Bound Brook High School

Senior Denys Lelyanov created his artwork as a cover for the Elysium Magazine, the school magazine at Bound Brook High School. Using a graphite pencil, Denys centered his art piece around the theme of human experience to illustrate it with a black and white medium.  

“I tried to think of the human experience,” Denys said. “I’m from Ukraine, so I tried to convey the experience people have over there for the magazine cover.” 

Sparked by his love for video games, Denys is interested in pursuing art as a career, specifically in concept design for video game studios. He will be choosing a college to pursue that career path this spring.  

Denys became one of the top 70 student artists selected by AENJ for the statewide Youth Art Month exhibition, which took place at the Grounds for Sculpture Museum from late February until late March.  

Valentina Aleman, a junior at BBHS, was one of 22 BBHS students whose artwork was selected to be featured in the Somerset County Youth Art Month show. 

“To create variation, I made six different strawberries from different focal points to illustrate the various ways you can draw a strawberry,” she said.  

Valentina emphasized the support from her art teachers, Ms. Levering and Ms. Zybura, who continue to help ignite her passion and interest for art. It’s especially important to her as she aims to pursue graphic design as a future career.  

Junior Marissa Hays celebrated her appreciation for art by depicting pickles in various colors, which was also chosen to be showcased at the Somerset County Youth Art Month show. She noted the difficulty in first drawing them but became excited to see how her efforts turned out to be a great result.  

“I drew pickles first and then painted on top of them to represent four different color schemes,” she explained. The artwork allowed her to use color variation to create visual interest, utilizing the color wheel taught to her in art class.  

While Marissa plans to pursue nursing as a career, she loves to engage in art as a hobby. She especially enjoys painting to make use of shading and the colors available at her disposal.