“Art is People”

Light bark and snowy branches and peering eyes in the scarred trunks, senior Garrison (Max) Gibson painted the library windows with aspen trees to bring color into the halls and share his artistic passion. 

Gibson is an artist who put together the community chalkboard in the main hallway last year, allowing anyone in the school to make artistic contributions, big or small. He is now working with the library to make aspen trees that will change seasonally with different colors and decorations. 

“The library has been wanting to do something like this for a long time,” Gibson said. “I feel like it makes people more artistic, seeing anyone like me just sitting here making a painting. I feel like it helps people realize they can also do the same thing.”

In the first few hours of Gibson’s painting, various staff members asked him if he’d like to paint murals in the office windows and the new learning center.

“If there’s gonna be art on the walls, I want it to be from students,” learning center advisor Joshua Templeton said. “It gives character to the building. I think it helps students learn and to be comfortable in the space.”

Gibson will draft a design for Templeton that will be painted in the learning center.

“I want it to be a place where kids feel comfortable and where they feel welcome,” Templeton said. “I want Max to make it his work of art.”

Committed to bringing his art to different corners of the school, Gibson shared how his passion connects him to Conifer. 

“I’ve always used my art to show and express myself,” Gibson said. “I’m not very talkative, but I love my art and having it up. Being able to walk down my halls in my school and see my art on the walls, that feeling makes me so happy.” 

Gibson has pursued many artistic outlets throughout his life from graffiti to making his own clothes and jewelry.

“I was really into tagging graffiti until I got caught, but that’s when I started channeling it into a more helpful art form, rather than what can be a destructive one,” Gibson said. “All the clothes I wear I made myself. I taught myself how to sew, all the stencils I make I print here at the school. And anyone can do it.”

For aspiring artists, Gibson recommends getting their art out into the world for others to see.

“It’s hard to begin, but once you start getting a little bit of recognition, it goes a long way,” Gibson said. “I started painting this and within the first two hours, I had three different teachers come up and ask me to paint their room. I wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity if it wasn’t for me being persistent.”

While painting the trunks of the aspen, Gibson emphasized how personal art is, enabling anyone to create something unique and meaningful. 

“You’ll see the visible difference between the trees I’ve done on the left and the trees I’ve done on the right,” Gibson said. “Your art will always get better and you can always improve. That’s one of the most captivating things I find about art.”

As his paintbrush stroked the branches, Gibson said that “art is like people.”

“It’s like someone’s mindset, where someone is in life, what’s inside their mind,” Gibson said. “ Art is someone. Without people, there wouldn’t be art, and without art, I don’t think there would be people.”

After high school, Gibson plans on becoming a tattoo artist, seeking to make his art something people carry with them forever.

“It acts and lives as a timestamp on them,” Gibson said. “Many can be something very meaningful and personal. For me to be able to have my art doing that on someone, that person being able to have something they love so much permanently represented on them, I love that idea.”

Seeing his art as a growing skill, Gibson’s feelings about his art greatly contrast its outward beauty.

“A lot of the most beautiful art I’ve created, I hate it,” Gibson said. “But on the outside, it’s a very beautiful piece, but how I was when I was painting it tells a very different story. On the inside of a piece, the true colors can be very ugly.”

Aspen trees stand painted with their history, something people find beautiful. They endure harsh weather, show scars from animals, and can rot from the inside while appearing strong.

“I feel like a lot of people look great on the outside and it’s very different on the inside,” Gibson said. “You’ll never know when that aspen tree started rotting. That says a lot of different things, but with that you never know what something’s going through, whether it’s an aspen tree or a person.”

Noting that aspen trees do not function on an annual cycle—seeding every other year—Gibson finds things all function independently.

“Everyone’s on their own time, whether it’s finishing school or getting a job, anything,” Gibson said. “I try not to compare myself to other people’s experiences because I’m on my own time. I take pride in that. I live on my own time as much as they live on their own.”

Like humans but without consciousness, trees live long lives of different natures.

“The way people move, act, mature, grow, and experience is all going to be different,” Gibson said. “I feel like there’s a lot of philosophy in trees that’s easy to ignore, because trees are alive, but they’re not. They grow and change and constantly go through something, and so do people,” Gibson said.

In the way aspen trees can be seen in different ways—like how some may see eyes in the bark—Gibson sees his art differently than what he’s currently painting.

“I see the end result. I see what it’s going to turn into,” Gibson said. “I love being able to see where it starts and where it ends.”

As he added depth to the trees’ trunks, Gibson discussed why he created the community chalkboard in the main hallway, and why he felt motivated to bring his passion into his school.

“I wanted a place for me and anyone to be able to paint and get an artistic expression on the walls without getting in trouble for it,” Gibson said. “I’m very happy with how people are using it. I’ve seen a lot of people who I would never think draw, draw. It’s just art with no rules.”

As his painting takes him closer to the end of his high school career, Gibson reflects on his contributions and hopes they impact future students.

“A lot of people are gonna see it, walk by, and think ‘oh some aspen trees.’ I mean, they’re just trees,” Gibson said. “But for me, I will always know that some weird punk kid is the one who made these things.” 

In the yearbook or on the wall, Gibson hopes some picture of him will accompany his art for students to see.

“I would love to hopefully inspire someone to do something that they didn’t think they could,” Gibson said. “Whenever I started selling my art and getting it out there, it changed my perspective on my art and my life.” 

Gibson puts the final touches on the trees, sharing what art means to him.

“Not only is it about this aspen tree mural,” Gibson said. “But a lot about me, about the school, everything. That’s one of the things I truly love about art. It can be about nothing and everything at the same time…because these are just trees.”