\u201cAstronaut,\u201d by 17-year-old Paola Michelle Silva Liz\u00e1rraga, was selected by our judges as the 2019 Creative Outlook Cover Contest Winner.<\/p>\n
A senior at Centro de Ense\u00f1anza T\u00e9cnica y Superior (CETYS), Silva Liz\u00e1rraga resides in San Diego, Calif.<\/p>\n
A multi-media artist, Silva Liz\u00e1rraga\u2019s favorite medium to work with is film, particularly when it involves experimenting.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdd images to music, poetry to video, and something new erupts,\u201d Silva Liz\u00e1rraga said. \u201cCrafting a polished script is a difficult but rewarding process, but letting go in cinema can be very fun, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silva Liz\u00e1rraga is drawn to art in its many forms because it helps preserve information \u2013 almost making an artist a collector.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe colorful design of Japanese bubblegum, typography on a lost dog poster, science fiction comics, family gossip at dinner tables. Art lets me make connections off of things that inspire me, but have no relation on the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silva Liz\u00e1rraga dream is to be a filmmaker, comic book artist, illustrator and short story writer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my dreams, I\u2019m doing it all at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
When did you first discover your artistic talent?<\/strong><\/p>\n In their childhood, my parents lived in a small town in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Every summer, spring and winter vacation, they\u2019d drive me to it. With nothing to see, nothing to do in the town of dust, I grew bored. I planned my great escape, for which I only needed two things: a notebook and a pen. It was enough to explore all that the real world couldn\u2019t give me at the time, those infinite worlds of magic and fantasy.<\/p>\n In what ways has art impacted your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n My high school was filled with geniuses, statuesque models, athletes, adventurous people that were admired and respected. Or, at least, it felt so. Still, it made me believe I was too boring to be noticed, something inside me made it impossible to belong in this elite group. I turned to paintings and novels that talked about ordinary people, boring people like what I believed myself to be. It gave me the courage I needed to tell my story. I might not be athletic, a prodigy or special, but I had something to say. I drew illustrations that showed what I wanted to be, and with them, I found many people who felt ordinary, just like me.<\/p>\n What was your inspiration for \u201cAstronaut\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s this episode in \u201cMad Men\u201d where, after a secretary dies at an ad agency in New York, a certain character must deliver a eulogy for her. \u201cMad Men\u201d is, among many things, about what women could and couldn\u2019t be in the 1960s. What the character says about the deceased secretary puts it all into perspective: \u201cShe was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the thirty-seventh floor of a skyscraper. She was an astronaut.\u201d<\/p>\n All the women before me had been astronauts, conquering the unknown. Poets, painters, scientists, filmmakers who had many people against them. I don\u2019t want to be an astrophysicist, but I do want to soar the stars. I want to reach my dreams, and go beyond what\u2019s been done before.<\/p>\n How would you describe your piece of art if it were in a museum and you were giving the museum tour to a group of patrons?<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a drawing made in colored pencil of a woman out in space. The swirls around her are galaxies, they are stars. Notice how she looks beyond the frame. I like to think she, after an arduous journey out of Earth, gasps in joy at what she\u2019s found, or at what she\u2019s become.<\/p>\n What would you say to other students who are interested in art but haven\u2019t given it a try?<\/strong><\/p>\n Buy a notebook and take it everywhere. Observe and draw, take notes of the sketches you liked and didn\u2019t like. Doodle even that which does not exist, draw loosely.<\/p>\n Anything else you\u2019d like to add?<\/strong><\/p>\n Everybody can make art, and everyone has something to say. Sometimes art can be about not having anything to say. Rest in knowing that there\u2019s no prerequisites to be an artist. Cut and paste, doodle on pages, adjust the camera lens. It\u2019s valid, and it\u2019s art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"