Through the Eyes of an Artist

At Alpine Valley School, students are free to pursue their passions; over time, they come to know those pursuits extremely well. As evidence, here is an excerpt from the graduation thesis of a recent AVS alumna. Not only is she an accomplished young artist, but by developing her art over several years as an Alpine Valley student, she comprehends what it means to view the world artistically...

Drawing is a form of self-expression: it’s also having the patience or maybe the wonder and awe of something so intricate as understanding what makes something look the way it does, then having the skill to reproduce that intricacy on a two-dimensional plane. Drawing is mostly seeing the way things really look, and that takes a lot of training because it isn’t a natural thing to do. Humans were never meant to sit and look at something for hours on end; it’s a dangerous thing to do out in the wild.

When you start looking at life through the eyes of an artist, you start to see small shapes that build up bigger shapes that we recognize as everyday objects—like your car.  You start to see the contrast where the most light hits the car versus the parts that are in shadow. You start to see shapes in the shadow and the light, patches that are lighter and darker, all sorts of shapes fitting together to make up what we see as a car.

The process of drawing is long and intensive, and artists don’t always end up with something good. Still, I love all of drawing, and no matter how hard something is, no matter how frustrating it gets, I always feel that I can learn enough to push past it. I respect every ugly piece of artwork I’ve ever drawn, because the mistakes I made in those works helped me understand what I was doing and how I wanted to approach new works.

The only way to get really good at drawing is to be ready to throw out everything you’ve drawn to get something better, believing you’re good enough to make it work. When I draw something that looks so real that adjusting part of the picture feels like reaching into the page and molding something three-dimensional, it’s like magic.

Passion, confidence, vision and persistence: these qualities come standard with an Alpine Valley School education, and serve our graduates well in both their professional and personal lives. If you agree that all young people deserve the opportunity to realize their potential, consider enrolling your children today—and let others know about this school where students learn to see life for what is, and what it can become.