Malena Molina, a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, expresses her creative personality through music and multiple artwork mediums. While drawing first started out as a simple activity to keep herself busy, it quickly blossomed into a passion.
Molina’s family is a huge inspiration for her creative endeavors. Her father introduced art to her as a toddler and as she grew to a teenager, Molina’s aunt inspired her to practice and experiment with her art.
In addition to her supportive family, Molina looks up to artists of the past and admires their unique styles. One of these painters is Vincent Van Gogh, famous for his impressionist style painting of “The Starry Night.” One of Van Gogh’s most famous quotes, “I dream my painting and I paint my dream,” are words that Molina lives by.
From a young age, Molina has conveyed her emotions in her art pieces. Oftentimes, drawing or painting serves as a productive outlet for her.
“I’ve always been drawing and I got better throughout the years using my art to convey my emotions and go into my own little world,” Molina said.
Molina experiments with different art styles, comparing what she likes from each and combining them to create her own unique style. Her favorite subjects to draw are comic-type characters and fantasy-based characters.
Molina prefers to use acrylic and oil paints as her mediums for her art. She is constantly filling sketchbooks with numerous ideas for her new pieces. The hardest part of being an artist for Molina is starting a new piece.
“I have to come up with a great idea and how big I want to paint it,” Molina said. “If I’m using a big canvas, I wouldn’t want to do a simple painting, but the same goes if I use a small painting, I don’t want to paint so much that it gives the viewer a headache.”
As much as she likes to experiment with her art, Molina is also deliberate with every stroke of her paintbrush. She plans out her paintings so she does not make any mistakes that could potentially ruin her hard work.
“[Art is] more like the outlet I can use to describe the way I’ve felt for awhile or an emotion I don’t know how to convey with words,” Molina said.
Molina enjoys all forms of art and likes to mix different styles together in order to find a style that she believes represents her best. In the future, she hopes to improve her skills as an artist and possibly sell her artwork.
