Junior Maddie Brooks dedicates her free time to creating and sharing art with her friends. Brooks and PVHS student Jo Edmison held an art show at Brooks’ house on Feb. 4 showcasing the work of various high school students from the South Bay.

Brooks and Edmison created a short film entitled “Ophidian.” Ophidian is defined as, “relating to or denoting snakes.”

“The reason that we made the movie about snakes was to represent how girls can be like snakes. Often times there are people who will backstab you and you don’t see it coming. We used snakes to symbolize how teenage girls can attack their ‘friends’ behind their backs,” Edmison said.

The show also featured artwork by highschool students Griffin Mactavish and Adam Lazarus, as well as films by Jo Edmison, Sarah Fairbrother, Kylie Kozar, Ian Norris, Kai Nakkim, Ian Irish, Finn Sanders, Fiona Kane and Sage Strusser. The art pieces were displayed and the films were shown on a projector.

“[Adam and Griffin] brought their drawings and some poetry. It created a really cool atmosphere. Adam and Griffin were passing a notepad around and one of them would draw and then someone else would draw something; by the end of the night they had a whole page of art from different people.”

Nakkim does not have very much experience in filmmaking but was “inspired to create something” when he heard about the event.

“I showed a film about bodysurfing that my friend Ian and I made. It was just kind of a goofy film. People don’t really take bodysurfing seriously it’s usually just more for fun, so it’s a film about that,” Nakkim said.“It was just for fun. We like to bodysurf and we always film it but we never really do anything with the footage, so when we heard about Maddie’s show and thought ‘why don’t we put a film together?’ It sounded really fun.”

Most of the people who attended the show were friends of Brooks and Edmison’s.

“It was mostly advertised by word of mouth at first. We made a few preview videos and put them on instagram,” Brooks said. “As we told more people I got more excited. We ended up with a pretty decent sized grou.”

Her interest in art has allowed Brooks to meet and share ideas with new people.  

“I’ve always had an interest in photography and art. I started having an interest in films so I made a couple and thought it would be really cool to get a bunch of people together and show our work,” Brooks said.

Brooks learned a lot about photography and filmmaking while working on the project with Edmison.

“Jo is a really talented photographer that taught and teaches me a lot of what I know,” Brooks said. “We played around with the lighting a lot to get cool shots, and we did stop motion photography. It was all pictures strung together. Every shot is a photograph and i think that makes it really special.”

Nakkim thought that the show provided a “unique” environment and allowed people to “come together” in an “interesting” way.

“I think it was a really cool idea. I know hosting all of those people was a lot of work but it went really well. I think everyone had a good time. I think it accomplished what she wanted; it brought people together and let them enjoy each other’s work,” Nakkim said.

Although Brooks does not have an interest in being an actress, she starred in Ophidian.

“I was in it mostly because it was easier that way. We had an idea of what we wanted so Jo and I were both in it because we wanted to make sure that we conveyed the idea that we had in our heads,” Brooks said.

To Brooks, it is “important” that kids find ways to express themselves and are able to share their work with others.

“I didn’t know how many people were also making films and art until I started telling people about [the show]. It made me realize how many people from different schools were interested in the same things. It was exciting to meet people that have the same interests as me that I didn’t know were out there,” Brooks said.