Mississippi School of the Arts congratulates Marrell (Mallie) Rainey, a junior visual arts student from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who received a Gold Medal in the 2025 National Scholastic Art and Writing Competition for a Drawing and Illustration piece. Mallie will be recognized on June 11, 2025, at the national awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In this release, Mallie explains her piece and how she came up with the design.
National Scholastic Gold Medal
According to Rainey, the award-winning piece, “Hearts of Fire,” is based off of the Rose Windows in the Notre Dame Cathedral.
“This piece was an art assignment that we had in Ms. Johnson’s class. When we were brainstorming ideas, all I could think about was how stained glass usually tells a story or portrays important symbols. I come from a Methodist background but attended a catholic school so coming up with a symbol wasn’t too difficult. This piece portrays The Sacred Heart of Jesus with a cross coming out of the top and is surrounded by clouds and rays that some people have told me look like thorns, which I think suits the theme well. Aside from that, there is also an angel wing. I chose these symbols because not only did it fit the theme, but it filled up space and balanced positive and negative spaces,” Rainey explained.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and present their remarkable work to the world through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Awards give students opportunities for recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarships. In 2024, more than 110,000 teens across the United States and Canada entered more than 340,000 original works in 28 different categories of art and writing.
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