For the final story in my series I wanted to highlight the arts. Although I myself do not participate in any art classes, art itself still plays an important role in my life. Instead of participating in arts like painting or ceramics, I find myself daily working with the basic rules of art through graphic design and photography. Over the last few years I have realized that art is something that serves as a creative outlet for those surrounding me daily, allowing for my peers to express themselves through something other than words.  

Ava Rushing: 

The high school is filled with many different artists focusing on a number of different mediums; Ava Rushing, 12, focuses on ceramics and graphic design, starting their art journey during their sophomore year. 

“My sophomore year I moved here and one of the requirements was fundamentals of art. I had [Abby] Stallbaumer as my art teacher and she made me be like ‘oh art’s kind of pretty freaking cool’. That’s when I started to get interested in all kinds of the art world, but specifically ceramics because we didn’t do that a lot in fundamentals.” Rushing explained. 

Rushing began their graphic design journey a little later in high school, starting during their junior year. Despite graphic design being completed through online programs, Rushing still found ways to incorporate physical art into their graphic designs. 

“For graphic design I start with a like brain dump of literally everything [onto a sketchbook]. Then I’m like, ‘oh here are some aspects of each design that I like’, and then I create another sketch.” Rushing said. 

For ceramics, Rushing takes a different approach when finding creative inspiration. 

“I have really never had a creative block with ceramics. I feel like there is always something that I can be doing, and if I feel like ‘oh, I don’t wanna make anything’, I’ll make a bowl, then I’m like, ‘Hm, you do know how to throw and you’re not stupid’.” Rushing explained. 

In their time creating art the biggest thing Rushing feels they have learned is to trust the process and be patient. 

“I feel like art has really tested [me], ceramics specifically, [tests] my creativity and also my patience. In ceramics there’s not really a way to speed through the process, in drawing and painting you can work for five hours at a time. For ceramics you have to have time for the clay to be processed a certain way, handling it so it is treated correctly,” Rushing highlighted. “It’s tested my patience a lot because I’m not a very patient person.” 

With their art career at the high school coming to an end, Rushing had a few things to say about joining physical art classes. 

“I feel like doing physical art is so much different than photography and stuff like that, because you’re paying attention to different things. I think that in no world it wouldn’t be beneficial to take some sort of drawing or painting or ceramics, because you just learn so much about art,” Rushing said. 

After high school Rushing plans to continue their art journey, pursuing graphic design at JCCC, entering a new era of their art career. 

Danny Heinen: 

Another artist at the high school is Danny Heinen, 11. Instead of focusing on ceramics or digital art, Heinen prefers to work with 2D, though they still enjoy digital art. Heinen began their art journey earlier than Rushing, and was influenced by their family to pursue art. 

“I feel like [art] has always been something, of course you do it when you’re a kid, but it never really clicked like ‘oh, I wanna do this for something in my future’ until my sister started pursuing it seriously,” Heinen highlighted “She was definitely a big inspiration for me to pursue art. I think she helped me realize that art is something you can actually do for your future.” 

Heinen began pursuing art as something more than a hobby when they were in sixth grade. Heinen believes that the best thing one can do is practice consistency and be open to criticism, allowing for them to improve. 

“The biggest thing is that if you’re not open to criticism or getting opinions from other people, you’re never gonna grow. You have to constantly [do art], constantly practice if you wanna get better. If you’re not willing to put in that time, that’s fine if you wanna do it as a hobby, but if you wanna get better consistently you have to do it,” Heinen said. 

In order to practice consistently it’s important to have motivation and inspiration. When looking for inspiration Heinen finds themself looking at a number of different subjects. 

“In terms of subject matter, I find inspiration from different subject matters. I think recently in the past year or so I focused on having as broad a portfolio as possible,” Heinen said. “I want to do a lot of different mediums, a lot of different subject matters.” 

With the long hours and dedication it takes to produce quality art, Heinen believes the most rewarding part is seeing self progression. 

“Sometimes you’re just working every day on your art project, but once you step back, if you;’ve been doing it for six months, you’ve been in your class for a semester or whatever,” Heinen said. “You step back and you can literally look at each of their pieces you created and see that [improvement]. That’s the most rewarding thing.”