I’ve always loved art, whether it was a simple craft from Target or drawing a little farm scene in colored pencils with my mom. One year during the summer, my mom signed me up for a watercolor class at the local art center. It was taught with little tubes of paint instead of the Crayola palettes I’d always used. The skills and techniques I learned, which I still use today, made me want to start advancing my artwork. They showed me how easy it was to paint something beautiful by breaking down the basics. Since that class, I’ve experimented with many styles and mediums. I spent a while filling up notebooks with quick doodles, and when I got a real sketchbook, I started drawing with more detail, sometimes adding color. One year for Christmas, I got a set of tubed watercolor and acrylic paints, and from this point on, I dove into painting, watching Bob Ross videos or tutorials on YouTube, and practicing as often as I could. Landscapes were my favorite. I loved playing with the light and depth of my paintings, pulling mountains away and showing where the sun hit the trees with little blobs of yellow. Throughout high school, I’ve taken many art classes, such as pottery and digital art. I like that the classes give me a set time when I know I’ll be able to work on art, but I really enjoy it when I get to spend eight hours straight painting over the weekend. I lose track of time and fully immerse myself into my art, letting ideas spill out over my canvas. To me, this makes my art more cohesive. I don’t have to try and get back into my groove or try to remember all the things I wanted to add to my painting. I get frustrated about my own capabilities. Sometimes my sketch doesn’t turn out exactly the way I need it to be, I can’t mix the right color, or I have to layer over the same part over and over again until I get my strokes to flow correctly. Sometimes my siblings start coming into my room, breaking me out of my stream of thought every few minutes. Sometimes I have to redo parts, redrawing eyelashes until they look perfect, or redoing the whole sky at the end of a painting because the shading in the clouds was bad. When I can’t get something exactly right, I move on from the section and start a different one. Then I can go back to the first area with fresh eyes, allowing me to see what I need to fix more clearly. One of the best parts about painting is creating something that just brings an area together. I love painting my mom things for her to hang around the house, and she loves it, too. She requests lots of different ideas for me to paint, but I don’t get around to painting most of them. Everytime I walk past a painting that I’ve done, I know my mom loves me and my art. She always encouraged me to continue making art, and she was really excited to hear when a local business wanted to hang some of my pieces. I hope other people see my art the way my mom and I do, and that it brings them as much joy and love as it brings us.