Two Parkway North Students Earn Recognition at Area Art Show

Two Parkway North seniors, Danny McGinnist and Danny Cohen were recently recognized for their art entered in the St. Louis Community College High School Art Exhibition, which happened Jan. 13 at Florissant Valley Community College. A first time entry in an art show for both of the boys, McGinnist won Best of Show while Cohen received an honorable mention.

“The inspiration of my piece was how my family faded away. My mother’s house burned down and…I was left with less than a handful of pictures, so I never knew how I looked as a baby because all my pictures were burned,” said McGinnist on his self portrait titled, “Burning Me Down.”

McGinnist’s piece began as a slab of wood which he manipulated by burning, sanding, and chipping away at it.

 “I really love to work with mostly any medium. I’ll try to use anything as a medium [at least once],” said McGinnist.

In total, the piece took McGinnist about three to five weeks to make in art teacher Clint Johnson’s AP art studio.

Best of Show is given to piece that stands out the most. Johnson believes that McGinnist won this because of “the utmost creative approach to a self portrait…and the back story as to why he did it.”

 “I really can’t explain how I felt [when I found out I’d won]. I did tear up a little because this is one of the highest achievements I’ve made in my art career. I couldn’t believe I did,” said McGinnist, who added that he was honored to have received the award.

Only three students from a school were able to be entered in the competition, and the Parkway North boys were competing against 20-30 other artists.

Cohen, who was given an honorable mention, was very surprised with his win. “I love art, but I’m usually not that good at making it. I was pretty surprised to win an honorable mention because a lot of the other art was amazing,” said Cohen.

Cohen created his clay drum for an assignment in Ceramics I at the end of the semester.

“My inspiration behind the piece was that we needed something that could serve as a background and allow us to create freely on the foreground, so I thought a repeating pattern would look much better than random shapes or symbols,” said Cohen.

It took him about two months to make, and he named the piece “Robert DeNiro”.

 “My favorite thing about the piece is how the gloss came out exactly as I pictured it in my head, because it really makes the black pop,” said Cohen.

As to why the two did so well, Johnson said that “overall [the judges were] looking for creativity, imagination, and a sense of quality.”

By: Chaney Cooper  Sports Editor