By Megha Lakha
“I think it’s my way of saying goodbye. It’s just something I’ve known my whole life,” senior Raquel Walkins told me when we sat down to talk about her art project focusing on the beauty of Atlanta.
She has created a series of paintings paying homage to the city.
She said this project stemmed from her memories of long drives around the city. “The sun and sky are always so pretty,” she said. She found herself drawing what she remembered.
She said she was feeling nostalgic since she would be graduating and leaving ATL soon. “I always thought the city was kind of ugly because there’s no beach,” she said. “But I’ve realized it’s kind of pretty and I’m going to miss it a little.”
Raquel said that most of her paintings are inspired by her drive to school. “I’ve been going to Lovett since kindergarten and I’ve been driving that way forever, so it’s the easiest thing for me to remember since I’ve seen it the most,” she said.
She has been working on this project since mid-January. She also told me about past projects she’s worked on. “Last year I did a black and white project where I photo-collaged people,” she said, “and it was all black women.”
For this project, she “would take the eyes from one person and the hair from another and the bone structure of another’s, and when she painted it all together, it was one seamless thing. She liked using black and white photos because everyone fades into the background and there is “so much contrast between the face and the flash.” She said that this project “gave a piece of black excellence and a celebration of skin tone.”
She also worked on a space project during Covid-19. She “painted three different colors of space, it was like blue space, black space, and red space.” Raquel said it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but she painted people floating through it.
Raquel told me that she was taking AP Art History and that she’s been very influenced by all of the expressionist paintings that the class is looking at right now. She said Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Ruysch’s still life works are some of her favorites. The class has helped inspire Raquel and that drives her art.
Raquel enjoys other forms of art as well; she did ceramics one year. “Although they weren’t that great, I really did love the class and creating stuff,” she said. She also spoke about her sister. “My sister’s also a really good sculptor, so it was fun having her teach me some things.”
Raquel has had her art exhibited at Lovett, the High Museum, and once at the airport.
She plans to attend the University of San Francisco, but says that nothing is “set in stone.” She plans to major in Biology but will continue her art there.
While she may be moving across the country, she’ll always have this series of Atlanta paintings to remind her of home. “I’ve lived in the same house my whole life. The same school my whole life. Same people and the same city, you know, the same landscape.” This has been her way of “idolizing” everything about the city and bidding farewell.
