Student artist wins award in VFW patriotic art competition

Story and Photo by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Jolie (JoJo) Mondoux, a senior at Grand Island High School, has been honored locally for her artwork. She was recognized at both the June 2 Board of Education meeting and at a June 8 award presentation at the Charles N. DeGlopper Memorial VFW Post 9249.

The artwork she was honored for, a scratch art piece depicting a German shepherd in front of an American flag, won first place for two-dimensional art in the Young American Creative Patriotic Art. It went on to win at both the state and national levels.

At the board meeting, high school art teacher Cindy Wynne said, “Every year, I give an assignment to my students to take part in the Young American Creative Patriotic Art competition. It’s a great competition because it forces the kids to think about what it means to feel patriotic. It is required in my AP art class, and they have to somehow incorporate it into their AP art portfolio, which is themed. The reason why I like that is a lot of kids don’t stop and think what patriotism means personally to them. This kind of forces that issue. JoJo really took it to heart. Her entry was very different from what a lot of the other kids did.”

JoJo said she had to do a lot of thinking before she chose the concept for her contest entry.

“I was looking through all different ideas because my portfolio in AP art is based off of animals and how they have a connection to humans,” she said. “I was thinking I had a friend who helped me come up with ideas about service dogs. So, I did research on service dogs and how they impact human lives, especially veterans. I looked up that the most popular breed is a German shepherd. My neighbors had two German shepherds, so I asked them for photo references so I could base a piece off of that dog. I added the American flag, which I thought was a good piece to it.”

She added, “I was so shocked that it did so well, placement-wise. I would have never thought that I would win first nationally, and I’m really grateful.

“I’d definitely love to thank Mrs. Wynne for helping me, especially when it came to figuring out my portfolio and my identity as an artist. I never would have imagined me doing any artwork like this. She pushed me to continue working and she helped me come up with many ideas. She’s been a lot of help.”

JoJo explained how she discovered her love of scratch art.

Scratch, JoJo said, is a “black paper. You have something sharp. I use a stylus. An Exacto knife will work. When you scratch the paper, white is revealed. Every time you scratch, it turns to white. I start off with a black canvas, and I scratch the white values.”

JoJo first discovered scratch art in Veronica Connor Middle School.

“I started in eighth grade in a project with Mrs. (Megan) Gaiek,” she said. “I ended up doing a fox for the first time. I was like, ‘Wow, this turned out really well. This is really cool. I’ve never tried anything like this before.’ Since then, I’d never really touched scratch until this year. Previously last year, when Mrs. Wynne was asking me what I wanted to do for my AP art portfolio, I had no idea. I was like, ‘I’ve done (scratch) once in my life. This would be cool, and I was pretty good at it.’ She said, ‘Yeah, it would be really cool if I based my portfolio off of that.’ So, I just started getting back into it this year. I did a whole portfolio based on scratch.”

JoJo also enjoys drawing and painting.

In addition to art, JoJo said she has grown up with a love of animals. She has two Bernese mountain dogs: “They’re so sweet. It’s funny because I do a lot of my pieces based off of them, too.

“I’m such a dog person. I love dogs so much. I love animals. You’ll always see me going up to pet a dog when a dog’s walking by or even a cat.”

JoJo, who is graduating this month, said she plans to attend Kent State University as a student-athlete, playing Division I soccer and studying nursing.

As for her future as an artist, JoJo said, “I plan to stick to scratch. I hope to start my own business on Etsy on the side. I want to pursue nursing, as well. Hopefully, I can continue to show my love for animals through my scratch. And also help others, when it comes to them wanting artwork. I want to have their dog or whatever animal come to life in a picture form for them to keep forever and cherish.”