The Mexico High School Art Club is growing like never before.

On May 8, Mexico High School hosted its annual art show featuring the talents of Bulldog artists of every level, from elementary to award-winning high school artists.

Hunter Feger, Art Club president, has always been an artist, but a busy sophomore year put his art on hold temporarily, and he only formally joined the club last year.

“I did ceramics my junior year, and then this year I’m doing two independent studio hours,” Feger said. “I got a bunch of stuff for my table.”

One look at Feger’s display is all it takes to realize this “stuff” is award-winning art, and not just here in Mexico. His piece, titled “Nine Lives, One Fate,” was recently recognized as faculty’s choice for best in show at Columbia College.

The Art Club, spearheaded most recently by Linda Mallott, had a slow beginning with only a couple of club members and a handful of classes. But as the MHS art program grew, so did the club.

“We went from 20 people last year to 53 this year,” Feger said. “The year before that, we only had 10 people.”

Feger thinks one explanation for the uptick in student participation is the art club’s increasing involvement in community events.

“We’ve partnered with FFA and we’ve done some window painting,” Feger said.

He also said this year’s art club is managed much better.

“We’re a lot more collectively organized this year than we were before,” Feger said. “That’s a big thing with me and my officer team, which is really fabulous. We really put our foots down.”

Current club secretary Annalynn Barker agrees that things are better, but they are still not where she wants them to be. As a rising senior, she hopes to see a little more organization, especially in meetings. Plus, a bigger Art Club means more people to keep happy, which Barker says is a difficult task.

“We put in a lot of work,” Barker said. “There are a lot of late nights (and) a lot of early mornings too.”

Many of those long days are spent keeping things running, but they can also be a side effect of creativity.

“It’s Art Club people,” Ava Scheiner, art club vice president, said. “We’re kind of, obviously, a little scatterbrained. That just comes with the trade.”

Scheiner, a junior, is expected to take over as president as Feger graduated this year, and she too hopes to see some better organization, but she also wants to expand their current projects.

“I’ve got to take a lot of initiative,” Scheiner said. “I would like to do some more bowls for the (Bowls for) Bright Futures and maybe do some more pots this year.”