Spray cans will be shaking and clicking away this weekend in Cloverdale as Takaya Cameron and her father Jordan Cameron use art to raise awareness about safe driving.
Although she has only been painting murals for the past two years, Takaya, 9, is competing at the fifth annual Cloverdale Rodeo’s Cone Zone Experience.
Cone Zone is a road safety program that allows children ages 10 to 16 to learn about roadside safety while driving a go-kart through a circuit complete with real life work zone hazards. Once the circuit is complete, each child receives a ticket to vote for the mural of their choice.
Takaya, along with other artists of various ages, will create a vivid mural showing a visual representation of good driving habits such as slowing down or leaving your cell phone alone.
“The thing that excites me the most is that we can maybe win the competition,” she said, adding she keeps a big storage container of drawings and paintings – almost like a time capsule of her development – tucked away in her room.
“It’s just a hobby that I really want to perfect,” said Takaya. “It’s just something that I really like to do.”
Although her current passion is animé, Takaya also enjoys sketching things she sees in every day life.
“I really like to draw reality and My Little Pony,” she said. “I draw with my dad a lot. I really like to draw with my dad because I am not very good at outlining.”
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Despite all her practice, she still admires her dad’s drawing skills. Together they have been focusing on developing lettering and blending colours.
Dad Jordan says he believes his daughter has inherited his artistic skills.
“I’ve been drawing my whole life. It’s just been art non-stop,” Jordan said. “I didn’t push art on her at all. She just kind of picked it up and just had the knack for it.
“It makes me happy that I can relate with her on that.”
Dad’s enthusiasm for art has clearly rubbed off.
“I just can do drawing and drawing and drawing for my whole life,” Takaya said.
The Cone Zone spray paint event is set for Saturday and Sunday (May 20 and 21) at the Cloverdale Exhibition Fairgrounds.