Pursuing a career in the arts means stepping into the world of creativity and passion. The arts are not only to express your creativity, it’s about preparing you to become a creative leader who will shape the future of culture, media, and society. If you’re considering this path, you will expect to spend countless hours in the studio whether it’s editing videos, singing, designing, or developing new forms of expression. This hands-on experience is where you create your own ideas and will sharpen your skills through experimentation, practice, and mentorship. Throughout your high school journey, you’ll be encouraged to challenge yourself, explore new techniques, and soon discover your unique voice as an artist. To explore this pathway more, I interviewed four individuals who are going to pursue a career in the arts. Through their stories of experiments, you’ll get a closer look at the challenges, breakthroughs, and passion of their creative journeys.
Roxanna Tena, senior, is preparing to take the next step in her artistic journey by attending Shoreline Community College, where she plans to major in theatre arts. In hopes to act with professional artists in the entertainment industry, “I want to continue growing creatively. I’ve always pushed myself to explore new roles either if it’s a small or big role,” said Tena. Like many kids, Tena once answered the age-old question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with something like “a doctor, the president, or a teacher.” But as she got older, that question became more real and personal. For Tena, the answers became more clear through her love of performing, “whenever I’m performing, it offers me a deep personal connection with others, and it’s incredibly rewarding because I made so many new memories!” said Tena. Her passion is more meaningful considering her background. As she has shared that her family didn’t grow up with musical theatre or theatre in general. Making her the first in her family to dive into the drama world. She has found her place in school productions with Kodiak and Shorewood Drama and the moment she stepped on the stage, she felt deeply in love of belonging on stage. Preparing for the next four years, she hopes to be involved in theater productions, performing with live bands, and exploring new creative paths. “I hope I’m still passionate about the work I do and always find a way to challenge myself as an artist,” she said.
Ellie Keatley, senior, plans on attending Washington State University, where she plans to major in Architecture. Although architecture is not just art and science of designing a structure building, “it’s who we are designing it for and how we want the building to have meaningful meaning behind it,”said Keatley. In our four years of high school we get to choose our art classes and many people would have taken art classes to improve their artistic skills. However, “art classes were never my thing. I mainly did my own thing without having a guide and taught myself on how I love being creative on my own,” said Keatly, ” Because no one should ever tell you what to do as an artist, just be yourself. As time passes, we start to think about who influences us the most. Keatley mentioned her nana. “My nana is one of my biggest influences because at her house she would have some sort of craft whether it’s crocheting or painting,” said Keatly. While we finish our last couple of months at Shorewood, we get to think about what our upcoming four years of college would look like. “Hopefully I get to design residential buildings because I love the feeling of freedom of art and would love to express myself if I have my own firm or maybe for someone’s firm,” said Keatley.
Lelaina Carter, senior, is headed to University of Washington, where she plans on double majoring in Theater and Education. Carter has been in the theater production since elementary school, but she has been taking drama classes her whole life. “Theater is not just for improving your creativity, it is a way to “share stories that need to be told, because to me theater isn’t just about telling a good story, it’s about telling an important story, something that fights for the greater good,” said Carter. Her parents are her artistic influences, both who majored in Theater. Carter’s parents supported her way into acting and dancing, “which allowed me to take risks knowing I would have the support to fail and ask for help,” said Carter. Throughout her years in theater, Carter has learned that growth often comes through struggles. “Your whole heart and soul needs to be in it if you want any sort of reward from your hard work,” said Carter. If you’re deciding to pursue theater, it requires significant time commitment and willingness to accept challenges. Carter’s advice is “it’s gonna suck, it’s gonna be hard and just when you want to quit, that’s when you keep going.” No matter how far you are from your career, remember failure is part of the process.
Osiris Chacona, senior, is flying his way to New York University, where he plans on majoring in Film and Television. Film is not only to interpret the complex visual texts, but it’s about the beauty of cinematic language that tells the greatest stories. After watching a movie called Transformers By Michael Bay, Chacona started to make his own films on his mom ipad since elementary. As we watch films we think about who directed the film or who edited the most amazing sound effect, Chacona mentioned Jane Schoenburn, David Lynch, and Matt Johnson are his key inspiration. He admires how each director “despite their budget and resources, they committed themselves to their art and made something great.” As Chacona starts a new chapter of filmmaking in NYU, he is both realistic and resilient about pre-production and
post-production, “ It depends on the project,” said Chacona. When asked about the biggest challenge in bringing a script to life, “I usually try to write scripts that I know I have the resources to film, but sometimes things will not go to plan on set.” Looking ahead, Chacona sees themselves working hands-on in the industry, “Hopefully on a film set or in the editing room,” I asked Chacona what advice he would give to other aspiring artists: “Make as much art as you can. I’ve improved the most from just making as much art as I can and not caring if the output is good or bad. Obviously it’s important to strive to make good art but sometimes fear of failure stops you from making anything,” said Chacona.
