“ The best feeling is when you get home from a long day, eat some chocolate, and open your sketchbook to draw something that has been on your mind all day.” shares Alexis Rivera, a junior at Wilcox High School. Alexis is very passionate about art and holds great interest in sketching inanimate objects, especially floral designs, and weaponry. “ To me, art is just a great way to relax the brain. I love having a moment to procrastinate and sketch for fun when I need my mind to calm down and have a much more clear mind.”,she said, enthusiastically. It is easy to recognize Rivera’s love for art when you see her with her sketchbook and  pen in her hand. 

Art was a passion that Alexis grew up with and she had a very thorough journey with her love for drawing. From a very young age, she started doodling and illustrating unrealistic characters. Her mom expresses these drawings to be pretty eccentric and out of the ordinary. er creativity has always sparked and she seems to express her feelings through art remarkably. Starting middle school, Rivera began expanding on these ideas and used her creative flow to try new things. She started with drawing one type of flower, and moving on to different sorts and different plant species. She also started watching a lot of animes, which got her interested in animated style drawings. Her cousin got her very intrigued into drawing weaponry. Alexis mentions, “ I would watch my cousin play various video games, like Call of Duty, and it started to get me fascinated into the weapon designing portion of these video games.” 

As she started high school, the overwhelm of homework, adjusting to high school itself and its conditions, she began to have an art block. She describes this art block as an inability to produce any new creations or drawings in general. With the workload in high school and never having much free time on hand, it was hard to come up with any new ideas or find time to draw in general. Because she was so busy and could not find any inspiration or motivation, Rivera felt a lack of confidence in her art. Her biggest struggle was finishing a sketch and not being able to tell if she liked it or not, and feeling heavily unsatisfied at moments. She would ask herself questions like whether or not she should continue drawing. Balancing school with art is definitely a very difficult task to handle and it also made her discouraged.

This year however, she started stepping up her art game and slowly started trying to draw more. Rivera now likes to carry a sketchbook either in her bag or hand to take it with her whenever she finds like she will get inspiration from a certain place. If she feels unsupportive, dismayed, or a bit gloomy about how her art is turning out, she usually has a few tricks to get herself motivated again. If her drawing messes up she will try again on a new page, now knowing what to improve or what fixes she needs to make. Music also helps her when she needs to be more encouraged. She loves to sing along and feel the rhythm to help her focus on the different colors and textures being used in her pieces of work. 

Rivera plans to try out and explore different mixed medias, such as acrylics and watercolor. She also plans on using canvases or different types of bases to draw on. She plans to become a professional animator and artist one day, and her journey to that path can already be seen by her creative artwork and the passion she shows for art. She also loves photography and taking pictures of sunsets in her free time. Overall, Rivera is a very creative girl with much to share with the world with her very deep and meaningful art that she works very hard for.