Photo by Harper Kehl

Students self-express through art, fashion

year ago. I’ve always been really into environmentalism. I was thinking I was going to become an environmental lawyer. Thinking about it now, absolutely not. I could never get through law school, but I am planning to minor in sustainability still. I think learning about all of that really affected my style too, because I started to move away from fast fashion, and now I pretty much only thrift all my clothes,” Somraty said.

Somraty thrifts most of her clothing.

“I will buy from non-thrift stores, if there’s a hole in my wardrobe that I need to fill and it’s holding me back and I haven’t been able to thrift it, but I literally get like a high when I find a cool, unique piece at a thrift store,” Somraty said.

Somraty appreciates thrift stores for their sustainability -- but also for their own impact and inspiration on herself. Also, Somraty finds inspiration and appreciation in her own peers.

“I think getting into that completely transformed my style. I feel like it is so hard for me to really put together a good outfit and wear it to school, like I just need to be wearing sweats or jeans to school. There’s so many people that just come to school everyday, and they’re just like serving every single day, like they’re just giving. I am lowkey so jealous of those people, because it is so hard for me to really put together a good outfit and wear it to school. I think it’s something about the environment and school versus the weekend. I have a completely different style at school than I do on the weekends,” Somraty noted.

Senior Rachel Sebastian-Asbed is another notable artist of Webster Groves. Throughout high school, her pieces have stretched across the art hallway. Like others, Sebastian-Asbed’s inspiration for art comes from all around hers, but her own experiences and relationships inspire her the most.

“What inspires me is my experiences and mostly my interactions with people. Just how I can connect with people I don’t know through art. Just thinking about the importance of small moments and trying to capture that essence through pencil drawings,” Sebastian-Asbed said.

Sebastian-Asbed’s favorite art forms are drawing and painting, but about her favorite part about art itself, “My favorite thing is probably the subjectivity of it. You can make anything you want and have it be interpreted in so many ways, but also you don’t have to listen to what others say because it’s your depiction of whatever you were inspired by,” Sebastian-Asbed said.

Sebastian-Asbed appreciates art for its inclusivity and how universal it is.

“It’s also very therapeutic and inclusive. It gives people, whether it be me or someone else, a way to express themselves and communicate if they have trouble doing so. Particularly, I think art done by artists with special needs is amazing, because since some can’t accurately talk about what’s going on with them, the only thing they can use is art. It’s just so universal,” SebastianAsbed said. Sebastian-Asbed is no stranger to awards or achievements for her art. “I was an All Write artist. I’ve won a Silver Key in the Scholastic Art and Writing competition for a portfolio. I got second place in the Lindenwood art competition. One piece of mine was chosen to represent the third congressional district in a competition where my piece won our Missouri state districts. It goes to Jefferson City and stays there for a while,” Sebastian-Asbed shared.

Senior Harper Kehl, another rising artist, showcases herself and her experiences through photography and other mediums. Whether it be vibrant colors, patterned fashion pieces or through the snap of a lens, Kehl and her personality are most known through her art and the style of it. Kehl’s favorite form of art is photography. “I really love photography, because I feel like it’s so inspiring to be able to capture moments that you can look back on forever. I think why I take so many photos is because I love being able to look back on a certain moment in time,” Kehl said.

“Photography is such a good way of capturing how you feel in a period of time,” Kehl said.

About why she loves art, “It’s open to everyone’s interpretation. I also think art is a really good way of expressing yourself, whether you are doing it intentionally or not. In the end, you always end up learning something new about yourself,” Kehl shared.

Kehl finds inspiration through her friends and the sounds around her.

“My friends and my music and everything around me inspire me. I also think what influences me the most is my emotions and how I’m feeling when I create art,” Kehl shared.

“I have been working with ceramics a lot lately, creating shoes out of clay and working with different glazes. Alongside this, I have also been experimenting with different lighting techniques and exposures with film photography,” Kehl said, about her current creative process.

Kehl’s art is well known and appreciated throughout Webster Groves.

“Last year, Anna Barr and I constructed a nine foot monolith that we moved around Webster, including city hall, the Webster Groves sculpture garden and even right here in front of the high school on Selma,” Kehl said.

Cast shares preparation for ‘Harvey’

Business Manager Izzy Poole Public Relations Calvin Lescher

“Harvey is not a fluff piece. Harvey is a very smart, well written comedy, so I thought I want to do Harvey because about eight years ago we had planned to do Harvey,” drama teacher Todd Schaefer said.

The performances will be April 13-16.

“We have a really great cast of people, and it’s really fun to work with people who are super into the character because it lets you have the liberty to be into the character,” senior Bella Ferrell said.

As it gets closer the cast shares what they are most looking forward to.

Sophomore Teddy Woldow said, “I’m really looking forward to the costuming if I’m being honest because we get to dress like we are from the 40s.”

Ferrell agreed, “Probably getting into full costume because my character for one, is a blonde, and I am not a blonde, and it would be fun to see what I look like as a blonde and seeing everyone else.”

“Definitely getting on stage and being able to rehearse and act on stage, it seems really fun,” sophomore Fynn Wolf said about their favorite part.

Schaefer described what the costumes and makeup will look like.

“The set crew’s going to be the big tech crew and makeup. We have makeup and hair and costumes, but it’s only a cast of like 10, and they all wear the same clothes the whole time there’s no fast changes or anything there’s no special effects costumes. It’s just standard people dressed as though they were from the 1940s,” Schaefer said.

“I’m looking for people who can do comedy, so it’s about comic timing. This is not a tech heavy show. It’s an actor show, and it’s a character driven show, so I’m looking for people in that audition who could bring a character to the audition, and not necessarily be themselves, and I got a couple of people who could do that,” Schaefer said.

“I kind of just winged it, but I guess it worked,” freshman Sophia Monaco said about her preparation for the audition.

“My friend forced me to do it (audition), and I wasn’t really expecting to get the role. I really didn’t take it seriously,” Wolf said about the auditioning process.

Woldow said, “Really I was just doing it for fun. After Zombie I really enjoyed the play experience so I really liked doing the play then so I figured I could audition now and if I got it I got it, and if I didn’t I didn’t, and it was kind of low stakes, I really didn’t think I was going to get a main roll, so getting Elwood was really cool,” Ferrell said,“Well it’s kind of really random. I had just gotten off quarantine, and I came back and I was like oh that’s cool, and I was feeling extra confident. I think that’s what it was. I had a spirt of confidence and went and tried. It worked out so,” “I applied for the rights, and they put me on a pending status and we went ahead and announced it… the night before we were supposed to start rehearsals with my cast the licencing agent called me and said, ‘Sorry a union company in your region has taken the rights from you, so we have to reject your application,’ and we didn’t get to do ‘Harvey,’ So I’m back, I’ve been wanting to do Harvey for about the last 10 years and it’s one of the top produced high school shows in the country,” Schaefer said.

“Our mission statement is we go after award winning scripts so Harvey is your Pulitzer winner from the 40s, written by a female playwright,” Schaefer said.

“This one is a three-act play. It’s going to probably run for at least two hours at max, but we are going to try to get it down to about an hour 50 with an intermission. It’s 71 pages, so it should be if it’s a minute a page which is usually about the length of a page it should be an hour 20, but there’s monologues and stuff so it’s not always a minute a page. It’ll probably be about an hour 50. I’m hoping, I want it to be under two hours if I can,” Schaefer said.

Art by Bella Ferrell

Teenagers appreciate past trends

Editor-in-Chief Jackson Parks News/Opinion Editor Emily Goben

As decades come and go, they each seem to leave their mark on people’s minds with specific trends that will remain forever symbolic of that era.

It is nearly impossible to see a flannel without thinking of the iconic 90s grunge, a jukebox without recalling the 50s or a peace sign without reminiscing about the 70s.

Even without having lived through these eras, teenagers are still able to appreciate them through photos, movies and stories they hear from older generations.

Senior Greta Eames said her favorite past trend was platform shoes from the 60s.

“They make everyone look cool,” Eames said.

“My favorite trend was women having short hair, like that being fem. Anywhere from the 1900s to the 1990s, and then after that short hair was kind of not popular, like the 90s pixie cut and the 70s blowouts,” senior Bella Ferrell said.

However, many teens’ favorite trends are things that make them nostalgic for their childhood.

“My favorite past trend would have to be playing on Nintendo DS’s. They were so fun, and everyone had one. The games they had for them were so fun, so typical, and so 2000s. Everything about playing on a DS is magical. I had a pink DS, and everyone wanted the pink one SO badly. I just miss it so much,” senior Anna Karpen said.

“My favorite past trend is silly bands. I loved how you could

Photo by Emily Goben

A 2000s era silly band rests atop 70s style flowers.

collect and trade them. They need to be in again,” junior Spencer Willman said

Senior Zoe Rush said that her favorite trend is flare pants because they make her look taller. This trend was notorious for fashion icons in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Junior Robyn Foley’s favorite trend is even more recent.

“My favorite past trend was Harry Potter TikTok. It was super fun to bring back my favorite childhood series, and it was super comforting during the pandemic. It was really awesome for a lot of people and added a lot of fun to a not great time,” Foley said.

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