Junior Eetai Shwartz has been selected as this week’s Artist of the Week.

Shwartz has been a part of the art program since his seventh grade year at Medea Creek Middle School.

“You can only start doing art in seventh grade, so I just did the regular and then advanced all in seventh grade because they’re both semester classes,” Shwartz said.

When starting his freshman year at Oak Park High School, Shwartz was eager to jump back into art after taking a break in eighth grade.

“In eighth grade I had nothing to do, I was doing art on my own. And I kind of wanted to be in a class because I wanted to learn stuff. You could learn art on your own but it’s a lot better when you have a teacher,” Shwartz said.

Shwartz is currently enrolled in AP Studio Art and is creating a portfolio. It consists of 15 pieces with a central theme of his choice: Obstruction of Nature.

“I want to emphasize obstruction of nature isn’t destruction of nature. Obstruction means obstacles in front of something. My whole thing is how people have shaped society to be that we love nature, but there are things that are blocking us from reaching that point,” Shwartz said.

Shwartz shared his piece titled “Looming” which depicts a tree on red grass that’s overarching in front of a sunset.

“The tree is all nice and beautiful. But underneath in the red, there’s a dark shadow that’s very scary and serious. And that’s supposed to show there is the beauty of nature and then the darkness of it,” Shwartz said.

In the future, Shwartz hopes to utilize his art talents in his occupation of choice.

“I want to go into either marketing or advertising and that includes the same creative side. And [art] would definitely aid with that,” Shwartz said.

Additionally, facts about Shwartz include: he likes photography, he recently got a new ping pong table and he does not have a middle name.