Juliet Glasser, of Silver Spring, has been into art forever. The 18 year old who spent her high school years at the Visual Arts Center at Einstein High School has already commissioned multiple works in multiple art forms and plans on continuing her art education at the Savannah College of Art and Design with a goal of getting into production design.
When did you get into art?
I’ve been into art for as long as I can remember. It really started off when I was about 11 or 12, my parents dragged me to this art expo in Rockville and a whole bunch of art camps set up and artists and whatnot. There was one woman there who was doing oil paintings with a palette knife and she was letting kids mess around with it. I did a mini painting and she invited me to start taking her classes and I was the only kid there with a whole bunch of old ladies doing painting. Then I got into the Visual Arts Center at Einstein High School and I’ve been doing art pretty much every day since then.
My family’s always been super positive about me doing art. My mom always wanted to study art and graduated with an Art History degree. Her paintings were all over the house and I always loved looking at them and they forced me into art classes at a young age. I’ve been taking art classes for forever. I distinctly remember my Dad at that first art expo saying ‘Juliet, I know you don’t want to go but you’re going to remember this one day.’ And I did. That’s the basic turning point of me becoming an artist.
What does it mean to be at the Visual Arts Center at Einstein High School?
I heard about it from my sister’s friend and as soon as I did I thought I’m definitely doing that. It’s a pretty extensive interview process with a portfolio and a lot of different stuff. It’s not too intense but it’s definitely really good to have a situation where four periods of my day are just art. It’s a great way to improve your art and it’s just been really good. I’ve been there since my freshman year. It’s very cool to be in an environment surrounded by kids with your same interests. You can tell just by looking at the kids that it’s a lot of art students.
What are some of your inspirations?
I’m in AP Art currently and the current concentration is a question: What do people look like when they’re alone? I got a bunch of pictures taken of friends and of myself and I thought it would be interesting, since I love doing portraiture, to have these candid shots of people in their own environments when they’re vulnerable, or happy or struggling when there’s nobody else around.
How did you come up with ‘Distorted Self’?
That piece was actually a school project, we have an assignment called a distorted self portrait. I started off with a bunch of pictures of myself and wanted to do this idea of pulling my own skin. I did a whole bunch of different set ups and ended up with my eyes drooping.
Where do you see yourself with art in the future?
I’m actually going off to an art school, Savannah College of Art and Design. I’m planning on going into production design. As much as I love painting, I’ve done some commission work, it’s not necessarily my favorite. I have a lot more joy in sculpting and doing mixed media work. I hope to get into the film industry with designing and getting to do a little bit of everything.
I think in a general sense I really like being able to see the effect it has on other people. Right now I’m working as an art teacher in elementary school so that’s definitely a lot of fun to see and inspire other kids into art. That’s kind of how I start with adults being positive towards my art.
How would you describe yourself as an artist?
I’d say probably impatient. That’s something with my style, I grew up watching the Instagram videos where all artists start off in a really small area and make it super detailed. I cannot paint like that. I’m always the person that wants to whack some stuff on there. I just move all around because there’s no way I can focus on one area. I’ve had people kind of consider my style a bit Renaissance almost, like my drawing.
Art’s intertwined in all aspects of my life. Right now I’m a member of the National Art Honor Society through my school and I just had a painting sent to Children’s National Hospital in the Cancer Ward. I also had a painting sent to kids in Cambodia of portraits of themselves to be able to have with them. I’m also painting a large scale mural for my school.
