by Robin/Elliot O’Maonaigh

I was an intern at Make Studio through BAI Baltimore this summer. (You can learn more about this program here: https://www.artsforlearningmd.org/bloomberg-arts-internship/)

I’m going into my senior year of high school this upcoming year, and I plan to pursue art as my career in whichever way I feel drawn to. As of right now, that leans towards teaching art as a subject. I want to give high school kids a safe space for creation and expression, and show them new ways to interact with their community and their own problems.

Below are overview slides included in Robin/Elliot’s culminating BAI program presentation about their experience, which included helping to revive our digital drawing stations while being an artistic peer and supporting the studio milieu:

Make Studio was a great opportunity for me to see how that kind of open, creative environment may operate outside of an academic setting. Working here also showed me my own flaws in my thinking about art.

Sometimes, I realized, I would limit myself in my ideas simply because I felt like I didn’t have the skill to make the product look ‘right.’ But seeing the artists at Make Studio work freely and passionately to bring their ideas to life has squashed that doubt in my mind.

There are pictures I took of art I liked a lot that I saw around the studio or while the artists were working on them.

I got super excited seeing this Amity piece the other day, I’ve just recently started the Owl House (the show this character is from), and I can’t believe I missed seeing Jules make this.

This was just me seeing/documenting what Tony was working on while he was at lunch, I thought the Nintendo game case was especially cool.

More art I liked, Chris’ cartoon network series in progress.

Of course, Bess’ maps which I think are the coolest, I love map making.

This summer, Make Studio and BAI alike provided me with new inspiration and clarity on my future. Now I’ll be investing much more of my time than I ever have before working on my own art portfolio and getting feedback on art that I will be pouring all my new creative motivation into.