Abigail Ruiz already has her future planned out in a career of art; she hopes to work at Disney making animated movies. You can find her doodling in class all over her notes, or using her doodles as part of her notes for class. Her notebooks are full of Disney characters, which she draws just for the fun of it.
Ruiz has taken a lot of Liberty’s art-based classes over her years as a high school student. Those classes have bettered her experiences and helped her move towards her goals. But she didn’t always want a career in art; Disney is what inspired her to this career.
“I found out in sixth grade when my sister was congratulated on how good she is by one of the artists in Disneyland, and I got jealous.” junior Abigail Ruiz said. “I wanted to be better than her, and that’s how it happened. And then I found out that I was great at art, so I felt I could do it.”
She feels that art is just something that she is meant to do.
“I don’t know what about it interests me; it’s just really pretty and I love colors and for some reason it comes really naturally to me,” Ruiz said.
From there, she has volunteered at a museum of art for a couple of months.
“Volunteering at the museum gave me some chances to gain references and something to put down for a scholarship. It helped me to figure out that I can do more than just art on a page,” Ruiz said.
Although she does not plan to go to a university, she hopes to go to Bellevue College, which has a two-year degree program that will quickly get her into her career, and is also close to home.
“The people who influenced me the most were my sister and Glen Keane. He is one of the top animators from Disney’s 10 men; he did Tarzan, Rapunzel, and the Little Mermaid,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz feels she will have a bright future ahead of her thanks to all the people and classes that have helped get her to where she is now.