Roost Boost Previous Winners
Congratulations to the 2026 Roost Boost Scholarship winners! Check out their work as examples for your own application.
Evan Schouten
First Place
I have been making art my whole life. I remember as a child drawing abstract figures just human enough to pass. As I got older, I wanted to draw people who I saw on YouTube or in tv shows in a way that captured their essence. That want has never left me — it has only grown and changed with the people I admire and shows I enjoy. As a queer person I am drawn to queer media. I feel it’s very important with all that is going on, especially in the U.S., that queer people are depicted in a positive way. With that, I strive to make a lot of my work about positive queer experiences. I also make a lot of self portraits about my experience as a queer person, though they are “subtly queer,” it is still the backbone of the piece. Simply making art is the backbone of my life as well. If I didn’t have art and the ability to make it I don’t know who I would be.
Melany Garcia Mercedes
Second Place
What inspires me as an artist is my relationship with my grandmother and her garden. Having grown up in the Dominican Republic and later moving to the United States, my work has become a space to explore the intersections of Dominican plant ecologies, memory, and materiality. I often create immersive environments where layered plant forms and color evoke a sense of protection, belonging, and the human relationship to nature.
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Through the exploration of Dominican ecologies, I aim to reflect how diasporic memory blurs, distorts, and yet remains vividly present. By combining fragments of recollection with imperfect digital traces, such as Google Maps imagery, my paintings become environments shaped by nostalgia, dislocation, and an ongoing attempt to reconcile distance and place.
Madilyn Shiels
Third Place
When someone asks, “What inspires you as an artist?” I can never give one answer. I tend to draw inspiration from many things, such as social media, literature, movies, and my everyday life. One thing for sure is that I draw most of my inspiration from horror movies and the environment; mostly, it's a combination of the two. I have always been fascinated by horror films' use of special effects to create tension and unease for the viewer. I especially appreciate the 80s horror movies' practical effects because of the time and talent it takes. In many of my pieces, I try to capture the unsettling feeling people get when watching horror movies. At the same time, I am also inspired by the negative effects pollution has had on our environment and make pieces that reflect a need for change. In many of my pieces, I try to incorporate the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle slogan. To go along with that, I also see potential in what most people would view as garbage. Though with the majority of pieces, it's a combination of these two inspirations. For my recent project, I took empty aluminum cans and transformed them into these twisted, creature-like sculptures. The cans used were the energy drink Monster, which served as the bodies for these nightmare-inducing monsters. Honestly, this is my way of showing inspiration doesn't have to come from one place—sometimes the best ideas happen when you merge different influences and see what happens.