By Maxine Smith
Senior Naya Saigal has been busy with her artwork since I talked to her in February. She has made “about ten good pieces,” and is currently working on more for her application to the industrial design school at Georgia Tech.
Naya’s interest in Georgia Tech’s industrial design school came about because she wanted to do something “between art and academics” since industrial design is product design. “I don’t want to do something completely creative because I might lose joy in it,” she said, “but doing something that’s kind of creative and research-based is a good balance.”
Although senior year has been stressful for Naya, she has actually had a lot of time to work on her art pieces. Her application to the industrial school at Georgia Tech requires 10-20 pieces. “Many of the pieces I’m submitting are ones I have already done in the past, but I have around 5 more to go,” she said. She is taking Honors Visual Arts both semesters this year, where she has the freedom to work on any of her art pieces.
While Naya doesn’t work on her art daily, she ” tries to do at least one artistic thing a day.”
Over the summer, did a summer program at SCAD where she took classes in advertising and animation. She also did an internship in web design in order to explore all of her options relating to art.
In the past Naya has taken digital photography, which involves photo editing, then she took two printmaking classes and then drawing and painting. But she enjoyed painting the most. Paintings are her favorite type of art to admire and make.
Naya said she started taking art seriously around sixth grade. When I asked how many pieces she’d created since then, she replied, “Oh, I don’t even know. There’s too many to count, but it would probably be in the hundreds.”
When I asked Naya where her inspiration comes from, she told me it mainly comes from Pinterest. “I spend a lot of time just scrolling, looking for ideas that have potential,” she said. Naya explained that she takes bits and pieces of things she finds on Pinterest and mixes them together to inspire her pieces of art.
For example, Naya’s robot piece with a blue background was inspired by a frame from the movie “Ghost in the Shell” (1995), which she found on Pinterest. Both pieces have the same futuristic theme incorporated into most of Naya’s art.
