From artworks made from acrylic ink to digital media, the gallery at CherryCo has it all. The gallery features a multitude of mixed media artwork solely created by RUHS students. The owner of CherryCo (an art and design shop located in the Riviera Village), Miya Hiramatsu, held the opening reception on March 7th. Seniors Monique Dimitrova and Lily Kaluger are among the many artists who were invited to sell their work there.
Inside of the gallery, the walls are adorned with colorful pieces of work, all of which carry their own tone. However, the pieces this time are produced by a much younger audience. Usually, the gallery at CherryCo displays artwork made by adults, who have extra experience creating artwork for a living.
“We’ve been showcasing artists since February 2022 […] we love to be the springboard to have people, including artists, know that their art can be appreciated by other people,” Hiramatsu said. “We have a guest book so that even if someone doesn’t purchase the art, they’re going to leave awesome comments and give that student or the artist confidence to keep going, because it’s so important to have art.”
Each student was allowed to choose what pieces of art they would like to display, which gave Dimitrova the idea to exhibit art that fell under a specific category–birds. She found herself in a bit of a dilemma, though, trying to figure out how to bring these colorful, realistic birds to life through her art.
“I struggle a lot with focusing way too much on the details in my work. And I was like, okay, what can I do so that […] I can spend less time and effort on details that don’t really matter. Kind of like impressionism,” Dimitrova said. “Birds have a lot of feathers. So [I told myself] I’m going to train myself to not draw every single feather, but [instead] try to mimic it with brush strokes and different colors. And so that worked out really well, and I really loved the process, and they actually took me a lot less time than [usual].”
Many of the artists exhibiting their art had to work their way up from the bottom to create the pieces they have today. Dimitrova is an entirely self-taught artist, and had only taken Art 1 as a freshman after years of doing art in her free-time.
“I was not the best at first, but I chose to practice and keep going because I was inspired by other people’s art and wanted to get there myself. I think that the person that pushed me into drawing in the first place is my best friend, Lily Kaluger,” Dimitrova said. “She’s also in the art show. We’ve been friends since third grade, and I always saw her drawing, and she was always just a bit better than me [since] she had been doing it a little bit longer than me, and I was like, I think that’s so cool. I want to do that too. And so she’s been an inspiration [of mine] for nine or 10 years now.”
No matter how experienced they are, artists have to problem-solve quickly when an obstacle comes up. Kaluger has also had to face obstacles of her own to produce her art work.
“I used a fountain pen for [the soldier art piece], the ones that you dip into ink. And I spilled the entire ink jar onto the floor of my classroom,” Kaluger said. “And then, I walked out [afterwards] and I was like ‘well at least that’s done,’ and then the drawing got hit by a car […] since I was biking to work [when] it fell out of my bag, so I had to restart.”
Despite the setbacks both Kaluger and Dimitrova faced, their artwork along with the pieces of many other students made it onto the walls of the gallery in one piece. They hope that, with their artwork being shown at the gallery, some of the harsh narratives people have about artists and their work will change.
“A lot of the time people view art as pretentious, and I think [it would be nice] if they see students who are just doing it for fun and in their free time, whenever they can, especially in an art gallery, [since] a lot of the time [they see art] it’s adults who do it for a living,” Kaluger said. “So I think it’s nice to see art that’s done for fun. It’s not performative, [and] not just made to sell.”
Art has been used to storytell and entertain for centuries, and continues to carry on these crucial roles today. This is one of the many inspirations behind featuring artwork from all kinds of artists, so that they will not be forgotten.
“I want people to get really amazed at the amount of talent and art that exists right here in the community,” said Hiramatsu. “And I really want people to walk away appreciating the fact that especially today in the world of AI […] being able to scroll through social media and see really amazing art, [that] it can be happening right here in your own community, and it might [even be] be your neighbors that you want to support.”
