I’m a senior at Pacific Grove High School and my art focuses on exploring the complicated feelings that come with transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Creating my art allows me to confront and cope with these different emotions in a way that is beyond words.

Within the past couple of years, I discovered my love of painting with acrylics. I used to be very intimidated by painting because it felt too “final” to me, but when I had to complete a painting project my sophomore year, I realized that acrylics are extremely flexible and forgiving with mistakes. It’s freeing to just let myself paint and if I decide I’m unhappy with the outcome, I can always just paint over it until I'm satisfied. I have only grown more and more confident with my ability to paint and even take advantage of the layering of paint to express the layered meanings behind my pieces.

This year I have been working on a series of paintings titled “Growing Pains.” Through my paintings, I want to express a mixture of my own memories alongside universal experiences of growing up; but especially growing into womanhood. I like taking close-ups of literal pains such as braces on teeth and rug burn on knees and transforming them to express the discomfort experienced during this turbulent time of development. 

This piece also ties into my series of growing pains; however it goes beyond pain felt by literal experiences. I want to express the discomfort felt growing into a young woman, when not only are you changing as a person, but also physically changing. The bright red background followed by the eyes staring at the exposed figure tap into that primal fear of being observed and feeling everyone’s eyes on you. Although my piece leans more towards the female experience, I believe that everyone is able to experience the unease felt upon realizing people around them have begun looking at them differently.