Within the North Community, many talented students and staff members engage in visual arts. This is what three student artists and one art teacher have to say about art. 

T Yi, junior

Q: What medium do you usually use to create your art?

A: “I usually draw or paint digitally on my computer tablet. Or if I’m doing it traditionally, I like to use pens and pencils.”

Q: What inspires your art and what do you make art of?

A: “I usually like to draw some characters or some people that I think are really cool that I’m interested in at the time. I do a lot of portraits and sometimes I do animals”. 

Q: How did you start creating art?

A: “I did not actually pursue art that much when I was younger. I drew some things, like I would copy some comic panels I thought were funny or something. But I really started looking into it during my later years of middle school and then my current years of high school.” 

Q: What’s your favorite thing about making art?

A: “I think, whenever I draw something, it makes me happy. And if it makes other people happy, then I think that makes it worth it.”

Q: Do you share your art and if you do, how do you share it? 

A: “I currently have an Instagram for my art where I will share my paintings, some of my fiber art, like my crochet, or some of the progress behind both of those.”

Q: Could you tell me a little bit about your featured piece?

A: “So my featured piece is a character. His name is Scaramouche. He’s from a game called Genshin Impact. I don’t play the game anymore, [but] I used to play it a lot. I chose to paint him because I think his outfit has a lot of really cool culturally inspired aspects.”

Felishya Robert Rajakumar, sophomore

Q: What medium do you usually use to create your art? 

A: “I use colored pencils normally. So I’ll start off with a graphite pencil sketch and then I’ll use colored pencils. Sometimes I’ll use watercolor.”

Q: What inspires your art and what do you make art of?

A: “So what inspires my art would be like if I see anything cool, like a particular outfit or a really interesting looking plant, I’ll probably draw that. Also, a lot of anime and TV shows I watch also inspire my art.”

Q: How did you start creating art?

A: “I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember; I wouldn’t say there was an exact point that I started drawing. I’ve just always had a love for it and that never stopped being a thing.” 

Q: What’s your favorite thing about making art?

A: “My favorite thing about making art is creating something pretty that I can look at.”

Q: Do you share your art and if you do, how do you share it? 

A: “I have Twitter and Tumblr that I post my art on.”

Q: Could you tell me a little bit about your featured piece?

A: “So my featured piece is these four guys. They’re from an anime I really like. But the anime is historical, so I talked with my friend about if they did live in the modern day what they would wear. My friend is really good at analysis and stuff, so I used her knowledge to help me create these outfits.”

Jamie Panruksa, sophomore

Q: What medium do you usually use to create your art?

A: “I do photography and I like drawing. So basically I will think of what I want to take a photo of or what I want to draw. After I think about it, I will start to take a photo or draw it.” 

Q: What inspires your art, and what do you make art of?

A: “I like to draw from a photo of my friends, my parents or my pets. And sunflowers, stuff like that because I like flowers, and sunflowers are my favorite. For photography, I will take a photo of my friends or landscapes. And sometimes I do contests because I need to do a portfolio and I think it’s really fun and I will have more experience.” 

Q: How did you start creating art?

A: “So I started being interested in drawing, painting and photography when I was like eight years old, and I started to take photos and I knew I was interested in photography, drawing and painting. So I learned photography and drawing in my high school in Thailand and studied it there.”

Q: How do you come up with what you want to make art of?

A: “I will look at a sunflower or my friend or something in my head, and I will draw it. I like looking for something and drawing it more than I like taking photos and then drawing it.”

Q: Do you share your art, and if you do, how do you share it? 

A: “I have an Instagram where I share photos that I take. And about drawing, I just have photos of it on my phone. I don’t post them on Instagram or anything.”

Q: Could you tell me a little bit about your featured piece?

A: “This photo is from my first contest that I did. I was 13 years old, and I was the youngest in that contest. The contest was a national contest, and I received an honorable mention.”

Doug Talleur, Art Teacher

Q: What medium do you usually use to create your art?

A: “I don’t have a specific one. I use all sorts of stuff. I like to draw more than anything else so usually drawing.”

Q: What inspires your art and what do you make art of?

A: “I kind of don’t draw and paint that much anymore on my own. I do a lot of woodworking but not just boring stuff. I try to be creative with it. So I make lamps and stuff. [The other day], I made a little centerpiece thing for a table. But I make furniture sometimes.” 

Q: How did you start creating art?

A: “I just liked it when I was kid. I used to draw all the time. So that’s kind of the key to being good at it – you just start at a young age and constantly draw.” 

Q: What is your favorite thing about making art? 

A: “Creating. I like the process. I don’t really care about the product afterwards. I like making of it.” 

Q: Why did you decide to teach art to others?

A: “That’s a really long story. The short of it is my wife, when we first got together, was a teacher. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with all this. And then she was like, ‘why don’t you just teach art’, and I was like, ‘Do you know me?’ And then she said, ‘Yes. That’s why I think you should be a teacher.‘“

Q: Why do you think art is important?

A: “Well, number one, it’s around you all the time. You consume it every second of every day. Even that phone you’re holding right now is designed by somebody. You know what I mean? So it’s taken for granted a lot: the importance of understanding design and visual, we call it art… I also think it’s important developmentally because when you’re drawing something, you’re making micro decisions constantly all the time, and then you’re reacting to those decisions. So it’s never just sitting and doing nothing. Your brain is extremely active when you’re creating stuff, which just kind of strengthens it and strengthens creativity.”