Grad Talks Art with Students, School Board

The works displayed on an easel at the East Hampton School Board meeting on Jan. 8 ranged from simple gestures in graphite to a painting featuring a complex series of geometrical shapes which the artist, 2012 EHHS grad Esteban Aguilar, took three days to complete.

"The professor is very strict," said the Keystone College visual arts major. "I had to make my own colors for this piece. Nothing came out of a tube."

Esteban had spent the day prior to the evening meeting speaking with four different classes, including the Advanced Placement Studio Art class taught by Heather Evans. He described to the students his experiences as a freshman, learning to balance his time between regular school work, his art class assignments, soccer practice, and, of course, eating and sleeping.

"Coming from Ms. Antczak's class made my life a lot easier," he told the school board of his experience in Mary Antczak's 2D Design class. "I used what I learned a lot. For this piece," he pointed to the complex color painting, "the computer skills I had probably cut my time down by a whole night's work."

Esteban also discussed how he applied his EHHS art class experiences to his college art classes: drawing from observation, composition, AP Studio deadlines and critique, graphic design work in Adobe illustrator and Photoshop, and presentation and matting techniques. 

While still a senior at East Hampton, Esteban received the best in show award for graphic design from Suffolk County Community College for his entry in the Design for our Times exhibit.  

"As a high school student, my teachers prepared me for college, which gave me a hand up," he offered. "I already knew all the programs by heart."