Appreciating the Art, Artist, and Teacher

There are some art pieces that are never shown to the public, some art pieces that get stowed away, pieces that are never to be seen again by anyone else ever again nor the artist. The artist might believe that their artwork they make is just not enough to be seen as something that is truly precious, but it is.

By Andy See

In some cases, the artist doesn’t get enough admiration nor appreciation for the hard work and emotions they put into their work. Art works are very important to show to the world because the art reflects the artist’s personality and what type of art they specialize in.

Giovanni Galvan Holding His Flower Painting

Giovanni Galvan ‘24 is an advanced art student of Mr. Harris. Giovanni has been taking art classes for a long time. His art is mostly consistent with bright colors, for example, his San Francisco art piece is heavy on the flashy colors.

He has a flower artwork that he resonates with the most that best describes who he is and his characteristics. This flower art piece catches the audience’s attention with its vibrant red-orange color and depths of shading that makes the art come to life.

“I put nice shading and… nice lighter colors.”

Galvan says, “This artwork is important to me because this is one of my favorite flower plants at home, and also this is one of my mom’s favorite plants too.”

An artwork tells us a lot about the artist and what they desire to see in their own work. From an artwork we can tell the thought process and time the artist took when taking it.

“It makes me feel joy, happy, it makes me [feel] peace and it’s part of nature.”

Art compensates one’s mind, this gives the creation of art a greater meaning. Art is not truly to showcase how well you can draw, though it can be, but most importantly show the meaning behind the work.

Of course one cannot say that they think their art is perfect because art is very subjective, especially in the eyes of the artist. There are always little details they wished they added or some things that did not need to be there.

He says, “Yes, I am proud of my work. I made it look nice and detailed.”

Galvan does not believe that he has nothing to fix about his art because art is a form of creativity, he tells us that art is perfect to the creator because they made it in their hands and image.

Mr. Harris is the studio art teacher at redwood highschool. For your first years in studio art with Mr. Harris, he teaches the basics of art; when you take more art classes year after year, he will go on to teach more technical and advanced ways to make art.

He has tasked his students with projects and assignments, but the students have all the freedom and creativity with how their art looks visually. But the students have to consider in moderation of the art medium and supply.

He has had a lot of interesting and admiral art pieces in his classroom for all the students to see the work and progress this year. He does this to show his students how they’ve improved throughout the years and evolved to the art they do now.

There are a lot of art pieces that pleasantly surprised Harris. Some of the art pieces were very interesting and some that are very simple yet very meaningful. It is always fun and interesting for him to see how the student’s mind works and how they approach the art they make.

A few days left of class with his senior students, and a few more years for the students he has right now. These students will soon become seniors and graduate one day too. This school year has been a good year for Harris.

He admires and appreciates the work his students do in the class. Every year, some of the students come back to school to take his art class again. He has a lot of things he’d like to say to his current students and the seniors that are leaving this year.