Summer in Place: All Things Artsy

Q: What have you been doing this summer?

A: I’ve been doing a lot of art. I tried to tie-dye a shirt. I tie-dyed with my friends Sanchez and Army and made the mistake of making them in charge of buying dye and they bought fabric dye, the one you boil on the stove to dye a whole sheet which is not what you need so it’s super faded. I’ve been screwing around with stuff you can do that interests me regardless of quarantine, but I can still do during quarantine.

Q: Tell us about your jewelry shop.

A: When my sister was little my dad was like “Samantha if you could name a restaurant anything what would you name it?” and immediately she said Monkey Bikini Carwash. So that’s been a running joke in our family that if anyone opens a business it’ll be Monkey Bikini Carwash. I had a lot of necklace trinkets but I hated wearing necklaces and so I wanted to put them on earrings. My sister is very marketing oriented and so she was like how do we monetize this? So she’s been helping me with all the social media aspect of it. It was fun to experiment with different ways of making them like actual jewelry trinkets versus putting stupid stuff on them like I put erasers on a pair and I put these tiny rubber farm animal figurines. I sold seven or eight of my first batch and then I did a batch of shrinky dinks like the plastic you draw on and you put on the oven and it shrinks into a smaller charm. I made a bunch of those and thought these are sick, people are gonna love these and no one wanted them and I was like okay. That discouraged me a little bit but I’m still making them for fun.

Q: What inspires your art?

A: When I was at a reservoir, I found a rock and I painted it [...] But I’m also not consistent cause I’ll also do weird abstract stuff that’s very cut crease and in lines. I also drew a lot of words and phrases, this one says do I look like I give a fuck? and this one says this is the worst! from “The Office”. I also do stuff from TikTok like the Manny. I’m very not consistent like if I see something cool on Tiktok I’ll do it or the song DILLIGAF is stuck in my head and I’m like put it on a canvas.

Q: What else have you been doing?

A: Spending time with family, but forcibly so, cause you know quarantine. But we’ve all been kinda doing our own thing. I’ve been doing a lot of art. I rewatched The Office for the third time and am watching Criminal Minds now. I spend way too much time on TikTok, way too much time.

Q: What are you most excited about for college?

A: Getting out of the Bay Area bubble and kind of exploring a new place. I know it’s cheesy to say but meeting new people. I love it here, but it kind of feels like I’ve conquered it like I feel like I know a lot of people here and I want to go and be out of my element and experience something completely new. And have to make it my own like live in a new place and change my routines and make completely new friends. I’m just excited for a change cause I think change is good.

Q: Now that you’re done with high school, do you have any advice?

A: Don’t sit at rallies, just kidding, but also don’t. I know it’s cheesy, but really really enjoy class. Really try to be in the moment and be in the class. Even if you don’t have friends in the class, you definitely have acquaintances. I was never really aware of that and I was like oh, back at school, ahh I hate school, but as soon as it was quarantine I was like why do I want to be sitting in my most boring class right now? Like it sounds like a dream right now to be sitting half asleep right now with all my other classmates, none of which I was particularly close to, but I had a little banter with this guy and inside joke with this girl. It’s such small stuff, but I never realized how much I’d miss it. Try to be as in the moment as you can. I know sometimes when you’re in class you’re like when does the bell ring? or what homework do I have? But I think particularly for my class, that’s what a lot of people are realizing, just how much we took the everyday for granted. It’s like that good old Andy Bernard quote like I wish we knew we were in the good days before you’re out of them.