Go-to graphic designer, paint mixer, people person — as an artist, Alisa Su (12) uses her extroverted personality to her advantage.

“One of her greatest talents is her ability to understand people. She’s often thought of as a social butterfly. It’s gotten to the point where now, whenever we see things, or remember things, and we look at each other, it’s almost like you don’t have to speak about what it is,” her friend Dolan Dworak (12) said of their friendship of five years.

Rahul Mehta (12)’s first impression of Alisa was “super tall” — she stands at 6’2’’ and is often jokingly compared to NBA basketball players. But as he got to know her, she became one of his closest friends.

“She has a lot of nicknames, but I think that’s because so many people know her,” Rahul said. “They all ingrain their own impression of her onto whatever they call her — Su, Suflake, Subear. She’s the one person who I can always talk to about anything. It’s like that saying, like ‘you always return back to home’ or something. I can always talk to her no matter what.”

She would never admit it, but according to her friends, she has a gift for knowing exactly what to say. And according to Dolan, she also has a reputation among the senior class for another gift: art.

“She’s an artistic visionary who wants to and will save the world of design in the next 50 years,” Dolan said.

Alisa finds that art, above any other subject, has the ability to captivate her attention. She began classes in 2nd grade as a way to channel her creative energy.

“I have trouble focusing because I have ADD [attention deficit disorder], but when I’m enraptured in something I really like to do, I can be in that mindset 100%,” she said. “I don’t need music or anything to focus.”

From her plethora of logo designs to her work for Silicon Valley Design-It, Alisa’s style reflects her modern aesthetic.

“A lot of my work is conceptual,” she said. “I struggle with confronting my own emotions. The feeling i get through painting helps me deal with my emotions, even if I don’t know that I’m expressing myself being sad or mad. The thing is, I don’t express myself in art to express it to other people. It’s for myself.”

With their plethora of connotations, colors offer a way to pinpoint places along a wide spectrum of emotion.

“Different colors make me feel different ways,” she said. “The combination of it and going through that process makes me really happy. Mixing colors is one of the most beautiful processes of art to me. I absolutely hate it when people take the tube and straight up start using the color.”

According to her friend Ashna Chandra (12), Alisa found her independence in art.

“She started off different in lower school and cared more about what people thought,” Ashna said. “As she got into high school, she got more involved with her art and that helped show her creative personality. She’s such a strong person if you get to know her.”

Alisa’s artistry and individuality developed simultaneously.

“Before, I felt like I had to prove myself to my parents and other people,” she said. “I realized that letting others’ opinions get to me was only holding me back. You’re living your own life and even if other people see you in a different light, they’ll never experience everything that you experience, and they don’t really understand you. Once you feel like you don’t need to prove yourself to people is when you can focus on the things that you can do for yourself.”

Alisa said. “I’ve never been influenced much by others but my education has brought me more into what I want to be. I have a really vivid image of what I want to do in life and that’s never really changed.”

This mindset has allowed her to take feedback, both positive and negative, with a grain of salt.

“I have a really strong sense of self. I know what I like and I know what I want. In art class at school, I get a lot of weird looks when I try new things,” she said. “But people who criticize my art doesn’t really affect me. It obviously hurts when you work so hard on something, and it’s not accepted, but at the same time art is so subjective. The outcome will be best if you keep doing what you want to do.”

Additional reporting by Humans of Harker managing editor Melissa Kwan.