Local high school student sells her art through Sikeston Depot show

Jessa Overbey, a junior at Scott City High School, poses with the artwork she sold to a Tennessee couple after they saw it in a show at the Sikeston Depot Museum.

Photo provided

SIKESTON — During Sikeston Depot Museum’s annual Bootheel Regional Judged High School Art Show in the spring, a Scott County high school student was given the opportunity to sell a piece of her artwork.

Shelia Bohannon, director of the Sikeston Depot Museum, said in her time with the Depot, this was the first she could recall a student selling their artwork and the first time the Depot had someone interested in buying a student’s artwork in many years.

Ashley Gregory of Memphis, Tennessee, and her husband were traveling through the area when they stopped in Sikeston and the artwork by Jessa Overbey, a junior at Scott City High School, caught their eyes.

“She and her husband just happened to be coming through Sikeston and stopped by here at the Depot, and they saw Jessa’s artwork and decided to buy it,” Bohannon said. 

Overbey, her mother, and her art teacher then met with the buyer at the Depot and discussed it, according to Bohannon..

Bohannon said she then phoned Overbey to inform her that someone was interested in purchasing her artwork, and they agreed on a price.

The art show took place in April, but the purchase process did not take place until the end of April through the beginning of May, Bohannon said.

Overbey’s artwork is a mixed media composition that incorporates more than one medium or substance. Overbey said she has been taking art classes at school since she was a freshman, and art has always been something she has liked, with her favorite component of art being the creative aspect. Overbey said her artwork was created spontaneously.

“I didn’t really have any ideas behind it,” Overbey said. “It was just something that I started drawing, and it went from there.”

Overbey said she was surprised and was not expecting to sell her artwork going into the art show. 

Overbey said she was excited that someone was interested in her art piece, but at first she was reluctant to sell it because she liked it so much.

“I was really shocked,” Overbey said. “I had no idea it would sell; I was just planning on getting it back whenever the show was over.”