On Accent Barriers:

In this comic strip I “Deconstruct the Lens” by illustrating the reality of struggles immigrants living in the United States face daily. With something as simple as communicating one’s food order, there can be challenges for immigrants such as having a non-American accent, which American society doesn't even consider as an issue since this group doesn’t experience it first-hand. I am the daughter of Venezuelan immigrants currently living in the United States and as an artist I draw inspiration from my own experience.

On Marsha P. Johnson!:

Marsha P. Johnson was a black trans woman who was a crucial and revolutionary member of the Stonewall Riots which occurred in 1969. The Stonewall Riots are a major event in favor of gay liberation and LGBTQ+ rights in the United States and in the world. Johnson is believed to have thrown the first brick at the riots, and fought back police brutality, as well as made numerous contributions for the community as a gay rights activist. Stories of incredibly influential people like Marsha P. Johnson and many more are the reason events such as Pride exist now. But these stories still aren't taught and talked about enough which is why I invite the audience to “deconstruct the lens” of what they think they know and continue to educate themselves on the history and importance of the LGBTQ+ community.

- Anastasia Cadenas

Andrew Cintron was born on November 28th, 2003, in Bakersfield, CA. From his obsession with superheroes as a child, Cintron’s passions grew to include skateboarding. Skateboarding has been an important part of his life ever since then, dreaming of becoming a professional someday. However, dealing with multiple injuries changed the direction of his interests towards creating and loving art, taking his first art class as a junior. He notes that the school lockdown from COVID accompanied by a bad sprain of his ankle motivated him to paint persistently and better his craft since this was the only thing he could physically do. Since then, Cintron has developed a practice that aims to represent certain icons of pop that are meaningful to him – his exploration of painting on non-traditional surfaces is not only fun but provides a richer framework for evaluating the image rendered.

To me, painting is very similar to skateboarding because the more you try, the better you get. I started out painting cartoons because I didn’t know how to blend. Then once I learned, that changed my whole perspective. I enjoy art because it is fun and I like to see all the steps I took to get to the finished product. I used to do time lapses when I first started, and you could see from start to finish. Art has changed a lot about me. Now I want to become an art teacher so I can continue creating art for a living.

- Andrew Cintron

I was born in Hoboken, NJ and grew up in Newark, NJ. I moved to the small city of Ridgecrest, CA while I was in high school, now a high school graduate. I'm the third oldest in a blended family of six siblings. Ever since I was four years old, I have loved sketching and painting - those around me have had a profound eff ect how I viewed the world around me, especially my family. My grandpa would always play music every sing time I would visit him. Not only that, there were famous singers and animators that also played a part in how I viewed art.

I use various materials, but my favorite medium is oil paint, as it allows me to create depth with color and smooth textures to showcase what I render. My artwork focuses on social, emotional, and cultural issues and how they relate to daily life, such as how one currently expresses their identity and how that expression may change for the future. Future subjects I would love to explore are music, Latin culture, and animation. After high school, I hope to study illustration and eventually work in animation and fi lm as a storyboard artist.

- Carina DeJesus

Amari Griggs is a 17-year-old digital artist, born and raised in California. She has had an interest in art since a very young age, creating her own stories and characters as a means of self-expression. She vividly recalls a fascination with the production process for the entertainment she enjoyed, and she started taking her passion for the arts seriously around the age of 14. Drawing inspiration from several forms of media throughout her life — video games, animation, and comics — she hopes to attend art school to study illustration and graphic design to pursue a professional career in the creative field as a character designer.

My pieces are heavily influenced by [the work] of my favorite artists -- such as Fiona Staples and Sarah Stone, to name a few -- most of whom either create work for comic books or do freelance illustration in which they manage their own online presence, projects, and/or stores. Focused on character design and background, my digital art attempts to communicate important aspects of the subject through composition and color palette. While multiple themes are present in each work, I am currently most interested in exploring design and situations which amplify and affirm the subject’s personality and overall vibe.

– Amari Griggs

Art is my method of not only revealing my worldviews but telling tales that people can connect with. I aspire for my artwork to produce a unique meaning to those who view it and for my audience to see themselves in the compositions and stories I conceive. Individual narratives of the human experience are located throughout my work as I venture to convey sensations and experiences that otherwise might not be addressed in conversation, experiences that may aff ect one’s mental health for the worse.

Dispelling conventional ideas that are ingrained in our culture is a crucial portion of my work. Topics such as the value of mental well-being or living with a disability are things I desire [for] my craft to communicate. Every piece I produce has a story behind it: a story that has importance to me, a story that others can see themselves in. While I embrace experimenting with unique mediums, such as pastels, charcoal, and gouache, the root of my pieces stems from pen and paper. Through my pen, tales of human existence awaken.

I was born in Bakersfield, CA to two wonderful parents, who have always supported me in my pursuit of illustration. Growing up, my enthusiasm for art and creativity was apparent; the numerous paintings and drawings I produced were framed on our walls or given to my family members as a gift. Now sixteen, I recognize that my passion for storytelling has accompanied me from my childhood into my teenage years and will stay with me for many years to come. I hope to attend an art school in southern California after I graduate from Heartland Charter School so I can pursue my dream of being an illustrator.

While a career as an artist is what I’ve always dreamt of, continuing to compose pieces and narratives that people relate to has much more value to me. Illustration allows the audience to connect visually with a story; through visualization, I can create and display tales of human existence. Inspiration comes to me through many people. Th ose close to me have had a tremendous impact on the stories I tell, but the person sitting next to me in a coff ee shop has a story that needs telling too. Using simplistic, foundational materials, such as pens, graphite, and paper, I produce work that conveys sentiment and experience. With such a short time spent on this earth and a life still yet to live, my pieces will continue to evolve with me, but one thing will forever be the same: my impact on the world will be through pen and paper.

- Isabella “Izzy” Herrera

Bianca Loera was born in Bakersfield, CA on May 14th, 2002. Though she recalls making clothes for her Barbie dolls as a child, Loera did not become interested in the arts until the age of 11 and now considers art to be her most important hobby. Her initial cartoon drawings led to her to develop her own signature style within a digital medium. For Loera, the digital medium allows her the flexibility to edit and evolve the details of her work, as well as maintain consistency in practicing her art every day. Her other pastimes include crocheting, listening to music, spending time with her family, and traveling. She plans on attending college to earn her Associate in Arts degree in Studio Art so that she can pursue her dream career in animation or storyboard writing. Furthermore, she hopes to pursue fashion design and create merchandise based on her own style that would appeal to a like-minded commercial audience. With an affinity for a vibrant color palette and fantastical characters, Loera’s states that inspiration can come from any place, but most importantly from the people that support her in her success, and those that keep her excited to create.

People focus on race, sexuality, and the way they choose to express themselves, but in the end, all of this should not matter, for it’s only natural to be different. Besides the colorful and cartoony feeling that my style may bring, I want the viewer to relate to my work in complex ways as it represents multiple experiences and realities.

- Bianca Loera

My painting is called “Conjoined Feast”. I decided to paint about women from different cultures and ethnicities to come together and enjoy a meal together. When women get together there is always something special about it. I took inspiration from Leonardo Da Vinci’s piece The Last Supper (1498). The idea of just having people come and have a meal together is what I took from it. The meaning behind my piece is that no matter what part of the world you are in and whatever it is you believe, we can always try to come together and have a lovely meal with one another. The foods are from all around the world to represent some countries that are not in person, I also added some special sceneries from different cultures as well in the background, from the eagle constellation to the cherry blossoms.

- Mayra Lugo

Born October 3, 2003, in Bakersfield, CA, Elyjah “Ely” Madera was raised in a family of artists. Her mother studied more traditional art and her father works in fabrication building vehicles and their accessories. Though Madera hopes to enter the medical field and become a registered nurse, she hopes to pursue an art career on the side and sell original works of art. Madera’s biggest inspiration is her hometown of Lamont, CA. Seeing how people have grown and how they take care of others informs her life choices and inspires her to become better.

My work shows how I see my town. This isn't a town of crime like the media portrays it is a town of people that are working their hardest to succeed in their own small way. Family is very important here, if they will help anyone with a problem, that is struggling. This town has a beautiful community that is never shown. I use a big mixture of different media to show the spectrum of people here. Nothing is plain and simple here, it’s energetic and colorful.

- Ely Madera

Born in Bakersfield, Danielle “Dani” Richert grew up being the only artist in her family. From a young age, Richert was taught the importance of theology and sound spiritual doctrine. Her faith became a source of purpose and comfort that would soon be reflected in her artistic studies and shared with others as she began lettering positive phrases and Bible verses. Richert believes that a pivotal moment in her creative journey occurred during an assignment she did for art class in her sophomore year of high school; the project was to create illustrations for a children’s book. While creating book illustrations with her iPad, her love for digital art grew immensely.

She realized that art could be expressed in many different mediums and was attracted to digital art because of the freedom that it gave her to make mistakes and try new things. Richert used her love for digital art, social media, and paper crafting to start a custom greeting card business in 2019, called D.I.Y. Dani. As an artist, Richert focuses on topics like the importance of community, appreciation of Bakersfield, mental health, and her faith. She enjoys working with digital mediums and paper crafting methods to convey her messages. Richert is not sure how she will use her artistic abilities in her future, but she knows that creating is something she will do for the rest of her life.

My projects shed light on mental health and religion by encouraging its viewers to undergo self-reflection. I experimented with various mediums to bring my projects to life, using a combination of digital mediums, augmented reality programs, and methods of paper crafting. My first project introduces the conversation about how holidays are not always as joyous as they appear for many people. There is a certain unrealistic pressure to be outwardly festive around holidays that should be talked about more. My second piece emphasizes the purpose of human creation, which is to bring The Creator ultimate glory. This interactive filter is intended to be “art that can be taken home,” as you, yourself transform into art and become part of my artistic narrative.

- Dani Richert

Raised by an immigrant mother from Barcelona, and a conservative American dad in the city of Bakersfield, it is definitive to say that I was raised by two people with very opposing backgrounds. Viewing the unusual and fresh art plastered on street walls, museums, and historic buildings in Barcelona moved me deeply as a young kid. Growing up, I was raised and introduced in and around many different communities and cultures. I believe this came through immediately as an influence on my art and my opinions on societal constructs. I have always been intrigued with the unusual and surreal art, as well as art that can send a strong message. Viewing society through different scopes and perspectives continues to make me advocate for many disenfranchised communities in California, and America in general. With all these influences, creating art can be a very cerebral and sensory based experience. When I sit down to make my art, I find the best work comes when thinking about these topics in depth, as well as putting my feelings about it on canvas. My opinions and ideas are permanently printed in acrylic paint for others to observe and judge. I plan to use my progressive thinking, boldness, and skills in my future as a graphic designer.

- Natalie Ridley

Born in 2003 in Bakersfield, CA, May’C Rogers has always been fascinated and passionate in contrasting music, photography, and art. Born into an artistic family, Rogers’ exposure to various art forms led her to discover the joy of art making. From scribbling her favorite animals in crayon, Rogers now experiments with hyper-realism in different mediums. Whether they stem from her imagination or the natural world, she employs a monochrome color palette with ink and graphite, and occasionally works within a traditional painting practice.

Some themes Rogers is concerned with include Humans and the Environment, and Identity. She has found that implementing abstract elements into her work brings it more to life, while broadening her horizons for discussion. Before she begins a piece, she makes a rough sketch and researches topics related to her subject or theme to put her in the mood she wishes to convey in the piece.  Pulling from life experiences, Rogers admits that she is never fully satisfied with her work, as she feels there is always something upon which she can build. Nonetheless, she hopes that following high school she can pursue her studies in art abroad.

I was born on November 11th, 2003, in Bakersfield California. As a child, I’ve always shown great interest in drawing. I grew up staying mostly inside the house, so I had lots of exposure to movies, television shows, cartoons, and video games. My earliest drawings mostly included me trying to recreate these stories I’ve seen through drawing them and making “books”, though, without any words in them as I was too young to spell. I believe it is this beginning that led me on my path in art. Instead of copying things I’ve seen, I took inspiration from them and developed my own style - an expressive, stylized, cartoonish style. I mainly create digital pieces, but I tend to experiment with traditional paints and inks as well. I want my style to be something fun to look at, something that's easy to understand and digest. [In the future] I’d like to work on a project that inspires to create, similar to how people inspired me to create as a child. I am glad to have found friends that share a similar goal, and it is through the help of like-minded people that I am able to keep my hopes up. My plan to attend Bakersfield College and obtain an Associate of Arts degree for transfer into Studio Art, then decide what direction to go from there.

On BEWARE THE NEW GENERATION:

In order to reflect on the theme of Deconstructing the Lens I wanted to deconstruct the socially fixed idea of the binary spectrum within clothing and self-expression. It is a societal belief that there are men, wearing “masculine” clothing such as suits and ties, and women, wearing “feminine” clothes such as dresses and skirts. In this piece, I wanted to bridge the gap between these two and explore all the other possibilities there are instead of a mere two-sided coin. I started off with the idea of drawing a man in a dress and a woman in a suit, but as I continued, I began to add more androgynous features as I realized that there is much more to represent. I want to leave it up to the viewer how to view these two characters. Maybe they are cisgender with a non-traditional form of self-expression through clothing, or maybe they identify as the opposite gender than the one assigned at birth. Perhaps they are neither, or both, or something else entirely. Through two characters, posing enthusiastically and casually in formal wear, I wanted to create a fun piece that represented the shattering of tradition. I wanted to explore all these different ways of selfexpression and self-identity that society is beginning to realize, and it is this journey to freedom that those still stuck in the past need to beware of.

On It’s what’s on the inside...:

Social media is undoubtedly one of the biggest aspects of modern life currently. In this piece, I wanted to tackle the way identity is expressed online through social media - or rather, the way people create a new identity online. People post about only their good things in life, or even make up details about their lives to make it seem even better. Th ey desperately want to refl ect the way society defi nes “beauty” and even go as far as to edit the photos of themselves before posting. Th is can be harmless, but eventually it begins to seem like a competition. Th ey may take it too far and begin create someone else entirely. People want more likes, people want to be liked. Th ey can become so absorbed in this online persona they have created and maintaining that image, so much that they begin to fail taking care of themselves in the real world. But that is all stuff that isn’t posted about, the bad things in life are those that are unseen by followers. It’s what’s on the inside that counts - inside the account, inside the character limit, inside the frame of the camera.

- Angelica Soto