The setting is instantly recognizable: Main hall, where students mill through every day. Yet pastel blues, reds and yellows swirl across the canvas, giving the familiar space a dreamy haze. What seems like a mundane painting of students chatting reveals an introspective theme. Senior Aanya Shah herself appears multiple times, whether posing in a prom dress or lounging in pajamas, forming pairs of figures who are engaged in dialogue.

Titled “Conversations with Myself,” this large-scale oil painting encapsulates themes of identity, paradox and self that Aanya has been exploring in recent years. However, her deep understanding of color theory and self-portraiture emerges from the accumulation of years of experimentation, hard work and exploration.

“As I started learning more about other artists and the work they made, I started to articulate how art can actually be a medium for change, and a way to capture stronger emotions,” Aanya said. “A lot of that centered around artists using unconventional subject matter. In part of the themes that I was starting to explore, self-portraiture became a very powerful medium for me to do that as opposed to landscapes and still life.” 

Since the beginning of her art journey as just a toddler, Aanya loved working with color, from coloring books as a six-year-old to the canvases of her senior portfolio. Over the years, as she has narrowed her medium of choice to oil painting, color palettes remain her primary technique for evoking thought and expressing emotion.

Aanya shifted her focus to self-portraiture last year, building her art portfolio around her own questions about her identity, inspiration from other artists and curiosity about psychological themes explored in class. Through her art, Aanya examines the concept of identity as a paradox. Her pieces reflect the idea that even as people search for a coherent sense of self, identity remains constantly shifting and composed of many fragments. By depicting this theme across multiple self portraits, Aanya has learned to see both herself and the world with greater nuance.

“When you paint, contrast is a really big principle, where you can combine seemingly disparate ideas and iconography into a cohesive piece,” Aanya said. “Artists are creative kleptomaniacs who draw from different sources and create something unique that is the conjunction or transformation of a lot of existing things. That is a perspective that has influenced how I see the world because I’m more receptive to how different things can coexist.”

Art teacher and Art Club advisor Pilar Aguero-Esparza, who taught Aanya in her ninth and tenth grade art classes, noticed how Aanya never overlooks a single detail and dedicates her whole heart to her work.

“She’s incredibly introspective, intelligent and thoughtful,” Aguero-Esparza said. “Her paintings are very realistic and cared for. She takes the painting, the idea behind it, and the time to prepare and research. To me, that’s a great sign of maturity, and I don’t think that people who were just seeing the paintings realize what may be going on just to get to that body of work.” 

Aanya’s deep understanding of both art principles and her identity extends beyond her artwork and into her daily life. Close friend senior Kimi Yashar reminisced about late-night conversations with Aanya, during which she would introduce different scenarios and thought experiments to explore deeper discussion about identity and meaning.

“She sees a lot of significance in things that other people would just brush off without taking the time to understand,” Kimi said. “That makes you seek that out in your own life. I’d pay more attention to details because she so easily appreciates them. She makes me think much more deeply about things so that I’m not just living life impulsively.”

By slowing down and paying closer attention to the details, Aanya patiently works past artistic mental blocks by reexamining her art from different perspectives. She finds inspiration in artists who explore similar themes, like Basimi Ibrahim, whose art centers on being present. 

“There was a period where I was really struggling to come up with new subject matter,” Aanya said. “I talked to local artists a lot, and they recommended a lot of books that were helpful. Learning more about art history and reading works by artists provided a very different, not-STEM lens of evaluating deeper themes.”

Because her self-portraits reflect her inner self, Aanya always takes the time to evaluate how she is feeling and thinking. Whether during late-night painting sessions or full days dedicated to a single piece, she finds solace in sitting with her palettes and slowly bringing her vision to life.

“It’s nice to have moments of stillness, and art provides the space for that,” Aanya said. “Being present is very conducive to reflection, and that is what my portfolio is about. It’s also something that is important to me, because I need space and time to sit with my thoughts and figure out what I’m feeling.”

Close friend senior Mindy Truong appreciated Aanya’s selfnessness, noting how she always offers advice and helps devise creative solutions to any of her friends’ problems.

“A lot of people see that she is hardworking, but they don’t necessarily see how she helps other people,” Mindy said. “She always puts other people ahead of her, and she’s helped me grow a lot as a person. She’s developed a really good sense of who she is, and she also helps so many other people discover and learn more about who they are.”

For Aanya, artistic exploration is a way for her to better understand herself while encouraging those around her to reflect deeply as well. Making time for her artwork on top of schoolwork is no easy task, but to Aanya, it’s always worth the effort.

“I really love the process of making art,” Aanya said. “Knowing that each brush stroke is contributing somehow to the broader meaning of the piece is very exciting. I’ll spend 60 or 80 hours on my pieces, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve put 60 hours into one piece. It feels more like I spent 60 hours doing something that I love.”