MAC May Student Spotlight: Maelle

As many of you may know, MAC hosted a Student Art Show this past month, and it was a tremendous success, with many students selling their pieces! We had a huge number of entries from Ms. Ellis' art class at Mammoth Middle School, so this month we sat down to talk to MMS student Maelle about her art, submitting to the MAC shows (not just the student one!) and how she feels about art in her own life.

Maelle in front of a wall of student artwork at MMS. These are all student pieces from Ms. Ellis' Art Class!

Why do you love art?

I love art because you have this idea in your brain and you can make it into anything - and along the way of making it, your brain comes up with new ideas! It just helps you create the things that you want to create.

Have you been doing art for a long time?

Yes, but my art when I was small was not very good - it was stick men and corner suns! Then, I was in Ms. Ellis' class, and I drew my cat last year  - which improved from when I drew my dogs without a snout at all. I watched videos and art class has helped a lot.

Do you have a favorite piece of art you have created?

I do like the ones I put in the art shows at MAC because they represent me, in a way. The Through the Looking Glass (MAC's student art show) one especially - because it has mountains and I love mountains and it also has my 2 fave colors green and purple and it has my faucet that represents my faucet at home which is good.

What would you say to a friend to get them interested in art?

First I'd ask them if they have something they'd like to create, and if they do - then I would tell them that they can create it with art. You can create with cardboard like I did to make my book for the (upcoming MAC) Regeneration show. You can create with clay - and it doesn't have to be realistic - you can do anything! Art can be so FUN - I worked with some acrylics and watercolors at home and I finger-water painted and it was so fun!

Do you think art is important? Why?

It depends on how you look at it. If you think art is important, and if it's part of your life - and if it helps you calm down - then you will think it's important. If you just think it's fun and if you don't really value it as much as others, then it doesn't seem as important. But it is important to me! For me, it's that I get to express myself in many different ways.

What do you love to create the most?

The things that just pop into my brain - the unexpected! I'll walk in (to art class at MMS) and know what I want to make!

Is there anything else we should know?

A lot of my art is based off my daily life. When I was a kid (smaller than I am now!) I used to go outside and draw the birds that were at my bird feeder, and I have a lot of drawings of my cats and dogs. I also watch videos, and I practice drawing what they draw. I especially like OC (Original Character) challenges, where you get different parts of a body to draw, like eyes, or poses or skin tone - and then you draw them all, and then combine them to create a character at the end.

I also have a YouTube Channel, and I did an OC challenge for that - and the main character in my YouTube channel is one of those challenges!