October – Students Feature
Last month, students in AP 2D Art showcased their impressive skills in an Art Feature for September. This month, however, members of the National Art Honor Society (NAHS) produced some mesmerizing drawings, where some students have been accepted into the Young Creatives Showcase, a competitive juried art exhibition hosted by the Winter Garden Art Association and SOBO Art Gallery. Their achievements in October are even more impressive considering the fact that they were selected from a pool that included college art major students.
11th grader Anagh Mishra (pictured below) exemplifies artistic excellence.
Anagh’s incredible artwork was ironically formed when he was working on a project for his art class. Anagh says that the inspiration behind his piece was the topic of intoxication. He says that he curated a few drafts of his piece, and that soon afterward, he got the idea of trying to represent how intoxication would feel to an affected person in an art piece. Then, he created 3 pieces for it, with the one in the picture being the piece that he selected.
Another student who exemplifies artistic excellence is 9th grader Anya Bollineni, whose drawing, titled “Shakuntala” (pictured below),
is based on a prominent figure in Indian mythology. She says that she used acrylics for a richer and more aesthetic look, soft pastels to add a more translucent glow, and stencils to shape the leaves and the background. Her love for miniature paintings is clear in the careful details she puts in, and her preference for traditional art over digital art showcases her willingness to show her message of highlighting Indian mythology to a non-Indian audience. Anya finished this masterpiece in about 3 days, and she informs us that she is working on an environmental sustainability project.
Another student who exemplifies artistic excellence is 10th grader Liliana Hua, whose drawing, titled “Golden Ocean” (pictured below),
did not have any clear-cut inspiration, unlike the previous artists, and she added details on an impromptu basis to her artwork. She mainly does digital art on the Procreate app on her iPad. She says that she originally did not have a message she wanted to convey, but she adds that the piece gives off a melancholic vibe due to the dark colors and the skeleton. It took her around 6 to 8 hours to finish this artpiece, and she informs us that she is working on a digital piece for an upcoming Scholastic Art Competition.
Another student who exemplifies artistic excellence is 11th grader Melanie Weber Maldonado, whose drawing, “Summer Memories,” (pictured below)
was made to depict a warm summer memory and nostalgia. She primarily used a graphite pencil and a lot of shading to specifically emphasize the sunflowers and to show the ocean in the background. She was hoping to express the feelings of nostalgia, warmth, and resilience. It took her about 10 and a half hours to make this piece, and she informs us that she is excited to be working on her AP Art portfolio, which is about the ignorance in the fast food industry.
Another student who exemplifies artistic excellence is 11th grader Sanjana Nagarur, whose drawing, “Plastic Happiness”, (pictured below)
shows a Lego man holding a different emotion. It was started during the COVID-19 pandemic and finished recently, and so Sanjana states that the piece was primarily meant to symbolize how people’s feelings were affected during the pandemic, but in a general context, it is about masked emotions and how people hide their real feelings. The main material she used is a color pencil to show the realism in the picture, and she used the squash technique in the background to get a flat color. Her motive was to make it look as real as possible, as if you were looking at a photograph. It took her 20 hours to finish the piece, and she is excited for the pieces that she is making for the AP 2D Art Portfolio.
Another student who exemplifies artistic excellence is 10th grader, Yashmita Choudhury, whose drawings, “The Wrinkles Through Time”, (pictured below)
was made in inspiration of her trip to India last year, where she saw lots of Indian people, and she wanted to showcase that in her artwork. She used soft pastel and soft pastel colored pencils to showcase the details, and she tried to depict the message of cultural identity in India, as she wanted to remind viewers of her artwork that there is diversity within India as well. It took her around 12 to 13 hours to complete this artpiece, and she is not currently working on a future project, but she has many plans for the future.
Ms. Garrity teaches AP 2D Art and is the sponsor for the National Arts Honors Society Club at OSS. She says that NAHS means a lot to her, as the students in NAHS are an amazing group of students who are very creative and are very passionate about the arts. She decided to sponsor this club because she wanted to help those who have a big passion for art, so it is not just a hobby, but a meaningful extracurricular that can help build an art community in the future. There is the Art Show at the end of each year, which is a big event that is juried and has multiple prizes and activities. NAHS also plays a big role in other events, and the club likes to help out other clubs if creativity is involved. Ms. Garrity says that she has always loved art, and she did many extracurricular activities inside and outside of school, earned a bachelor’s degree in art, and worked many jobs pertaining to the art field, but she loved teaching and decided to combine both of her passions. She says that she loves the group of kids because they are very passionate and work very hard, and that it is an enjoyable club to be a sponsor of.
The Pacific Press 