ERHS sophomore Darius Foster, known as “LvghtArtist”, creates paintings and other art inspired by “the feeling of empowerment, nature, and spirituality” and runs his own store online.

Darius has participated in a number of art shows, and works on his own art series like “Natural Galaxy,” in which he has “connected both the natural hair of black women and the beauty and infiniteness of the universe.” The reception from the local and school art community has “been pretty positive” and even encouraging, he said, especially older artists who have told Darius that “it’s a great thing that [he’s] started young.” Dursha Ragunanthan, a fellow sophomore, says “his style of art is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Along with his series, Darius also creates portraits for people. He created a portrait of junior Rejoice Igwe who said she felt “really special” because she had “never been drawn before,” and she was chosen as a muse because he was “tired of drawing Eurocentric features” and “wanted to challenge himself.”

Since getting serious about his art in middle school, Darius has grown as an artist and continues to try to grow today although it can be “extremely difficult to balance being an artist and student, since both are time consuming.” In addition to being a student and an artist, Darius also runs an online store where he sells his art and clothing.

Although he said running the online store has been enjoyable overall because of the opportunity it provides to share his work with others, it was also initially a source of self-doubt that Darius has been able to grow past. Because an “order of clothes or prints only come in a short period of time,” which he refers to as “waves of interest,” he would often get discouraged during the time between these waves when there would be low view counts, compared to the spikes of 150-200 views. It had gotten to the point where he considered “compromising the topics I wanted to make art on, to make art on easy topics I know people would buy.” Ultimately, though, he asked himself “what good is creating art for the sole purpose that someone will buy it? I want to make money but I want to make art more.”

Besides being passionate about art, Darius also loves music. Although Darius said he “can’t really play any instruments or sing,” Rejoice believes “he is really good at kazoo.” He said he also really enjoys “hearing all the instruments in old songs like ‘Flashlight’ by the Parliament.” Career-wise, Darius has been jumping around but has a few options in mind including “a graphic designer, an animator, or a professional foot massager.”

Darius’s store can be accessed at http://lvghtartist.bigcartel.com/