By KRIS HILL

Covington resident Josh Kim recently won first place in the NASA Lunar Art contest.

A total of selected 147 students from more than 70 institutions participated as teams or individuals.

Kim, 18, took the top prize in the two dimension art category of the Lunar Art Contest. He recently graduated from Kent Mountain View Academy and will attend the California Institute of the Arts, founded by Walt Disney, this fall.

Although Kim is well-versed computer generated artwork, he said in an e-mail he is also fond of using traditional mediums. For the Lunar Art Contest, he decided to use Chinese Brush Art as his media for the art work.

Many of the art works that won from the NASA Lunar Art Contest last year were computer generated art work. Kim said he decided to stick with his chosen media because “he wanted to have the traditional values mixed with the high tech stylized work.”

Kim will be recognized as part of a celebration at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington that marks the 40th anniversary of the first Apollo landing. The White House and Congress, all the Apollo Astronauts, and NASA VIPs will be there to celebrate.

His art work will be on display in the form of a digital exhibit. Afterward, the exhibit will be available for display at NASA facilities, public venues, the students’ schools and elsewhere as requested.

For more information log on to www.nasa.gov and look for the Lunar Art Contest.