GONZALES — Three Gonzales High School students were selected to enter their artwork into the Monterey County art competition, “For the Love of Art,” in February.
Seniors Freddy Romero, Sabrina Sabado and Adilene Jacobo worked for six months to complete the art pieces that were submitted.
While Romero was working on his piece, “Untitled,” he was thinking about his life and the direction he wants to take.
Romero was one of 70 artists in the Monterey competition to be selected for the calendar and his painting sold.
“I didn’t think it was going to get sold,” Romero said. “It feels nice to know it sold.”
This is the first time Romero has won a prize for his drawings and it was his first time completing a work of art in six months. Romero is not enrolled in an art class at Gonzales High, but he has been working on drawings and also dabbles into music.
“With art you can let your imagination go free,” he said. “There are no mistakes in art.”
Sabado said she struggled with her creative art piece and decided to use different aspects of her life and what she wanted people to know about her.
She hesitated to submit her artwork into the competition but received encouragement from her art teacher Annette Jimenez.
“She’s a good role model to us and I know she wanted us to do it,” Sabado said. “I was kind of ‘iffy’ about it in the beginning, but she knows what we can do.”
Sabado has been taking art for three years, starting her freshman year. She took a short break during her sophomore year and returned to art through the Advanced Art class.
“Art is almost like therapy to me,” she said. “It helps me through a lot of things, especially being in high school. Trying to get our emotions out and not in a bad way, but in a positive way.”
Jacobo does a lot of landscaping artwork when she is working creatively and knew that she wanted her submitted piece to also involve landscaping.
“I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do,” Jacobo said. “I did a bit of research and there’s a lot of environmental problems going on, such as pollution and climate change. A lot of the things we’ve been seeing recently is a lot of fires, like the California fires, and that’s something I wanted to portray in my painting.”
Jacobo also received encouragement from Jimenez to enter her artwork into the competition. She is in her second year of art class, having completed Beginning Art and Advanced Art.
“It’s just amazing how art is a form of expression,” Jacobo said. “There’s no right or wrong way you portray and see things.”
“For the Love of Art” is a Monterey County-wide art competition hosted by Carmel Art Association and features exhibits by high school juniors and seniors from 19 local high schools, including Greenfield and Soledad high schools.
