CPS All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions

Teacher Name: Jennifer Trejo
Additional Teacher Names: Amanda Nadig, Marjorie Boyles, Alex Goldin
Grade: 12

Materials: Red colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: 8.5 x11 inches
Description: Featured in Intersect Chicago 2020 Showcase

Artist Statement: I have been making art since I could pick up a pencil. At my kindergarten graduation, we were asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. My answer is the same as it was when I was five years old, an artist. Beginning with crayons and finger paints, I now study art with a variety of mediums, primarily acrylic paint, and graphite. I have been inspired by gender, sexuality, and my own teen angst in my current work, using the small workspace I have to create. I am interested in portraiture and whimsical styles of art, which influences my work. I have had work exhibited in shows such as Intersect Chicago, IHSAE General Exhibition, CPS All-City General Exhibition Spring 2020, and awarded 2nd place in the Anti-Cruelty Societies Fall Art Contest. I am also a current student at Marwen, where I have taken art classes after my regular school day to enhance my art-making skills.

My portfolio showcases work that spans many mediums, and topics of discussion. I use art as a gateway to a conversation and create pieces that can have a range of meanings to myself as the artist. Art has become a way for me to express myself and my ideas with the small platform I have created for myself in the art world. These specific pieces I have submitted are work that I am most proud of and have been able to show many emotions through and process different things within the work itself. Ideas of self acceptance and my own feminine identity and what it means to be a woman have been able to exude out of these pieces, as many of them share similar values and characteristics. Creating art is not solely about creation to me, as it is a divide of understanding my own mind, and showing it to the world the best way I am able to.