Passion for drawing allows for more focus in school

Eggs scattered everywhere around town. Crazy pigs running around stealing them from the desperate birds. In an effort to take back their eggs, they create a war zone in the middle of the city. That’s not the worst part, either. The pigs have a secret alliance with the army to help them against the birds. In all the chaos there are planes crashing and highways falling.

This specific scene is not a TV show, not a movie, not a video game. This is a drawing, with every detail mapped out. There’s a whole story behind the piece of art that sophomore Jose Guzman captures. A nice combination of his favorite game app, “Angry Birds,” and his imagination. “I can watch something and remember it and make up something of my own,” he said. “If I can combine the two that would be perfect.”

In every drawing Guzman shows intricacies of everyday life. From mini-cages around a staircase to a building being destroyed by a huge angry bird, he doesn’t miss a detail. Guzman remembers when he was 5 years old going to San Francisco for the first time.  He describes riding on BART and when he got out he saw a city with several cars and huge buildings. “My first time there led to a lot of tunnels. It was huge downtown.”
That’s when he first started getting ideas.  “I got home and started to draw more things,” he said. “It made me want to draw a lot of highways and bridges.”

Being autistic may pose some challenges for Guzman, but when it comes to art it turns out to be an advantage.

For junior Zach Martin, who is also autistic, the realization of his artistic ability didn’t come about in the same way. But they also share a love for drawing, creating everything to animals and locomotives.

“I try to make it look very neat and cartoonish,” Martin said. “I like to anthropomorphize what I draw,” making buildings come to life, or giving inanimate objects human characteristics. Drawing brings out the best in Martin.

He likes the time when he can just sit down and draw something with every small detail. And it makes him feel even better when his peers notice the drawings that he had worked so hard on. “It makes me feel important.”