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YOUNGSTOWN -- Nearly all successful orators, musicians, artists or writers can trace part of that benefit to someone who exerted a high degree of influence on them.
The famous jazz trumpeter Miles Davis was heavily influenced by fellow trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie. Rembrandt found influence in the controversial paintings of the 16th-century artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caragaggio, and Greco-Roman mythology left its fingerprints on J.K. Rowling's famous "Harry Potter" series.
For Aubrey Panigall, however, her primary influence is someone she knows well and holds in high esteem -- her high school art teacher, Josh MacMillan.
"I took Josh's class in my freshman year and won my first award," Panigall, 17, remembered. "He always pushed me."
The Hubbard High School senior credits MacMillan with sparking much of her passion for and interest in art.
It's probably safe to say that whatever influences MacMillan had on his student worked well as Panigall took home more than a dozen awards for the works she submitted that were part of the 2024 Northeast Ohio Scholastic Art Awards ceremony and program Saturday in Youngstown State University's Cliffe College of Creative Arts.
Primary donors were Akron Children's Hospital and the YSU Foundation.
Specifically, Panigall was handed six honorable mentions, four silver awards and four gold awards -- one of which is an American Vision Award -- for her art.
Students representing 25 high schools and trade schools in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties whose photography, paintings, drawings and graphics were accepted were given honorable mention and / or awarded silver and gold keys, which are regional and national awards, respectively.
Gold key recipients will compete in a national competition in April in New York City. American Vision Award-winning pieces are considered the five best in show, MacMillan explained, noting that local AVA recipients will compete in New York against their national counterparts.
An estimated 60 Mahoning Valley educators registered for Saturday's event in which 471 works were submitted. In addition, 31 gold keys and 53 silver ones were given, as were 275 honorable mentions, he said.
Panigall added that her love of nature is another key influence on her mostly oil paintings -- especially lilies, her favorite flower. If a single theme embodied and coursed through her paintings and printmaking, perhaps it was "the beauty of the little things all around us," she said. Panigall added that she also loves the famous American artist Georgia O'Keefe, who was perhaps best known by the mid-1920s for her paintings of New York City skyscrapers.
After building her portfolio and graduating from high school, Panigall may attend West Virginia University and major in health sciences, with a double major in art, then enter the health care field to be a physician's assistant for a cardiologist, she continued.
For Karina Collins of Poland, her biggest artistic influence also is close to home.
"We're tighter than bark on a tree. I wouldn't be the artist I am without him," Collins, an Ursuline High School junior said, referring to her relative, Justin Hilbert of Youngstown.
He was the subject of a digital piece Collins entered and had displayed in a gallery near YSU's Ford Theater, titled "Where You are in Time." The effort took her 137 hours to complete, Collins recalled.
For her part, she was the recipient of three gold keys (two American Vision Awards), five silvers and four honorable mentions.
Collins' artwork is rooted in everything from political overtones to child exploitation to psychological pathos to "body horror," which she defined in essence as using art to reach the outer limits in attempts to "remove the humanity from the person."
Among her entries was "Dilemma," which depicted a young man with glazed eyes and a beaten-down, solemn demeanor looking as if he wanted to cry but couldn't. The painting was of a friend in England who was belittled and afraid to show his feelings -- as well as a broader statement against the stigma that often prevents males from displaying their emotions, Collins explained.
Another of her works, "Adrift and at Peace," is of an older, dour, wrinkled man who appears devoid of happiness. The piece speaks to "the disintegration of the elderly," and how many of them can be mistreated by the health care industry and other systems, Collins continued.
In addition, Collins has five nieces ages 5 to 12, all of whom she holds dear, and she has used them as a focal point -- coupled with paint and brush -- to condemn child exploitation.
"I feel people really need to put more perspective on protecting their kids," Collins said, adding that a top goal of hers after high school is to attend Savannah College of Art and Design, a private school in Savannah, Georgia.
In his remarks during a 45-minute program in Ford Theater, Paul McFadden, the YSU Foundation's president, reminded the students they were in the shadow of the McDonough Museum of Art, Stambaugh Auditorium and the Butler Institute of American Art -- all major institutions that represent local, regional and national artists.
In addition, MacMillan gave separate awards to Bill Young, a longtime Scholastic Art Awards organizer and coordinator, and John Hill, a 35-year art teacher at Newton Falls High School.
MacMillan also urged the students to use their artistic and other talents to better the world.