SHS Middle Schooler Receives Top Art Honor

Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton (SHS) eighth grader Clare McCann (SHP ‘25) has been awarded honors from the Scholastic Art Awards in the California Central Coast region for two of the art pieces she submitted to the competition.

 

McCann received an honorable mention for her photograph titled "Footprints," and the highest honor, or "Gold Key," for her photograph titled "Swirling Motions.” The latter has been automatically entered into the national competition, which will announce winners in March. Both photographs were taken during a family trip to Yellowstone National Park last summer, where the family created a schedule to see Yellowstone’s features while avoiding crowds.

 

Entries to the program are blindly adjudicated by visual arts luminaries, and qualities considered include originality, technical skill, and emergence of a personal vision.

 

“Clare's photographs demonstrate her excellent eye for observing beauty in nature,” says SHS middle school art teacher Lauren DiCioccio. “Her Gold Key winning piece ‘Swirling Motions’ captures the multisensory experience of being in nature. The way she has framed motion and texture bring her photograph to life.”

 

McCann found inspiration to create art from her sister, who has also garnered several Scholastic Art Awards honors, and from art courses and fellow student artists at SHS. 

 

“Watching [my sister] work and seeing her drawings, paintings, and photography, inspired me to try my hand at art and photography. Sacred Heart has allowed me many opportunities to work on my art; my best friends here are also fantastic artists,” says McCann.

 

McCann, who brought the award program to DiCioccio’s attention, was one of just a few SHS middle school students whose artwork was entered in the competition. DiCioccio hopes to expand that number next year, and is brainstorming the possibility of a first-semester club for students wishing to enter the competition in 2022.