In middle school, I had a teacher who policed every - line we put down on the paper. I walked into class one day and was handed a flower. We were each assigned a specific one and told... “Draw it.” They were all somewhat similar, and we weren’t allowed to add anything to it. We weren’t allowed to make it our own piece. We had to draw the flower, and that was it. I believe art should not be policed; it is a personal expression.

Art classes... have always been a challenge for me, because in art classes, you are confined to a certain medium. They don’t give you any room to be creative. An open studio-type class would be better for artists to be able to continue to grow, but also develop their personalized style.

I’m very into “cartoony”, stylized artwork. My drawings are very unique-looking. I’m not even sure how to explain where my ideas originate, which is one reason I consider my artwork... unique. I also like to look at real life subjects and then draw or paint them with my own twist.

One art class I did really like was Photography. Even though we were assigned a specific theme we had to photograph, there was still room for us to do our own thing. For one of our projects, we had to select a photographer and imitate their artwork while making it our own. I was able to choose the artist whose style interested me the most. I chose Cecil Beaton because I thought his photography reflected a style that I like. The contrast, the lighting, and the subjects in general were really amazing. It was fun to try to semi-recreate his artwork and use the same aspects while putting myself into it.

Everyone is an artist in their own way, but not everyone is allowed to express it. There is too much censoring of music, writing, drawing and more. It feels like if one person doesn’t like something, it isn’t allowed. I believe artists deserve...freedom. Every single thing is art, and without the freedom of expression, there would be no development of anything.