Through the bottom of the glass, her green eye glimmers, distorted, and piercing. A cupped hand shields her view and she squints to peer through.
With her striking self portrait, Senior Naomi Binger won first place in this year’s East Bay Monthly Cover Art Contest.
“East Bay Monthly [magazine] holds a contest for high school students that happens once a year,” art teacher Gillian Bailey said.
Binger said that the winner of the contest gets to have their art on the cover of the East Bay Monthly, alongside a small bio and a longer article inside the issue.
“The cover is on the September issue of the East Bay Monthly, and it will be delivered to homes as well as available at some newsstands,” Bailey said.
Senior Clara Castronovo said that Bailey tells her art students about the contest every year, and submits students’ art pieces for them.
“Every year [Bailey] asks for a folder of our three best pieces and enters all of them,” Castronovo said.
Bailey said that Binger’s piece is a self-portrait that she made last year.
“The piece is a picture of me looking through a jar,” Binger said. “I painted it with color-blocking to show the ripples in the glass.”
Bailey said that in the past, Piedmont art students have been very successful in this contest, winning almost every year.
“It’s really exciting because a lot of other high schools in the area enter the contest as well,” Bailey said. “I think [the Monthly] chooses us because a lot of the artwork that we create is really personal to the students. You can really tell that they’re authentically expressing themselves.”
Bailey said that she encourages her students not to be afraid of contests.
“Sometimes it is intimidating to put work that you care about out there for all to see,” Bailey said. “But even if nothing happens the first time, you’ve taken a risk by putting yourself out there and the second time, it’s going to be easier. It’s always a good thing to just try.”
