“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

According to an old legend, novelist Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to tell a story using only six words. SMITH Magazine revitalized this legend by introducing the Six-Word Memoir Project in 2006, collecting six-word stories from people throughout the world. The project has since become “a global phenomenon and a bestselling book series,” according to smithmag.net. This year, SMITH has teamed up with TED Books in search of submissions to include in their forthcoming addition to the series.

SMITH and TED have selected four PHS student illustrations as finalists, which could potentially be included in their anticipated eBook, Things Don’t Have to be Complicated: The Art of Six-Word Memoirs by Students of the World. This book will be the first in the Six-Word Memoir series that is comprised entirely of student artwork.

In the beginning of the year, art teacher Gillian Bailey came up with the idea for her Art II and III classes to illustrate six-word stories as a fun warm-up project, at first unaware that the competition was even going on.

“I got a notification that [SMITH and TED] were having a student competition and my project idea kind of fit together,” Bailey said. “It was kind of a coincidence.”

This is the first year Bailey’s art classes have participated in the competition. She said the students had about five classes to write, plan, and illustrate their memoirs.

“I decided to start the year off with a more self-directed project for the more advanced classes to get students thinking about personal and original content of their work,” Bailey said.

Bailey said the only requirement for the project was that the six words had to be the student’s own. Other than that, the project was completely left up to the student’s creativity and medium usage.

“I think that [for] all of the ones that were selected [as finalists], the students really thought about what they were writing and made it personal,” Bailey said.

Finalist sophomore Tiger Leet said his six-word memoir was, “I’m more of a cat person.” Leet used black ink and negative space to create his illustration of an oversized lion-human dressed in a suit.

“I was writing down ideas in class, and then it just kind of came to me,” Leet said. “Since my name’s Tiger, everything kind of [came] together.”

Leet said he tried to make his memoir both comical and realistic.

“I really like the piece in the sense that it’s not opened ended. It not only makes sense, but it’s clever,” Leet said. “I think it’s one of the most intellectual pieces I’ve made.”

Junior Eric Wen said his story, “Life seems neverending…until it stops…”, depicts a man falling asleep while riding a bicycle. The man is oblivious to the beautiful world around him and unaware that the path he is pedaling on does not last forever.

“The idea came from a random reflection that life can seem [like] such a drag sometimes, but just being alive is such an awesome thing,” Wen said. “There’s a lot of wonderful stuff around us that we miss all the time or don’t really appreciate until it’s about to go away.”

Wen illustrated his memoir solely using colored pencils. He said he likes how his piece captures people’s attention with its range of colors and overall composition.

“[My memoir] was able to show the cliché ‘Live Life to the Fullest’ in a different way,” Wen said.

Another finalist, sophomore Odessa Blackmore, said her six-word story was, “They said to follow my dreams.”

“I like the idea how people are always telling you to follow your dreams, but they don’t always mean it,” Blackmore said. “I drew an empty bed and an open window to let the viewer decide what [happens next].”

Blackmore used watercolor, ink, tissue paper, and tulle fabric to create a collage for her memoir. She said her piece reflects her personal style through its colorfulness and dream-like qualities.

“I like to have the image tell a story,” Blackmore said. “I’m proud that the message can be conveyed in multiple perspectives, because whoever reads it could have a different idea of what it could mean.”

Bailey said overall, she was impressed with all of her students’ entries. She said that since everyone got to choose their own six words, all of the memoirs were personal and creative.

“People came up with all sorts of different things, and because they got to choose their subject matter as well as the medium, they all looked very, very different,” Bailey said. “There were some really cool ones.”

Bailey said she would definitely continue this project in the future. Senior Kai Ra Essig is also a finalist for this competition. SMITH and TED officially announced the winners, whose memoirs will be included in their upcoming eBook, on Dec. 15.