By Victoria Walker
Business Manager

Walking down the hall on any given day, one can see  a collage of paintings, drawings, and advertisements for WATA performances, choir concerts and talent shows on the walls. Hundreds of WA students contribute to this mess of artistic expression in various ways, and occasionally some of them are praised outside the halls of WA. That being said, it is much rarer for a student’s work to be recognized at a national level, which makes the accomplishment of WA junior Maggie Cote all the more significant.

Cote recently received a Gold Medal award at the National level of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition, “the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S.” according to an award publication. The award decorates a pen and ink drawing titled “Cat Fish Bowl,” which Cote created as part of an Advanced Art Honors project.

“[The cat piece] just has lots of pen and ink marks and obviously took lots and lots of time to texturize and to add detail to,” said Emily Goswick, a WA art teacher who has worked with Cote in the past. “It’s just a really impressive piece and we’re very proud of her.”

In terms of her own inspiration for the piece, Cote expressed both a love for cats and a passion for drawing.

“I really like cats and I’d never really drawn a cat before, so I wanted to do something a bit different. I took the idea of opposites, so I chose a fish and a goldfish bowl,” she said.

While “Cat Fish Bowl” and one other piece is Cote’s first competition submission,  her career in art has long been leading up to this moment. She loves drawing, specifically with pen and ink, and spends at least an hour a day on her art.

“She started drawing in probably about sixth grade, when she got her first sketchbooks,” said her older sister, senior Jocelyn Cote. “Obviously she’s come a long way […] I mean, the stuff she did back then is typical sixth grade artwork – kind of big heads and weird proportions – but she’s just practiced so much over the past five or six years, and [her art] is just incredible now.”

This artistic passion, while focused mainly on drawing, extends beyond this into a variety of other mediums.

“She mostly does drawing, but she can pretty much do anything except photography… she paints, draws, sews,” said Jocelyn Cote.

“I definitely get inspired by everyday things. I’ll be walking around and see something, or something someone is wearing, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I’ll draw that!’ So I kind of get my inspiration from things around me,” said Maggie Cote.

Cote’s hard work definitely shows, and Goswick is very proud of all of her effort.

“She’s always an extremely hard worker in class and she always kind of thinks differently than other students and puts in the time that’s necessary,” said Goswick. “She’s especially good at pen and ink work and she’s able to put her own point of view in her artwork, which is always great.”

Cote’s winning piece will be presented at a national exhibition in New York City, and will then be toured around the country for the next two years. The award ceremony event will take place in Carnegie Hall, with the opening at the prestigious Parson School of Design. The Cotes are still in the process of securing tickets, but hope to make the trip so that Maggie can be honored in person.

“Maggie Cote is a quiet student whose artist’s abilities speak loud and clear,” said Cote’s current art teacher, Ed Hardy. “When Maggie’s drawing  was nationally recognized, I was so happy because I have had a firsthand view of how hard this polite and modest individual works on a consistent basis.”

Looking towards the future, Cote says that she is not sure what she is going to do in and beyond college, but definitely wants to have some focus on fine arts.

“I’m really crafty,” she said. “It’s something I’ve always done. Typical art-kid story.”