Whiz Kid of the Week: Mariano Duarte

• Today's Whiz Kid:  Mariano Duarte, 7th grader

• Whiz Kid's School: Seven Springs Middle School

• Whiz Kid's Accomplishment: His artwork hangs in the in downtown New Port Richey.

Whiz Kid's Reason for Awesomeness:

Mariano's artwork will be hanging up in the gallery all through the month of February, and not just anybody can hang his or her artwork up here. The gallery is exclusive to the students who show skillful techniques and ability to create art.

Marianohas a student learning disability that affects his communication process and his focus. However, Duarte can sit an entire hour painting and creating a picture, which is impressive to his teacher, Kala Hamilton.

“It’s fascinating what children can do,” Hamilton says.

She also says that Mariano’s greatest skill in creating artwork is his ability to blend colors naturally without having any guidance as to what goes together to make different colors appear.

Nancy Cielsa, the art gallery’s director, says it best:

“It’s wonderful to see how art fits into everyone’s world.”