Yarely Moreno (‘24), coming straight from the school’s AP Art class, is one of many excellent artists demonstrating their talent. Apart from hiking, watching animated shows, collecting cute mugs, and helping a local middle school, she has put in time and effort to make an outstanding collection of works. But what exactly makes her and her work stand out?
Moreno started out her art career, as most do, with very little. Her passion could be traced all the way back to kindergarten, where she took part in after school art classes which would foster her creative spirit. Her mother realized her interest early and would invest in art supplies. One of her favorite pastimes was painting, a medium which is still her preferred medium.
She has since branched out to other mediums such as digital art and colored pencils for quick sketches. Her personal pieces tend to center around everyday life and subjects she finds interesting or sometimes cute.
However, her work for AP Art has delved more into family relationships. This collection varies in subject matter, from exploring the difficulties endured by her parents emigrating to the United States to dealing with how some of these experiences echo in the present day.
Besides taking inspiration from her own life experiences, she also enjoys viewing street artwork by unrecognized artists. Her own art-style can be described as a distorted realism that adheres to the real life subject while not trying to replicate it realistically in its entirety.
However, she does not stay stagnant in one style and is open to experimenting. Recently she learned to develop her technique with colored pencils which seemed difficult and unfamiliar at first, but it is now becoming one of her favorite mediums of choice.
One of these works, Descanza en Paz, relates to her father’s journey to the United States from Mexico. Incorporating Catholic symbolism, her painting encapsulates the struggle that many take on to build a new life for their families.
Moreno has branched into more deep and thought provoking works, but in her free time, she devotes time to just appreciating more simple and personal subjects. As with many artists, her work serves as a way to destress and recenter herself from schoolwork and waiting to hear back from colleges. However she occasionally finds herself in the occasional setback. The AP Art class is very demanding and leaves her and many others drained from deadlines and working on multiple pieces at a time.
With that being said, she sees that taking a break is necessary after completing her portfolio, but that won’t stop her from helping her community through art. Throughout the past few years, she has been returning to her old middle school, Sacred Heart Nativity School, which aims to provide a Catholic education to low income students of the area; she helps run an art club to develop their own spark for art.
Some time in the future, regardless of her college plans, she will create more pieces and develop her artistic creations. And before she leaves Mitty this May, she would like to send a message to burgeoning artists that will follow her: this:
“Every piece of art does not have to be perfect. If you captured what you wanted to, it’s already perfect in its own way.”
Moreno is indeed excited to soon present her collection and invites all of her viewers and spectators to support her and other artists at the AP Art show in May.
