Many people see cardboard as something destined for the recycling bin. But for one talented student, cardboard became the foundation for a national award-winning work of art.
Omotola (Tola) Oladeji, who in May graduated from Brookfield Academy, won a Scholastic Art national award this past spring for her cardboard sculpture, “Smile” and was invited to Carnegie Hall for the presentation. It was the second year in a row that she has won in the very competitive competition that draws thousands of entries from around the country.
It wasn’t the chase for an award that motivated her. From her humble beginnings in Nigeria, when she saw her face in a mirror in kindergarten, Tola was intrigued by facial features.
“In kindergarten in the bathroom light, I thought my smile line was getting wrinkles,” recalls Tola. “For a while, I didn’t smile. You can see a person’s whole life in those wrinkles.”
Years later, that smile inspired the face of the girl in her sculpture. The young artist transformed an everyday material into a striking self-portrait sculpture that captured the attention of judges. And it was all for the love of art.
“Art is just my life,” she says. “What is the world without art? It’s an inexplicable feeling. I’m obsessed with it.”
Tola’s pure joy about life and all that it has to offer is infectious. When creating her sculpture, she dug deep into herself to see herself as a child. “One way to understand the world is to understand yourself,” she says.
She credits all her art teachers over time for encouraging her, and one teacher in particular.
“All of my art teachers told me I was good at art, and I just fed off that,” Tola says. “But Miss Buckley. Her room was all color. I love color.”
“Miss Buckley” is Elaine Buckley, an art teacher at Brookfield Academy for nearly 20 years. She emphasizes individuality over routine. Rather than having set units on art, such as painting, drawing, sculpting, Buckley gives students a “prompt” or theme. Students take ownership and select the type of material with which to work.
“I don’t put an emphasis on awards,” Buckley says. “I don’t want them to think about it that way.”
She helps students figure out their passion and be confident with failure. “There’s beauty in failure,” she says.
The Winning Continues
Tola was one of eighteen Upper School art students at Brookfield Academy who earned 35 Scholastic Art Awards in Wisconsin. A drypoint etching by senior Kelly Li was selected as the featured piece of the year for the Scholastic Art Show held at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Her work was on the cover of the awards program and displayed at large-scale at the museum entrance.
Another student, Kate Allen, won a national silver award in the fashion category for a dress using cyanotype, a process created in 1843 that uses a simple combination of chemicals and sunlight to create brilliant indigo prints.
“Kate Allen is pushing boundaries in a way I’ve never seen—printing cyanotypes on unprimed canvas and then sewing those pieces into a wearable garment perfectly tailored to fit her,” Buckley explains.
Buckley had been interested in the opportunities that cyanotype offers but wasn’t sure how to implement it with her students. The technique has seen a bit of a resurgence in Magnolia Magazine, and she was moved to action.
To better understand the technique, students in the Art 4 class built a makeshift darkroom in the studio. Soon, measuring chemicals, navigating red lighting, timing UV exposure, rinsing prints, and troubleshooting became part of daily class life. The space buzzed with excitement and occasionally, coffee, when they learned that instant coffee and black tea can tone cyanotypes into rich, warm hues.
Students have printed on fabric and paper, inverted photographs to create negatives on transparency film, explored the outdoors for natural textures, controlled bleaching and toning, and learned the patience necessary to achieve the perfect shade of indigo.
Bringing things full circle, Buckley was so inspired with her students’ work that she sent home remodeler Joanna Gaines a letter with student cyanotype images. Gaines wrote a handwritten letter back—and even referenced a garment created by another student, Rachel Simmons, in 2025.
Simmons was part of the first class at Brookfield Academy to work with cyanotype. Her piece earned recognition in the Fashion category in the Scholastic Art Awards at both the State and National levels. Since then, Scholastic Art has introduced a new Experimental category specifically for cyanotype photography—nationally—for the first time in its history. When Buckley visited the New York office, she said there was a real vibe regarding fashion-forward cyanotype work.
“It’s fun to think that our students may be influencing national trends in art education,” says Buckley.