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An Artist At Work: Abby Boatman

Updated: Sep 27, 2020

By Kathryn Odgers and Kaydence Holmes


The Minarets Art department exemplifies the ability of young and creative artists of all different styles, supporting them and giving them opportunities to grow, learn, and gives them a platform to showcase their passions.

Senior Abby Boatman has been expressing herself through her art for as long as she can remember. “My first memory is me sitting on my mom’s bed” she began, “And she was teaching me how to draw, and she kept asking me ‘Do people have necks?’, and I would say ‘yeah’, and she would say ‘Then draw a neck, those people look like a potato right now.’


Over the years, Abby has experimented with different types of art and she’s come up with her own meaning of what art is saying, ‘I’m not sure how I would define it, it’s just like you know it when you see it. My art is my life, it’s my way of getting people to understand me even if it doesn’t work out it’s just me trying to put everything exactly how I’m doing it and see if anyone understands it. It’s the only way I know how to communicate really because I’m bad with words and talking about my feelings, so I can do my paints and express myself." Abby plans to always paint and draw, but one thing she’s interested in is being an art curator after high school so she can always have art apart of her life and have the opportunity to travel as well.


This year, Abby is taking AP Art for her second time and is changing her direction for her investigative question. The course requires an investigative question to be demonstrated within her pieces that answers a more personal question from yourself, such as about who you are, your beliefs, thoughts, and more. “My topic is about love, really what is love and self-love and how we experience it on an existential level. Last year I did a series of paintings that were mostly about break-ups and stuff which I had a lot of experience with. I just draw from my own experiences mostly, especially with my project this year which is more on self-love and how I experience it on the inside and not so much externally” Abby said, “I’ve been focusing on a word and what’s really going on, so like my first piece I did was forgiveness and that love is forgiveness. I really pay attention to what happened and I hear something and I think ‘Oh my god, that’s my next thing”, it just comes to you and you really just have to think about it”.

She has featured her art in many different galleries, such as the Sierra Art Trails and Art Hop, which takes place every first and third Thursday of each month. Often times she finds small art galleries around Fresno to feature and sell her art, and she has been shown multiple times in different showcases. “I love doing those, talking to people, having people look at my stuff and asking questions about it. It’s pretty fun and nice when I sell stuff, but it’s mostly just showing and talking about the pieces. I’ve had some people say, ‘Oh I’ve seen your art on Instagram before’, but people haven’t come up to me on purpose though.” Abby will also be featuring her art at the Halloween Walk on Oct. 17 at Goldstein’s Mortuary and Delicatessen next week, and anyone is welcome to come see her art!

When doing her art, she looks for opportunities to involve different objects and materials in her pieces, making them very unique. “I mostly do paint on canvas but I do a lot of drawings, sometimes I put stuff on canvases like matches just because I love lighting candles and so I carry a lot of matches with me”. Abby keeps different supplies such as matches, art supplies, old drawings, and magazines. “And I’m just kind of sad because I feel weird about throwing stuff away so a lot of times I just use this stuff I don’t throw away on my canvas. It’s hard to put them there without it looking terrible too,” she mentioned. Artists often struggle with coming up with pieces, or ways to express themselves in their art as it’s sometimes hard to put your mind onto the canvas. For Abby, she’s struggled with coming up with ideas for her AP portfolio, saying, “Just don’t think about it too much, it just sort of comes out of you when it needs to. Your voice matters because the world needs art, it’s not going to save the world go volunteer in a soup kitchen, but it’s how we survive: I wouldn’t be here without it. Art isn’t going to save your life, it’ll save yourself” she advised.

Go check out some of Abby’s artwork on sale at the Halloween Walk on Oct. 17, 2019, from 6:00-10:00 p.m, at Goldstein’s Mortuary and Delicatessen in Fresno!




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