Visual Art
February 2025
Ceramic Shell
I took a ceramics class with my friend Harper on my birthday, & we went to a pottery studio where we customized our own ceramics, & we both chose to make the same shell dish design. I painted bikinis in mine, since I love the beach! Harper & I have been friends for a while now, & we will always have these keepsakes to remind us of our beautiful friendship. We’ve spent a lot of time at the beach together making memories that we’ll remember forever. Art is something that I think binds people together, creating a shared consciousness, which I believe is important for people to relate to each other.
October 2022
Baking a Cake
Going into 4th grade, I took a pastry cooking class. I started making lots of sweets, then Covid happened, & my Mom didn’t want so many sweet treats in the house, so I stopped baking all the time… but then when I started high school, I got back into it, this time taking the sweet treats with me to school to share with my friends & classmates. It was great to get back into a hobby that I had enjoyed as a small child with my mother, & I returned to my tools that make all my baking magic possible: my stand mixer, attachments, all the sheet pans, & special spatulas... I made a chocolate cake for my Dad’s birthday with chocolate whipped cream & fruit on top! Every Christmas, I make cookies with my mom & sister, & then I also make dessert for when we celebrate Chanukah with my Aunt & Uncle… I also make dessert when we gather with family friends. Baking is really fun for me, & it gives me an opportunity to share my creativity & passion with my family & friends. Cake brings people together!
June 2025
Flowery Cake
I made this cake for my friend’s birthday party, & it’s vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream frosting. I also sculpted & colored the fondant for the white & yellow daisy flowers, using the Pinterest photos my friend sent me as a guide for her special request of a “super summery cake.”
One night, my friend asked me to come over, & since I was going to bake cookies that night anyway, we combined our efforts to make the weekly cookie at our favorite local bakery, Crumble Cookie. We went to the grocery store & raided the bakery aisle, resulting in 2 dozen amazing cookies that we were able to share with our friends! Crumble sugar cookie with pink frosting & pink sprinkles!
During Covid, I made a lot of paintings because it was better than watching TV! Here’s one of my pieces I did for my birthday party. Three of my friends came over, & we each painted our own scenes on canvas. I find that painting is so therapeutic– you can get lost in the colors & you don’t have to think too hard about it. I think this helped me get over the stress of all the things that happened during Covid. It was really powerful for me to have an outlet to express my emotions because I couldn't be in the dance studio for obvious reasons. This piece is a scene from my life: one time, my father & I were at the beach near my house, & we witnessed a whale tail pop out of the water. This piece is acrylic on canvas.
When I was 14, I also took a cooking class in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, México, where we went into the garden to pick all the fruits & vegetables for our dinner. It really taught me about the value of farm to table cuisine. We made chicken fajitas & homemade tortillas. The food was extraordinarily fresh, & now I cook these things at home. After learning how to cook ‘farm to table,’ my family & I go to the Farmer’s Market every week to get our favorite fruits, vegetables, eggs, bread, mushrooms, & hummus!