Mars High School senior Cara Bishop shows her work, “Suppressed Housewife Goes Shopping,” which earned national honors. Cara received a Silver Key Award in a competition held by The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers.

ADAMS TWP — A Mars High School senior is the only student in Butler County to win a national Scholastic Art and Writing Award.

Cara Bishop learned that her mixed media piece, “Suppressed Housewife Goes Shopping,” won a Silver Key Award in the competition.

Her piece was selected from more than 9,000 artworks that advanced to the national competition after receiving Gold Key awards at the 2011 Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers holds the annual competition, partnering with more than 100 regional affiliates across the country to bring the program to local communities.

Teens in grades 7 through 12 can apply in 30 categories of art and writing for the chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited or published.

Cara and two of her guests plus Mars art teacher Erin Sloane will receive tickets to the competition's award ceremony on May 31 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Sloane said only four other Mars students, Shannon Linamen, Jonathan Newcomer, Marlena Murtagh and Luke Martin, have won Scholastic Art and Writing awards during her tenure at Mars High.

Sloane said Cara's Silver Key Award is reflective of her artistic talent.

“This is an exceptional honor,” Sloane said.

Cara, a lifelong artist, said she was inspired to create “Suppressed Housewife Goes Shopping” after pondering the lives of housewives in the 1940s and 1950s.

Cara said she found the image of the woman shopping in an online archive, then created the shopping atmosphere with cut paper and Plexiglas.

Another layer of paper and Plexiglas displays labels from products a housewife would shop for in the heyday of the baby boomer years.

Cara's piece also won first prize last year in the mixed media category at the art show at Mars High School. Now she is thrilled her work is acknowledged in this nationwide competition.

“I was really shocked,” Cara said. “It's a great honor to be recognized by the alliance. Hopefully it will give me the affirmation that I am pursuing my art in the right direction.”

Cara will study art history and communications this fall at Temple University's Tyler School of Art. She hopes to work as a curator in a museum or art gallery “giving voices to rising artists.”

As for now, Cara said the fun of winning the Silver Key will be complete when her mentor, Ms. Sloane, joins her at the awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in May.

“It would be really exciting for everybody if she could go,” she said.

Cara is the daughter of Robin and Colley Bishop of Mars.