Expression through art

Rylee Williams, ‘23

From a young age, SENIOR Arlo Grimaldi knew that she wanted to be an artist.

Inspired by her parents, who are both illustrators and painters, she was taught as an adolescent the importance of expressing herself through her artwork.

“I was taught [multimedia illustration], from a very young age, and when they saw that I was serious about doing art, they really fostered that creativity,” Grimaldi said.

Grimaldi was four years old when she decided she wanted to take up a career in art. With this same mindset, as a SENIOR, she has pushed herself to not only become a better artist but to know the history behind artworks that inspire her.

“Learning the history of art is just as important as learning how to do it,” Grimaldi said.

Some of Grimaldi’s biggest inspirations to become a better artist include, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dali, and Wangechi Mutu.

Growing up, Grimaldi loved a lot of prehistoric art and contemporary artists coming from the Neo Expressionist Movement.

“I really learned to love the artists from the 80s, 90s and 70s, who were really doing this groundbreaking work. [Neo Expressionism] was sort of my favorite art movement of fine arts,” Grimaldi said.

Grimaldi’s art has shaped and shifted as she has grown. She wants both the way that she views the world and the way the world views her to be depicted in her artwork.

“As I came to accept myself, my art shifted to a more expressionistic lens,” Grimaldi said. ”It became less about what I saw optically around me and more about what was driving me to create, what was driving me to live, what was driving me to survive.”

In her years at WHHS, Grimaldi has taken several art classes. She has been in AP art for a number of years important if you want to succeed in this industry,” Grimaldi said.

As Grimaldi continues her artistic journey, she is planning on majoring in fashion design with a minor in art history at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (UC DAAP). With the support of friends and family, she is ready to take on whatever comes after WHHS.

“Once you have a passion for it, and someone with some type of authority tells you to pursue it, you just kind of have and is taking her first year in AP art history.

Outside of WHHS, she has participated in ArtWorks Cincinnati and worked as an apprentice. ArtWorks is a gallery in Cincinnati focusing on young emerging artists. While working as an apprentice, Grimaldi helped paint murals, make pamphlets and create illustrations for other artists based in Cincinnati.

“I think in school you learn a lot about the expression part [of art] and all that. Once you get outside, you learn how to be a professional artist, which includes a lot of things like having to talk to people who are funding your art…and that’s very to start hitting the ground running,” Grimaldi said. “I was four, I really had a passion, my parents and people were telling me to just go for it and ever since, that’s what I’ve been sort of locked in on.”