From a childhood filled with art to being an art competition winner, Clemente Escalante has loved the craft since he was six years old. His childhood memories are filled with his mother’s stories about her passion for art and watching his brother doodle in his journal because of his love for cartoons. His love for art is demonstrated in one of his art pieces, “A Home Found in Art,” which earned an honorable mention award in Claremont’s “Directing Change” contest. Escalante depicts what home looks like to him in an acrylic painting of his bedroom (also called his makeshift art studio).
Escalante is a senior at Claremont High School (CHS) known for his extraordinary, detailed acrylic paintings. He transferred his sophomore year from a private school, which was a scary experience for him, especially since he did not know anyone at CHS. Escalante reflects on how art helped him escape and connect with others at school. This is done through his classes and extracurriculars like the Advanced Studio Art class, Project ArtStart (where Escalante connects with others who love art like him and is proud of how far he has come in the program as a member of the ArtStart Student Advisory Group), and his job, where he does murals/painting work in the Claremont Village. Escalante has explored other forms of art, such as music through Chamber Choir; acting through Claremont High School Theatre, “The Festival of One Acts,” where he got the special opportunity to play David in “Deadlock.”
“Art is definitely something I have held really close to heart since coming here,” Escalante said. “Art here in Claremont has been such a blessing for me, and I’ve really enjoyed it.” Often, Escalante draws and paints what he sees and feels. He takes inspiration not only from other pieces of art as an example, but also from the bold and loud music he listens to, which he likes to portray in his paintings.
Another piece of artwork that shows this artist’s bold style is a painting called “Fruits of Our Labor.” The painting displays a yellow background with a vine of purple grapes. In five grape pieces, it is a small painting depicting a part of the United Farm Workers protests with Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. Escalante illustrated in his painting how the powerful/peaceful protests symbolized the farmers’ hard work in harvesting. The grapes represent the grape boycotts and the impact that Chavez and Huerta had as activists who fought and led farmers toward empowerment. This painting won Escalante the statewide “Cesar E. Chavez and Dolores Huerta Education Awards Program” in his junior year, where it was displayed at the “California Teachers Association” Headquarters in Burlingame for a year. He found out about the competition through his art teacher, Tamara Kirkpatrick, who showed him the world of art competitions. The artist reflects on how the art teachers on campus have helped him do more with his art and guided him to other huge opportunities he can do with his artistic creations since his sophomore year. “I feel I owe her [Kirkpatrick] a lot for what my art has come to today,” Escalante said. “If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have honed my art skills so well.”
With his future, Escalante feels he is already on the right path towards it through his job and publishing his artwork. The artist highlighted that, in the future, he would like to do public mural work and social work, where he can always make art. But like any other artist, Clemente Escalante started with the same artistic fire. “Whenever I’m feeling down, I’ll pick up my notebook and pencil and draw whatever is in front of me,” Escalante said.
