SHOWCASE ART
View our featured semi-annual submissions and monthly winners
ART SHOWCASE
Carlmont High School
1400 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont, CA 94002
chsartshowcaseclub@gmail.com
Editors
Shiori Chen
May Lin
Michelle Lo
Nathan Turnbeaugh
Voting Committee
Brendan Ng
Sophia Shen Yip
Aahna Chauhan
Rhodes Kostrub
Ellen Li
Magazine Team
Lucas Clavel
Shiori Chen
Annaliese Helweg
Michelle Lo
Anna Motamarry
Audrey Navasca
Brendan Ng
Isabella Sanchez
Sophia Shen Yip
Olivia Turnbeaugh
Sophia Trenin
Exposition Team
Justin Dubbs
Everett Keninger
Lucas Kishore
May Lin
Giselle Lo
Aaroha Save
Keira Sarmiento
Nathan Turnbeaugh
Website Team
Aahna Chauhan
Andi Kim
Ellen Li
HsuanYin Lin
Advisor
Connor Fenech
BOARD MEMBERS
Shiori Chen is the founder and president of Art Showcase Club. Between designing spreads, creating charcoal drawings and learning new instruments, her deep passion for all kinds of art formed a personal and sincere commitment to fostering creativity and appreciation within the art community at Carlmont High School.
Michelle Lo is the vice president of Art Showcase Club. Since the very founding of the club, her dedication to the club is undeniable, whether it be writing, submitting her own work, or managing club partnerships. She enjoys making art by weaving words together into heartfelt, emotionally stirring poems, and skillfully playing her viola.
For the chance to be featured in our bi-annual magazine or website, visit artshowcaseclub.com! Start by scanning the QR code.
Interested in joining our team?
Come and join us in D-21 (Mr. Fenech’s room) on Thursdays during lunch.
Instagram: @artshowcaseclub
Website: artshowcaseclub.com
Issuu: Art Showcase Club
Brendan Ng is the secretary of Art Showcase Club. He is a passionate traveler and art enthusiast, blending his passion for both and creating a unique rhythm in his life’s journey.
Ellen Li is the manager and website director of Art Showcase Club. She combines her deep appreciation for art with a strong sense of dedication to support her fellow members. She enjoys drawing and exploring various music genres in her free time.
Nathan Turnbeaugh is the exposition director of Art Showcase Club. He’s been enamored with all forms of the arts since his childhood, whether it be theater, poetry or painting, he loves to dip his toes into the world of creative expression.
(Left to right): Nathan Turnbeaugh, Brendan Ng, Shiori Chen, Michelle Lo, Ellen Li
OUR STORY
n August 2023, Shiori Chen, a then founded the Art Showcase Club. In collaboration with her friend, Nathan Turnbeaugh, and Mr. Fenech– the club’s teacher advisor–they created a space for those passionate about the arts and newswriting to display their talents to the world. The club would grow rapidly with the development of a website, a fleshed out organizational system for the club, and the publication of a bi-yearly magazine, where the works and effort of both Carlmont students and club members could be shown to the school.
sophomore at Carlmont High School,
Providing a space for all varieties and styles, the Club became a veritable sanctuary for literary, visual, and performing arts. Art Showcase Club has successfully demonstrated that one does not need to be an artist to appreciate art, where Carlmont’s writers and artists alike can display their work to the larger Carlmont community. With an established domain accessible to the public showing the skill of each club member and a physical magazine as the culmination of the club’s work over a semester and a proud achievement for everyone involved.
Nobody believed more in the potential of Carlmont’s students than Chen, and the underrepresentation and lack of knowledge surrounding the talented artists motivated her to take the first step in creating the Art Showcase Club so all of their works could be displayed.
Chen, now a junior, continues to share her passion for art at every meeting and expands Art Showcase Club through implementing new and progressive structures, slowly progressing toward her vision of a place for everyone to enjoy the making and showcasing of art.
Written by the Art Showcase Editorial Board
OurStory
TableofContents
Ukraine
Starman
Purple Hues
One Last Goodbye
Ballgown
Resting in Eternity
Namiko
The Magic of Color
Birthday Street
The Roots of China
Coit in Bloom
Salt Water Solitude
Subject 904
SeptemberMonthly
Haze
The Illusion of Time
The Time Keeper
OctoberMonthly
Contemplation
Surrounded
LILY STUTZIN
Ukraine is a digital art piece that junior Lily Stutzin developed as a project for history. She aimed to show the consequences of the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. While making it, she struggled to find something to represent the war’s impact but ultimately decided to sketch a statue. Seeing that statues are a display of someone’s legacy, it was a good fit to depict the consequences war leaves behind. The statue with a hole in its chest and its hands torn off symbolizes the losses brought by the war.
Stutzin used the digital art app Procreate to create Ukraine in two hours. She began her interest in art during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued drawing since then.
STARMAN
Lily Stutzin, a junior at Carlmont High School, has been creating art since the COVID-19 pandemic. Purposed initially as a school project, Starman depicts an ideal man as a bust with a vibrant night sky in the background, digitally crafted with several techniques and primarily line-by-line coloring. The piece evokes emotions through the character's solemn face and the eerie glow of the river, alluding to ancient Greek legends of the river Styx, meant to symbolize the character's death. The piece is based on the artists and era known as the “Lost Generation,” though primarily on the works of Willy Jaeckel and Pablo Picasso, which used their negative feelings towards WWI and its conclusion to influence their art. They often created unrealistic and seemingly unfinished pieces, as seen in this piece with the individual strokes that form the individual, giving him a more unfinished appearance, with the contrast of the seemingly photographed night sky. The piece symbolizes the end of a life, with the character's fate left unfinished and leaving only the emotions as remnants, perfectly encapsulating the experience of the “Lost Generation” and the life that could have been.
Justin Dubbs, Art
CHENG CHENG ERICK ERICK
HUES HUES PURPLE PURPLE
Purple Hues is a photograph taken by junior Erick Cheng, which represents the overarching theme of selfacceptance. The inspiration for this photograph came when Cheng was outside at night. He found beauty in a person standing alone under a tree. The person was relaxed and enjoying the environment around him without the need to do anything. The purple sky behind the subject provided a peaceful mood for the isolated figures. It made Cheng think about the importance of finding comfort in your own presence. Cheng finds the medium of photography interesting because of its ability to freeze a moment in time.When photos are not too heavily edited, it develops authenticity in the captured moment, which is why he does not put too much weight on editing in his process.
May Lin, Art Showcase Editor
One Last Goodbye
ALAINA YUNG
Alaina Yung, a junior, has been invested in the arts for as long as she can remember, and uses her works as a medium to express her innermost thoughts. In these two works: One Last Goodbye and Ballgown. Through the making of the former, Yung intended to portray a pair of young lovers, destined to separate despite their own wishes. The piece was largely inspired by Yung’s desire to create a meaningful work using the symbolism of spider lilies widely connotated with death. Their addition serves as a grim reminder of the consequences of the couple’s actions. In total, One Last Goodbye took Yung approximately 2.5 hours to complete, and she excitedly posted it on Instagram afterward.
However, Yung’s thought process in making Ballgown demonstrates a much different angle of her creative process. As she spends a large portion of her time surrounded by the art of others, she finds a large amount of inspiration in the works of others. In the case of Ballgown, Yung intended to design a character and had stumbled upon a dress design that inspired her to practice rendering clothing. Although Yung is very familiar with digital art, having consistently used the medium since 2020, Yung still finds opportunities to experiment with new techniques and expand upon her ability as she did in finalizing her render of Ballgown.
Nathan Turnbeaugh, Art Showcase Editor
Ballgown
Resting in Eternity is a vibrant and creative capturing of the journey of souls into the afterlife. Although a realm entirely different and unseen from our own, Anna Jaya Motamarry captures the uniqueness and beauty of life after death. A junior at Carlmont High School and just 16 years of age, Motamarry has been creating art for as long as she can remember, nearly 80% of her life, and considers it a personal hobby. She primarily paints in watercolor, this piece being no exception, but recently has tried other mediums like ink to portray her artistic talents and ideals. Resting in Eternity is just one in a planned collection of imaginative interpretations of the journey a soul takes after it passes from the mortal world, with this one having a theme of unrealistic or visionary interpretation where souls simply rest.
Justin Dubbs, Art Showcase Staff Writer
SHIORI CHEN
When 16-year-old junior Shiori Chen was carrying her new oil painting around campus, many classmates saw the portrait of a young woman as she passed by. They’d ask Chen, “Is that a painting of you?”
“I always thought that was the biggest compliment when people said I looked like my mom because I looked up to her so much,” Chen said.
Her mother, Namiko, is the piece's subject, and the first person Chen thinks of when asked who her “personal hero” is. The reference photo for the painting was from when Namiko was younger, which Chen said she chose because “she looked so happy and genuine” in the picture. In the painting, Namiko grins while holding chopsticks and a plate of uni, or Japanese sea urchin. This represents her mother’s career as a Japanese food blogger as well as her foodie side. “My family and her, part of our values is our love for food,” Chen said.
When Chen went through the process of creating the piece, she was excited because she hadn’t had a chance to work with oil paints since she was in seventh grade watching Bob Ross tutorials. “It was really good getting back into that medium because I think it has a very polished look afterward,” Chen said.
When she was deciding on the background, she decided against the one in the reference image because it didn’t match her mom’s uplifting personality.
Instead, she opted for a light spring green. “That’s the message I wanted to convey about my mother,” Chen said.
Keira Sarmiento, Art Showcase Staff Writer
The Magic of
Color Emi Ota
Emi Ota, a junior at Carlmont High School, has always seen her dad express joy for photography, inspiring her to pick up a camera and start photography as well. Once, during a busy week, she took a break from homework by walking along the local Bay Trail with her camera in hand. Along the way back to her house, she heard the call of a hummingbird, following it to a bush next to her elementary school. To capture a clear photo of a hummingbird, a photographer must get close due to the bird’s miniature size. However, this can be difficult, as shy creatures like hummingbirds tend to fly away, often leaving the photographer with a blurry image of an indistinguishable blob of color. Fortunately, for Emi, this hummingbird didn’t immediately fly away, allowing her to get within range for some close-up photos. While waiting for the right moment, the hummingbird turned its head towards her, and the sunlight struck its face at an angle that lit up its facial feathers in a vibrant pink color that stood out from the green spring leaves. The bird looked completely different, though still the same hummingbird. Through this change in perspective, Emi strives to illustrate that when looking at a particular subject, our perception can change drastically depending on the angle from which we view it, similar to her experience with the hummingbird.
Lucas Kishore, Art Showcase Staff Writer
Birthday Street
Nektarios Kanaki
Overthecourseofjust3days,NektariosKanaki,asophomoreatCarlmont, painted BirthdayStreet,dedicatedtohismotherasameansofdisplayinghis gratitudetoheronherspecialday.Thepaintingitselfisarepresentationof oneofthetwo’sfavoritestreetsinTaiwan,withtheletteringonthesigns translatingtovariousbirthdaywishes.
NathanTurnbeaugh,ArtShowcaseEditor
The Roots of China
Ahl
Michelle Ahl, a 16-year-old junior, doesn’t consider herself an artist. However despite having no formal training, she has explored various mediums, including charcoal, watercolor, colored pencils, and oil pastels. For The Roots of China, she spent two days recreating a memory from her summer through a colored drawing. Her illustration honors the city of Xianning, China, focusing on its oldest bridge, eclipsed by a native tree.
“I love taking photos of things or places that seem to hold a lot of history or stories, so I chose a photo of this bridge and turned it into a drawing,” Ahl said.
Ahl faced challenges during her artistic process, especially when creating a realistic depiction of the tree in her reference and painstakingly adding individual brick details to the bridge. With advice from her cousin who is a professional artist, she was able to overcome these obstacles, ultimately bringing her vision to life in a piece that honors her heritage.
Shiori Chen, Art Showcase Editor
Michelle
coit in bloom
Kylan Wang is a junior who embarked on his photography journey only two years ago—yet he has already made significant progress in his craft through landscape, street, and studio photography.
Wang picked up the bits and pieces of photography from his father, who was always taking pictures during family vacations and road trips.
If he knows the location where he’s going to shoot photos, he creates a list of sketches outlining the composition styles and types of shots he wants. He prepares his gear beforehand and then goes out to shoot. He uses two different types of cameras, a Sony NEX 7 and a Canon EOS 5D Mark V.
“My favorite type of photography is street photography because it says a lot about where you are,” Wang said. “A good street photographer can get the feel of the city to the viewer, even though they’re not really there.”
Coit in Bloom was taken at the Coit Tower, a spot in the city Wang frequents. Wang combined his love for the landmark and city with a gorgeous sunset in the background to achieve a combination of his favorite things: the urban landscape and sunsets.
Salt Water Solitude was taken in Capitola, Santa Cruz.
Wang currently takes pictures around the world and hopes to continue building on his passion for photography.
Lucas Kishore & May Lin,Art ShowcaseStaff
salt water solitude
Subject 904
Sophia Shen-Yip
16 years old | Junior Digital Art | Procreate
Passage
Passage Time
WinnerChloe Chu
Runner upsEmilia Bateman
Annaliese Helweg
Create a piece that conveys the passage of time in one or all of its forms. Past, present, and future.
Monthly Winner
Haze Sept
Chloe Chu
Inspired by Junji Ito’s Tomie, sophomore Chloe Chu depicts her warped perception of time through Haze as she recounts the disorientation she’d feel as “times, weeks and months pass by” Chu said. Though she hasn’t read Ito’s manga, its motifs still heavily resonate with Chu as she also incorporates a reference to Salvador Dali’s melting clocks in the eyes of one of the twin faces. In the process of creating this work, Chu sketched out and scrapped three different drafts, each illustrating a different aspect of time’s impact on her, but she settled on an abstract self-portrait as being the most representative of her thoughts. Once she had decided on the portrait, Chu fleshed out the sketch she’d made on paper, before rendering it digitally, a simple endeavor, as she’s been using such mediums since her dad gave her an iPad with Autodesk Sketchbook in third grade. In closing, Chu’s very satisfied with her piece and looks forward to other more abstract pieces to come.
Nathan Turnbeaugh, Art Showcase Editor
RUNNER UP
The Illusion of Time
Emilia Bateman
Junior Emma Bateman has taken art classes at Carlmont since her first year. She is now in AP art, and it shows in her work. Her oil painting, The Illusion of Time, is filled with suspense as a woman is seen moments before her end. “I wanted to convey the idea that running out of time might be a choice,” Bateman said. She precisely executes this through the work’s composition. The car is rapidly approaching the woman, however, the woman lies calmly on the road, uninjured, not reflecting any urgency. She could get up if she wanted to, but she doesn’t. This suggests that it was her choice to cut her time short. Bateman hopes to have viewers reflect on their own perception of time. Are they choosing to be like the woman, letting time pass through her? “The choice to remain unmoving challenges the viewer to question whether running out of time is a real force or merely a construct we choose to accept or resist,” Bateman said.
Keira Sarmiento, Art Showcase Staff Writer
RUNNER UP
The Time Keeper
Annaliese Helweg
The Time Keeper by Annaliese Helweg depicts a figure referred to as “The Time Keeper” as they keep track of time through candles, clocks, and various other methods that humans have used throughout history.
The burning candles are inspired by a traditional advent candles burned on each day of December leading up to Christmas. The moon imagery and sun-dial earrings the Time Keeper wears provides further insight into traditional ways time was measured in the past. Even the Time Keeper’s clothing shows a combination of clothing in history: silky dress fabric mimicking ancient greek tunics, armor representing medieval times, vests from the 1900s, and a hoodie drawstring showing modern fashion.
“Time has always been a difficult concept to portray or explain.”
Annaliese reflects. “I thought it would be interesting to portray it as most humans have done in the past, whether through natural cycles like the moon or through man made machinery, like the clock. By portraying the Time Keeper with many human features and using human inventions to track time, it brings attention to the fact that it is unfathomable for many humans to imagine such a powerful force. By creating human personifications we can try to understand greater forces, like time, that are present in a forever changing universe.”
Everett Keninger, Art Showcase Staff Writer
October
Monthly
Abstraction
and
Harmony
WinnerAnna Motamarry
Runner upsChloe Chu
Rachel Hong
Create a piece on an unconventional canvas shape— think outside of the box.
Allow the shape of the canvas to inspire the composition of your piece.
Monthly Winner Oct
Anna Jaya Motamarry, a junior, has practiced her art ever since grade school, doing what she could with both household and school art supplies. Over the course of those formative years, it swiftly became a pillar of her daily life, driving her forward in her day to day. Ultimately, her experiences with art would alter the way she interpreted the world around her and would shaper her into a different person and more accomplished artist. As an artist, Motamarry utilizes a variety of mediums and colors to express the topics of her pieces, in this particular artwork, she used her artistic choices to convey various themes regarding the nature of one’s soul.
To create this piece, Nature’s True Beauty, she made six different drafts until she was satisfied with the result since she was working with gouache, a new medium. During the process of creating this piece, she had to learn how to layer different color values to ensure everything was coherent, a unique challenge. Motamarry’s art focuses on the soul, but, more specifically, what happens to the soul after death. This piece is a representation of the typically tribal belief that your soul returns to nature after death.
Lucas Kishore, Art Showcase Staff Writer
Natu
re’s True Beauty na
Motamarry
Contemplation CHLOE CHU
Using acrylic paint and a random canvas, Chloe Chu, a sophomore, painted this piece, Contemplation. Chloe Chu has been doing art for as long as she can remember, starting around the age of three and taking art classes ever since. Her passion for art stemmed from a more parental influence, as her parents always encouraged Chu to draw and do things she enjoyed. Contemplation took a couple of hours to paint, first painting the girl, then cutting out the canvas with a boxcutter, and finally adding details with red acrylic paint. Chu created this piece intending to practice with acrylics since she usually makes sketches in her sketchbook or loose pieces of paper. This piece was inspired by an artist named Avogado6, who has a simplistic but beautiful art style filled with deep meaning, which Chu strives to achieve in art. Looking back at this piece, it feels like a demonstration of how one might feel when they jump into new friendships and things, a gamble, putting their trust into the hands of others who risk losing it while also at the chance of gaining it.
Lucas Kishore, Art Showcase Staff Writer
RUNNER UP
RUNNER UP
Rachel Hong Surrounded by Nature
Surrounded By Nature is an acrylic piece painted by sophomore Rachel Hong emphasizing the connection between humans and nature, shown through the aspects of the natural world surrounding the center girl. The snake wrapped around the girl’s neck represents a bond between the two, demonstrating how humans and nature are dependent on one another. Around her are brightly colored dragonflies and plants from the Amazon Rainforest, pitcher plants, and the Heliconia flower. They are a reminder of how biodiversity, as well as being crucial to life, makes the world beautiful, the same way that they make the painting more visually appealing.
Hong finds acrylic painting to be one of her favorite mediums. Despite the challenge of adding the nature around the girl, who was originally intended to be the only subject of the painting, the added vibrance and meaning makes it worth the risk. She loves making art to explore and communicate her emotions, saying, “Sometimes, you can't express something only through words, and you have to show it instead.”
Lucas Kishore, Art Showcase Staff Writer
AFragment
of Fall
BY ANNALIESE HELWEG
The ring of the school bell
A rush of smiling, happy faces
Flooding the barren halls with life
Trees seem to flow like tides in the autumn breeze
Dashing and dancing leaves fill the sky
Vermillion, orange and sunset yellow
Fluttering like bright fireflies in a moonlight night
They rush through the chilled air before making a slow descent
The halls empty out, leaving leaves lonely
A pop of color on an aged old asphalt staircase
Suddenly more life emerges from the halls
A boy and his friends rush from their classroom
Laughing as they descend the staircase
The leaves fear they will be unnoticed
But who could resist the beauty of a fragment of fall?
Who could disregard the vibrant color in the dull asphalt?
Certainly not the boy
Footsteps echo around the empty classrooms like a pattering sprinkle of raindrops after a flash of lighting
The boy runs across the hallway and makes a flying jump towards the fiery leaves
Only to miss by a hair and land back on solid ground
“I can’t reach! I’ll take off my backpack first”
He calls out to his friends
“Wait, I'll try and get it!”
One yells in response
The students jump toward the leaves
Higher And higher And higher
The boy makes a giant leap
Hands outstretched to grab the paper thin red wonders
Catching hold of a leaf, he lands back down
And finding more golden treasures on the ground he collects eagerly
Oh, the wonder of a fragment of fall
The wind and the nature and trees working together to put on a show
How the bright red beauties flutter across the sky!
How they dance across a cloudy afternoon!
Oh the crisp autumn wind is its graceful dance partner
How it spins the vibrant performers across a blue ballroom sky!
As the leaves descend to the ground full of gray decay,
How they brighten up a dull blustery autumn afternoon!
How they color the ground of dark ash with fire!
How they turn the cement into a vibrant red carpet!
Oh a fragment of fall
On a cold autumn day
Warm me up with your beauty
And I’ll take home your treasure
Book pressed
String dried
And submerged in a bottle
Keep you safe on my table
And save you away
A fragment of fall
For a cold winter’s day
Lord Montague
Since the pandemic, Lily Stutzin has always been an artist, whether creating digital art on Procreate or doodling on a random piece of homework. Stutzin, a junior, created this piece of art through Procreate, a digital painting application, which took around one and a half hours. Her piece was used as a visualization for her English class, displaying the scene from Romeo and Juliet where Lord Montague is mourning Romeo and his wife’s death. Lily’s inspiration for this was an image at the end of Dragonhearted, a music video created by CaptainSparklez and TryHardNinja.
Lucas Kishore, Art Showcase Staff Writer
Alaina Yung
Digital Art
Kylan Wang
Photography
Our Top Contributing
Anna J. Motamarry
Traditional Art
Bottom
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Artists
Lily Stutzin
Digital Art
Art Showcase Artist Contributors
Annaliese Helweg
Digital Art
Michelle Ahl, Kaia Baker-Malone, Emilia Bateman, Kayden Bhatnagar, Shiori Chen, Erick Cheng, Chloe Chu, Lucas Clavel, Gregory Duffy, Annaliese Helweg, Rachel Hong, Nektarios Kanakis, Giselle Lo, Anna Motamarry, Emi Ota, Marlena Reinshagen, Isabella Sanchez, Sophia Shen-Yip, Nat Skinner, Lily Stutzin, Jade Wu, Claire Yee, & Alaina Yung
Our Voting Committee
Our Editing Committee
Ellen Li
right): Rhodes Kostrub, Sophia Shen-Yip
Not pictured: Aahna Chauhan
A very special thank you to our club advisor, Connor Fenech, who has generously providing his room for our club meetings and supporting our club from the very beginning!
Top row (left to right): Brendan Ng,
row (left to
(Left to right): Michelle Lo, Nathan Turnbeaugh, May Lin
Not pictured: Shiori Chen
