A select number of students in the art community were invited to this year’s first “Artist Talk” with Kathleen Gerber and Lori Nix on Nov. 1, 2023. 

An “Artist Talk” is an after-school meeting where promising art students have the opportunity to meet successful artists. During the meeting, students learn about the artist’s journey and ask them questions. This time, their meeting was held over a Zoom call in the art room. 

“It was really interesting, and I learned a lot of things about art and 3D art,” attendee Ananya Sarma said. 

Kathleen Gerber and Lori Nix are Brooklyn-based artists with their own studio called Nix + Gerber. They specialize in creating dioramas which are realistic miniature models of a scene. 

“At the end [of the call], two of the 3D students showed them some of their dioramas and some of the miniatures they made, and they gave critiques on that,” Sarma said. 

The students who attended this meeting were hand-picked by Rebekah Tee – the organizer of this event – based on their interest in 3D art or their potential.  

“After she [Tee] picked you, you had to do some research on the artists and then you had to submit to her a question that you were going to ask them [the artists],” Sarma said. “And then one-by-one everyone asked the artists questions about the art community and their lives and stuff like that.”

At the meeting, not only did the students gain insight into the work ethic of a professional artist, how to get there, and knowledge about dioramas, but Nix and Gerber also benefited.

“I know there was one student who asked a question and they paused for a minute, and they were like ‘hey we’ve never been asked this before’ and it really made them think about it,” National Art Honor Society president Chloe Donaldson said. 

From her experience of this meeting, Donaldson learned that communication and connecting with different people with different experiences can really benefit a person. 

“It doesn’t matter what stage you’re on, it’s so important to be able to communicate with other people in life both in your field and out of it, so that everybody can gain an entirely new perspective and really strengthen their own personal journey,” Donaldson said. 

This “Artist Talk” was part of a series; the next artists to visit will be a husband-and-wife duo named Anderson + Medrano, who will visit the students in person.

“Each and every one of those kids that were there were able to gain an entirely new perspective on their own artistic journey by just talking to these big artists who have – you could say – ‘made it’ in the world,” Donaldson said. 

Overall, the attendees of this meeting left feeling very inspired and gained a lot of knowledge about a future career in art. 

“If you have something that you are truly passionate about, it doesn’t matter what you major in in college, that can completely change,” Donaldson said. “If you find something that you are happy doing, just go for it.”