By Harlan Rose

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Art is something that can inspire people and for Senior Caytlin Yoshioka, it has inspired her to become a comic artist and a landscape impressionist. Having been an artist since the sixth grade, Yoshioka plans to make her artwork her lifetime career in the future.

“I’ve been trying to make a career out of (my art) since sixth grade. I’ve been doing something that commissions it and stuff since then but I’ve been drawing since as long as I could hold a pencil, so I think that’s typical of most artists,” Yoshioka said.

Yoshioka first received her inspiration to become an artist from her uncle, who draws comics for the Hawaii Herald. “I was kind of inspired by him and I wanted to do comics after that because I thought it was really cool, being in the newspaper every week and drawing and (being) paid for it,” Yoshioka said, “That was pretty cool, so I think my uncle was a good inspiration for me.”

Yoshioka enjoys making many different types of artwork, but comics, political cartoons and landscape paintings stand among her favorites. “I like comics. You can tell stories with it and I think that if you really want to get a message out, people don’t really like to read walls of text, but they like pretty pictures, so I think comics are a good way to get messages across,” Yoshioka said. For her landscape pictures, Yoshioka draws inspiration from buildings and architecture. “I paint a lot of buildings and scenery. I’ve been to Europe before and I would stop and take pictures of every building, like, ‘I want to paint this when I get home,’” Yoshioka added.

Yoshioka’s paintings have inspired her friend and fellow artist, Senior Tiffany Wright, whom she has known since the sixth grade. “(Yoshioka’s artwork is) amazing. She is so good and I remember because I met her in sixth grade and I remember when she wasn’t that good, but now she’s a senior and she’s so amazing and she has the cleanest lines ever. She makes me want to get better,” Wright said.

Yoshioka’s future plans include making a living out of her artwork, despite the financial trouble some artists face. “I plan to (continue painting. It might) not (make) a lot of money, but it will make me money,” Yoshioka said. Wright added, “I want her to be an artist so bad. I see her being in a big animation studio like Disney or something, where she’s making big bucks and she is the boss of a bunch of other animators.”

As graduation nears, Yoshioka hopes to make her artwork more than a hobby and to continue to inspire future rising artists.