Clayton County students art students among best in District

Nuri Durr didn't like to draw real people when he was a ninth-grader at Mount Zion High School. Durr was more interested in drawing cartoon characters like Sonic the Hedgehog and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. "I want to be a cartoonist someday," Durr said. "But I realized I couldn't just draw cartoons to be successful. I had to be able to draw real people as well because that's where your inspiration for cartoon characters will come from." Durr, now a senior, was one of three Clayton County high school students who finished among the top four participants in U.S. Rep. David Scott's fifth annual 13th Congressional District of Georgia High School Arts Competition Saturday at the Arts Clayton Gallery in Jonesboro. Durr was the highest placing student from Clayton County, finishing second. He won for an untitled black and white drawing of a classmate. Jasmine Simmons of Lovejoy High School took home third place honors while Daisy Johnson, also a senior from Mount Zion High School, received a honorable mention. Mount Zion art teacher Shuntia Hines has taught Durr and Johnson since they were freshmen. "They are extraordinarily talented and they've been that way since day one," she said. "Nuri's first drawing of a real person was of the singer Mya and he e-mailed it to me. "When I looked at it, I thought it was a photo of her because he paid so much attention to little details. This is truly a case where you've taught a student all you can and it's time for him to go on to the next level." Hines called Johnson Mount Zion's resident abstract artist. Johnson's painting, "Broken Wings," wasn't intended to invoke images of birds, but the painting got its name from what people saw when they looked at it. "It just started with me putting a bunch of colors together and everyone who looked at it kept telling me it looked like a bunch of wings so that's where it got its name," Johnson said. Hines also said seeing students like Durr and Johnson progress over the years makes teaching art worth the effort on her part. "It inspires me to keep teaching," Hines said. "When I see these freshmen wanting to draw Scooby Doos, I become really inspired when I see the level of sophistication they've developed by the time they graduate." The top three finishers earned scholarships from the Art Institute of Atlanta. Durr was awarded a $20,000 scholarship ($5,000 per year) and Simmons won an $8,000 scholarship ($2,000 per year). "The art and talent that is on display here is just extraordinary," said Scott, whose competition was open to students from throughout his district, which also includes parts of Douglas, Cobb and Henry counties. "Young people can look at what these students have accomplished and realize they don't have to play football or basketball to get a scholarship." Allison Jarek from Alexander High School in Douglasville won first place.