Bayside seniors win high school art show

Two Bayside High School seniors headed for Parsons the New School for Design in the fall took home the first- and second-place prizes at their high school’s annual art show recently. Susana Chen and Elvia Hernandez won the top two prizes respectively, and Jason Devilme received third place.
Chen, a former Bayside resident whose family moved last year to Chinatown, wowed judges with her massive display of paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, sketchbooks, and hand-crafted dolls.
“Mostly I do paintings,” the bashful student said, explaining that she even sewed together a shawl to wear to the competition on Friday, May 4.
“I’m not really into fashion, but I like designing and making things,” she said during the two-hour long art show. “It’s my imagination, my thoughts. Once I have a thought, I jot it down very quickly.”
One of Chen’s striking works depicted art supplies being used to paint her own face.
Like Chen, Ozone Park resident Hernandez said she uses art as a creative outlet, and both teens dabble in a variety of mediums.
“I do everything. I can’t pick a particular medium,” Hernandez said, guessing that her artistic lineage comes from a great aunt, who shared the exact same name as Hernandez and created full-wall murals.
“It must be in the name,” Hernandez’s mother, Mary Gollogy joked.
For Devilme, artistic inspiration comes more so from focusing on a particular object and frequent practice.
“These I did in my spare time. All the time, I just draw,” the Bayside resident said, pointing to intricate ink-drawings. In the fall, Devilme is headed to The Art Institute in New York City.
“I’m not planning to move out of New York yet,” Devilme said.
During the annual art show, hundreds students in each grade entered work, ranging from birdhouses from woodcarving class to advanced photography prints to sketches of friends. The school’s seniors, which also included Jillian Newnan, Hai Chen Dong, Ravi Kuthuria and Charlotte Foster, competed against one another for the designation of strongest all-around portfolio.
“Over the years, everyone has gotten so much better,” Foster said. “Like Elvia [Hernandez], I can see how she has really come into own. Art, it just emits from their pores.”