Over a span of 10 years, only three IHS art students have ever advanced in the Celebrating Arts contest.

This year, Srija Ayeireddy beat the odds and placed sixth in the competition. 

Celebrating Arts is a contest for students K-12, with the goal of helping students publish their artwork. The contest has free entry and is separated into different grade levels. 

After a total of eight weeks, Ayeireddy submitted a piece called “Self Thought”. 

“The concept [focused on] how you look into a mirror and see a different perspective of yourself and different angles of how you think. The person looking in the mirror is dark and the reflection is bright, which also represents different perspectives,” said Ayeireddy, a senior art member.  

She used colored pencils and a black outline to enhance the detail in her piece. 

“My attention to each feature helped me advance. The hair, the eyelashes, everything,” said Ayeireddy. “I looked at every single aspect, which is probably why it took so much time to complete, I wanted it to look exactly like the photo.”

This idea helped her place in the top ten. 

“Something about her concept of looking into the mirror and the angle she took the picture from was very compelling,” said Leonardo Buscemi, IHS art teacher. “It almost looks like she is looking away from the mirror and that [her reflection] is looking at her, so it has this interaction that is very interesting.”

It took Ayeireddy eight months to complete her artwork. 

“The main obstacle was time,” she said. “I started to do the piece last minute for [Virtual Arts Scholastic Events] (VASE), and I didn’t get a gold seal, because only half of it was completed. But I finished it later, submitted it for other contests like this one, and placed. 

Although it took longer, she believes it was worth the wait. 

“She handled the technique superbly because she took her time. I always like to have my students not worry about deadlines, because they will never have quality if I give them a set amount of time,” said Buscemi. “Anything worth anything takes time, and every student works at their own pace.”

Ayeireddy recounts moments when she felt like giving up. 

“During the school year I was stressed with schoolwork and wanted to quit,” she said. “But, I reminded myself that I was passionate about art, and then pushed myself to try and stay up later to finish the piece.”

She also mentions how the people around her motivated her.

“My friends and family said things like ‘you got this’, and told me if I have to skip school I could as long as I finished it,” she said. “[Also,] Mr. Buscemi would always check up on us and what we were working on, and he would give useful feedback.”

Although Ayeireddy did not originally expect to place, she felt rewarded in the end. 

“I learned that hard work pays off, and it’s worth putting all of this time and effort into something, and making it the best thing you can do,” she said. 

Buscemi believes competing, regardless of the outcome, is beneficial as it provides a good learning experience for students.

“I would tell other students that even if you don’t think you are going to win, try anyway because you never know what could come out of it. There are always going to be so many art competitions, so you should try and prioritize every single one that comes your way,” Ayeireddy said.