TWO famous imaginary animals form the subject of the witty, tactile pop artworks that have carried off the People’s Choice Award for the College Express exhibition held at Belconnen Arts Centre over the Christmas & New Year period.

The $100 award was presented to year 12 Gungahlin College student Brandon Mackintosh yesterday by Sam Faulks, director of Ray White Belconnen, at a ceremony where teachers, family, friends and CEO of the centre, Daniel Ballantyne, gathered for a last look at the much-admired  Mickey and Pluto ‘icons’ made from old aluminium cans.

Gungahlin College Principal Gai Beecher was on hand to explain that Mackintosh, who created the works while he was in Year 11, had topped his year in the accredited art course. Describing him as a “very dedicated art student,” Beecher and Gungahlin College art teacher Kate Leedham said the idea for these artworks had been entirely Mackintosh’s, who had chosen the artworks and the unusual materials from which they had been created.

Asked to explain the thinking behind the winning works Mackintosh said, “Walt Disney was very creative and I’m a very creative fellow too – I chose the aluminium cans because of the colours and the design.”

Mickey and Pluto are not the only Disney subjects in the artist’s repertoire. “I made Tigger from a chook wire frame covered with recycled plastic bags,” Mackintosh said, explaining that fortunately Coles sells orange plastic bags as well as the black ones needed for Tigger’s stripes.

He had also made a colourful three-dimensional shark from aluminium cans, although that had nothing to do with Disney or Bruce the shark from “Finding Nemo”.

And the cans? His extended family had drunk all the Coke cans for Pluto, while his year 11 maths class obliged with the Solo cans for Mickey.

Mackintosh said he enjoyed creating works in both two and three dimensions and that the tactile qualities of his two ‘icons’ were intentional.

“It’s a sensory thing,” his mother Kylie chipped in.

Mackintosh told “CityNews” he was at a crossroads in terms of his future. He said he was a serious art student who enjoyed the theory as well as the practice of art, and was considering going on to tertiary art studies, for which he has the qualifications and the portfolio.

But another equally tantalising career also beckons. Mackintosh, you see, loves all animals and after having completed the four-year Junior Zoo-Keeping Certificate at the National Zoo & Aquarium, is now working there as a volunteer—he even got to pat a rhino.

And his immediate ambition? “To see as many zoos in the world as I can,” Mackintosh said.