Artist’s Point: Ava Adams

Artist’s Point, featured by the Tiger Hi-Line, is a series of articles exploring the world of art through the insights of young student artists here in Cedar Falls while also learning more about the artists themselves. In this first issue we will be taking the perspective of senior Ava Adams, a student who wishes to carry her art into the future; wanting to try many different art styles and experimenting with distinct kinds of media throughout her lifetime. 

Using a mix of traditional and digital media, Adams plans to go to the University of Northern Iowa. She intends to major in graphic design with a minor in either business or marketing, later aspiring to be a commissioner for a large company or business to design advertisements, billboards, book covers, etc. 

Art has always been a focal point for her, her passion really taking off in her fifth grade years. Gaining access to the internet, she used what she saw as inspiration and began to draw more and more. 

“I took a lot of inspiration from artists during that time. That itself made it click for me that ‘oh! I like drawing!’” Adams said.  “So there was definitely a lot of inspiration during my childhood years and as I grew up it became more than a hobby and something that I really wanted to pursue later in life.”

Currently, Adams is taking Pottery/Ceramics II and Graphic Design, also being enrolled in Drawing and Painting I for next semester. She also took numerous art classes in previous years. Regardless, Adams still considered herself a “self taught artist,” a term which describes an artist who didn’t really receive formal training when coming up with their style—Adams’ unique style which she points to her younger years for. Even so, Adams is grateful for her art classes, but she still states the importance of self exploration and creating her own unique style as a “self taught artist” regardless of the criticisms that some of these artists face as many don’t follow traditional guidelines and or rules. 

“It helps you incorporate your own originality and helps you further expand your creativity in a way so you’re not drawing the same thing over and over again. You’re expanding on certain concepts and learning the process of creating art,” Adams said.

Another point Adams made was regarding her experience as a digital artist. Initially and even still recently, digital art receives mixed opinions on whether it is real art or not as programs allow for drawing to become easier by utilizing tools on different platforms. Adams argues however that the passion and work is still there unlike the works of AI art; AI art only causing more controversy in the digital art world due to its lazy AI generation.

“I do really think AI art is a very complex topic. It should really be studied more. The fact is that you can just type in a prompt and that AI will go onto different websites and other media as it steals people’s artwork, and I personally don’t think that’s creativity; the passion isn’t there. In the future, if AI becomes prominent, I would want to see more creative ways to develop an art piece that the artist still has control over. I want people to take inspiration but not necessarily steal other’s artwork,” Adams said.

Undoubtedly, the art world is changing. With AI art taking form and artists continuing to grow and evolve, it’s important to remember the passion and hard work that is put toward an artist’s piece and how important it is to support that and the value of human expression.

“This is how artists live. This is how they get their income, and more or less it’s their passion. A lot of passion is put toward an artist’s piece. Instead of being lazy and allowing AI art to type up and generate a prompt for them, it’s important to go out there and seek out different kinds of artists,” Adams said.