Roosevelt has multiple classes focused on art in multiple forms. In these classes and even outside of them, there are many students that are talented in many forms of art. Some of these students who were taking AP Art were willing to meet up for an interview about their art journeys.
A common theme that the artists expressed was that they had been doing art for as long as they could remember. They had been able to start at a young age and they continued to use art in their lives ever since.
One of the artists interviewed, Alem Adams, does multiple forms of art such as nature drawings and painting. “As long as I can remember, since I was young I’ve always enjoyed doing art and creating things.” His classmates Marilyn Phan, who does digital art, drawings and more, and Emma Cantwell who does 2D art, visual art, and more agreed and had similar responses to this question. Art had been something they had been doing since they were very young.
“I didn’t like reading as a kid,” said Emma. “I didn’t really like doing anything else. I liked doing something that didn’t have to be… that didn’t have rules and regulations. It was just something I could make, something that I could express myself with.”
With that being the case, that would mean that these artists have been doing art for more than a decade. Being an artist for so long, these artists have reasons to keep going. “It’s calming,” said Marilyn. “Art is always subjective, there’s no right or wrong.” For Alem, he found himself continuing to do art because it’s something he enjoyed. “I’m very high up on the scale of aphantasia. I can’t really visualize anything in my head. So I will have ideas and everything and I’ll want to be able to see them but I can’t see them so I put them on paper instead.”
In the time we live in however, there are artists that end up quitting, which can have multiple reasons. These artists were also asked if they ever felt like quitting. Alem had stated he had not really felt like quitting before. For Marilyn it was something she thought about sometimes. She sometimes wondered if she should follow the path she was on.
“But then I remember that art is so vast,” she said, referring to how many different avenues an artist could take. This made her feel more comfortable in staying on her path. For Emma, she had a similar story.
“I do think about it a lot,” she said, in regards to quitting. “I did go on a hiatus last year, which I wouldn’t consider quitting, but it was definitely… really last year it was just hard for me… sophomore year I had a lot of work and I just couldn’t keep up. And I didn’t have an art class, so I essentially had no work to draw.”
“I do think about quitting now as like a career path, but I don’t think I could ever stop drawing. Quitting is the definition of just like stopping, never creating a piece of artwork again. Quitting in an occupational manner perhaps, yes, I have thought about that.”
Speaking of those who quit, these artists also had advice for beginner artists to keep them going.
“If you really like it and you pursue it, just keep doing it,” said Marilyn. This was advice that all three of the artists shared.
“A lot of the time when they are starting their art, they’ll feel like their art isn’t good,” said Alem. “They’ll feel like they’re not good at art. Don’t stop. Keep practicing. Keep using references. People will tell you not to use references because it’s copying and it’s cheating. It’s not.”
“Look up tutorials on Youtube,” said Emma. “Those are always very helpful. If you know you’re just beginning, just draw whatever you want. Just keep doing that.”
These were three student artists in our school, and there are many more.
