Redwood High School Studio Art students will have the opportunity to display their work at the district’s upcoming showcase this May. After weeks of preparation, Redwood Students share the process and inspiration behind their pieces.
By: Isabel Barycki
This May, studio art students in Mr. Harris’s class will be able to bring their work beyond Redwood’s campus to put on display at an upcoming art showcase at the Visalia Convention Center.
Steve Harris has been with Redwood since 2015 and teaches Studio Art 1 through 4. During this event, not just Redwood, but all schools in the district will show off their work during a music festival. Harris says showcasing students’ art to a wider audience impacts them by giving them confidence, analytical abilities, critical thinking skills, and the ability to present their art.
In choosing students for the showcase, Harris says student assistants in his class pick 10 of the best paintings or drawings for the showcase.
One student chosen for the showcase is Adrian Gonzalez, ’26. Ginzalez’s piece displays a colorful brick wall, each brick a different design. Adrian says this piece was inspired by another colorful brick wall he had seen that he wanted to replicate.
Gonzalez’s piece took two weeks, “just because of how different each brick is and how much color goes into each brick,” says Gonzalez. Throughout his process, Gonzalez notes his favorite part, “Probably choosing the different colors and where to place them, and, like, how to sprinkle them everywhere around the bricks.”
Having their art displayed to a wider audience is a big step for many artists. Gonzalez says he feels honored to be in the showcase. Audiences will be able to see how his art reflects him as a person, “I feel like it reflects, like, my uniqueness and just the way I think of how, like, I choose different colors and the way to paint it,” says Gonzalez.
Another student showcasing their art is Lillian McManus, ’27. She says her piece was inspired by an assignment they had in class, “We had to do something that expressed how we feel a good majority of the time,” says McManus
After her roughly two-week process, McManus says her favorite part of her piece is “how many layers there are to it, because there’s a lot of texture on it.”
On Redwood’s Vista Campus, lots of the students’ artwork is displayed in an art case. While her art is displayed in the case on Vista, McManus loves having her art shown to a wider audience, too. McManus says, “I love it, ’cause I get to showcase it in the case on Vista already, but a lot of people don’t even look. So this one’s actually getting shown to people who want to see the art.”
Jude Sears, ’27, is also showing his art at the showcase. He explains his inspiration behind his piece, Sears says, ” I kind of approached it with a different style where I built up with browns on a black background, and then built up my portrait.” Since the background was all black, Sears says he wanted to add a lot of color, inspiring a more colorful design
Despite having limited experience with acrylics and having to figure things out as he went, Sears describes how he feels about being chosen for the showcase. He says, “It feels great. I mean, I think art is subjective, so I never really know what’s gonna actually do well, ’cause some of them, I just go into it, not trying to make it super good, but then it ends up really good.”
Isabel Barycki
Isabel Barycki,´26 is a fourth year journalism member. Inside room 207 you can find her writing for the Features and Clubs and Lifestyles sections for the Redwood Gigantea.
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