Featured Artist: Rowan Turner

Senior Rowan Turner has been creating artwork all through high school and her life. She is currently in an International Baccalaureate art class.

Q: When did you get into art?

A: I’ve always just been artistically inclined and that’s just something I’ve done all through school. I’ve taken bunches of art classes and I always like to try things and see what happens. Art is a good way to do that and just explore making stuff.

Q: Do you have anything that influences you?

A: I don’t really actively recognize what it is, but there is always something. When I’m finished with a project it sort of comes to me. I’m like, “Oh yeah that’s where I got that idea.” I see that the project is based on something I’d seen earlier. Just looking at any and all kinds of art, in general, is good because it gives you many ideas. Not necessarily to copy someone, but to take parts of it you like and make your own thing using those ideas.

Q: What has been your favorite part in your art experience? Why?

A: I really like the International Baccalaureate art class I am in this year. We have a lot of freedom and you can really do what you want to do.  There really aren’t any restrictions of what you can make. They always have suggestions and guidelines of what you can make, but if you don’t want to do that you can really make it your own.  You have so much creative freedom to explore what it is you like to make. 

Q: What is your process in coming up with an idea?

A: When I get stuck I try not thinking about it at all. I just block it out, and if I find something that’s really inspiring, not even related to art, all I think is, “Hey I want to make something like that.” It’s more spontaneous rather than trying to think of an idea. When I try too hard to come up with an idea, it never works out.

Q: Do you have any favorite pieces? What do you like about them?

A: Recently with all the things I’ve been doing with computers I made these really huge prints of represented data. I took a picture, put it into a sound editing program and it turned into a sound you can listen to on the computer. Since I thought that it was really cool, I saved it as a picture and it turned into this ginormous mess of colors and shapes.  I really liked them a lot because of what they look like and the process behind them. I was able to come up with something I thought was unique.