After waiting in anticipation for a year, junior Nicole Hao received news of her gold key win for the Scholastic Art and Writing competition on March 27, advancing her to the national level of the competition. On June 12, the California College of the Arts (CCA) informed her of her national gold medal win for her art piece “Mindspace,” placing her in the top 8% of the country.
The Scholastic Art and Writing competition takes in 340,000 original works of art from more than 110,000 teens across the United States and Canada. Out of the submissions, only 2,500 won national awards, which consisted of Gold Medal, Silver Medal, American Visions and American Voices.
Hao participated in Drawing and Illustration along with Painting, two of the 28 topics participants can choose from. There are no predefined prompts, allowing creative liberty for all the competitors. Behind her art piece “Mindspace,” Hao used a combination of color pencils, alcohol markers and graphite pencils to portray her feelings. She incorporated different elements and used a variety of color schemes to highlight different aspects of her life. Hao created a self-portrait and drew objects around herself, ranging from specific to abstract all relating to her identity.
“I wanted to convey what was unique about myself, and also make it a little more abstract,” Hao said. “I wanted to show my identity through the piece and how it changes.”
Although she was familiar with the mediums she was using, Hao struggled coming up with the initial idea. It took her one month to finish the piece, despite working on it consistently throughout winter break. Ever since middle school, Hao has had the idea of creating a portrait with all the abstract ideas she thought of over the years.
“It was different from any piece I had done because at the time, it wasn’t exactly compiled from reference, so I had to incorporate a lot of different parts to it and make it cohesive overall,” Hao said.
Along with submitting one piece to Drawing and Illustration, she also submitted three other pieces to Painting, such as “Goldfish Serenity,” “Hands” and “Indifference.”
Nicole Hao’s art piece “Goldfish Serenity.”
Nicole Hao’s art piece “Hands.”
Nicole Hao’s art piece “Indifference.”
She received honorable mentions for all three pieces she submitted to Painting, which earned her recognition on the regional level. Only Gold Key works automatically advance to national judging, making the process very selective.
Hao’s current goal is to start an art club at the school and work on a mural for the journalism room. She wants to showcase the importance of journalism, free speech and unique student voice. It’s a beginner friendly project open to everyone including those without prior art experience.
“I do want to bring art to the community and show that it’s feasible to be an artist, because I think that’s very important. But I just don’t know if it is what I want to pursue in life,” Hao said. “And you know, there’s merit to that too. I really enjoy art, but I do want to keep it just as a hobby.”
