CEDAR CITY — Shelby Springall didn’t grow up doing pageants, but she loved performing on stage and showing her creative side as a budding scientist.
Today, Springall, 21, is the former Miss Iron County and current Miss Color Country, and she has honed a niche artistic talent that millions have seen. That talent includes painting an upside-down portrait in 90 seconds, with each brushstroke choreographed to music.
“The first year of pageantry, I danced as my talent, and I was like, ‘This doesn’t feel right,'” Springall told KSL.
Around that time, she saw Miss Michigan 2023, Maya Schuhknecht, do a speed painting of Michel Jackson on the Miss America stage. Springall said that was the moment she knew speed painting was the skill she wanted to master.
“I remember watching that video, and I was just so inspired,” Springall recalled. “I have a little side business where I do custom hand-painted banners, and so I’m really good at that stuff. So, when I saw what Maya Schuhknecht did, I was like, ‘This is perfect!'”
For Springall, mastering the craft of speed painting was less about what she could be seen performing on stage, but more about showing what it could bring attention to.
“My community service initiative is called ‘STEAM: Finding Your Sparkle,’ and it talks about including the art element into STEM education. We are unlocking new chapters for these students to really get their hands on these educational resources that are going to change their lives forever.”
SUU pre-dental student, Shelby Springall is using her platform as former Miss Iron County and current Miss Color Country to highlight arts in STEM education —one upside-down painting at a time. (Photo: Shelby Springall)
Springall is a pre-dental nutrition major at Southern Utah University, minoring in chemistry and biology. She said that growing up dancing, singing and pursuing other visual arts has only added to her ability to succeed in the world of science.
So, when she found a way to show others that the arts and science can go together, she went at it full-spray-can.
“Once I saw Maya do it, I was like, ‘I’m going to teach myself. Mark my words,'” she said. “I spent months and months trying to figure out the artistry.”
She likened speed painting to magic, saying that “magicians never reveal their secrets.” Even so, she found a few, including Schuhknecht, who were willing to share tips and tricks.
“I’ve slowly been able to take those tips and I’ve mastered the skill over the years of somehow being able to paint upside down in 90 seconds.”
She first learned how to paint Michael Jackson and then decided that she wanted to paint someone who emulated the type of person she wanted to be, and that person was Dolly Parton. Springall first painted Dolly at the Miss Utah Pageant on June 20, and she said the feeling after the portrait reveal was “electric.”
“I remember painting it, and oh, my gosh! The gasp that I heard,” she said. “I cannot even begin to describe how electric the feeling was when I flipped my portrait around on that stage.
“Going into Miss Utah, I wanted to paint a woman on that stage,” she continued. “I wanted to paint someone who inspires others. … I was looking through all of these amazing women, and I stumbled across Dolly; it was like a no-brainer.”
Around the time of her Miss Utah performance, Springall had been working with the Utah STEM Action Center as they piloted Parton’s Imagination Library as a way for kids to have art in their science, technology and mathematics education, in what is now known as STEAM.
“Kids are now getting a full STEM and STEAM education resource in their communities,” she said, adding that her performance painting a picture of Dolly Parton onstage made the goal more visible.
Springall posted the video of her performance on July 11, and it has since reached 3 million views on TikTok and over 1 million on Instagram. She has also been commissioned to paint several more portraits of Parton — especially now since the singer has passed away.
“Dolly was more than just a singer; she was a philanthropist,” Springall said. “She was a businesswoman who knew how to bring her authentic self into the business world and how to market herself in such a strategic way. She also didn’t lose who she was through it. She knew exactly who she was, what she stood for and what she wanted to leave behind on this amazing planet of ours.”
Springall said that she wants to continue to hone her craft in speed painting, and recently mastered painting the Statue of Liberty. She also said that she is still very much focused on being an advocate for STEAM as she works toward applying for dental school.
“With technology and all these really incredible resources that we have access to, we are also losing that authentic artistry,” she said. “Looking at my future in dentistry, I see it as the artistry of healthcare. My speed painting encompasses who I am as a person, my goal, my drive and everything I want to leave better than I found it.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.