Below is an article which was in the Winter 2013 eTASIS magazine about one of TASIS' student artists, Anahelena Arévalo '13. Her friend and student photographer, Taylor Tomasso '12 wrote this article

Portrait of an Artist

“My earliest memories are bringing a coloring book to restaurants during long, boring dinners,” says Anahelena Arévalo, a new 12th Grader at TASIS. For her, art is an instinct and as she lets her mind wander and her hands and emotions do all of the work for her. This is certainly obvious in the numerous paintings she has submitted not only to the TASIS Visual Arts website, but also to the Venezuelan Museum of Art in Carácas, where her work will be part of an exhibition of work featuring young artists.

Anahelena’s work includes self-portraits in mediums such as acrylics, which she enjoys as it is easy to control the color, contrast, texture, and light. She claims, “I don’t follow a style, but my emotion of that day is evident in everything that I paint. Once, I was feeling off so I decided to paint to take my mind off of my problems. I picked up at color that relaxed me, it happened to be a turqouise, and started throwing paint onto the canvas. I used knives to scrape the paint around the canvas, representing the thoughts going through my mind. I stepped back and the creation in front of me gave me the chills, because my feelings were staring back at me. To this day, each time I look at the painting, it calms me down and it will always remain one my favorites.”

Anahelena didn’t always want to be an artist, but slowly discovered her talent and passion. “I decided to break the news to my family that I was not going to be a lawyer or a doctor. My dad laughed in my face and screamed, ‘Finally!’. Apparently my entire family had already known, but it had taken me awhile to figure it out. I understand the hardships such as becoming well-known, no one liking my work, and other problems, but I love painting and it makes me discover who I am and how I belong in this world. Whatever the difficulties, bring them on. I can handle it

For this young artist, painting is in her blood and with her passion, talent, and fearlessness she will be able to conquer the artistic world and create a name for herself.