With inspiration brimming and a paintbrush in hand, Junior Pearl Tweedy explores their imagination and artistic expression.
Many forms of art hold importance to Tweedy, with paint being one of their favorite mediums to work with. Every step of the process is important to Tweedy, as it brings them peace and gives them a consistent goal to work towards.
“I love color theory and just the way that creating makes me feel,” Tweedy said. “Being able to look at something I’ve done makes me feel so proud.”
Painting has been a constant part of Tweedy’s life from as early as four years old.
“It’s mainly my mom who is a big inspiration because she’s an artist,” Tweedy said. “She would paint and draw, and I was just so impressed and wanted to do it too.”
Within their creative process, Tweedy follows their intuition and recognizes the importance of experimentation.
“I kind of just dive in,” Tweedy said. “It’s not a ton of planning, just kind of experimenting and seeing if it works and I can fix it if I don’t figure it out.”
During Tweedy’s time in Art 1, they created a surrealist portrait that allowed them to play with color theory and emotion, and it remains one of their proudest works of art.
“It’s this woman, and she’s crying, but her tears are the ocean. I was just so happy with how it turned out and I think the colors worked really well,” Tweedy said. “It’s mainly an orange and warm painting with the background and the clothing and skin tones, but I just really enjoyed the contrast of the blue from the water.”
With each passing year of art class, Ms. Jennifer Rodgers has had the opportunity to see Tweedy’s skills and creativity flourish.
“Pearl’s growth has been explosive, astronomical, wonderful, and amazing,” Rodgers said. “They use lots of different materials really well and therefore can make lots of incredible art with those things, whether it’s printmaking or painting or drawing.”
Within Mr. Robert Zakrzewski’s 10th grade English class, Tweedy painted two intricate ceiling tiles themed around books they read in their free time, including Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh and She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker Chan.
“I was just in awe of what they were able to do just sitting back there with colors and a half hour,” Zakrzewski said. “They always brought an original perspective, but also a very creative way of presenting ideas.”
Despite any roadblocks that Tweedy might face during their process, they stay consistent with their creativity.
“It’s 100% just so much practice. Practice makes perfect. I know that’s corny and everyone says that, but it’s really true,” Tweedy said. “Don’t be discouraged by any talent that you see, just know that they’ve practiced a bunch and that you are fully capable of reaching that level of talent.”
