As an aspiring artist, the hardest thing to do is get your art recognized and your name matched to it. Students here at Holmes have used the power of social media and friends to promote their artwork, allowing them to create small businesses within the school.
These students are well known for the variety of art they create such as painting pictures, sewing, and small, crafty alterations to clothes. They make a variation of art reaching almost any crowd and want.
“I sell t-shirts that have nothing on them, and then I paint little things on them like flowers, cats, or logos, whatever people want. I first started off for fun with my own clothes, but this guy reached out to me who has his own clothing line, and he asked me if I could make some for him. So I made ten shirts for him with his logo on it or whatever he wanted, and he sold them for himself,” Junior Emily Sandoval said.
CAPTION: Junior Emily Sandoval paints famous icon Frida Kahlo on a t-shirt.
It is well known by artists that their art cannot be rushed; it takes inspiration and time for creativity to come into effect. For a lot of artists some of their best work was completely by accident.
“I’ve always liked art, sewing, cutting up stuff, so it kind of just happened. I would just like randomly be painting stuff. And I’d get paint on my shirt or I’d get little spots, and I would just cut it off and alter it, and it kind of just stuck, and I started making more things,” Junior Ashley Tamay said.
CAPTION: A shirt hand painted by Junior Ashley Tamay, inspired by Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.
These artists have had the capability to share their art enough for the public to respond. People are willing to spend money for their clothes and artwork, which is extremely hard for young artists to accomplish.
“I go to Corpus Christi to all these ranches that have these big propane tanks, and I paint on them, I got a lot of offers from people to do it to theirs. And during Halloween I cut out these huge sugar skulls and sell them for like $150,” Sandoval said.
CAPTION: Junior Emily Sandoval paints sugar skulls for halloween, and sells them to families and friends.
Social media has become one of the best ways to advertise and share to the public what they’re creating, these artists use that to their advantage by creating social media accounts that will help promote their art. This also allows for people to reach out to them and share what they think and let the artists know if they’re interested.
“Towards the end of freshman year and the beginning of my sophomore year I kind of started by fixing things up for my friends, and then sophomore year I put myself out there. I made a Instagram and twitter account for sunyraes, and people would ask me to fix up their shorts or turn their pants into shorts, or sew patches onto them,” Tamay said.
CAPTION: Tamay can make just about anything your heart desires, she alters bags, T-shirts, and even hair clips.
For a lot of people art is just a hobby that they do on the side after school or work, but many people turn their art into a career. This allows them to make a career out of creating things that they love while expressing themselves freely.
“Painting is just a hobby for right now, but I definitely want to major in art when I’m older,” Sandoval said.
When it comes to clothes these artists can be very resourceful. Instead of buying a $40 name brand t-shirt they can buy an article of clothing from a thrift store for no more than $10 and customize it however they want.
“I get most of my clothes from goodwill or clothes that my cousin gives me, and I try to fix it up to make it look it good,” Tamay said.
CAPTION: Tamay has turned a regular T-shirt into a customized Pacman V-neck to give it a more edgy look.
These artists work hard to get their artwork recognized even though some like the laid back slow business, but all artists love to be appreciated for their work.
“I don’t like that much attention, but getting my art out there is nice. I like the feeling of people knowing it was me who did the art,” Sandoval said.
CAPTION: Sandoval paints propane tanks at ranches in Corpus Christi to give beauty to something that was once so plain.
To buy specialized artwork, buy clothing, or to even give a special comment, follow @emilysandovall and @sunyraes on Instagram.