Maya Ripley is a sophomore at BPHS and is an expert artist in Mr.Wallisch’s Art 2 class. She loved art class last year and so she joined Mr.Wallisch’s class this year. She just loves creating art in general. Ripley is still undecided with what she wants to do in the future. Her advice to other artists out there would be, “Just do whatever you want and have fun.”

Ripley created this portrait of Michael Jackson using different colored tempera paints. She had to make a grid on her paper like a checkerboard. The challenge was she couldn’t paint the exact same color right next to the other, but it could be diagonal.

Her favorite part of this painting is the detailed eyes of Jackson. Her inspiration for this piece was her mother because her mom loved Jackson and his music. This took her “a while” to complete, but it was completely worth it in the end. Ripley would name this painting, “Michael Jackson midlife.” She says, “He is in sort of the middle of his transitioning to look different.”