Parsa Hamran

Freshman Abri Gallegos is going over her drawing of a rat with a sharpie in the art room. Art Club and Mental Health Coalition held an eighth period for a chance to unwind and make watercolors, on Monday, May 11. “Art helps enable you to relieve stress and express your emotions,” Gallegos said. “[You can] open up and empty what you feel inside, but calm [yourself] at the same time.”

On May 11, Mental Health Coalition collaborated with Art Club to make watercolor posters. The activity took place during both eighth period blocks and students were invited to take this as a chance to wind down.

With most students continuing AP exams throughout this week, the stress levels at Jefferson have been higher than usual. To balance out the rigorous exams, Jefferson students spent time making crafts and then spread them around the school building as a way to boost the spirits of testers.

“We wanted to give everyone a chance to de-stress,” junior and co-president of Art Club Aerin Bernstein said. “The prompt was to do a watercolor animal with an inspirational message to put around the school, to calm people down during AP season. But, we are also letting people free [draw] to relax.”

The setup for the event was straightforward and only took five minutes. The art stations were quickly prepped with multiple supplies ready to be used.

“We set out liquid watercolors, watercolor pencils, and watercolor paper,” Bernstein said. “[We] also [put] out fine line sharpie pens so they could refine their paintings.”

Mental Health Coalition has collaborated with other clubs in the past, but this was their first time working with Art Club.

“Normally we do a lot of arts and crafts,” junior and president of Mental Health Coalition Fay Amirullah said. “But [working] with Art Club, we have more actual art supplies and resources.”

It is important to have spaces where students can unwind after an academically rigorous day. 

“I think [Jefferson] is so focused on STEM, we forget it’s also just a school,” Bernstein said. “If you’re an educational place, you should also be educating on art, which is why I really value art. It gives people a chance—even kids who would generally just take science classes—to explore other mediums and give themselves time off from thinking of things like physics or chemistry.”

Some may enjoy the communicative aspects of art, while others say they appreciate letting their imaginations loose. No matter what one’s perspective on art is, there’s always something new to take away.

“My favorite part of art is the amount of possibilities,” Bernstein said. “[In] a lot of subjects you just drill problems. With art, there’s always something new to do and you’re never just repeating the same thing.”