On Friday, November 18, students of Ms. Russo’s Studio Art Honors class had the privilege of listening to guest speaker Christian Maya. Maya graduated from Hawthorne High School in 2008, and he left a major impact on the school. Much of his work can be found around HHS today. His work includes: a painting of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” on the sinks in the art room, a mural of the city block by the senior lockers and cafeteria door, painted bear cutouts throughout the school, and more.  

After graduating from HHS, Maya attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City. Currently, he is a visual designer for Diesel and is in charge of showrooms in NYC, Los Angeles, and Toronto. When asked about Christian, Ms. Russo said, “His expansive knowledge in painting is why I invite him to our class to show you different techniques in acrylic painting. I aim for it to be an eye opening, freeing exercise for you young artists. For me, his lesson focuses on the process, which is so important to understand as an artist.”

Maya taught students significant acrylic painting techniques to help them begin their painting unit. Easels were placed around the room in a circle, and in the center, sat a single vase. Students were instructed to create a structure for the vase out of black, gray, and white pieces of paper. This helped students mimic structure and different shades of light in their paintings. Then, students were introduced to a new tool to help them paint: the palette knife. Nobody in the classroom had ever used a palette knife before, and learning how to do so was a major eye opener. After teaching about palette knives, Mr. Maya taught the students how to mix different colors to create their own black paint, opposed to using the duller black paint straight from the tube. Maya taught the students this aspect to stimulate a more rich quality of paint, which most professionals in the art world use.

Overall, having Mr. Maya as a guest speaker was a major benefit for the art students, and they would like to thank him for his time.