In fall 2023 and winter 2024, Skirball Cultural Center educators and local teaching artist Malaika Latty partnered with AP Art students at two schools—Loyola High School and East Valley High School—to create artwork centered on themes of identity and memory. Explore the diverse and thought-provoking pieces created by these talented students, showcasing their creativity, passion, and dedication to making a difference through art.
Both residency programs were based on Skirball’s Visions and Values Curriculum which includes a set of free lesson plans that feature artifacts and stories from the Skirball’s permanent collection. Drawing on Jewish traditions, each lesson explores the overarching themes of memory, immigration, and resilience. Learn more about the curriculum.
Funding provided by Specified General Fund for the Museum Grant Program under the California Cultural and Historical Endowment.
In-School Residency at Loyola High School with the Skirball Cultural Center
In fall 2023, Skirball Cultural Center educators and local teaching artist Malaika Latty partnered with AP Art students at Loyola High School to create artwork centered on themes of identity and memory.
Student work:
Loyola High School of Los Angeles
2023–2024 AP Art class, teacher Polina Protsenko
Tyler Chong
My art piece represents a moment of pure happiness in my life. Enjoying nightlife in the city, staying up with my closest friends after a music festival, and eating Korean Barbeque until 3 A.M., all collectively create an unforgettable memory. Each primary color in the piece highlights a different aspect of the night. The blue highlights the shining moon over our heads, the yellow calling attention to my friends and me, and the red shows the fun and wild nature of the music festival and its artists. Throughout the entire piece, the dark tones depict the eerily quiet and almost surreal midnight cityscape. The night still replays vividly in my head. I wanted to turn that memory into a concrete art piece and that's what I’ve done with this project.
Tony Kim
This is an art piece that portrays my transition from Korea to a new life in America, particularly my experience in navigating the new environment of different places. This artwork blends elements of both worlds by utilizing details of Korean and American symbols and culture. The use of colors like red and blue reflects my cultural transition, capturing the essence of adaptation and growth. It is a visual narrative that aims to encapsulate my transformation into the person I am today and growing up in two distinct places.
Silas Esparza
This artwork demonstrates the feeling of fear, the fear of being not enough, and the fear of disappointing those who I look up to. The rays of light from above represent the love and compassion that the important people in my life give to me. I use primary colors to give the piece a strong connection between the objects, the subject, and the surrounding forms. The complimentary colors yellow and purple create a stark contrast.
Noah Jeong
My piece pays homage to a nostalgic memory of my sixth birthday and highlights my appreciation for brotherhood. My family decided to go on a road trip to Julian, California, and although I cannot remember the day in every detail, I can recall that I shared much laughter with my older brother. This chalk pastel piece depicts Jun and me playfully posing on a ranch. I created a hazy background with neutral tones and misty details while utilizing a collage cutout style to emphasize the foreground's subjects: me in a comically oversized parka and my brother with a mischievous grin. I wanted to produce an impression that while I solemnly reminisce about the blurry yet lively childhood events, the main memories that last will live on to this day through the relationships with the people I love.
Nathan Chao
My artistic piece explores the incredible journey of my father, a Taiwanese immigrant. This art piece symbolizes the American Dream by demonstrating how one person's passion can cross international boundaries, influencing future generations. The waterfall at the center focal point with yellow shades of the piece represents the memories from my Dad’s past and the present memories that we as a family are creating together.
Michael Kim
My piece is centered around the idea of childhood and its luxury of comfortability. With all the horrors and events going on in the world today, many people are looking for a way out or back to better times. I hope my piece allows viewers to travel back into their childhood, and feel the nostalgic warmth of old memories, using complimentary colors like blue and orange.
Leo Grossman
This art piece represents how life can go from energetic and motion-filled, to a dark and fiery nature in a second. This is represented in perceiving the image flipped around. The idea revolves around my Jewish heritage. I am Jewish and my family comes from Europe. My grandma grew up at a time when she went from living a normal life to having to survive the Holocaust. This piece represents all of the Jews who went from living normal lives to fearing for their own. All because of a war caused by something out of their control. The image shows two sides of a reality many people had to face.
Hunter Young
My piece is meant to jump into the realm of imagination, where vibrant colors and patterns dance in harmonious chaos echoing the symphony of your mind's thoughts and memories. I am blurring the boundaries between reality and the fantastical domain to make a world where there are no “ifs” and only “it is”. I want to remind us of the limitless potential that resides within every human mind.
Henry Fisher
My piece shows a story about people gathering around a fire on a beach in Malibu. People from the community come together and go to socialize and hang out at the beach once the sun sets into the cool dark tones of night.
Henry Bautista
My dad came here from a small village in Oaxaca. When people migrate, their culture often doesn't stay the same. I don't have the same language or traditions as my family, but a lot of what I know about my own culture revolves around color, particularly the clothing, and I wanted to show this side of my family through the color of the draping cloth encircling the figure.
Finn Corboy
On the many road trips my family and I would take during my childhood, I’d spend my time watching the highway disappear into the horizon behind me as my reflection shined back at me in the car window. With my parents limiting my access to technology since a young age, the sights outside the car window were a replacement for any entertainment from an iPad or one of those fancy screens built into the back of the car headrest. After growing older, getting my license, and spending most of my time and attention driving rather than in the backseat, I don’t get the experiences in the backseat that helped define my family road trips throughout the years. With this piece, my goal was to recreate the memories I had in my early childhood. I used darker colors for the silhouette of myself to represent how the younger version of me has begun to fade as I’ve grown and changed. By including a picture of me as a child along a winding road, I want to represent not only the road trips I took but also the journey of my youth during that time. The piece represents my memories of childhood, which fade but never surrender.
Emile Hidalgo
The story in my piece is the first time I ever had a cigarette. It was scary and foreign to me, and I felt out of place. It felt like my lungs were burning and I wanted to vomit. I coughed the whole time and felt so embarrassed. I tried to visualize that in my work with the usage of complementary colors and even different materials. For this reason, the main focus of the piece is a sickly green while everything that made me feel discomfort is red.
Duke Giarraputo
The story of my project is when I was stuck in Niseko, Japan during a blizzard. Though the sun was rising over the intimidating mountains, at the bottom you could barely see. Alone, lost, young, and afraid I was scared I would never find my family. I hope that this desolate scene helps to visualize the loneliness of a lost child and the power of nature. Also, though nature is beautiful it can also be harmful. My AP focus is natural elements and this drawing tells a story of how harsh and powerful they are.
Declan McGough
My art piece represents a satire of the African-American Black Panther movement and how it relates to the BLM movement. I do this by making my characters look a bit strange, with cutouts and faces that are intentionally blurry and don't match up exactly. My art piece is a way for people to talk and think about the African-American movement in different and interesting ways using bold colorful textures.
Adrian Martinez
This captures the essence of my childhood youth, as I joyfully navigated my blue Power Wheels Jeep through the meticulously built structure of my brother's Legos. Unaware of the chaos I was unintentionally creating. The colors I chose were specific in the way I wanted to display a whimsical and bright color scheme to showcase feelings from my childhood and culture.
Clayton Smith
My artwork captures the beauty of nature by the ocean, which I first profoundly experienced in Hawai'i. I was very young when I went with my family, and they helped show me the allure that the ocean offers. I was immediately drawn to the calmness and magnificence of the sea, so I wanted to convey that feeling into my artwork. To exhibit this feeling, I used contrasting colors to depict the vivid marvels of the scenery. I also blended cool colors and warm colors with their respective groups to add realism.
Aidan Turrill
Growing up and looking back, my older brothers constantly bullied me, both physically and mentally. They would make fun of my insecurities and further reinforce those thoughts I had about myself. This is my childhood bedroom, including my dog. I gravitated towards primary colors, red, blue, and yellow, to make the subjects pop. The colors also create a relationship between subjects and space.
Student work:
East Valley High School
2023–2024 AP Art class, teacher Cynthia Anderson
Sasha Oman
In my piece, I wanted to emphasize transition. I moved from a nature-filled Utah to an urban Los Angeles. During this time, I’ve also approached puberty, independence, and womanhood. Sometimes we have a “guardian” who helps us find our paths. I associate my childhood in Utah with soft and nurturing memories. My new life and growth in Los Angeles feel more sharp and unpredictable, yet satisfying. I wanted to visually present the fluidity between seemingly distinct ideas.
Abel Serrano
This painting was done with chalk pastels and pastel pencils.
In this painting I drew the track/course I ran on for state finals in Fresno which was a really memorable memory for me and some of my teammates. I put myself because that’s how I looked like running in State also representing Jesus on my headband. I also painted raindrops and the warmth around me because my coach would always say “we will practice no matter what, rain or shine”. I drew Spider-man in my own way because he was my childhood and drew 9 lines over his head as senses but 9 representing the races we had to get to State finals for Cross Country. I drew him thinking about my two favorite people in the world which are my grandpa and uncle holding me as a baby. Thank you for taking your time to read.
Abigail Saucedo
Pastel on canvas and collage
This painting is based on a memory of being a child with an alcoholic Father. The items on the tray signify what felt more important than spending quality time with me, they had a hand in creating. A Father, who was arrested time and time again would write endless promises about never making the same mistake twice, just to make them over and over again, grappling with the trauma that comes with having an unreliable person in your life who is supposed to be the most reliable person on your corner. I wonder what type of person that small baby in that high chair could’ve been had she received the proper care and the dreams that went with it.
Brittany Blanco
If you were to ask me to list my favorite memories, you will most likely hear me start with my sister. I wanted to create a pastel piece to capture the family travels with my sister in picture because she is always the biggest contributor in planning them out. I wanted the top half to recognize some of my sister’s favorite things such as her guinea pig and starry nights in order to honor her. And in the bottom half, to be dedicated to elements people don’t usually find all that interesting and to turn them into something with a little bit more flair. In the end, I hope this piece paints a clear picture on what favorite memories I hold.
D. Ortiz
My art was made to represent childhood halloween memories. I wanted to tap into a familiar childhood feeling with a current feeling of reminiscence. The bones are currently an image that correlates to my personal current life and the cat represents a figure very important to me in my childhood. Both are important icons to me. I wanted to depict the fact that despite growing older I value the aspects of my childhood that allowed me to develop into the person I am today. The piece utilizes pastels as the soft blending is reminiscent of a warm memory.
Diana G. Almarez
Since I was younger, my family and I waited impatiently, waiting for the day to celebrate my Quince. On March 25, 2022 the day arrived and it felt unreal. One moment I was playing with dolls, next second I was in front of my family members celebrating becoming a young woman. It was a special day for my family and I, it will be a day I will never forget. I remember my family telling me to keep pushing forward no matter what. To always be myself, my family has always been there for me growing up. They will always be part of my life and inspire me in making my artwork for the Skirball Event.
Ernesto Hernandez Bautista
The materials I used for this art piece are chalk pastels, chalk pastel pencils, pencil, pen, and photocopies of people and myself. As for the paper, I used 11x14 strathmore pastel paper in vanilla color. I used three individuals that were at that certain race and to keep their identity private I decided to write undefined on both of the runners that show what school they were running for. The whole concept is time, that’s why the word is on my drawing as well as with the clocks, and how the drawing of myself chasing the actual picture of me means you vs. you. Cross Country has been an important part of my life, and my high school years, currently in 11th grade and I don't regret joining this running team at my high school east valley. As an artist I wanted to show my love for the sport and how I learned that racing wasn’t against others but against yourself and time. I want to illustrate how time is your opponent, and how it is you against you, in cross country most runners want to run fast so it is literally a race against time. Overall I just want to illustrate my love for the sport, and how it’s a race against time itself, to try to run as fast as possible by being strategically smart with your running pace. This sport has dramatically impacted my life and this art piece is a sign of it.
Jack Giron
I present today a representation of me using canine animals. The golden retriever represents me, and it’s made to stand out first to show the somewhat somber emotion of the pastel drawing and to represent what I am. The wolf, the upper drawing, represents the struggles in life I had to do, and I made it more ‘monster-like’ to show how much life gave to me. Finally, the lower drawing, the fox, is representing my emotions and what I had to deal with in life mentally. The background uses the colors yellow, blue, and white to represent the changing emotions and really capture the somber vibe I wanted to implement.
Janetzi Martinez
This art piece is focusing on my story as a first generation daughter, migrating to America with my parents. I decided to resemble the birds in the art to embody their meaning in life, when the seasons change and it’s time to migrate to other regions of the world they migrate together to find nesting and increase in resources. Birds are known as free spirits that roam the world and see our existence in another perspective. In 2006, my family took the sacrifice to travel on foot nearly 2,341 miles from Oaxaca, Mexico to California to open my wings and encourage me to perceive a beautiful life in America with freedom. I symbolized my heritage, future, and existence. I dedicate this art piece to the story my parents honored me with.
JD Ramirez
A child who is lost, confused and often misunderstood in the real world. All to combat what it is to be “alone”. Soon the child created their space. Their comfort zone or so called “1nn3r_Sp4c3”. Only with their imagination to create these “friends” and “space” where it’s understood, safe, and convenient to their liking.
Sarah Castillo
The scene is dark, illuminated by overhead lighting. A family is having dinner-the focus is on the end of the table. The yellow lighting comes from above the table, however there is a lamp above the chair to the far right. The chair is empty, and pulled out, as if left by someone. The scene represents my own home-from the laundry basket to the people sitting at the table. The family is having dinner together, yet the lighting is dark and obscure. The yellow light casted from right above the empty chair is almost prompting the question, “Who sits here? And where did they go?”
Sarah Ezzedinne
Once in a Lifetime
One of my childhood memories was attending my elementary school graduation. It was a celebration of the effort put into school, which shaped the person I am today. It inspires me to maintain my success and hard work, reminding me to keep going. Thanks to the use of primary colors, I mirrored this feeling in the following art piece. With yellow, the epitome color of positivity, there is a combination of joy, happiness, and cheerfulness. To complement yellow, I relied on blue to enhance and brighten the sunlight. On the other hand, I focused on red to represent my passion and love for this childhood experience and the desire to go back. Lastly, the graphite self-portrait serves as a contrast to the vibrancy, it is the base of a timeless effect where nothing can change who I am.
“I think the most memorable part of this project was when we all got together and saw our finished pieces. I think at that moment we all really got to know another part of someone that we maybe didn't already know. I liked that every piece was distinct and told its own story.”
—Brittany, 11th grade, East Valley High School
To read about the Visions and Values Curriculum using creative writing as a platform for student expression, check out the 2022–2023 Scriptwriting Residency with St. Mary’s Academy!
Use the Visions and Values Curriculum in your classroom, visit the Skirball with your class, share your students’ work with us, and be featured on our website! Email education@skirball.org for details.
