Arlo Van Liew is a seventeen-year-old visual artist. They’re an incoming senior at Garfield High School and Seattle Central Community College. They’ve been drawing and making art focusing around their identity for a while. This fall they joined the teen art group at the the Seattle Art Museum and they have been taking classes at Gage since kindergarten. They chose Twice Sold Tales off Broadway as their place that sparks their creativity.
--
In what way does Twice Sold Tales spark your creativity?
This is going to sound creepy but I like to watch people reading in here and interacting because it’s kind of like a teen hub for a lot of people. Sometimes, I’ll spend a couple of hours in here walking back and forth and watching the interactions and drawing in another corner. I like the community that I get from it.
When did you first start creating art as a hobby?
It’s always been something I've kinda done but I'd say that I started getting more interested and invested in it near the end of middle school. It’s been an interesting thing because it’s always kinda been second to sports, because I used to do soccer and crew, but then I quit that in Freshman year. So my focus has been on art more throughout Sophomore and Junior year.
Do you have a certain artist that inspires you the most?
I used to draw a lot of inspiration from more classic renaissance artwork but I wasn’t really happy with the art I was creating, so it’s been interesting to kind of get more inspiration from modern artists. I also like a bunch of popular artists, but more of their sketch work. Derain has a lot of cool figure drawings that are super disproportionate and weird and you kind of get to learn that he’s really terrible at art but that’s what makes him really great. Basquiat has a really good use of texture.
What about someone in your life that inspires you?
I get a lot of inspiration from, not necessarily specific people, but from the genderqueer people in my life. I’ve been trying to focus more on art that explores gender that’s not so binary-focused and comes from a queer lense. It’s been very interesting to have discussions with my genderqueer friends on how they view gender and take inspiration from that.
The Office or Parks and Rec?
I would have to say Parks and Rec.
How does art impact your life?
I think for me, I use art for coping and to understand difficult events and things I’m feeling on a day to day basis. I think that if I didn’t have that, I’d be more of a mess than I am. So it allows me to cope and process hard realities.
Visually, what’s your favorite movie?
A lot of the movies that I find visually pleasing I hate the plotlines for. I really liked Ghost World. It’s really visually pleasing, it’s based on a comic so it’s supposed to be these caricatures of these people, but the plotline is gross. It’s about this high-schooler who’s in love with this 50-year-old man. When I actually watched it, I just watched it. But then the second time, I watched it with the voices off so I didn’t have to listen to the plot. I just watched her walk along these city streets in neon clothing. I also really liked H.E.R., but I… I don’t like the phone love.
What does a basic weekend look like for you?
A lot of crafting and stress-baking. I do a lot of bad embroidery and awful reality TV show watching too.
Do you have a place where you can display your art?
I have tried making various art accounts and putting it up on social media, but I have a lot of insecurity about that. I think my favorite thing is that, with my teacher Ms. Hungate, a lot of my art is seen as inappropriate for public school. So when she’s out of the classroom, I like to tape up my artwork on the wall and wait for her to notice.
Do you want to pursue a career in the arts?
Ideally, yes. At the moment, I want to do something with art or something art-oriented. Something that allows me to use my same imagination that I use in visual art, while still being able to make money.
What’s your least favorite food?
I think my least favorite, or the most sad I get while eating, is unsalted french fries.
How do your portray intersectionality in your artwork?
I am white and I am femme which takes up the majority of the art world, so it’s a balance of trying to represent a lot of different groups and a lot of different identities without speaking for them. I am an illustrator for the school newspaper which is a lot and lacks a lot of diversity. There’s not really an effort to speak to the audience of Garfield and really only speaks to the white, upper class portion of it. I’ve been trying to actually have representation within my illustrations so not just being unbelievably Eurocentric in my art and, instead, actually drawing people of color. Also trying to draw people who aren’t on one side of the binary or another. I’ve been trying to work on a lot of queer and LGBT art more because it’s something that is pretty close to home and it’s not seen enough of.
Where do you go for a late night snack in Seattle?
Either Rancho Bravo or Beth’s. You can spend hours at Beth’s and they won’t really care because they are very patient with young teens.
What TV show are you currently binge-watching?
Oh this is really embarrassing. I’ve recently gotten really into trashy straight romance TV shows. Um, I’ve been watching Are You the One?, which is a terrible TV show. I hate it so much but I’m really addicted to it. It’s about these eleven girls and eleven guys who enter a house and they have their perfect match but they don’t know it and they have to find it. It’s really trashy, but I watch it.
What inspired you to start drawing?
I was told when I was younger that I was good at it. I think that the main reason I did it at first and the reason I do it now are very different, but I think it was more just time-wasting and seeing if I could draw cute animals.
Who’s your style icon?
I can’t really think of any specific people. I think that I mostly get inspiration from people around me, especially people that defy gender expectations and dress more unconventionally. Um, I get a lot of inspiration from my grandparents. I actually recently saw that my grandma had tempurpedic velcro shoes so I went to Goodwill myself to find tempurpedic velcro shoes. I thought they looked cool and that I could wear them better than her, but I can’t. But I still have them!
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
I immediately want to say that I wish that I could read minds, but I think that if I actually had that power I would go crazy. I think that it’s just the insecure version of me wanting to know what people are saying all the time. It’s not the most fun superpower, but it’s probably the one I’d want the most.
How often do you work on you art?
I try and do it every day. I try to set aside an hour or thirty minutes every single day to make something. Um, I guess it varies for actual projects, which I haven’t been able to work on for a while.
Finally, would you consider yourself a part of the teen art scene in Seattle ?
Yeah! I’m apart of the teen arts group at the SAM and that’s a really wonderful group of people who are all artists. You get to look into the Seattle Art Museum and have a lot of opportunities to meet a bunch of artists. Part of it is seeing how they’ve made careers, and another is learning about curating and stuff. So yeah, I think distantly I’m connected.
Opmerkingen