Sometimes it takes art to speak the unspeakable. But Annie LoPresti, a New Boston resident and senior at Goffstown High School, is hoping people from her hometown all the way to the art galleries of Manhattan get the message from her painting loud and clear.

The painting, “Invisible Children,” depicts an African child on the left, one hand over its shoulder, the other covering its mouth, with a tortured look of shock and shame on his face. On the right, is a figure in dark green blue, raising a machete over a helpless victim while hidden in the background are other scenes of murder and mayhem.

The painting has won a national Scholastic Art Awards program. But LoPresti is hoping the person in the painting, not its artist, gets the attention.

The “Invisible Children” whom she intends to make visible are the child soldiers of Uganda. About 50,000 children and teenagers have been kidnapped by renegade militias and forced to become soldiers themselves or be killed, according to some estimates.

“I hope people see (it) and they feel some emotion so they are drawn to do something about it,” LoPresti said. “I just wanted to evoke a really strong emotion.”

LoPresti has never been to Africa, nor does she have any other direct connection to the troubled continent. She said she was inspired to do the painting after watching a documentary about Ugandan child soldiers in “Great Decisions,” a course on world events which she took last semester.

She completed “Invisible Children” in her advanced painting class that semester.

“We all think Annie is amazing, because we can give her the most basic outline of an assignment,” said Donna Karolian, one of her art teachers. “She will come up with the most in-depth, the most moving, the most technically correct painting.”

Karolian and a second art teacher, Ava-Lyn Lane, submitted six of LoPresti’s pieces — both paintings and drawings — to the Scholastic Art Awards of New Hampshire. All of them won gold at the state level. And hers were among 250 out of 1,500 from the Granite State that were forwarded on to the national level, where “Invisible Children” won the award.

LoPresti is happy that was selected over the others because it will draw attention to the crisis in Uganda.

“It is definitely an honor,” LoPresti said. “It wouldn’t mean quite as much to me if one of my other pieces had gotten a gold.” LoPresti will be recognized along with other award recipients at a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City on June 5. From June 4 to 7, her painting will be on display at the Reeves Contemporary Gallery in New York City.

Next, LoPresti is headed to college, where she hopes to study art therapy, a career path that will allow her to combine her skill in art with her passion for helping people.

“I’m really just interested in people and how they feel and think,” LoPresti said.

LoPresti, who has been painting all her life, once wanted to be an illustrator. Her career aspirations changed, she said, after hearing a homily last September in which her pastor encouraged his congregation to use their talents to serve others.

His message is still fresh in her mind.

“Where your passion and your gift meet what you can do for the world, that’s … the occupation God would want you to have,” she said.