From SOMSD:
You could say Bonney Donachie’s performance on her AP Drawing exam was picture-perfect.
Before Donachie graduated from Columbia High School (CHS) last June, she took the Advanced Placement (AP) Drawing exam. Recently, officials from the College Board notified her and CHS officials that she not only earned a score of 5 out of a possible 5 points, but she was one of only 308 in the world to earn every possible point on the exam.
“I was excited,” said Donachie, who now attends the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. “It’s definitely a cool thing to have.”
To achieve the exam’s top score, Donachie submitted 15 original works – 5 sketches and 10 completed works – with a common theme. Donachie chose clowns as her theme.
“I loved how clowns are dressed in exaggerated versions of normal outfits, makeup and portray great emotion, yet at the same time they are masking themselves and hiding their true expressions,” Donachie wrote in the statement she submitted as part of the exam. “This juxtaposition made me think about how clowns can produce great joy for some, but fear for others.”
To be sure, a quick glance at Donachie’s submitted portfolio is more likely to bring to mind Stephen King’s evil Pennywise character than wistful childhood circus memories.
But a closer look reveals Donachie’s exceptional ability to use light, shadow, and color. In a piece that shows two clowns sharing a kiss, light coming from out-of-frame at the left falls upon the face of the female. Within the light are yellows, greens, and grays that demonstrate the artist’s masterful dexterity in illuminating her subjects.
One of Bonney Donachie’s portfolio submissions
Donachie’s perfect score can also be seen as a significant accomplishment for her teacher, AP Drawing Teacher Alexandra Cappucci. However, Cappucci says she does not see it as a personal reflection on her.
“I’m really proud – not necessarily of myself,” Cappucci said, “but of the [Fine Arts] Department as a whole.”
Donachie’s score was the result of all of the different art teachers who worked with her in different classes she took since the beginning of her freshman year.
“I’m the last step in this chain of growth,” said Cappucci, who was in her second year teaching at CHS last year and was teaching AP Drawing for the first time.
Cappucci remembered Donachie as a student who was always in the CHS art room. She was always willing to help her teachers in keeping the studio clean. She never shied away from submitting to art contests and exhibitions.
When Donachie was asked who her greatest influences are, immediately said her mother, Rachael Cronin, who is a professional graphic designer who went to Parsons.
Rachel Cronin and Bonney Donachie
“She’s a wonderful artist. I’ve watched her work so hard,” Donachie said.
“It was really exciting for me and for her,” said Cronin about getting word about the perfect score.
Exciting, maybe. But perhaps not surprising. Donachie had previously earned a perfect score on an AP Studio Art exam, and a 4 out of 5 on an AP Art History exam, Cronin said.
“She is incredibly talented and has been for a long time,” Cronin said.
As a child, Donachie would watch horror movies with her mother (a pastime that Cronin had shared with her father when she was growing up). Actually, Cronin and Donachie tended to favor the horror-comedies like “Shaun Of The Dead” and “The People Under The Stairs.” The films were enough to spark Donachie’s childhood interest in creating horror movie makeup.
She would spend hours in the room trying to create realistic-looking scars and wounds, and eventually became proficient at it, Cronin said.
A work by Bonney Donachie
“Horror definitely inspired the whole clown thing,” Donachie said, drawing a connection to her AP portfolio. While she is majoring in painting now, Donachie has a strong interest in pursuing a career in make-up for horror films.
Today, Donachie loves the freedom of being able to focus on her artistic interests at Pratt. She is grateful to her mother and her father, an environmental consultant whose practice is in Milburn.
“I was really lucky to have parents who supported me,” she said.
