Melina Tucker, a senior here at Barlow, was recently nominated by the art program for being an amazing art student. Mrs. Gibson, the art teacher, said she was nominated because “she’s in class regularly, she has a great attitude, [and] she works well with others. Not only is she a great artist in one medium, but because she has a great attention to detail, knows the elements, the principals, she can apply that to numerous materials.” She also describes Tucker as “a student who goes above and beyond expectations, tries hard on their projects, and generally is a well-rounded artist.”
Tucker is currently taking Painting 3, Drawing 2, and Ceramics 1, and previously took a number of other art classes. She has enjoyed doing art since she was a kid and began taking it seriously in middle school. Her favorite medium to work with is paint, “because it’s really easy to cover up mistakes,” but she also enjoys working with oil pastels and sketching.
Her piece, The Feline and the Fawn, which is an acrylic painting depicting a tiger biting into the neck of a young woman, was displayed at the Mt. Hood Visual Arts Exhibit, which opened April 7 and closes on April 24. Tucker describes this piece as symbolic, with the tiger representing society and media preying on young women. Another one of her favorite pieces she’s created depicts a Kendrick Lamar photo shoot that was a potential album cover, also done with acrylic paint. Tucker created this piece as a request from her father.
