By John Butz

Maggie Lynott is not your typical high school student; she has spent years practicing and perfecting her art abilities and talent. Lynott is not only known as a amazing artist in a small town in Iowa, but she has received national and state awards for her drawings and art work.

Lynott puts tedious effort into perfecting one piece, and this, she says, is what she thinks makes her art stand out more than others. The patience, hard work and dedication to each piece she creates translates into perfection. Lynott is currently creating a piece of Donald Trump dart board for political reasons.

Lynott not only excels in her art work, but when it comes to school she’s on par with her art abilities. Lynott is currently keeping up with the highest class numbers in the school with a 3.8 grade point average, allowing for her pick of colleges. She is deciding between studying architecture at Iowa State and nursing at the University of Iowa.

“I never took art too seriously until I started winning awards my freshman year,” Lynott said. “The only art class I even took my freshman year was ceramics. But after that art started to become more and more of my life, and I finally started to take art classes my sophomore year. I started to hate my work although because of how jealous I was of other artists in our school.” Lynott’s awards in art include a silhouette award in sixth grade, also being named the featured artist of the Chalk the Walk event in Mount Vernon her freshman year.

Lynott’s favorite memory is her designing and drawing her Rumpelstiltskin in second grade.“This was the most fun piece I ever did because of how it didn’t matter how it came out. And knowing it had to look like the way I wanted it to look like.” Lynott currently likes to do abstract art “because of the fact it’s more subjective and doesn’t sink your self confidence and worth when it is criticized.” Lynott’s last pieces include drawings of Chris Rock, Sean Connery, and a piece of an African American father and daughter hugging each other to symbolize injustice in the world for black males who are in prison that have families that need reassurance and help.

Lynott is currently undecided on what she wants to go into teaching, nursing, or possibly medical illustration. One of the greatest traits of Lynott is that in any way shape or form she will always help with a cause whether it is community service or creating an art masterpiece for someone in need of it, even selling or putting them up for auction when needed.

Artwork by Maggie Lynott