Held at New Museum Los Gatos, the 2018 ArtNow Exhibition is a competition that offers high schoolers from the Bay Area a chance to submit art pieces into eight categories all under the theme “Perspectives.” This year, the competition chose 87 out of more than 1400 submissions for display. The artwork of three Lynbrook students, senior Maya Sabatino, sophomore Caroline Ho and senior Joshua Paaske were featured at the exhibition.

Sabatino began working on her piece, “Be Safe, Keep Cover Closed,” in art teacher Matthew Reynold’s studio art class. The project began as an assignment to choose an ordinary object and turn it into a work of art. She used sixteen matchbooks, each representing a previously banned book with the title written on the inside and a design from the novel on the cover. The title, “Be safe, Keep cover closed” is the warning written on each matchbook. Sabatino won the Best of Show Award and received a $5000 scholarship for the piece.

“When people see my piece I want them to understand the absurdity of censorship,” said Sabatino. “Many books like Where’s Waldo were banned for miniscule things, so I want people to think about our behavior toward censorship becoming irrational.”

Ho took a new approach to the theme of perspectives with her film project, “Breaking Free.” She wanted to take a unique approach to a common, overdone theme.

“There are so many pieces that portray society negatively, but I wanted to create a piece that showed perhaps it was the character that doesn’t understand society,” said Ho. “I wanted to take common motifs and change them up a bit.”

Initially she created an animated four page comic strip with characters moving between the panels, breaking the fourth wall. Later, Ho reworked her project into a video to better fit the animation and video category.

Inspired by his great-grandfather’s helmet and war diary, Paaske created “In Memoriam,” a tribute to his great-grandfather’s sacrifices during World War II.

“After reading the diary I realized just how much my great-grandfather went through to ensure that I would be able to live in a safe environment,” said Paaske. “And I am really grateful for that.”

Paaske placed first in the sculpture category with his meaningful tribute to his family. He aimed to create a piece in remembrance of his great-grandfather that also honored the dedication of U.S. soldiers.

This ArtNow exhibition offers a unique experience to view artwork from high school students around the Bay Area and runs until Sunday, May 6.