Royalton High School recently named high school junior, Jordan Pesta, as Artist of the Month for November. Pesta is the daughter of Brenda and Neil Pesta, and has been drawing for as long as she can remember. She has created characters for an original storybook and is presently using digital imaging processes to bring her characters to life.

 

"I've been drawing since I could pick up a pencil," stated Pesta. "My room is flooded with drawings scattered from the floor to the bed. There isn't a single notebook that I own that doesn't hold drawings or sketches of animals or imaginary characters."

 

"I've always loved art, so Royalton High School's art classes are by far my favorite in school. In Design class this past year, our final Design project is one of our choice, so I am working with animation through a storybook. The characters each have their own unique personalities that fit into their own little piece of the world. The book, entitled Natural Oddities', has two main characters as the protagonists. These characters are much the same as every student who searches for a direction in their life. Each is like a unique piece of a puzzle. As these characters move throughout the story, each runs into road blocks, and has to find the way though to the end of their own personal story. The happy ending in every story is when one might look back with a smile after finding how their puzzle piece fits into their own life journey. I have applied the elements and principles of design that I learned to give these characters a look that is three dimensional. I also am exploring animation through digital media to give them movement from one page to the next.  The other pieces show one of my more traditional watercolor pieces of the skull and one of my clay designed projects of my logo created in Design class" added Pesta.

 

Carl Halverson, Royalton's Art instructor, sees Pesta as having such a unique perspective in not only his classroom, but also out the classroom. "Jordan is as "one of a kind" as a person as her own characters are in her story. While we may try to define success as following a given path to reach a given educational outcome, some unique individuals never seem to follow that same path. In fact, they break their own path, a path far less traveled, and arrive at an entirely different destination. All of this began through the exploration of new ideas through the use of technology. The world itself has become a university of independent instructors who can teach new areas of expertise not offered within the traditional model of a brick and mortar school building. It's exciting to watch students with such extraordinary talents explore education in such a non traditional way while pulling others along for the ride. I hope to help these gifted students like Jordan become who she is supposed to be, so that she finds where she, as a puzzle piece, finds her own place in this world."

 

Upon graduation, Pesta sees herself taking the next step of her journey at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design to pursue a major in Graphic Design, Illustration and Comic Art.