When people think of the word “artist”, a mental picture may pop up of an old guy with a big blonde afro painting water colors. Rarely do people think of the amount of talent that students in high school have and the quality of artwork that they can produce. Garret Bernard, a senior at Placer High School, is one of the many artists who are involved in Placer’s art department, and who continually create new work that catch the eyes of examiners.  

Bernard has been taking an interest in creating ceramic art for nearly a year now and has already caught the attention of not only fellow classmates, but from ceramic teacher Toby Covich himself.

“What sets him apart is he uses texture with the clay. He’ll carve into it to create textures or patterns, which he combines with the colors of the glaze that makes his work stand out. Also, he has experience with the air brush, to create a fade and transgress into one color into another color and he’ll texture that, which also makes his work stand out.” stated Covich.

Although having one’s artwork stand out is something that every artist hopes to achieve, not all artists create art only for the title of having something different.

“I enjoy creating art just to let people see my work” stated Bernard.

With so many artists in today’s society, and with the numbers continuing to grow, it becomes more of a challenge to achieve originality and to simply have one’s artwork stand out from the rest. Though new ideas and new styles are always being presented, dedication and time put into one’s artwork can result in perfecting a specific skill in their creation. And though perfection may not matter to every artist’s work, perfection can be the main factor that makes a piece of art stand out from the rest.

“Garret spends some of his lunch in here and his free fourth period in here. So he has put a lot more energy into perfecting his craft, considerably more…He has focused more time on the wheel, and because of that he is able to create larger work and also interesting shapes and volumes to his work so it’s a little more artful looking as well. That combined with his surface treatment, it creates really a professional work,” Covich added.

Although Bernard is a senior, he plans on taking art when he attends Sierra College.

“He’ll have a good jump on most of his college peers when he gets there because he has put more time in as a high school student than they have,” commented Covich.