Senior Aylin Murillo loves to plunge into the deepest chapters of a novel and explore the vast worlds of music, but what she indulges herself in more than anything is art. Learning at a young age gave her the advantage of refining the skill throughout the years, through which she built up certain characteristics that are present in most of her art.
“When I draw I feel calm, like there’s a lot of positive energy flowing through my work.” There is no real reason why she draws, just that it comes as a natural talent for her. “I’ll just be sitting there, watching television, and my hand will start itching.”
One of the earliest influences on Murillo’s art comes from her uncles. They were tattoo artists whose work often reflected the Aztec culture. As she grew, the impact of that culture began to reflect itself in her work. When one looks at her art now, they can easily see the Aztec influence deeply rooted within.
“When I draw, I start with lines and shapes and don’t know what it’ll end up being.” Murillo is obsessed with integrating triangles, flowers, and lines in her work. These symbols push their way into her watercolors as well as her drawings.
After every drawing she finishes she takes a step back and observes them carefully. “I always think, ‘What could I have done to make it better?’”
JoAnn Sagaral, however, has always had the skill of an artist. It is something the junior is really good at and absolutely loves to do.
When she was younger, she used to go to the Jagged Lines of Imagination art academy. It is an organization that provides the community with training to promote art as an important factor to help people express themselves.
“I didn’t really go there for the classes, I went there to see how they formatted comics.” Before high school, Sagaral was involved in creating her own comic but had to stop the project because school gave her many other things to focus her time on. Yet she still stuck to drawing.
“Art still can be a way to make a living,” she said. “When people say you can’t make money off it, it’s the same thing as people asking, ‘Why be a mathematician when there’s robots now that carry out the calculations?’” She wholeheartedly believes that people should do what they love, especially if they’re really good at it, and hers just happens to be art.
So even if people cue into their artistic abilities years into their life or begin to show such abilities since the time they are able to write, it is the passion for art that can become a major driving force in life. Murillo and Sagaral both feel it, maybe on different ends of an art spectrum, but both definitely display a way to express themselves through their art.