It was 2016. The smell of homemade chili my mom was making wafted through the kitchen. I could smell all the different ingredients, especially the special sauce she would put in it. I was in the living room coloring with my brother.  I could hear a cartoon show in the background on the TV beside us.   Inspired by different paintings on the wall, I never wanted to stop. I especially loved mixing different crayons to make different colors. I loved the weather because there was no wind; watching the sun  go down, I could see many different colors outside the window, red, orange, and yellow. Full of joy and inspiration, I wanted to keep coloring.

Months passed and I started getting more into art but wanted something more challenging than coloring, so the first thing that came to mind was drawing, but I had no one to teach me. I went to school the next day and asked my advisor if they had any art classes I could take, unfortunately, they did not and I almost gave up on my hobby because I knew that I wouldn’t get anywhere if I had no mentor or teacher.  When I told my brother about this, he said he could teach me simple drawings and he did.

 Two years  passed and my brother was too busy with school to teach me how to draw. By this time I could draw simple things, like flowers, trees, cars, etc. Then I remembered that people on YouTube make tutorial videos. On YouTube I learned how to do more intricate things with the tutorials and I could always pause them when I needed to. I also  looked up many famous paintings like the Mona Lisa, the Starry Night, and The Last Supper. I looked up many famous artists who made the paintings. I searched up Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso. I love different styles artists have, it shows that different people have different tastes , and that people are so unique. 

 By 7th grade, I knew how to really see a picture of someone or something, and draw it. This was the year that I started an Instagram account. I had to think of ways to show other people my art without showing my face , because I didn’t want people to look at the artist’s flaws, but at the art itself. I was such an introverted person at school that no one found out I had an Instagram, until people started seeing my art in school and became curious about my account.

 During the summer of 2019, when I couldn’t leave the house because of Covid, I heard that painting was a relaxing thing to do, and time-consuming. I never thought of painting. It was the best of two things I loved, drawing and coloring.  Of my favorite paintings, I made so far is from a Bob Ross painting tutorial. The painting is a landscape, and I am so proud of myself because I had never tried to paint mountains before that. I am still in the practicing stage with painting but I think I have improved since 2019. I have made paintings as small as 3 ½ inches up to as big as a wall. 

Last year I painted a mural at my school. Painting a mural was different experience than anything I could imagine. I had to use all the skills I knew in order to make a school mural. I was very nervous to start this because I knew that it would last almost forever, and it’s hard to erase your mistakes on a wall. I used chalk to sketch it out, acrylic paint and brushes to color and outline everything, and a gloss to make sure the paint didn’t fall off easily. It took around half a month to finish the painting with my friend’s help during the summer. Through rain, wind, and heat, we finished it together. The result was beautiful and we named it the IKAIR mural, because it defines creativity, caring for others, and no bullying.

The reason I love art so much is because the world would be so boring without it and everyone might  look exactly the same, and worst of all, show no personality. What I’m trying to say is that personal style is also a form of art.  Without art, there would be less color to this world. There are so many different genres of art, for example, musicians, people who create things with their hands, origami, paintings, drawings, and so much more. I try something new every single time I want to be creative.

Not only does art help with my creativity but it opens up my mind to other things. For example languages, I would consider languages an art because different places have different cultures and histories. I try to learn different languages as well. I know how to speak fluent Spanish, and I’m learning French on my own time and Japanese at school. Hopefully in the future I will learn so much more. 

Every single time I paint or draw, I hope that other people will be inspired by it, and help them to pursue  their hobbies, or dreams. I hope that in the future I will become a famous artist.