Saturday morning, eight art students piled into a van with Mrs. Rasmussen and headed to Bakersfield, CA for Taft High’s 5th year of Via Arté. Already, many other high schools were hard at work. Taft was given three squares and the students broke up into groups of two or three. They started off with the gridding process of a 4’ by 6’ square followed with a sketch of the product.

Students agreed that they were most excited for putting color onto their media and seeing the finished result. Breaks were a must as students would become frustrated with the chalk not doing what they wanted and, after cooling off, it was back to work. During this time, they could listen to the live entertainment or check out all the shops. Rasmussen said that there was “great competition” and “amazing references” this year and that overall it was just a good experience. Students were given a chance to learn how to communicate and cooperate together under pressure. By 4pm, students were scrambling to finish up final details and to sign their artwork. Student artist Marcos Alfaro said

Via Arté was, “Pretty exciting. I didn’t know what to expect… It was fun to look at the professional artists.” He wants to make sure to let the students know that art club meets every Tuesday, so join!

Via Arté was a great way for students to stretch their creative outlook and do something that isn’t very common. The day started hopeful and cold and ended with tired, hot students. Knees were aching and fingers were raw. They gained a new perspective of what it meant to be an artist and  how painful it could be–not just physically but mentally.