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Meet the Wisconsin teen behind today's Doodle 4 Google

Doodle 4 Google featured 'Coming Home,' an emotional piece of art by a Wisconsin teenager.

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“Coming Home” by Sabrina Brady wins the 2013 Doodle 4 Google competition.

Google swapped out its traditional logo today for an emotional piece of art. The drawing, part of the company's annual Doodle 4 Google competition, shows a daughter racing into the arms of her soldier father. It's poignant, smart, and did not come from Google's team of professional artists. This one came from a teenager.

Doodle 4 Google asks students across the country to draw Google-styled mastheads that fit a certain theme. This year's inspiration was "My Best Day Ever." Finalists drew scenes of "learning about nature," relaxing in "late-afternoon bliss," and watching stars through a telescope. This year's winner drew a piece called "Coming Home."

The artist of the hour is Sabrina Brady, a high school senior from Sparta, Wisc. The artwork "tells the story of her reunion with her father as he returned from an 18-month deployment in Iraq," the company says in a blog post about the competition. "Her creative use of the Google letters to illustrate this heartfelt moment clearly resonated with voters across the country and all of us at Google." 

This year's contest pulled in 130,000 submissions and millions of votes cast. In addition to seeing her artwork pinned up on the biggest fridge of them all, Sabrina has won a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook (a laptop running Google's own operating system), and a $50,000 technology grant for Sparta High School.

If you think Sabrina shows real talent, you're not alone. She will attend Minneapolis College of Art and Design this fall.

Today marks the sixth Doodle 4 Google competition. Past winners have mused over "pirate time" and "space life." In fact, Wisconsin is apparently flush with young artist talent. Second-grader Dylan Hoffman from Racine, Wisc., won last year's contest by finishing the sentence: "If I could travel in time, I'd visit..." Could the Badger State pull off a hat trick? We'll find out in May 2014.

For more on the intersection of technology and daily life, follow Chris on Twitter @venturenaut.

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