Slump, acrylic, ink
Lauren Pritchard
Carmel High School | Senior
Hello! My name is Lauren Pritchard—I am a senior at Carmel High School, California. While I have enrolled in art classes all four years of high school, I started my “artistic journey” many years before. Around the second grade, I began to practice drawing and painting basic images with one of my friends. I occasionally continued to practice throughout both elementary and middle school.
Upon reaching high school, my artwork morphed into a form of self-expression rather than a simple hobby. I learned to use various materials and experiment with different mediums. I also felt much more comfortable with my basic abilities. Communicating my thoughts and ideas through artwork was difficult to learn, but after years of practice, I feel much more confident. I take my artwork seriously, and I am most proud of my pieces when they successfully portray a particular message. I often use facial expressions within my artwork to emphasize the mood. Additionally, I work with a range of media —acrylic paint, oil paint, watercolor, marker and colored pencil. Slump was created using acrylic paint and marker.
I created this piece in the beginning of quarantine; I was hopeful that this extra time would provide an excellent opportunity to work on my projects. I gathered countless supplies from the art room before school closure, determined to create art over summer. At first, I felt relatively successful. However, I quickly “hit a wall” in my progress. This piece represents my lack of inspiration over the past few months—I used myself as a reference for the woman. The dulled colors within the mask represent my occasional pessimistic outlook. The clock is a general symbol for the time passed since quarantine began.