What if you could recapture the carefree silliness that encapsulated your childhood and was lost throughout the stress of the college application process? This is what senior Isabella Barriera attempts to do with her AP Art portfolio concentration on clowns.
“I chose clowns because typically when you think of clowns, you think of someone in their childhood who enjoys fun things. So it’s about remembering stuff from our childhood and that we are still kids even though we are going through such a stressful process with so many expectations,” Bella said.
The college process is very stressful, and Bella wanted to use her concentration as an opportunity to remind students that they should still enjoy their childhood because they are still kids. Bella finds that many students neglect their childhood to focus on good grades, extracurriculars, and college decisions, but seniors are still kids and should enjoy that. To focus on this, the subjects of her drawings are friends, typically seniors, whom she turns into clowns using makeup.
This is one of Bella’s pieces from her concentration. The charcoal art is a depiction of one of her friends as a clown.
Clowns are usually depicted in vibrant colors, which can also represent childhood, but Bella wanted to challenge that, focusing on the person rather than the colors by using charcoal. The person can bring their own silliness and uniqueness to the artwork, so the colors are unnecessary.
“Clowns are really interesting because typically we see the cliché colorful clown, but I’m focusing on charcoal, which forces you to focus more on the subject and the composition rather than the colors,” Bella said.
Her passion for art started way before the class with drawing stick figures when she was little. Bella’s love of art was inspired by her grandma, who would encourage her to practice art.
“I grew up admiring my grandma’s art and wanting to have the same skill she has. She would be doing amazing art, and I would be copying her art with stick figures, so I wanted to see where my art could go, and it all really started with her,” Bella said.
Her love of art, which started in her childhood, also helped inspire her clown concentration because it encouraged her to think of her childhood when coming up with a concentration.
Growing up, Bella didn’t take art very seriously, but the Hackley curriculum encouraged her to make practicing art a habit. Hackley’s art classes enabled her to become the artist she is today because of the mentorship and hours of practice.
“I definitely recommend taking the class, but only if you have the time, because it is very demanding and time-consuming,” Bella said.
