A model stands relaxed, staring out of the page where she is etched in charcoal. Everything about her is detailed, from the wrinkles in her shirt to the nonchalant expression on her face.
Stephanie Ragsdale finished the portrait in about 40 minutes during a three-hour art class.
Ragsdale's life is consumed with art, whether she is creating it through a sketch, sculpture or a digital design.
The Grammy Foundation started Grammy in the Schools, a program for high school students, which, until 2007, was open only to musicians. Ragsdale won the album package design award.
When Ragsdale's digital teacher, Ashley Wilemon, approached her about entering the contest, she was instantly on board. For the project, she had to design an album cover for the 2007 Jazz Ensembles.
For the contest, Ragsdale drew inspiration from her own love of jazz, something that runs deep in her family.
In the late '40s, her grandfather started an orchestra in which he played the tenor saxophone. His pianist later became his wife, and their son, Ragsdale's father, started playing the drums in their orchestra when he was about 14 years old. Ragsdale started playing the guitar in the seventh grade and the bass in the ninth.
"My grandfather always said, 'If you had a bad bass player and a bad pianist, you had a bad band,'" she said. "So when I designed my piece, I wanted to draw upon what I thought was the most important elements of a jazz band - the bass and the piano."
She used those two instruments in her picture, coloring both of them predominately blue to symbolize the warmth that jazz music can inspire. Each of the instruments is being played by an armless red hand, that symbolizes the power and the passion a musician has when he or she sits down to play.
Ragsdale's cover was chosen out of entries throughout the country, and after winning, she went on to design the rest of the 2007 Jazz Ensemble album package.
Ragsdale is currently a University of Memphis freshman art major.
"The art program is really good because they are so open to ideas," she said. "As long as you have a reason for what you're doing, it goes."
Ragsdale enjoys working with off-the-wall projects - like her current subway car made of bread - but her favorite subject is people.
"A person is just more interesting than anything else," she said.
Ragsdale first fell in love with art when she was accepted to Overton High School's art program.
She found over the years that art and music are intertwined, inseparable and both equally important in her life.
Not only is she a musician herself, Ragsdale often relies on music to inspire her, and she feels both art and music are vital for students.
"It gives you an outlet," she said. "Whether it's dance, music or art, it lets you release your frustrations. Even if you are feeling good and happy, art lets you channel it."
