By Katherine Ozawa
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On April 1, Sophomore Sharon Sakuma won first place in the mathematics-themed Hawaii State Science Fair poster contest, sponsored by the Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair.
“I wanted to do something that didn’t have numbers in it. So that was my challenge, to not have any numerical symbols,” said Sakuma, “I drew a little girl looking at a shell from different perspectives and it would be a little geometrical. So, I made it really abstract with some triangles and lines in it.”
The award-winning poster took Sakuma approximately two to three weeks to complete, but the time and effort put into finishing the piece had its benefits. Sakuma won $300 and the opportunity to have her poster serve as the cover of the Science and Engineering Fair’s program. “(Art takes) a lot of time and it is a time investment that you really have to manage,” said Sakuma.
Art has been a longtime hobby of Sakuma’s and she has won various school-wide and community-level art competitions. “(Sakuma) did some art pieces for extra credit in my class when she was a freshman. They do artwork that’s an interpretation of the literature we read in class,” said English teacher Steven Schick,
“She’s a great student. She’s one of the brightest students I’ve taught.” Sophomore Sophia Rathyen added, “(Sakuma) is a phenomenal artist. It’s not just her art itself – it’s the ideas she puts behind each piece. She puts a lot of soul into her work and I know how passionate she is. She can work with all kinds of media from paint to pen on paper and I think that diversity in skillset makes her an even better artist.”
As an artist, Sakuma draws inspiration from everyday things in order to capture specific emotions and feelings that she wants in her artwork. “I have a lot of eureka moments throughout the day, so really, anything kind of just comes and goes. It’s hard to explain,” said Sakuma.
However, the most difficult part is translating her ideas into pieces of artwork. “The most frustrating part for me is when I have an idea that is really great, but I can’t transform it into a physical thing, because I really think that skill should be learned first before you start blabbering out your creativity,” explained Sakuma, “If you had a sketch in your head and you wanted it to be a painting and if it came out to be a pretty successful painting, that’s the most rewarding part.”
Sakuma attributes her accomplishments to the support she receives from others around her. “My mom, definitely, is one of my biggest supporters. She’s the one who signed me up for art classes at the Honolulu School of Art. And (Sophomore) Joy Sanchez, she’s one of my best friends. She’s an awesome artist herself, so she inspires me a lot,” added Sakuma.
Sakuma plans to enter a few more non-school-affiliated art competitions in the near future.
