Jonah King is a senior and artist at NVD. For artists everywhere, Jonah King exemplifies creativity through his writing, clothing, paintings, and drawings, in an effortless way that others strive to emulate. 

King is the type of artist who allows his art to speak for itself, quietly creating artistic masterpieces. His passion for art is so evident, in the fact that it’s simply about being an artist and not parading his work around. King has been drawing for as long as he can remember. He likely gained the artistic gene from his family members.

“Both my parents were actors and artists, and my aunt and uncle are also involved with visual arts,” said King. 

King encapsulates emotion through his pieces. It is clear that he absorbs the energy of his subjects to make pieces that mean something. 

King created a piece titled “Headache.” Without an explanation from King, the first impression of the painting is stress and pain. He depicted these emotions by drawing two different versions of his head. The first version is bigger and more serious while the second one is growing out of the first head. The second head is almost gasping for air and it looks like it is in so much pain. King used charcoal to create this piece. The usage of charcoal helped show the darkness of a headache and how deep the cause of one can be. It is clearly a darker piece and his message gets across very intelligently. 

It is one thing for an artist to create a cool piece, however, it is

another thing for an artist to be able to connect or bring out emotion in someone due to the effects of their art. Experimenting with different mediums is key for an artist to grow. It helps expand colors, textures, and meanings to a piece. 

King has been experimenting with different mediums. “I’ve tended to stick with black and white drawings in pen and pencil, but recently have explored other mediums such as oils and pastels,” King said. 

His usage of oils and pastels is shown through the portrait of his grandfather and another piece titled, “The Scream.” 

In the portrait of his grandfather King used oil paint. “I painted this shortly before Father’s Day and gave it to him as a gift. I wanted to try a more rough technique and used a palette brush to lay thick layers of paint onto the canvas” King said. 

This “rough technique” King is talking about, allowed for the image of his grandfather to contrast against the smooth background. It gave life to the piece and focused heavily on the details of his grandfather’s face. 

In his piece titled “The Scream,” King again used oil paints to convey his idea. 

“I wanted to convey the anxiety occasionally brought on by school, and the sense of being overwhelmed by it all. When I did this I’m sure I had at least four overdue assignments” King said.

He used the paint to create a scene in a school hallway. There is a dark hallway at the end of the piece that is almost unrecognizable and eerie. There is also a head screaming in the bottom left corner. The screaming face definitely visualizes stress and the pain of school. 

While King is a very skilled artist, he does not plan to study art in college. He does, however, plan to stay in close proximity to it with whatever career path he chooses to take.

“As I’ve grown older I’ve learned to appreciate the capacity for creation which everyone brings to the table. When people tell me me they ‘can’t do art’ it’s frustrating, I want to shake them and tell them they’re intentionally robbing the world of their soul” said King. 

King is a true artist whether he is physically drawing, sharing his passions with others, or learning from other people’s experiences. He understands people and their potential which has helped him further his own artistic career. 

“What’s key is remembering that anyone can express themselves artistically, at any age, without regard for superficial skill quotients. There is unique catharsis for anyone who extracts and sets down their emotions” King said.