Meet this year's Oh, You Turkey artist

Stacie Kammerling is all about news: The 27-year-old native of Indiana designs the front page of the Star Tribune.

A graduate of Ball State University, she's been a news junkie for years. Somewhat surprisingly, however, her degree is in fine art. Kammerling said she "backed into journalism" because she wanted to help people understand what was happening around them. As she put it, "I wanted to do something that felt good for the world."

This fall, we asked Stacie to take a short break from the front page to do something that might feel good for Minnesotans: Draw the turkey for the annual "Oh, You Turkey" coloring contest.

Following in the footsteps of local artists such as Andres Guzman, Rosemary Valero-O'Connell and Kevin Cannon and in the tradition set by the Star Tribune's longtime illustrator Bruce Bjerva, Stacie admitted she had "big shoes to fill."

But it's not the first time she's tackled a turkey. Although she's fairly new to Minnesota, she's not new to a Thanksgiving-themed coloring contest. The Indianapolis Star had a similar contest, and she grew up coloring a bird.

To prepare the illustration for the "Oh, You Turkey" contest, she did her homework — studying the illustrations of Thanksgivings past, making a mood board to experiment with textures, colors and styles and studying the native plants that would form the backdrop.

Her goal was to try to keep the bird "as colorable as possible," while still making it accurate.

Instead of opting for pen and paper, Kammerling created a linocut, similar to a woodcut, except she carved her detailed design into a piece of linoleum.

"I strongly believe that everyone is an artist," she said. When it comes to coloring this year's turkey, she advised all of us artists to "let yourself play."

"Art," she added, "can be healing. Even if it's just coloring a turkey."