When creating her mixed media sculpture for an Art Fundamentals assignment, freshman Grace Dai never would have imagined her seemingly commonplace art project would win first place at the Eco Art Show. 

But it did.

The Eco Art show is a St. Louis Area art show designed for local students to submit environment-related pieces. This year’s show was hosted Monday to Friday at the St. Louis Community College in Wildwood. 

Dai’s submission was a sculpture that recreated a picture of her dad in the mountains and won first place in Marquette and second place overall. 

Using cardboard for stability, newspapers for the mountains and acrylic for the painting, she created  a tribute to her father who passed away a couple years ago.

“That photo means a lot to me, so that’s one of the reasons why I decided to do it,” Dai said. “Because not only would it be a good memory of him, but also it would be a good art piece.”

Dai was approached by her art fundamentals teacher Kelsey Starr during class about the art show submission deadline last year. Closer to the deadline, Starr sent Dai an email reminder, suggesting that her sculpture should be submitted. 

Dai submitted her sculpture on the day of the deadline.

“My first initial thoughts were like, ‘there is no way this can be in the art show’,” Dai said. 

Winning first place came as a surprise for Dai, as she found out the news during tennis practice.

“It’s definitely crazy because I never expected any of this,” Dai said. “Also, it’s a really basic art class and so I never really thought that I would make it this far.”

Dai hopes to continue taking art classes such as AP Art Studio. 

Kelsey Starr, art teacher, said she was pleased with the success of her students in the art show.

“They’re very creative, talented kids,” Starr said. “Their artwork is original.”

As a current AP Art Studio student, Brian Craft, senior, created a mixed media piece for the art show; it was a mask formed out of sticks and moss. He placed second at MHS and third overall.

For Craft, his piece represents what the forest means to him. 

“I wanted it to symbolize how the forest is a protective place for animals,” Craft said. “If we destroy that, it gets rid of that protection.”

The success in the art show was a surprise for Craft who didn’t attend the art show due to other time commitments. 

In the future, Craft hopes to sell some of his crochet art pieces. 

Senior Lauren Secoy received third place recognition in the art show.