SHOWCASE ART
ART SHOWCASE
Carlmont High School
1400 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont, CA 94002
chsartshowcaseclub@gmail.com
Editors
Shiori Chen
May Lin
Michelle Lo
Voting Committee
Shiori Chen
Rhodes Kostrub
Ellen Li
Magazine Team
Lucas Clavel
Shiori Chen
Annaliese Helweg
Michelle Lo
Audrey Navasca
Isabella Sanchez
Olivia Turnbeaugh
Sophia Trenin
Exposition Team
Lucas Kishore
May Lin
Giselle Lo
Nathan Turnbeaugh
Website Team
Ellen Li
HsuanYin Lin
Advisor
Connor Fenech
BOARD MEMBERS
Shiori Chen is the founder and president of Art Showcase Club. Between designing spreads 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
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.
(Left to right): Brendan Ng, Michelle Lo, Shiori Chen, 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 biannual 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.
N T E N T S
BoardMembers
OurStory
TableofContents
Aeron Gurskis
Untitled IntotheLight
Jade Wu
EternalFlutter
Emilia Bateman
MySummer
Nektarios Kanakis
Lovestruck
Chloe Chu
WeirdFishes
Chloe Chu
We’llBeOkay
Annaliese Helweg
TakeMyHeart
Claire Yee
Spectator
Tanya Nair
AnnaMotamarry
Artist Profile
Giselle Lo
Olivia Turnbeaugh
Akhil Pillai
AERONGURSKIS
Created by Aeron Gurskis, this uniquely shaped piece of origami is called a kusudama, a Japanese medicine ball. Gurskis, a sophomore who began creating modular origami in 8th grade, was making made paper flowers for a science assignment when he found a passion for origami. He began to work on more complex pieces over time, developing both his love and skill for the art of paper folding. This kusudama is composed of a total of 60 pieces of paper with a dimension ratio of one to two: 30 of the papers being silver while the other 30 are gold. The gold pieces fold inside the silver ones, essentially serving as outer shells. In addition, the paper is a special type of paper that Gurskis obtained in Japan, where one side of the paper is metallic and the other side is paper. This complex origami piece took Gurskis around five hours to create, which he then gifted to a friend for their birthday.
Lucas Kishore, Art Showcase Staff Writer
Jade Wu
flutter
EMILIA BATEMAN
EmiliaBatemanisajuniorenrolled inAPArtandDesignandcreated thepiece, EternalFlutter aspartof herportfolioexploringthequestion, “HowdoIdepictthefeelingof runningoutoftime?”
Batemanbegancreatingartinher freshmanyear,butherpassiongrew steadily,leadingtomore involvementanddedicationbyher junioryear.
Batemancreatedthispieceover winterbreakforherclassusing Prismacolorcoloredpencils, spendingaround28hoursto completeit.
Whilecreatingthepiece,Bateman foundthatshedidn’tlikehowthe righteyeofhergrandmotherturned out,sosheovercamethischallenge bycoveringitupwithabutterfly, seamlesslyintegratingitintotherest ofthedrawing.
TheartworkdepictsBatemanwith hergrandparentswhenshewasstill atoddler,extremelyyoungin comparisontohercurrentself,a highschoolstudent.
Thisportraitservesasareminderto Batemanaboutthepast,toatime thatshecouldn’tremember, demonstratinghowpicturescan immortalizemomentsliketheseand serveasareminderthattimeflies.
LucasKishore,ArtShowcaseStaff Writer
MY SUMMER
NEKTARIOSKANAKI
Casual watercolor artist Nektarios Kanakis only became serious about art in eighth grade, when he attended an art studio for the first time in his life.
Now a sophomore in high school, Kanakis has allowed his passion for art to properly flourish. His piece My Summer is a depiction of his summer trip from Japan to Taiwan. The full project consists of eight distinct panels, each filled with fun and imaginative creativity. The two panels featured in this issue are taken from the far left of the complete piece.
To create My Summer, Kanakis had to step out of his comfort zone by experimenting with a technique he had never used before: avoiding the use of hard outlines in his artwork.
Nonetheless, the piece is very meaningful to Kanakis because it consolidates his warmest summer memories. For example, the imagined scene includes Pokémon roaming the streets, paying homage to the Pokémon Centers that Kanakis visited. He also includes ancient Japanese architecture in his piece, along with flying tempura in the sky as a tribute to the amazing tempura he had in Taipei 101.
May Lin, Art Showcase Editor
helweg
We’ll Be Okay annaliese
Annaliese Helweg, a sophomore who has been making art his whole life, began exploring digital art in middle school. His piece, We’ll Be Okay, holds significant meaning to him and his partner. The two people featured at the center of the piece are Helweg and his significant other, depicted as a couple facing fear about the future and the possibility of being targeted by the government for being transgender, uncertain about their safety and what might happen to them. Helweg remembers his significant other texting him out of the blue with the words “We’ll be okay” shortly after Trump’s inauguration — a message that provided inspiration for the name of the piece. The papers falling around the couple are meant to symbolize the frightening news headlines surrounding their community, while the light above them represents their hope that they will be okay, even during the darkest times.
In addition to this personal meaning, Helweg wanted to create this piece to demonstrate the strength and resilience of queer people in a world that constantly feels hostile. With the support of his boyfriend, he wanted to share their perspective of life as a queer teenager in the current political landscape and the unerasable, unwavering nature of their love. Artistically, Helweg challenged himself in many aspects of the drawing process. He chose not to use black outlines on the characters, resulting in a partially abstract look that complemented the movement of wind and paper blowing around them. Instead, he opted for a blend of hard and soft edges to define the sharp and more fluid elements of the piece. Helweg also tried to experiment with lighting and shadows to add depth to the figures in his drawing.This piece took him a total of two to three days to create.
Lucas Kishore, Art
Writer
Take My Heart
Claire Yee is a 17-year-old artist who has been pouring color onto pages for as long as she could remember.
“After the brain, the heart is the most important organ in the body,” Yee said.
Yee chose to center the piece around a heart because of its associations with love, affection, and survival—representing how far people will go to sacrifice their own well-being for love.
Yee initially struggled with figuring out the best way to communicate her message of unrequited love and imbalance in effort. She had to experiment around with the composition and colors, taking months to finalize the piece.
Despite this challenge, Yee believes that Take My Heart is an important piece that many can resonate with.
“Whether it’s a friendship, a family member, or a significant other, I think it’s pretty common to feel like someone in your life doesn’t value you as much as you value them,” Yee said.
May Lin,ArtShowcaseEditor
Claire Yee
TANYA NAIR TANYA TANYANAIR NAIR spect ator
Tanya Nair, a current junior, has been an artist for approximately six years, primarily working with acrylic paints and rendering digital pieces through Procreate. Her digital art piece, SPECTATOR, was completed after about four hours of work. In creating the piece, Nair explores the intense societal pressures associated with show business and performance culture.
She chose the title SPECTATOR to reflect this theme, while also intentionally leaving it ambiguous whether the central figure is a performer or viewer. Thus, SPECTATOR invites the audience to interpret the dynamic of what it means to observe versus be observed, while simultaneously prompting reflections on the expectations placed on those under the spotlight.
This concept came from Nair’s personal experiences, not as a performer, but as someone in the audience.
“I can relate to subconsciously placing increasingly higher expectations on performers whether it be on a stage, in a film, or musical performance,” Nair said.
Through deliberate choices in composition, lighting, and color, Nair aimed to draw the viewer’s eye to a single focal point. Through this technique, she heightens the tension between the viewer and the subject, further emphasizing the complex relationship between observation and performance.
Shiori Chen, Art Showcase Editor
5 Seconds - Last Moments
Top: Last 5 Seconds was inspired by the idea of what someone’s brain looks like in the last 5 seconds before they die—when their entire life flashes before their eyes. To illustrate this vivacity, Motamarry experimented with media like watercolor, colored pencils, and markers. She calls this piece morbid yet interesting, blending art with science and imagination.
Right: An Ode to My Younger Self is quite literally an ode to Motamarry’s childhood. It bridges the reminder of where she came from and who she wants to be in the future. The piece, meticulously crafted with watercolor and colored pencils, was challenging because Motamarry had a hard time getting her self-portrait to look right. Nonetheless, Motamarry is happy with how the piece came out and enjoys the freedom of art provides her.
Left: Motamarry usually works with watercolor, but has found a recent interest in pencil work and the detail it requires with each stroke. Self-Love is a tribute featuring Motamarry’s younger and older self merged together into one. The purpose of the piece is to reinforce the idea that loving both your younger and older self are important aspects of one’s identity.
Motamarry took art classes in her sophomore year for the first time and became more involved in abstract concepts like surrealism.
“I was very inspired by surrealism, and I loved making all the seemingly random items in the piece, as there were a lot of hidden personal meanings,” Motamarry said.
An Ode to my Younger Self
May Lin, Art Showcase Editor
May Lin, Art Showcase Editor
Turnbeaugh’s Olivia
OliviaTurnbeaugh,afreshman,hasbeen anartistforaslongasshecanremember; eversinceshewasachild,she’sbeen drawing.Inherpiece, Loved,two characters—onefromtheviewer’s perspectiveandtheotherfacingus—grasp eachother’swristsinanotherwiseempty space,litonlybythesoftglowoftheir figures.
Arunner-upfortheFebruarymonthly theme“AllWeNeedIsLove,”herartwork conveysthemessageofunconditionallove: thefeelingofelationofreceivingit,aswell asthefearoflosingordriftingawayfrom thatconnection.
“Thesubjectmatterresonateswithme personally,asitrepresentstheneedIfeel toholdontothepeopleIcherishthe most,”Turnbeaughsaid.
Tocreateadreamy,glowyeffect, TurnbeaughusedClipStudioPaint’schalk tools.Thedrawingtookabouttwohours tocomplete.
Intermsofartisticstyle,Turnbeaugh soughttobalancetheemotionaldepthof herpiecewithvisualsimplicity.She exploredabroadcolorpaletteandfocused onrenderingandlighting,allwhile intentionallykeepingthecharacter’sfacial expressioncuteandminimaltocreatea finalpiecethatfeelsbothvisceraland dynamic.
ShioriChen,ArtShowcaseEditor
ANOTHER
