Art Show Features Work from Four Seniors

Chatham Charter High School Art IV seniors showcased their work in the annual Senior Art Show on April 19. Kinzey Callihan, Lillie Jones, Julia Moore and Maggie Parks each displayed 10-12 of their creations and discussed their inspiration with visitors from K-12 students during the school day, as well as to family, friends and arts supporters after hours. Below are the artists’ statements, also presented at the show.

Maggie Parks

I have attended Chatham Charter for 13 years and have been taking art classes here for 12. I don’t know why, but art has always come a little easier to me. It feels great knowing that I can succeed in a class while I’m also taking harder classes at the same time. I never intended to take an art class to improve my artistic abilities, but just to have fun with something I was good at and loved. My art says a lot about me because of the bright colors and the fact that it’s pretty unorganized.  I’m inspired by memories and places I’ve been because I love being able to recreate something I’ve seen or done in my own interpretation. For example, I traveled to New York City for New Years Eve in 2022 and captured a photo of the Radio City Music sign, and I used acrylic paint to recreate it on a huge canvas. I find new inspiration for my art every day.

Lillian Jones

I am an Art IV student at Chatham Charter and have attended here since my Freshman year.  I have been creating art ever since I was young and have always enjoyed the process. I use art as a form of expression and a way of conveying certain emotions. I like capturing the world around me, so Realism has always been an inspiration. I love focusing on the small details of a scene and watching as the piece slowly comes together. For example, the small highlights and details of my charcoal piece entitled “Skater” are what made it so cohesive. On the other hand, I also take a lot of inspiration from Impressionists, like Monet. He captured only the impression of a scene and created a stylized version of reality. It was the world, the way he saw it. I love the way art can be expressed in many different ways depending on the “lens” of the artist. 

Julia Moore

I have attended Chatham Charter since Kindergarten and enjoyed taking art classes here over the years. I decided to take Art 1 freshman year and loved being able to see my progress throughout the semester. This inspired me to continue my advancement of art, so I decided to take an art class each year. Now that I am a senior, seeing my progression grow over 4 years gave me a new passion and love for art. I enjoy creating art pieces of things like cats, the beach, sailboats, and other concepts that describe myself.  I am also fond of creating art that involves memorable moments in my life. For example, I did a wall painting in Art 3 of sailboats in the water. This was a real picture of my friends and me sailing at Camp Don Lee. Sailing is a big part of my life as I go to this camp every year and will be a camp counselor this summer. Being able to do the art show this year, especially as a senior, is very sentimental as I get to show my growth over the last 4 years. I know the skills I have learned from art classes and Mrs. Eldridge over the years will continue with me as I continue on to college in a couple of months.  

Kinzey Callihan

I typically do digital art and basically started this form of art in 6th grade after looking at online YouTube videos of speed painting. Since I could pick up a pencil, I have been drawing. My inspiration for the art I make comes from video games and music that I like. My art shows my interests and expresses who I am as a person- quiet, but expressive. I love to draw characters from video games and have made quite a few pieces based on these games. I enjoy drawing the environments from “Five Nights at Freddys”;  the colorful, yet unsettling areas (backgrounds) are always fun to recreate in my artworks. An example of this is a piece I did recently entitled “I Was The First”.  While not super colorful, it is rather unsettling and does a wonderful job of showing the creepy feel these environments have in the game series.  I plan to continue pursuing art as my future career.