IMS Senior Dohee Kim with her Best in Show awarded self portrait.

A girl sitting in a messy dorm room painted by a local high school student took best in show at a recent art show. Iowa Mennonite School Senior Dohee Kim was recognized for her self portrait at the Southeastern Iowa Super Conference annual art show. Kim describes her self-portrait, “This is my dorm room, and I just wanted to draw it once, at least once before I switched things up. And it was messy, I just wanted to show the realness of the room I guess? I was just curious how it turned out.” Kim used watercolor and ink to capture the dark shadows of the room.


Dohee Kim has been painting this mural in the stairwell near the IMS art classroom. Kim hopes that other IMS students will add onto this painting with works of their own.

The art show was hosted by Southeastern Community College in Burlington on April 12, where students participated in workshops and presented their art in a juried show at the college’s gallery. Several other IMS students received 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place recognitions as well as honorable mentions. With graduation looming, Kim has been working on a painted mural in one of the stairwells in the IMS building. Kim says she plans on attending the Savannah College of Art and Design in the fall. When asked what drew her to Savannah Kim said ,“The warm weather first of all, a little different from Iowa, but it has a good reputation for foundational drawing so I can clean my skills up and learn things from there that I wouldn’t learn if it was just a like a college for all majors I guess.”

Kim says her favorite form of art is painting, and she said she is impressed by the importance IMS places on art and the breadth of art classes offered at the school.