Young Apple Valley Brothers Create Award-Winning Art

In many ways, brothers Thor and Apollo Oase are like most other elementary school boys. They compete in four different sports, they like a bunch of subjects at and they like to go on outdoor adventures with their parents.

But while many kids go to summer camp or fine-tune their Xbox skills, the Oase brothers let their creative juices flow and create award-winning art.

“My mom is jealous,” first-grader Apollo said with a smile, pointing at one of his first-place paintings. “I can paint trees better than her.”

But it isn’t something their mother, Debbie Kump, is ashamed of. Her young sons—Thor is a fourth-grader at Westview—can paint better than most people of any age.

This past summer, the boys won a combined 18 first-place ribbons at the Dakota County Fair, and nine first-place ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair.

“We are just really proud," said their father, Doug Oase. "It’s great to see all of their hard work pay off. They like seeing their work on display, and I like seeing them proud of their work.”

An artistic aptitude does run in the Oase family. Debbie dreamed of one day becoming a professional artist after discovering her love for drawing at a young age, but her parents encouraged her to pursue a more lucrative career path instead, she said.

Doug has been around electronic art his whole life, and has dabbled in various computer art forms.

Now, Doug and Debbie are teachers in the Apple Valley school system; Doug is a math teacher at Blackhawk Middle School, and Debbie is starting again as a science teacher at after a nine-year stint at home with the kids.

During her time at home, she wrote two novels and encouraged the boys’ artistic ability. And the boys continue to experiment with new art forms.

A room in their house displays all this year’s pieces of art, which includes a loon and eagle made of paper mache, a computer art piece of a cougar and her cubs, a display of various paper airplanes, a picture taken during the winter from the inside of Minnehaha Falls and a turkey made from hand prints. The brothers plan on finding new kinds of art in the future to add to their award-winning collection.

“We are constantly asking them if they would like to try new things,” Doug said. “We try to broaden their ability year by year so they try other kinds of art.”

One of the artistic mediums the boys enjoy most is photography. Their blue-ribbon pictures—like Apollo's close-up of pine needles—were all taken with a simple point-and-shoot camera. For the Oase brothers, it’s not all about the latest technologies, but about a good eye and a heart for creativity.

In the future, Debbie hopes the boys continue to find art as a creative outlet as they continue to compete in various art competitions.

“I want them to be well rounded," she said. "By having a creative outlet, it makes their analytical side that much stronger.

"If they can take it with them for the rest of their lives and even just dabble in it, I think that’s fun.”