CG: Hi!

9th grader Tyler Christensen: Hi.

CG: Thank you for letting me interview you.

TC: Yeah, totally.

CG: Okay, so my first question is, how long have you been drawing and painting? And how did you get started,

TC: I’ve been kind of drawing and painting, like professionally and non professionally for like, basically my whole life. Because like, I’ve been like, into art since I was like a little tiny kid doing like finger paintings and like, little like cartoon drawings and whatever. And then I just kind of kept doing it and like school art classes and like, stuff like that. And then I kind of started doing it a lot, a lot more seriously in middle school. And I went to like a summer camp in like California and started doing like some commissions and like, full like, like, paintings and stuff. So.

CG: So how has the painting affected your life?

TC: Well, I feel like it can be stressful and like also a stress reliever, because like, once you’re doing it, it’s like really calming. And like, it feels good to like, just create something, like be able to look at somebody and be like, yeah, I made that. But at the same time, it’s like, you can be like, really self-critical of that. And you can get kind of obsessed with, like perfecting an art piece, and like, whatever and like, kind of ignoring other responsibilities you might have for art. So I feel like it’s definitely affected me like, negative and positive ways. But the positive ways usually outweigh the negatives. So yeah.

CG: So what has been the most important experience that you’ve gotten to have? Because of your art? And how has that affected you today?

TC: I’d say one of the most important experiences I had to do with art was going to kind of like a pre-college summer art school camp. And it was like two weeks long, and it was just like a really kind of like, almost like life-changing experience. Because it was just like super focused. And it like kind of like, discovered this, like, passion that like I might actually want to do this is like, more than just kind of like a hobby, or something. Yeah.

CG: Yeah, so what do you see in your future with art?

TC: I definitely could see myself going to either or school or a liberal arts school, for college, but I definitely whatever I end up majoring in whether it be like biology or are I definitely would, like there would art what exists in some form and like an ASP every aspect of my life and like the future, so.

CG: So do you have any things that you hope to accomplish in art in the future?

TC: Well, I’m really excited to like start building portfolios, like apply to like art programs, and like, even like college and stuff like that, even though I’m not necessarily sure if I will end up going to art college, I’m excited to like, begin putting together a portfolio and again, making a just a lot more like full complete pieces. I’m like a lot of planning and stuff. So.

CG: So do you have any pieces that you’d say you’re the most proud of?

TC: Yeah, I’d say like a lot of my more recent paintings I’m more I’m really proud of, because I’ve been like really like kind of pushing what I thought was like I could accomplish or like, what I thought I could create because like I didn’t do many, like super detailed and like acrylic paintings really before and I just kind of did like some like practice stuff and just like use some acrylic and like, background work and did like the school projects I was assigned, but like I’ve been like actually doing like full paintings and that is like really cool.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Clara Garner

Christensen holds up an original sketch.