PROFILE: Art with Anla

PHOTO: Aspiring artist and senior Anla Bolkan paints her most current piece during her fifth period art class.

By Paige Ochoa,

BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–

Inspired from her download of the popular app Instagram in sixth grade, senior Anla Bolkan has since immersed herself in the world of art.

“All these teenage artists would pop up on my [Instagram] feed and I would be so jealous at their art skills so that inspired me to try to get better,” Bolkan said.

Today, Bolkan is one of those teenage artists on Instagram.

“I love to paint. I love everything about it,” Bolkan said. 

In a spacious room free of any danger of spilling on wooden floors or marble countertops, you can find Bolkan with the sleeves of her “painting clothes” rolled up and her hair in a bun. There, she’ll be listening to her inspiring, extensive playlist, and expressing her ideas with her preferred medium, oil paint.

“I have gotten over being worried about getting paint on my clothes because no matter how hard I try, it always happens,” Bolkan said. “I just put on my music and go for it.” 

Inspired by her experiences, Bolkan is able to relive favorite moments in her life through her painting.

“I try to make each one of my pieces tied to me and my life,” Bolkan said. “Whether it’s bringing out my personality with color, or drawing my favorite singer or painting my friends.”

Not only does art allow Bolkan to express herself to those viewing her pieces, it also provides a healthy outlet to free herself and her mind from the stresses of high school and life as a teenager. 

“I also have really found a love for art because I hate other school subjects,” Bolkan said. “I’m just not good at math and science and it gets stressful, so I’ve found that painting and coloring helps me unwind and basically resets my mind into a better mood.”

Although she mainly focuses on people and human bodies in her paintings, Bolkan has also been fond of “throwing together shapes to see what happens,” even producing her favorite piece this past summer by following this method. 

“It’s a giant 5-by-8 piece of unstretched canvas and I just went crazy on it,” Bolkan said. “I painted basically whatever shape or color that came to my mind.”

As well as her enrollment in AP Drawing and Painting at Davis High for the second year in a row, Bolkan’s paintings have also been displayed at the Pence Gallery for the Congressional Art Show and at the School of the Art Institute for the summer show. In addition, she has received an honorable mention from the Art Scholastic Awards.

“I would love to, and am planning to continue pursuing art in my future,” Bolkan said. “It is actually the major I am applying to all of my potential schools for.”