Golden sunlight illuminates Arya Tandon’s (12) face as she sits at Vasona Park and outlines a brain in her sketchbook. A pen in hand, she adds minute details to her piece, concentrating on the page in front of her. But this isn’t where you’d usually find her: to create art, Arya looks for safe spaces and a specific ambiance, with music in the background, to help her express her emotions in her artwork. 

“I like making … art that moves people and makes them think a little bit more. My AP [Studio] Art focus was on my experience with anxiety, so I turned that into understanding how a person feels or how I felt personally with anxiety, like chaos,” Arya said. “I replicated that in my artwork, and it was a nice escape for me to understand what I was feeling. Along with my interest in psychology, I want to learn about how art can help people through art therapy and releasing stress.”

Arya’s interest in psychology began when she took a course at Harker in her junior year, but the subject eventually became a way for her to better comprehend her own experiences. 

“It made me learn about myself a little bit more because I never knew when I’d just start having a panic attack or something; I didn’t know what was going on,” Arya said. “It helped me understand a little bit more what I was going through, and I learned that art was my release for those kinds of things.”

While studying psychology, Arya began incorporating the subject into her artwork through learning about colors, emotions and more. Even after completing the course, she continued researching the subject both for her art and for her own interest. 

“In the future I do want to get into web design, so I think just learning about how people interact with the website, how people interact with colors and how those affect a person definitely will help me in the future,” Arya said. “All those things combined made me really interested in learning to make emotional art but also effective art.”

Upper school visual arts teacher Joshua Martinez has watched Arya’s personality and artwork develop over the years both as her adviser and teacher for all four years of high school. 

“[She] always wants to find a way to make her passions overlap with her ability to do some good in the world, which I find very inspiring. Her topics of interest have always been aligned to that idea and her willingness to experiment and take on bigger and bigger topics in her artwork over time,” Martinez said. “She’s one of those people who I’m very confident will go do wonderful things and have a really positive impact, and I can’t wait to see what she does.”

Beyond self-expression, Arya sees art as a way to connect with her community. From sending art to her friends on social media to utilizing it to contribute to the Black Lives Matter movement, she aims to strengthen the connections between the people around her. Within Harker, she sees events such as Challenge Day as a way to help bond with the community.

“I’m an introvert, so it’s a mission for me to get out there and meet new people. That’s also been a big mindset of mine this past year,” Arya said. “In my day-to-day life, I try and reach out to people, just little check-ins I think are honestly really helpful. Whenever anyone does that for me, I know I’m really grateful because I feel thought of, and it’s a really nice feeling.”

Rhea Nanavati (12), who has known Arya since kindergarten, expanded upon Arya’s ability to connect with others.

“Arya is the one person who people can always count on for anything. She’s the sweetest girl and cares so much for the people around her and she absolutely lights up a room,” Rhea said. “She’s been my rock for the past 12 years.”

Farah Hosseini (12), Arya’s close friend since fifth grade, agreed. Having taken AP Studio Art and Honors Directed Portfolio with Arya, she also emphasized how Arya’s confidence has grown through art.

“Arya used to be very reserved, but over the years, she’s been able to express herself through different means,” Farah said. “Because of that, she’s so confident now, and something that I really admire about her is no matter what the world around her does, she knows what she values, and she doesn’t let anyone change that.”

At its core, what draws Arya to art is the satisfaction she feels upon completing a piece. 

“Whether it’s good or bad, it doesn’t quite matter, but once I get it done, I just feel really accomplished and proud of myself. Even if it didn’t work out, it’s okay; you can just try it again, but you did it and that’s all that matters,” Arya said. “I’ve been painting recently just to paint, because why not?”