Featured Young Artist: Delyn Phanor

While most of our teen-artists are busy creating bee-inspired paintings, photographs, videos, and designs for our 7^th annual GPOE, one of our talented teens has flown the hive for a semester. Delyn Phanor, this month’s featured young artist, was one of 48 high school juniors and seniors from across the US accepted into Napa, California’s Oxbow School on a full-ride scholarship! This small, co-ed boarding school located outside of San Francisco offers intense visual arts classes and unique academic programs that incorporate each student’s art studies. Thanks in part to his strong portfolio, which began in AFH’s painting studio, Delyn was granted this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to further deepen his design skills. Check out his interview below, followed by a video created in our Graphics Department starring our featured young artist as he pays homage to Micron pens! 

How did you hear about AFH?

DP: I heard about AFH through my cousin Kemani Washington. He was working there in the summer of my 8^th grade year. Unfortunately, I had to wait until I was a freshman in high school in 2009 to get the job.

What excited you about AFH’s Graphic Design and Motion Graphics Studio?

DP: What got me excited about Graphic Design and Motion Graphics is their technicality and design process. Graphic Design is art, but while you’re creating, you’re also figuring out concepts that you either want or need to portray…all digitally! Both Graphic Design and Motion Graphics as professions amaze me.

Describe a cool project you worked on in Graphics. What were the challenges, surprises?

DP: One cool project I was able to work on was this sticker design for interior home decorations. I had the option to design stickers for either adults or children. At first I chose to work with designing stickers for adults. However, it became a bit too complex figuring out conceptual designs for adults because I was drafting only things that I assumed that the average adult would think about, and I couldn’t make successful designs like that. So I decided to switch to designing for the kids since my style in art appeals to youth.

Tell me about your experience at Oxbow! What is a typical day like for you there?

DP: My experience at Oxbow has been wonderful. I learned a lot of things that have led me to think about who I am as an artist and what I really intend on accomplishing. This experience in itself has definitely made me dislike public school and made me interested in the art of home schooling. A typical day would be breakfast in the morning, art classes after, lunch, academics, dinner, open studios, and bedtime.

What projects are you working on now?

DP: Right now I’m working on a project assigned by a famous local artist named Gay Outlaw. Her work is amazing! She makes sculptures involving geometric shapes like cubes and triangles.

What are the biggest differences between CA and Boston?

 DP: The difference I’ve noticed between CA and Boston is that in CA, everything is a proper mixture for people in the social aspect of things. No one is discriminated against  and everything is basically laid back. Whereas Boston feels totally industrialized. It feels as if there’s hardly any unity between all of us Bostonians unlike the community I’ve felt in CA.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned at Oxbow?

DP: The one big lesson that I learned while being at Oxbow is to always think about everything. Question everything.

What are your future goals?

DP: My future goals are to build and own an animation production company in Boston, and to be a director of animated films. I would also love to give philosophical lectures at colleges.

What’s your dream job?

DP: My dream job is to be an animator.

Is there anyone else artistic in your family?

DP: My oldest sister is a cosmetologist.

Is there anyone you would love to design for?

DP: I would love to design for Adidas.

What colleges are you looking at?

DP: Most likely Montserrat College of Art.

What are you reading right now?

DP: Graphic novels.

Who inspires you?

DP: Critical thinkers.

Do you have any blogs or artists that you follow?

DP: Jamie Hewlett. Graphic Designer/Comic book artist for the band Gorillaz.

Check out Delyn in our Micron video!

Be on the look-out for more of Delyn’s work and come meet the rest of our talented teen designers at this year’s Greatest Party on Earth! Buy your tickets now before the price goes up!