Ryko McAvoy-Hope with his award and painting 'Farmer' at the awards in Wellington.
Ryko McAvoy-Hope with his award and painting 'Farmer' at the awards in Wellington.
Dannevirke student Ryko McAvoy-Hope challenged his own self-doubts to create a self-portrait to enter into the 20th IHC Art Awards this year.
It was a big challenge in terms of the brief - expressing his personality through paint - but also with regard to the sheer size of the painting.
Ryko spent five months on the project and his hard work was rewarded - when the national results were announced last month, Dannevirke High School was informed that Ryko had won the Youth Award and a $1500 prize.
Arrangements were made for Dannevirke High School art teacher Mackenzie Walding to take Ryko and his mum to the award ceremony in Wellington, with Ryko not knowing he had won but suspecting something was up.
When his win was announced, Ryko was astonished, and having viewed the gallery of 493 entries, he asked one of the judges why his had won the youth section.
The reply was “because he had taken his time to complete the painting, making sure he managed the density of the paint”.
The next day, he rang his grandparents Mary and Kevin McAvoy, with whom he spends many weekends helping out on their Woodville lifestyle block. His self-portrait was titled Farmer because that is what he does in his leisure time with them.
So, what did Ryko do with his prize? He gave half to his family, spent some on an Xbox and stored the rest away for future needs.
Mackenzie says when entries were requested for the 20th IHC Art Awards, she immediately thought of two of her students.
Ryko McAvoy-Hope and Kodi Tayler-Hart had joined her senior art class from the Mead Centre at the beginning of the year.
Kodi and Ryko at the Mead Centre on Wednesday.
When she offered to enter them in the youth section, she says they were very keen.
“Both students worked completely independently on their submissions, taking five months to research self-portraits and how other artists would portray their personality through paint,” she says.
Each decided how they wanted to present their self-portrait, taking photos of themselves, drawing drafts, choosing background content and upscaling to their final pieces.
“This was all done independently within our mainstream senior art class,” Mackenzie says.
She says neither had entered a competition before and each step of the process was both nerve-racking and exciting.
Kodi Tayler-Hart with his entry at Dannevirke High's Mead Centre.
Ryko had to overcome his own self-doubts, be resilient and apply himself to cover such a large area and complete the work in time, while Kodi had to learn how to work at such a large scale from his wheelchair and at an easel.
Mackenzie says it was a great project in conjunction with Mead Centre staff, with an aim to foster independence and individual success.
“We are all so proud of their resilience,” she says. “Completing and submitting for the purpose of exhibiting in a gallery setting by itself was a big achievement.
“Both students are very passionate in their creative pursuits and are already discussing their submissions for next year’s competition.”
Dave Murdoch is a part-time photojournalist working for the Bush Telegraph and based at Dannevirke. He has covered any good community story-telling news about the district for the last 10 years.
