"Peacock Yellow" in watercolor by Christopher Smolkowski won a blue ribbon in the children's art category at Riverfest's 2007 Art Rocks competition in Elgin. (Photo/Trish Yerges).

– Trish Yerges

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ELGIN Some talents are best explained as gifts of nature or the marvels of genetics. Such is the story of 6-year-old Christopher Smolkowski of Elgin, whose budding talent is reminiscent of his famous artist grandfather, the late Nicholas B. Bova (1927-2005).

Christopher’s parents, Kevin and Jennifer (Bova) Smolkowski of Elgin, said that Christopher has always had the temperament of an artist. He’s shy and introverted but also very tactile. He likes to work with his hands and build things with his Legos and blocks. He likes to play guitar and work with plants in the garden.

Of all his tactile occupations, Christopher admitted, “I like painting best.” Shyly, he held up his latest painting, titled “Peacock Yellow.” Surprisingly, there is nothing shy about his art. His painting is confidently bold with free-flowing, uninhibited brush strokes no drawing within the lines for this little boy.

“Peacock Yellow” and an earlier painting, titled “Patterns,” which he painted when he was just 5 years old, won blue ribbons in the children’s art category at Riverfest’s 2007 Art Rocks. It was the second time Christopher had ever participated in a competitive art show.

“He’s one-of-a-kind,” said Art Rocks judge Linda Peterson of La Grande. Peterson has been teaching art to children for 34 years. During that time, she’s seen literally hundreds of samples of children’s art. However, when she saw Christopher’s exhibits at Art Rocks, she knew his talent was anything but ordinary.

“He went one step beyond what kids his age normally do. I liked his use and arrangement of color. A lot of kids his age will hesitate and evenly dispense elements on paper. Their work is typically more symmetrical and more arranged. However, Christopher boldly puts his colors out there and makes a statement to the viewer,” Peterson said.

Christopher’s maternal grandmother, Betty Bova, of Scottsdale, Ariz., attended Art Rocks and was thrilled to see his art and blue ribbons. She said, “Oh, if Poppy were here, how proud he would be.”

“Poppy” is none other than her late husband, the well-known Nicholas B. Bova, a native of St. Louis. His career in movie and commercial art have for many decades become everyday American icons. Like Christopher, Nick’s talent also surfaced in early childhood.

“When Nick was in kindergarten, the teacher said that all he wanted to do was draw pictures. He drew designs of cars that later came out in the late 1950s. When he was in fourth grade, he was taken out of school one day each week to receive art lessons from a teacher from the Washington University in Missouri,” Betty said.

Nick went on to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia. Following graduation, he landed a job in California, working for the Hollywood motion picture business. From 1950 to 1961, Nick drew story boards and worked with director-producer Dick Powell, who was married to actress June Allison.

“Nick was the very best in the business,” Betty said. He worked with Powell on the 1957 war film, “The Enemy Below,” which won a 1958 Academy Award for its special affects. Nick also created and named Robbie the Robot, originally used in “Forbidden Planet” and later used in every episode of “Lost in Space,” said Betty.

During his career with the movie picture business, he rubbed shoulders with a lot of celebrities, including cult star James Dean, who borrowed Nick’s red jacket for his defiant character in the 1955 motion picture “Rebel Without a Cause.”

“In all the ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ posters of James Dean, you’ll see him wearing Nick’s red jacket,” Betty said.

Nick left the motion picture business in 1961 and started working for Obada Design Art Studio. Then in 1976, he accepted a position in St. Louis as creative director for Anheuser Busch, where he

created some of the most widely distributed advertising images in the U.S.

“He designed beer cans and the Budweiser font as well as the Bud Man cartoon icon, signs for Michelob and the Bud Light neon signs that are still seen everywhere,” said Betty. Nick humbly considered it all in a day’s work until he retired in 1992. He and Betty relocated to Scottsdale a few years later.

During his retirement, he took up other hobby art forms, including sculpture and music, said Betty. Though he never learned to read music, he taught himself to play piano, and he composed music for local musical performances.

“He could play almost every instrument saxophone, piano, guitar, trumpet, trombone and clarinet,” said Betty.

Nick died in 2005 at the age of 78, and all that extraordinary talent went with him. Yet Betty knew that one day his talent would reappear among one or more of their grandchildren. It has in the bold and beautiful art of a shy and introverted 6-year-old, Christopher Smolkowski, who might best be described as a “budding Bova.”

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Christopher’s paintings are currently on display at The Mitre’s Touch Gallery in La Grande.