Lukac’s leopard is a legacy

By JOANN JONES | Special to The Vindicator

The Legend” sits in the lobby of Liberty High School, just outside the office and the gym amid the sports Hall of Fame and the trophy cases.

Appropriately named, the mosaic leopard, made from cardboard and pieces of colored glass, represents the legacy of a very artistic and athletic Courteney Lukac, who created it as her final art project before graduating in 2014.

The 5-foot-long, 3-foot-high structure sits atop a poplar base crafted and painted black by Lukac’s father, Steve.

“Art has always been important for me,” Lukac said. “I love drawing. My mom would buy me canvases to paint on and clay for sculpting. And my brother Steven and I would create things from Legos.”

“I would go to Arts Excel in elementary school, and then I was determined as gifted in art when I was in middle school,” said Lukac, who spent her whole life in Liberty schools.

The idea for the leopard came as Lukac was sitting with her art teacher, Sarah Frank, right before the final grading quarter last spring.

“I told her I didn’t just want to leave a canvas behind,” Lukac said. “I have thousands of canvases. I like ‘big.’ Someone had donated a lot of glass, and my teacher suggested I could do something with the glass and put it in a frame to mount on the wall.”

“I said, ‘I want to build a statue — from scratch.’”

“I spent the whole fourth grading quarter from the first day,” Lukac said. “I finished it two days before the state track meet.”

Not only was Lukac working on the leopard project, but she also was running track with the goal of making it to the state meet, which she had just missed as a junior.

But that wasn’t all. Along with working on the project and practicing track, Lukac had also taken on the responsibility of being the yearbook editor, a monumental task in any high school.

Remembering that her mother, Natalie, always told her “You spread yourself too thin,” she decided she needed to have a well-thought-out plan to create her mosaic leopard and get it finished by graduation.

“What can I get a lot of that is quality material?” Lukac said she asked herself. “Cardboard is light, movable and easy to manage and cut, so I used that. I cut out the body. It was solid cardboard all pressed together.”

“My dad put metal rods in the legs to hold it up,” she said. “And I used hot glue and layered the cardboard to give it width. I used dozens and dozens of hot-glue guns.”

Lukac finished the project by gluing the small pieces of glass onto the cardboard with a special glue to make the glass stick. That part of the project alone took three weeks.

“It got to the point that I was spending almost half a day in art,” she said.

But qualifying for the state track meet was just as important to her.

“I had the best coach I ever could have had,” Lukac said of Liberty High’s track coach, Jay Cripe. “He pushed me but didn’t baby me. When I had tendinitis, I was sitting in math class and he walked in with a bucket of ice. When I qualified for state and had a dream of a false start, he worked with me to overcome that fear.”

As a result, Lukac placed fifth at the Division II state meet and broke the school record for the 800 meter — one that had stood for 30 years, she said.

In fact, she broke it four times her senior year.

Her best time of 2:15 also made her district champion, county champion, and conference champion while it also helped her to get a scholarship to Youngstown State University, where she is competing in the 800.

Lukac’s legacy doesn’t end with her mosaic leopard or her track record, however.

Other signs of her artistic ability abound in the school.

A sculpture of a reclining young woman (a group project, she said) sits atop a ledge in the school lobby, and several pairs of painted tennis shoes are in a showcase. In addition, during her junior year, Lukac painted a huge leopard head in the football blockhouse, and the Lady Leopards’ locker room sports a painting of a leopard in a circle.

All these were done free-hand, Lukac said.

Lukac, who is a fashion design major at YSU, said she also has sold some of her artwork and has taken requests from people to do paintings.

“I’ve done a painting for a former teacher and for a professor,” she said.

“I never turn people down when they ask me, because I love a challenge.”

Lukac said she wouldn’t have been able to accomplish everything she has without the help of her family.

“My parents have always been there to support me through everything,” she said.

“They always went to everything when I was in high school, and now it’s Steven’s turn.”

Lukac’s brother Steven is a 16-year-old junior on the Liberty basketball team.

“He is the just the best brother,” she said. “We never argue … OK, one time, probably over food. I’m trying to get him to do track now because he can jump.”

Because the school’s lobby is the focal point for the students, parents, staff and visitors, Lukac’s mosaic leopard is a visual reminder of school pride and the importance of giving back to school and community.

“I had decided this wasn’t going to be for just me, but for everyone,” Lukac said. “When people look at it, they can reflect and see the history of the school.”