From the iconic Hollywood art in the D-building to the striking world language piece in the C-building, it’s obvious to anyone that art runs through the veins of Los Osos High School.
Los Osos showcases a range of classes such as photography, painting, woodworking, and general art, etc, providing countless artistic outlets for students.
The composition of a piece of art is unique whether it’s through the inspiration, medium used, or finished product, where both the journey and finished piece become a representation of the artist showing who they are and how they think.
Creating art isn’t simply about technical skill, instead being created from an initial spark, and applying a mixture of ideas, emotions, and essentially just doing what feels right to get the desired product.
When asking students from Osos about their artistic process across a variety of mediums, answers vary.
When asked about her process, Senior Chloe Moore, a Painting III student, explained that she often just starts with an interesting or intriguing topic, “I just start with a random idea, maybe a word or concept and go from there.”
Referencing a recent piece she made, “For example, the word duplicitous–man with two faces…As I go, I just think what would make this character look like the word.”
She continues to describe that when painting, she’s constantly on the lookout for anything she can add that could emit an emotional reaction and call back to her root concept/word, eventually creating a piece that embodies her initial idea.
Unlike painters, those who take up photography are faced with the challenge not of creating, but of composing. Although both mediums create a piece of art, photographers work instead to frame and manipulate their subjects and environment in order to tell a story or evoke an emotion/idea.
When asked about finding inspiration, senior Sonya Patel, a digital photo student says,
“I like listening to music and it really inspired my photography, for example I wanted to convey things like sadness…I would listen to just like calming music to put me in the right headspace and to come up with different ideas that would convey the same emotion that I’m feeling in that moment.”
As quick as inspiration comes, art block can come just as quickly, leaving artists feeling unmotivated, stuck, and unable to create. When asked about these barriers and how they’re overcome, Patel said, “I try to take inspiration from a lot of different photographers…like actually looking at different photographs to get new views and then I can kind of come up with my own way of expressing my creative side.”
Giving yourself a fresh perspective can often lead to an inspired breakthrough, although it’s often said that giving yourself time to step away from your work can lead to a refresh on how you look at your work.
Despite the variation in mediums, approaches and how you deal with stunts in your creativity, it’s crystal clear that all artists pursue the same goal of making a work that evokes emotion, tells a story, and reflects the process of its creation and the creator behind it.
Making art isn’t easy, with its process taking lots of time, work, and creativity, but the students here at Los Osos make it look like a breeze.