During second period in the AP Studio Art classroom near the gymnastics gym, it is not usual to find senior Chris Ramirez bent over working intently on an art piece. At other times, he might be joking around with his friends in the classroom while he gathers his materials or scribbles sketches into his small notebook. The wall near his designated desk area is consumed with Polaroids that Ramirez took with one of his close friends.

At West, Ramirez has been taking art classes since his freshmen year. Despite this, his eagerness to continue his involvement with the school art programs as much as he can has prevailed due to his desire to continue art as a profession outside of school.

“I’m involved in a lot of art programs because I enjoy art classes,” Ramirez said. “I’m planning on joining National Art Honors Society and am trying to be more involved in the school. I really like art; I want to go to an art school. That’s what I want to do with my life.”

The thing that Ramirez most appreciates about art is the varying perceptions that people may have within a single piece. Though one person may view it in a specific way, another person may take a completely different idea from the same piece.

“What I enjoy most about art is that a piece can have a specific meaning to you, the artist, but it can also have several different meanings to other people,” Ramirez said. “I like that interpretations are very much up to the person who is looking at that piece. You can look at one piece, and you can get a completely different idea or perception from someone else.”

Ramirez wasn’t always so invested in art. When he initially started out in the program, Ramirez thought that art would forever just be a hobby to him. However, after a good friend of his showed him that artistry can be far more than merely a hobby, Ramirez was inspired to take the program far more seriously.

“I started taking it really seriously sophomore year. That’s when I knew I wanted to go to art school,” Ramirez said. “I didn’t want to go to a regular academic college, I wanted to go to art schools. One of my really good friends was in the art programs above me. I was in the freshmen class, and she was in the advanced classes. She always talked about going to art school, and I guess that inspired me to also do it because I noticed that she taught me that art isn’t just a hobby, you can also make it into a career.”

Ramirez’s visual arts teacher, John Zilewicz, has seen Ramirez grow through the previous four years, both as an artist and as a student. He believes that Ramirez’s largest area of growth has been him finally being able to understand the importance of continuous learning.

“I think he always had artistic skills. The biggest growth for him has been that he’s learned to channel his energy in the right directions which have proven successful,” Zilewicz said. “It goes hand in hand: as a person and an artist. His energy is more focused, and he has realized that he is a talented artist, but he still has growing to do. He can recognize his talent, and he can recognize that it’s a continual learning process.”

It is abundantly clear that Ramirez has made many close friends within the art community. In the art room, senior Maya Gatenio is quick to recount some of the exciting, and somewhat dangerous, memories that Ramirez and she have shared. Gatenio and Ramirez first became friends after Ramirez refused to stop talking to her after she kept pushing him to leave her alone. Now a picture of the two hangs on Ramirez’s wall of Polaroids..

“Chris is a very honest and genuine friend. We make fun of people together, and he loves men,” Gatenio said. “He’s very inspirational. He was the first person who talked to me when I came to West. And I didn’t want him to. I told him to ‘shut up’ because he was bothering me, but he wouldn’t go away, and now we’re good friends who have crashed my car together.”

Most of Ramirez’s drawings are inspired by his background as a Latino, and he has gotten inspiration from artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. This inspiration derived from his culture is due to Ramirez wanting to pay homage to his immigrant parents, as a means to show them that he appreciates everything they have done for him.

“I take a lot of inspiration from my Latin background,” Ramirez said. “My parents first came [to America] in the early ’90s. It’s so important for me to show them that their hard-work has not gone unnoticed. I want them to know that they are what moves me, and they are what motivates me to do better in my life. They took so many risks in their lives just for their kids which is something I really appreciate. It’s something I can never pay back to them.”