After becoming a serious artist, sophomore year, junior Tyler Bhe’s artwork has been showcased throughout the school and entered into multiple contests.

One of Bhe’s best works was a depiction of a family member.

“I am most proud of the charcoal portrait I did of my sister just because it was the first time I really had to do something realistic that was part of the body,” Bhe said. “I thought that it turned out really well, and I still don’t know how I did it. I am really proud of that.”

The process to create the portrait took a lot of patience when integrating the shades to form a realistic piece of art.

“It took a lot of trial and error, and I wasn’t really sure how to go about charcoal because I had never used it before, so I practiced and it turned out not very good. I ended up having to use q- tips in order to blend and to get value shades in because you can’t just color with charcoal. You have to use your fingers or use a blending tool. You have to use a lot of different stuff to make it look smooth. It was a pretty extensive process,” Bhe said.

A model freshly created by Bhe used paint to show how pollution today is affecting the ocean.

“I recently just finished it. It was called a modern art twist. You have to take a piece of art that was made in like the 1800s, and then you had to take it and modernize it,” Bhe said. “I took the picture of the Great Wave, and I modernized it by putting a bunch of pollution in it, so I polluted the Great Wave. That project I did with paint.”

Bhe has always had comfort in art, which lets her be able to unwind while doing something she enjoys.

“It’s always going to be something that I can fall back onto just to relax and be calm. I kind of use it as my escape, so I always have an art class, so I can destress and just relax. It’s always going to be something that I can go to when I’m stressed, and I can just calm down,” Bhe said.

With the help of her classmates, Bhe experiences the variety of perspectives that artwork can give.

“I would have to say the artists that I most admire are the people that I sit by in class every day because everybody in my art class has different techniques and ways they like to do things, so it’s really interesting and inspiring to see how different everybody’s works are,” Bhe said.

Art teacher Ruth Osborn comments about the particular touch Bhe puts into her projects.

“She also is well informed a lot of the times. She will take a political standpoint or have some very deep meaning in her artwork, and so anything that she presents is going to be very personal to her,” Osborn said. “She excels well with painting and values and realism as well.”

Bhe thinks that modern art is important for expression of ideas and opinions.

Bhe said, “It’s relevant to society today because people can express what they want however they want to, and art can be used to spread big messages that people want to get across.”