BY GABI HUTSON
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Roseville High School senior Tianna Ching, junior Taysia De Mesa and sophomore Sino Oulad Daoud showcased their talent and passion for art by submitting art pieces to the Blue Line Arts Gallery for its Next Generation exhibit.
The three competed against Placer County high school students to win awards or sell their pieces.
De Mesa walked away with third place in this year’s competition. According to art teacher Patricia Leong, this was a shock to Granite Bay High School who usually places first at the gallery.
“Both [Ching and De Mesa] of them did well at the Blue Line gallery,” Leong said. “We usually compete with ten other high schools. Granite Bay usually walks away with all the awards Taysia took one away from them this year which I think was a surprise to them.”
De Mesa appreciated the recognition.
“I won third place, they gave me a check reward,” De Mesa said. “It was cool to hear them call my name.”
De Mesa is no stranger to galleries but has never been specifically exhibited in one and felt that her piece added a bit of variety to the gallery in form and style.
“I’m not too foreign with galleries because I’ve had to prep a gallery before, so I’m not too foreign with it,” De Mesa said. “But to have my stuff actually up there is pretty cool. I think [my piece] was definitely different because it wasn’t a painting it was a print, and most of the other pieces were paintings. It was different because it was just in plain black and white and everything else had color.”
Leong sees qualities of a good artist in De Mesa and credited it to her extensive history of involvement with the arts.
“Taysia is very self motivated and she keeps pushing the envelope which is a good trait to have in the arts,” Leong said. “She has a very rich background in the arts and that’s why she’s just so amazing.”
Leong said that both Ching and De Mesa are very creative and always try to exceed their expectations, which is a part of the reason they are both artistically gifted.
“I think what makes Tianna and Taysia so special is that they’re both very disciplined with their art so even though I give an assignment in class they always go above and beyond,” Leong said. “They go above and come up with a concept that’s a higher level of thinking. Something that has a deeper meaning and that’s an important part of both their characteristics.”
Ching was intrigued by the other pieces in the gallery and plans to do fututre events.
“[The other art pieces] were all really good and detailed, a lot of the people that entered were from Granite Bay so they had pretty detailed, ginormous pieces so that was interesting,” Ching said. “I want to do more galleries I just need to figure out how to go about that.”
Oulad Daoud also feels that it was interesting to have his piece formally displayed.
“It was pretty cool [seeing my work] because people saw it and they told me about it and it just felt like I was a part of the community,” Oulad Daoud said.
