Emerging Artist: Jake McClellan

While I normally tell you about me as an artist, I rarely share my other side, me as an art teacher. This semester I had the privledge of teaching a wonderful group of students in our most advanced class, and over the next few weeks I want to share some of their amazing work with you. I"m so proud of each and every one of these students.

Today I'm going to share the work of Jake McClellan with you. Jake is a senior this year.

Here's what Jake has to say about his artwork.

 I feel that my hard, twisted style is something that comes from many different things that I was exposed to in my life. When I was a kid, I feel that my imagination sparked when I would lie on the mustard shag carpet of my living room floor, and watch Tim Burton films for hours on end. The dark and eerie imagery of “Edward Scissorhands” was something that went straight to my core. It is interesting to see my ideas thrive on my past life experiences. I never realized how true I was to my childhood until I started creating art.








As I started getting older, around 6th grade, I started getting involved with local community theatre. I became indulged in theatre because it was an art I saw the hard work put behind. When I would go to museums or galleries, I would look at pieces and think I could never have that level of talent. I got to see, not just the finished product, but the struggle and work it took to perfect that final performance. With theatre, I feel I respected art more because of its hard work and dedication to such an alternative lifestyle, which is something that stuck with me for years to come. What I took away from performance art was a sense of community and passion to perfect your art.






It was not until my sophomore year, that I became active within the art department of my school. From there, I was introduced to wet processing photography which was fun for me because it was something I understood quickly. I don’t have strong painting or drawing skills but I can look at something through a lens and tell when it looks interesting. During my beginning interest of photography, I became very close with a group of friends who loved to play music and do crazy spur of the moment activities, and I documented that. It wasn’t until recently that I started using digital. I like to use digital more to tell a story artistically. I find it more challenging for me to use digital for the fact that it is not just a quick shot; it is very posed and unreal in a sense. Yet, the unreality and fantasy is something I am starting to enjoy about it. Yet, I still love film photography. It is very raw and has a stripped-down style that also reflects my own style. I like to stay true to the basic idea of black and white photography, to document, to document what I am experiencing as a free-spirited teenager in the small town of Boiling Springs, Pa Pin It