For her, picture worth 1,000 digital ideas

This was not deVillasante’s first brush with success, as she also took home a “Gold Seal” from the Visual Arts Scholastic Event in May, an honor she shared with six other Cy-Fair students.

The Best in Show award came for a piece called “Farewell,” a digital manipulation of a pre-existing photo. She took home top honors despite competing against a field of 7,500 entries from around the nation.

“It was a picture of these hands overlapping each other,” deVillasante said. “They were painted all white, but in the picture, they look gray because I messed around in Photoshop.”

Although deVillasante always has been interested in art, her involvement with photography and digital media had been limited until she started taking classes at Cypress Woods High School. Eventually, she would like to parlay these talents into a career.

“My whole life, I’ve been into art, but the whole photography thing started in high school,” deVillasante said. “I want to be a book cover artist and work for a publishing company.”

Surprisingly, though, deVillasante has relatively little formal training in photography, having only recently started her first dedicated photography class.

“I haven’t started an actual photography class until this year,” deVillasante said. “I’ve been in electronic multimedia for three years, which is pretty much this class where we mix all the arts and photography. We take lots of pictures and mix different stuff together.”

The creative process for deVillasante is highly important, but for her, nothing beats the thrill of seeing the finished product.

“When I get an idea, I get really excited because I think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to look great,’” deVillasante said. “But when I’m done, I’m definitely most happy about it because I can just see what I’ve created.”

While she undeniably has innate artistic talents, deVillasante says she never could have done it alone, attributing her success to her teacher, Juan Guevara.

“I like to credit all my success to my teacher,” deVillasante said. “I really wouldn’t have won anything ever if it weren’t for him. He’s just really great and inspirational for everything that I do.”
About Emily deVillasante
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Community Connection: Student at Cypress Woods High School
Fast Fact: Plans to attend Savannah College of Art and Design

Chris Marshall is a freelance writer. He can be reached at neighborhoods@chron.com.