Maui High School student’s artwork chosen to be on display at the US Capitol
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The Maui News
Maui High School's Cailyn Omuro was selected out of students nationwide to have her artwork hang in the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon tunnel on display for members of Congress and tens of thousands of visitors to see.
Hawaii Rep. Jill Tokuda held a ceremony on Oahu on Saturday to announce the winner of the U.S. House of Representatives Artistic Discovery Contest, a high school art competition in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories to showcase their artistic talent, a news release said.
Omuro's artwork is titled "Hanagasa Waraba" and the medium is colored pencil. Waraba means "child" and Hanagasa is a flower hat worn traditionally by female Okinawan dancers. In her piece, she chose to portray the wearer as the feminine version of a boy in order to illustrate the struggle with sexuality and gender that is an integral part of society, the news release said.
"There is a stigma associated with discussion about gender and sexuality," Omuro had wrote. "By including the illustration of magpies, I tried to showcase the subjectiveness of stigma. In Western culture, the magpie is a symbol of bad luck, but in Eastern Asian culture, it is just the opposite. The duality of the magpie's symbolism mirrors the juxtaposing impact of the boy in the Hangasa. I hope that with this piece, I can make a small contribution to breaking the silence effect of the stigma on this topic."
The top two high school finalists from the Second Congressional District are Lia Kuo from Hilo High School and Tiffany Castillo from Leilehua. They will have their art featured in Tokuda's offices in Washington, D.C. and Hawaii on a rotating exhibit so visitors to her offices can see the works of art.