Canvas of our Lives

A strong sense of determination, the ability to create something out of nothing, and a passionate spirit that doesn’t shy away from judgment - this is just a few characteristics of what it takes to be an artist.

Christina Lew, the Jagwire’s illustrator, has been sketching up a little story of her own. 12 stories, to be precise. All art students are required to create a series of artwork with a theme for their senior projects. Lew is stylizing her pieces to look like magazine covers, spreads, and advertisements with the theme of literary books.

Each piece is based off of a book one might read in school, ranging from The Great Gatsby to Frankenstein to Flowers for Algernon. One of Lew’s pieces is centered around Romeo and Juliet, with many pastel colors and symbolic items spread out on the page to show movement.

Lew is using materials such as graphite, acrylic paint, paint pens, and spray paint on watercolor paper. Some of the important symbols include roses, swords, a comedy and tragedy mask, and the jar of poison that Juliet uses to fake her death.

“I wanted to make literary books more accessible or relatable. People are used to seeing the eye-catching quotes or easy-to-digest phrases on magazine covers, and I wanted to recreate that with books that are more difficult to read.”

As far as advice for future seniors doing their projects for the art department, Lew stated, “Set goals for yourself every day. If you can’t get what you planned to do done, at least plan what you want to get done by the next day.”

When asked what kinds of problems she has encountered while working on the project, she said, “It’s hard to get into the groove of a piece a week. A lot of the paintbrushes and paint are stuck in the art room. You have to take time out of your day to do it or find your own materials.”

Another art student, Matt Davidson is using acrylic paint on wood panels for his art project. For his 12 pieces, Davidson is creating portraits of his friends in a pop art style. “We’re all going different places after school,” he said, and he wanted his project to memorialize his friends.

In 3D art 4, seniors are required to create six pieces, and take twelve pictures of them by May 1st. Breanna Rubio is designing a pyramid created with space colors with a battle scene in front of it. There will be three statues surrounding the pyramid. Some of the materials Rubio is using are clay, paper mâché, and carved wood.

As far as struggles go, Rubio is not without her fair share. “Everything I’ve created, once it comes out of the kiln, gets broken at least once.” Rubio is the kind of person who would rather “knock it out in eight hours” than break it up over smaller portions of time.

What do all these artists have in common? Their work will be shown at FAME Night on June 1st from 6-8 PM. Come support these and Century artists who have poured their hearts out into their creations.