ home.
You can bet a big outing for the Mauritsen family this summer will be attending the Sweet Pea Festival in August. They’re so excited about it, they’ve pre-ordered a couple dozen Sweet Pea t-shirts for friends and family, in addition to the six shirts that were part of Will’s prize for winning the art contest!