Finding A Voice
A celebration of the work of the juniors of drawing and painting as they explore what their artistic voice looks like.
Ella Rose Cleaveland
Jake Cohen
Nico Bass
Claire Finch
Sam Glocker
Athena Rosenthal
Mia Siskin
Max Vella
Cecilia Wells
Kleigh Carroll
I had never really painted before until this year, and the half dome painting was the first one that I did. After that, most of the pieces that I worked on were paintings, specifically landscapes. I feel like I improved a lot this year through focusing on light and texture in my paintings, to capture the right feeling of what it was like to be in the landscape. Art is just a nice distraction and something that I do for fun, I don’t take it too seriously, and I had fun working on these pieces. In contrast with the beginning of the year, I feel much more confident in starting new projects and exploring new techniques and styles.
Will Emami
I enjoyed working with patterns mostly. I did move away from that with the virtual piece but I think doing something similar to what i normally do virtually could be interesting.
Sophia Hatfield
I chose these art pieces for the virtual art show, because I think it shows how I am exploring how to capture moments that I have experienced. The black and white painting is of my friend and is based on a film photo that was taken of her. I decided to keep it black and white so I could work on shades and depicting different textures without color (like how is the hair different from the skin.) the watercolor pieces are of cities that I have taken photos of: SF, (close to)Nice, France/ Rome, and Tokyo. These were made together as a part of an investigation, where the investigation was color choice using water color. Then, the painting of a man was me testing how well I could take a photo and add my own aspects to it. For example, the face of this man does not look anything like the reference photo because I took features from other photos and mixed them. Although I am proud of these pieces, I am hopeful that I can improve even more.
Alix Head
I’ve always been interested in the details. I love playing with the small marks, anything from pointillism to fluid lines in micron pen that can add to the interest of a piece. With attraction to these marks in mind, my artistic approach and variation in materials is continually evolving. My first piece, which was one of the first ones I did this year, and I was inspired at the time by the towns I had visited that summer while staying with my family in france. This piece, though simplistic in its materials of white canvas paper and micron pen, took a long time as a large portion of it was done entirely in small circles. My last two pieces, done in confinement, have been micron pen, watercolor ink with gold leaf details on watercolor paper, my final piece being a new challenge for me in its size alone, 22 by 30 inches. My subjects have changed, I’ve shifted through landscapes and townscapes, recently settling on studying and documenting the female body. There’s something about capturing the figures, women displayed in their most “vulnerable” state. My goal was for them to give off confidence, a feeling of acceptance of their bodies, as well as rebellion of culturally over-sexualizing women.
Daniel Helmer
I’ve been making art since I can remember. When I was younger I loved to make art that could put me in a new world or transport me on a quest to find new treasures. Now I thunk art has become a nice break. I think I create now to relax and explore different ideas and cultures. This past year, I think I really started to explore my own Japanese heritage in my art and that helped me to better solidify a connection to it despite living in America. I also did some pieces exploring different kind of relationships and botanical symbolism. As a whole, this year has been one filled with refinement of the ideas I’ve had about art and what I want to create, and for that reason it’s been a wonderful one.
Isabel Jasper
Phoebe Leisek
Although I have taken art classes throughout high school, I rarely ever attempted acrylic solely because I was intimidated by it. However, this year has really expanded my perspective and taught me what art is truly meant to be - a form of personal expression meant to be rewarding for both the artist and viewer. I have learned to let go of holding myself to certain standards within art and just enjoy the process. I feel that these three pieces detail the beginning of my exploration with acrylics which I hope to continue into senior year.
Nico Lown-Heitz
These three pieces are an expression of my inner thoughts. The three pillars of my consciousness. These three images are lighthouse in a storm and they are my bottle of kombucha in a desert. They hold me to my ideals and the make sure that stray. That is why I painted them and that is way I chose them to be put into the virtual art show.
Estella Mora-Lopez
Ceci Meade
When I was younger my mom would keep art supplies on the dining room table and fill our kitchen walls with paintings made by younger me and my siblings, I believe this is where my love of art came from. What captivates me about art is the imaginative aspect it has, I find it magical to be able to take a concept from my imagination and bring it to life for others to see. This year I have been focusing on the contrast of light and shadows with an emphasis on color. Overall I believe art, in all of its forms, is magical, freeing, and beautiful.
Alex Mormorunni
Recently I found a box of old family photos in my house, as I flipped through them I noticed that the ones that stood out to me the most were the older ones of my grandparents, the ones in black and white. I found that black and white pictures are able to capture the emotions and tone of their subjects very well. I wanted to try and recreate the distinct feeling that monochromatic photos convey in my artwork. I started to take black and white photos and then recreate them on paper with a variety of different materials, trying to find which material captured the feeling I was looking for the best. This is still an ongoing project and I still don’t feel that I have fully captured the aesthetic that I am looking for, but these pieces are, I think, the closest I have come to capturing that tone so far.
Katie Murphy-Quinn
As a kid, I always loved to draw and make art. I used to love drawing mermaids and princesses with crayon, pastel, anything I could get my hands on. As time went on and I became more experienced, I gravitated more into doodle-style art - usually consisting of little flowers, leaves, and similar things. To this day, it’s my comfort zone and main style of art.
Specifically, this year, in order to stretch my comfort zone a little, I’ve focused on blending my usual style of doodle-like ink art with slight aspects of realism, and a little more detail. Instead of just daydreaming and doing simple doodles, I’ve dove deeper into putting more conscious effort, features, and color into my pieces. To this day, art continues to be something that I love and enjoy - and, hopefully, it'll be what I spend my life doing.
Luke Osborn
This year I have made it my goal to practice the human form, including full body gesture studies and portraits. I have really enjoyed painting portraits and exploring different styles of portraits through different mediums. I have found that when painting with acrylic the portrait may have a much different attitude than when painted with watercolor or colored pencil. Each of these works was painted using different mediums and I feel each carries a different style and energy. In each work, I also tried using a different stroke. Using different line thicknesses and speed I was able to get a much different energy in each piece. If you look at the “Woman with Orange Hair” vs “Self Portrait” you will notice the lines have a much different energy which changes the style of the piece. With the “Woman with Orange Hair”, I used a much faster line, letting my hand carry its energy into the work; whereas in the self-portrait I took my time with the lines, blending carefully, to achieve much calmer energy.
Chloe Robinson
My dad is the one who got me into art at a young age. He is a very talented artist himself, and always encouraged my brother and me to draw and paint. We always had drawing books and I filled mine mostly with cartoon characters, which were my favorite to draw. I loved how I could create their features, their expressions, their color — everything that made them who they were.
At the beginning of the term, I thought it would be fun to recreate my childhood love for cartoon drawings, so I filled a page with cartoon devils. Some grew from my imagination, others were inspired by TV shows or comic books, but each and every one represents a piece of me. I even joke that they are a representation of different sides of my psyche.
Most of my drawings in the past were whimsical and fun; there was nothing serious about them. But this year, I wanted to try something different, so I mixed my cartoon style with more traditional drawing, and drew my friend holding his guitar with his cat at his feet. This was a breakthrough for me. I proved to myself that I could draw in a different style, and I realized it was time to explore new mediums and materials. Ever since, I’ve been playing with all kinds of drawing, painting, and have even gotten into stippling and pastels.
It took me a while to pick my last piece for this show, but I knew I wanted to choose a painting. I’ve never thought of myself as much of a painter, but this year I really ventured into it, and now I absolutely love painting. Lately, I’ve gotten into painting skies — clouds, sunsets, sunrises, etc. For this show, I chose a painting I did a few weeks ago of a sunset based off a picture I took. I love how the clouds turned out, and this painting has since inspired many others.
Thank you, Dad, for getting me started. I’m excited to see where I go next.
Piper Rutchik
Flow and texture of water seen through my eyes. For these three pieces I took water color and tried to make it almost as if the water never dried. I played around with direction and shapes quite a bit and it really took some time to figure out. My favorites ended up being the ones that allowed the least amount of thought and they occurred naturally. I also went off and chose various colors to mess with because sticking with just blue seemed bland. I also varied with the opaqueness of the colors and the saturation by adding more or less water and constantly layering as it started to dry.
Karsen Scott
Here are three pieces I have made during quarantine. While making these pieces, I focused on the way that light and shadow create the shape of a figure instead of the way I expected the figure to look. I have been focusing on portraiture all year and the one to the left is my favorite because of the use of color and shadow. The second two are small drawings of miniature chairs and a couch from my family’s miniature chair collection. They come from the feelings of stillness and stuck-ness and missed opportunity that are so prevalent in many young minds as well as a noticing of the privilege it is to have comfort and the ability to be still during these crazy times.
Charlie Stewart
Before I make art I take a moment to think of an idea, once an idea comes into my head I go with it. I don’t have a specific theme I gravitate towards when I make a piece, I just follow how I am feeling and make whatever comes to mind on any given day. Despite the randomness of what I draw and paint I have noticed that many of the pieces I’ve made share a similar mood and style. I try to incorporate things I’ve learned into my own work and use these tools to enhance the composition. Oftentimes when I am making a piece I have one detail I focus on most in order to get it just how I imagine, the rest of the piece builds off that one idea or detail. My favorite thing about drawing and painting is that it allows me to express pieces of my thoughts and ideas in a visual format. Even though I may not become an artist I will always have an appreciation for art- I will continue to make art when I feel inclined to do so since it is something I enjoy to do.
Lindsey Tenaglia
I've always loved to draw and doodle as a kid, it was certainly a favorite pastime of mine. Then one day I think I found out, holy shit this is a job that people get paid to do? Sign me the heck up. I went into this year wanting to try a bunch of different techniques and styles in both traditional mediums and digital ones. Though as the year progressed I noticed that I turned more towards the idea of "every piece tells a story" instead. It really helped me curve the creative mess that I started out as into a more controlled creative mess. I learned that in order for me to see any vast improvements in my art, I would have to get really uncomfortable with what I was working with and sometimes fly blind. Half of the time I had no idea what I was doing and yet somehow it all ended up working out.
Scarlett Tuescher
I find I’m the most interested and most motivated to continue my art when it’s more of an abstract piece. I love to draw whimsical sometimes gory looking creatures because I can draw freely without thinking too much about each detail needed. However, I will on occasion shift to realistic. When I shift to this drawing style I am always re-reminded of the hard work artists use to make sure the details look real. And it takes a while! This year I switched over from pencils to microns and pens. I made my skull with sharpie and drew it on cardboard. I liked how the black sharpie stood out but also there were still cardboard spaces in the skull, I think it made for a cool effect. The next piece I drew was my demon-like creature and I really got in my zone when drawing it. Using microns I got to play around with the creature's textured hair and I added solid black to his eyes with a thick sized micron and this made the mountains blend together. When I was almost finished I found that it looked a little too plain so I added a Crimson red pastel to the moon which I think helped complete the piece. Lastly, my more realistic piece I drew was a pug and a cat with just one pencil. This reminded me of the movie Milo and Otis but I got the idea from old photos of my pets. I was surprised how relaxing it was to draw and just the slightest bit frustrating to draw the legs. I used the same size pencil for both, mainly because I could find other pencils. I wish I had a blender to soften the fine lines. But overall I'm happy.
