Artists

Fall 2012

With Beth Campbell

My name is Allandra. I have three sisters and one brother. Art has been a part of my life from a very young age. My favorite kinds of artwork to create are abstract paintings and sculptures. I use art to express my emotions on a daily basis. Also, I find that when I am sick in bed, art is what manages to get me through the day. I love to sit in front of paintings  and imagine what compelled the artists to create them.

I am Arthur, and I am an aspiring artist. I am six feet and three inches tall. I am a pescatarian (eats fish and vegetables). I was born in New York Hospital, though I was raised in Long Island. I lived in Sag Harbor until I was sixteen and then moved to New York City for school. Because I was raised in the country, I have always been a nature lover. My interests include hiking, surfing, reading, biking, and paddle boarding. For me, art is more than just an interest. I cannot see myself in the future being anything but an artist. It is not something that I can pick up and put down. Art is a lens I use to see the world. It lets me explore and express myself. When I am unable to convey meaning with words I use a chisel and hammer.

Who am I? I’m still discovering myself. But what I do know is my passion for arts of any kind and any form. I'm a sucker for movies and video games. I really want to make movies—or to at least become a cameraman or something similar (I love cinematography). I guess I just found something about myself: that I change my mind a lot. I guess that’s why I don't know who I am. I like to say I’m from South Asia, as I was born on a plane coming from Japan. I come from a family that is descended from Mongol lords, and on my mother’s side, from Spain. Many years later, my family ended up in Bangladesh. My grandfathers were ship workers who traveled the world and immigrated to America in order to find an easier life. My family wanted me to experience our country’s culture, so for the first decade of my life, I grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh. And it was very fun.

Hello, my name is Emilio. I was born in December 1994. I have lived in the Bronx for most of my life. My parents came from Honduras. My major current interests are skateboarding, photography, and film. There are other things I’m interested in as well, such as video games, history, and music. For me, art is a way to live creatively. If you focus, you can see that art is everywhere you go. I find inspiration through having a positive attitude. The more positively I think, the more motivation I have to accomplish things. Watching others become successful also inspires me. In the future, I hope to achieve my current goals as well as many more. Besides that, I want to have an extraordinary life that I can share with others.

My name is Jaydee, and I am a senior and art major at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. I am originally from a small West Indian island called St. Kitts, but I moved here to New York when I was eleven years old. From a young age I was always interested in art. I would doodle and draw for hours and days, and I developed my skills over the years. My greatest inspiration comes from others around me. Hearing what others think and combining those opinions with my own analysis has greatly improved not only my artwork, but also my perception of the world.

My name is Julia, but ever since kindergarten people have called me Jules. I currently attend Hunter College High School and live in Manhattan. I love living in New York City and, honestly, I could not even begin to imagine growing up anywhere else. I don’t know how I would get through the morning without screeching subway brakes or honking horns. I have probably not gone more than a month without visiting a museum. Art is such an integral part of my life that sometimes I take it for granted. Art makes me incredibly happy and I hope that in the future I can pass this passion on. 

Hey! I'm Julia, a sophomore at Bronx Science. I was born and raised a city girl from the Upper East Side, but I still like to think that I live in my own world. I've been exposed to art throughout my entire life, whether it was going to the various museums around the city when I was younger or my inspiring art teacher in middle school. Art has always been something that I've been able to look to for self-expression. A lot of the time I get these strange ideas in the middle of the day and I'll think to myself, "I should papier-mâché that when I get home!" I've always been able to turn whatever I'm feeling into some form of art, and in a sense it's been a 'close friend' that I can go to about anything. I definitely want art to remain a part of my life even after high school, because I want to go into a career in the sciences. I like the idea of mixing art and science and even math, and I've considered architecture. I know that whatever I choose to do, art will remain an important aspect of me being me.

Lizzie was born in Eger, Hungary, and she came to New York when she was eighteen months old. She loves large-scale painting, dancing, tennis, photography, and spending her time in museums. Looking at art inspires her. Lizzie is also fascinated by people doing ordinary things, and she draws inspiration from everyday life, whether it’s walking the streets of New York or exploring the countryside of Ireland. She enjoys experimenting with digital photography and is interested in mixed media. Lizzie believes art means expressing yourself in your own unique, creative way. One day she hopes to be an art teacher for young children or an art therapist.

My name is Margot. I am a senior at Stuyvesant High School, from Bayside, Queens. To me, art is a way to make sense of the world and to share ideas with others around me. I see art as a medium for social activism and as a medium for the development of self-identity. I am often inspired by the spaces around me. I love to find places where opposites coexist. I tend to use art to find greater insight into other areas of interest, which include history, math, and psychology. In college I hope to further this understanding by double majoring in either art history and economics or art history and psychology.

My last name rhymes with “hello,” a simple salutation that’s not too formal and not too shabby.  It’s fairly common on a day-to-day basis, and it signifies welcoming and acknowledgement from friends, family, co-workers, and even from that man at the street corner Deli. The part of me that is just a friendly person is embodied in this word; but who I am also includes my artistic side.

As an artist, I see myself as that unrecognizable stranger in the background of a subway car or a park, the invisible observer whose voice is heard in her artwork. The habitual expressions that are overlooked by most are turned into intimate pieces by me. The “hellos” omitted from our memory. That is who I am and what I work with.

As a young child growing up in Trinidad, I never dreamed of following art. My days consisted of rambunctious play and mischief. But as in all things, there are always unexpected events. My mother, sister and I moved to America where we live today. During my years of middle school, I began to draw comics–specifically anime. As shallow as it seems, my love for art started there. I would draw for hours, completing over 300 pieces! As I began High School, my home life began taking its toll, and finally in my sophomore year I was admitted and diagnosed with an illness. There I realized how art can heal a sore soul. I began drawing, painting, and making like never before. I can safely say, that had I not had art, I would not be who I am today.

I am Tiffany, and I came to New York from Taiwan six years ago. None of my family members are artists—they are fishermen, civil servants, tutors, managers, or lawyers. I’ve always remembered how my friend Ruby jeered at my futile attempts to render my stick figures realistic, and how much I admired my cousin’s drawings. In this sense, it’s surprising (even to me) how much a workshop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has transformed me from an introvert who struggled to express how I feel to someone who is now confident in facing new challenges without wallowing (too much) in self-pity and dread. Art allows me to freeze a moment or scene of beauty in time and enjoy it thoroughly both in creating and admiring it.