Superintendent’s Artist of the Week: Juliana Woods
As an artist, Warwick Valley High School junior Juliana Woods demonstrates three of the traits described in the district’s Portrait of a Graduate. She is a creator, communicator and collaborator.
Last spring, Juliana and her friend Madeline Balsamo created WVHS’s first “zine” magazine. The first issue of “The Warwick Valley High School Arts Zine” came out in the spring, and a second issue will be published this month.
“Zines are basically DIY magazines that have been around for decades, and I sort of became interested in starting one of those on my own,” Juliana said, “But then I thought it would be a really great project to be able to create one at the school and sort of make it into a community effort and get people in the arts community in the school to connect.”
The zine features student art, music, poetry, short stories, playlists and essays. The first issue in online at: https://issuu.com/warwickartists/docs/zine
“Juliana is motivative, creative and ready to take on the art industry with force,” WVHS art teacher Kristen Spano said. “Juliana always pushes the boundaries of art. She is always sketching and developing new ideas.”
At WVHS, Juliana is currently taking Ms. Spano’s Portfolio class. She has also participated in the Summer Art Institute in the advanced drawing and painting major at the Art Effect in Poughkeepsie. Juliana is currently taking the Senior Project course at The Art Effect.
“You have to create 12 pieces in 12 weeks all centered around a theme that connects them,” Juliana said. The course usually requires around 30 hours of work per week, so it’s pretty intense. It’s basically modeled after a college senior portfolio class.”
Julia said she’s been doing art pretty much her entire life. She plans to study art in college.
“Right now, I’m trying to focus on illustrative work,” Juliana said. “But I’m also exploring 3D media as well. This year my goal is to determine what my focus in college will be, so I want to experiment with different mediums. I do a lot of regular painting and drawing but I’ve also started with printmaking and collage-type things.”
Juliana credits her experience with Odyssey of the Mind and her elementary school PIE program with helping her to grow as an artist. With Odyssey, she was able to explore areas such as set design and construction.
In 2019, Juliana was a member of the WVMS Odyssey team that finished first in the World Finals. Last year she helped coach a WVMS Odyssey team. This year she’s going to be working with an elementary school team.
“Odyssey has really been a great experience for me and definitely helped me develop into the artist that I am now,” Juliana said. “The PIE program in elementary school was very largely creativity based, so that also helped me grow.”
