Through a mind soaring with inspiration, senior MJ Rosenberg brings their creative visions to life with painting.
Rosenberg’s interest in art has been ever-present since childhood but further solidified through their artistic experiences in high school.
“It has always been in the back of my mind. Even when I was a kid, I would always feel like I wanted to be an artist when I grew up,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg has received formal training through pre-college art programs at the University of the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, and Emily Carr University of Art and Design and is currently taking classes at Moore College of Art.
Out of all the mediums they have learned to use, Rosenberg always goes back to acrylic painting.
“It’s just meditative in a way, where I turn off my brain. I’ll just start going through the motions and feel free,” Rosenberg said.
Their creative process has been gradually refined into a system that works well for them, beginning with brainstorming and sketching out different concepts.
“Usually, I’m sporadic about where I paint. I tend to do different things as I go, but I try to block out the main colors and then start adding more and more details as I go,” Rosenberg said.
“Microcasm” is a painting that showcases Rosenberg’s strong imagination, as it is a surrealist piece that displays clouds and an entire galaxy within different parts of an eyeball.
“I decided that it would be really cool to have the contrast of a space night sky with some sort of bright day sky for the white part of your eye,” Rosenberg said.
Among Rosenberg’s most recent paintings, their favorite is a multimedia portrait titled “Bee Portrait.” It includes intricate details such as honeycomb and dried baby’s breath flowers, each delicately placed.
“I just feel like it’s a pinnacle of all the skills I’ve collected and technical skills I’ve learned,” Rosenberg said.
Through AP Art and Design, art teacher Mrs. Jennifer Rodgers has been a helpful resource for Rosenberg’s creation of “Bee Portrait” and other projects in their AP portfolio.
“As always, with MJ and that piece, it was encouraging them to test out the ideas, experiment with them and see if those things work,” Rodgers said. “MJ embraced that, and the result speaks for itself.”
The future holds many artistic opportunities for Rosenberg, especially through art school, and they are eager to take on any of the possibilities that await them.
“I’ve been strongly thinking about potentially being an art teacher. Part of that is because of inspiration from Mrs. Rodgers and how much she’s helped me,” Rosenberg said. “I really like the idea of helping to nurture other artists and I’ve been told a few times that I would be a good teacher, so I feel like I would find it very fulfilling.”
English teacher Mr. Kevin Haney expresses gratitude for having been part of Rosenberg’s artistic journey in high school and offers advice as they prepare for the future.
“When you feel those brick walls coming to limit you, don’t climb the wall; break it down and run through it,” Haney said. “I think MJ is the kind of artist, the kind of human being, that can run through any wall that gets in their way. Follow your dreams, knock down the barriers, and in the end, you’ll look back on this beautiful path and be so proud of yourself.”
