The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

What’s With the Giant Cow?

You may have noticed a life-sized cow model decorating WJ’s art gallery. Yet, this cow is no decoration; it is sophomore Jaynie Chartrand’s shot at winning a grand-total of $30,000 for herself and the school.


After art resource teacher Stephanie Ellis enrolled all of her students in “Art of Dairy, Taste of Moo-sic,” a promotional contest for Lucerne Milk Products, Chartrand qualified in the top 30.

Even as an AP Studio Art student, this comes as a very big opportunity for Chartrand. If she wins first place, she will win a prize of $5000, her teachers will personally be awarded $5000 and the school will be given $20,000. Second place prizes are $2,500, $2,500 and $5,000 respectively.

“The whole idea is to combine milk and music somehow,” said Chartrand. “Other competitions have been to combine history and dairy, or things like that, but they have had the current theme for the past two years.”

Being the sole WJ contestant to place in the top 30, Chartrand has received a life-sized cow model of the original sketch she submitted to the competition. Onto this cow, she plans to make her design a reality.

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Along with the two recruits chosen to help her, senior AP 2D Art students Julia Baumgart and Stephanie Tan, Chartrand has already accepted her challenge and begun her work. The three “cowgirls” used an overhead projector to trace Chartrand’s projected image onto the cow, thereby completing one of the most difficult parts of the project.

According to Ellis, their biggest challenges were tracing a 2-dimentional design onto a 3-dimentional sculpture, making it possible to read from a distance and not letting the cow’s shape distort the image.

The sculpture, which is scheduled to be completed by April 9, incorporates all of the anatomical nuances of a real cow. The bones, muscle structures, veins and arteries that are close to the surface of a real cow’s skin can be easily seen and felt.

“I thought my idea had potential, so I worked a little extra on my design, painting it digitally, and printing it to try and make it stand out,” said Chartrand.

And stand out, it has. The suspense will end when the prize winners and honorable mentions are selected and notified on May 7.

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