By Carysa Argueta and Anthony Garcia
Staff Writers
Art is subjective. A work of art relies on the opinions of its viewer, and whether that piece of art is considered good or bad is based almost entirely on opinion. This is especially true for members of Prep’s Art Club who gave their thoughts on art in the modern day.
Students partaking in Art Club were asked some questions about their love of art and what it means to them. Prep junior Kae Devaney was asked, which modern artist inspired them?
“I really like graffiti artists. I really like Banksy just because of how he essentially kind of spits in the arts community’s face like the pretentious art community where they try to sell his paintings for millions of dollars and he’s like hell no.”
Banksy is an artist from Bristol England who prefers to remain anonymous. He does this, so he doesn’t get in trouble for vandalizing since it is illegal in England. Banksy creates humorous works of art that typically contain slogans. His art is usually done in the graffiti art style on walls of public buildings for all to see.
His works of art are usually rebellious. The reason being that the anonymous person behind Banksy is against wars and capitalism and this is portrayed heavily within his art. Over the years, he has garnered a following and has become very well known amongst professional artists.
“I’m inspired mainly by comic book artists; Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Dave Gibbons.” Art Club leader and Prep senior Maxwell Unnasch went on to say, “As for more conventional artists, I love Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Vincent Van Gogh…to name a few.”
Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and David Gibbons were comic book artists who worked on some of the most memorable Marvel comics. Picasso, Gustav Klim, and Vincent Van Gogh were all influential artists, notable for their groundbreaking paintings.
So far, Art Club members have drawn caricatures of themselves and worked to hone their artistic skills through sketching. They have also drawn fish and plan to work on shading techniques. In the coming weeks, Max plans to give more in-depth lessons on the arts.
The next question asked was along the lines of whether or not Prep has enough opportunities to allow students to express their artistic abilities. As for Kae’s opinion, they said, “Umm to an extent yes, I feel like art should maybe be included in a few more like projects like it’d be nice to have like visuals for a lot of stuff cause again for some people it’s a way they can express what they’re trying to say. If they’re not so good at saying it in word format…so I feel like it’s sufficient but it would be nice to have some more.”
According to Kae, there are few opportunities to join art-related classes. They believe that there should be more classes so that students will be able to express themselves unlike other classes offered which mostly revolve around school subjects.
Kae also suggested that more art opportunities should be worked into the curriculum at Prep. Maybe more drawing projects or art-related subjects could be taught in classes.
At Prep, the only opportunities for student artists to express themselves are through the Art expedition which is only four times a year. The Art Club is a new opportunity for students artists to immerse themselves in the arts year-round.
We asked Unnasch what persuaded him to create Art Club? He replied, “ Because I feel like a lot of kids have the potential to be great artists but they don’t really have the opportunity to display it.”
Unnasch went on to say what art meant to him: “Art could mean a lot of things. I guess you could basically break it down as a form of entertainment, whether that be a sculpture, or a video game, or literature, or a movie but for all intents and purposes when I talk about art in Art Club it relates to drawing.”
The last question asked was why people should decide to join Art Club. Art club member Kae expressed “Because there’s no judgment here, there’s people of all levels and I mean everyone can just be who they are in this space and you can get drawing advice, and it’s just a place to show off your work or to improve.”
Kae encourages everybody to join Art Club because its purpose is to be inclusive to anyone in hopes of possibly brushing up on their skills as an artist. It is also a creative space to just meet with others who share a common interest.
“it’s a very friendly environment where people could just hang out and draw and be at their most creative.” Unnasch left off by saying, “There are very few opportunities where you could really be yourself like you can in Art Club.”
If you are interested in joining the Art Club, they meet every Friday in Room 9 at lunch (12:30-1:05 p.m).
FEATURED IMAGE (at the top of this post): Art Club meeting (Photo Credit: Jovani Contreras)
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