Passionate and extremely talented are the words used by Ms. Nikaj to describe Adrianna Casas, an AP Art student at Downey High.
According to her twin brother, Andres Casas, art comes naturally for her and she has shown signs of being artistically gifted from a young age. She always drew cartoon monsters and named them as she finished each one. The entire group she named the “The Munchkins”. She imagined that they looked like a monster or zombie form of “Wow Wow Wubzy”.
“I see her drawing all of the time, every day,” Andres Casas said. “I feel that she does really good work, it’s obvious.”
Ronny Casas her older brother by 11 years, inspires her to draw. Casas grew up watching him draw while she was in elementary school. She saw how talented he was and loved to emulate him, and then realized the gift of being artistic must run in the family.
“I remember my older brother would draw motorcycles so perfectly and detailed and I would attempt to copy them,” Casas said.
Casas had Intermediate and AP Art with Nikaj for the last two years. Mrs. Puente was her art teacher her sophomore year. During her junior year, she wanted to be in AP Art, and Nikaj told her in order for that to be possible Casas would need to submit 24 pieces of art work for her portfolio. Nikaj gave her projects to do over the summer; she thought Casas would be a great candidate.
“She always does really well,” Ms. Nikaj said. “She rocks.”
Both years that Casas was in Nikaj’s class, Anissa Gomez, 11, was one of her classmates. She says that Casas works very hard on everything she does and is always focused on her work. Gomez said that the few times she has spoken to her, she has always been a very nice and cool person to talk to.
“Her artwork is very unique. She is an amazing artist. I believe she has the potential to go far in life with the talent she has,” Gomez said. “Last year when I had Adrianna for art, I was positive she was going to be in AP this year. I would have been surprised if she wasn’t.”
Although Casas enjoys both drawing and painting, she prefers drawing. She tends to be a perfectionist and feels that she can be more precise with pencil than with paints.
“I like drawing weird stuff,” Casas said. “I would say I like to draw surreal things – things that you can bring from an imaginary world into your own real world.”
She plans on having a double major, one in accounting and the other in fine arts or studio arts at Boston University. She has been accepted into the Northern Arizona University for accounting and is also looking into the Art Institute.
Outside of art, Casas also joined Humanities Club, was a Viking leader, and in her tenth grade year, was on the school softball team. She also plans on joining the Breakfast Club with her brother come second semester.
At the rate she is going, and with such passion and talent, Nikaj’s AP art class may be the beginning of a long and fruitful career for Adrianna Casas.
