U-High students won 15 art awards in the Midwestern Regional Alliance for Young Artists Competition. 

Winners include Risa Cohen, two gold keys in digital art, and a silver key in film and animation; Marcelo Gutierrez-Miranda, gold key in architecture and industrial design; Amy Hu, two honorable mentions in digital art; So Yi Park, silver key in drawing and illustration, silver key in painting, and an honorable mention in digital art; Alina Susani, honorable mention in drawing and illustration; Jasmine Tan, one gold key in painting, four honorable mentions in painting, and one honorable mention in drawing and illustration.

Gold Key winners advance to the national competition.

Risa’s two gold key-winning pieces were from the beginning of the year, before she started organizing her portfolio for colleges. 

She said, “The weird blue alien one is over a year old at this point, but at the time I was (and still am) really into drawing creatures that are kind of creepy but also beautiful.” 

Risa’s other gold key-winning piece was following the same style as the animation. 

“I wanted to tell the story with one big image that could also serve as a rough color key if I ever decided to go further with the storyboards,” she said. “That’s the kind of story that’s fun to develop because it turns into something with a lot of character.”