Expressive. Strong. Emotional. These are the words that senior Luisa Ortiz uses to describe her paintings.
“Feelings, things that I go through, are inspirations,” said Ortiz.
After entering high school, Ortiz found that she was struggling with classes, which caused her to feel frustrated, anxious and trapped.
“It was too stressful,” said Ortiz. “I don’t work well under a lot of pressure.”
She joined the Opportunity for Change program as a junior, and the stable environment it provided helped her feel more relaxed and improve her grades.
Ortiz created paintings last year that convey her feelings; they are dark and quite intense.
One portrays a bald, scrawny man screaming as black spears shoot out of his mouth. His eyes are screwed shut and the veins in his neck protrude. Another painting depicts a very pale man surrounded by darkness. His eyes bulge out, pure white with no pupils, and his mouth is open in a scream. His hands clutch his face.
Visual arts teacher Donna Sartanowicz, who is Ortiz’s Advanced Placement Studio Art teacher this year, said that Ortiz is working hard in class, using her art to express complex ideas.
“I think that working visually really is something that opens up her thinking and also allows her to relax a little bit into things,” said Sartanowicz. “I think that part of it is working for her really well.”
Since entering high school, Ortiz has taken several art electives, starting with Drawing I and Photography I and eventually taking AP Studio Art this year. She has also participated in programs at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, along with at Lesley University’s Art Institute of Boston.
For the future, Ortiz is interested in interior design. She doesn’t intend to become a painter, as she believes that her art is too personal to share publicly. However, she still hopes that art will be some part of her future.
“She’s undergone some radical changes with how her work is developing over these past few months,” said Sartanowicz. “She’s still in high school. She’s still finding out what her style is, what her subject is.”
Olivia Shiffman can be contacted at [email protected].
