All About Avery

 Since a young age, I have considered myself to be an artist. I grew up in a creative household with my dad being a graphic designer and my mom a designer for many businesses she has started. I had their support growing in my artistry and quickly found that making art was my purpose. 

I originally focused on acting and singing from elementary school, but it wasn’t until middle school where I found my place in visual art. I started submitting my work to Scholastic Art Awards and got my first gold key. From there I kept working in different mediums, trying new ways to make art and continue submitting my work each year into high school. I collectively won 4 gold keys, 3 silver keys and a scholarship for and OSU summer workshop with mainly focusing on painting and drawing. I also was a member of NAHS from eighth grade to my senior year and held the role of president my final two years.  

In high school I helped work on the sets of the musicals I was a part of and started to design specific backdrops in Beauty and the Beast and Narnia. By this time, I knew I wanted to seek a higher education in the arts rather than a specific medium. My freshman year at University of Redlands, I loved taking various art classes and learning new ways of creating art. The most significant being a set design class that provided me with an opportunity to paint scenic backdrops. From there I declared an art major focusing on painting and drawing, and a job to work in the theater department as part of the scenic crew. My junior year I was given the job of being an assistant set designer for Bull in a China Shop and decided I wanted to learn as much as I could so I could be the lead designer the following year. 

Over that summer I worked at the Museum of Stop Motion Animation, where I got hands on experience with curating, lighting, and displaying exhibitions in stop motion. I was fascinated how stop motion is so similarthe stage despite the difference in scale. As the summer was coming to an end, I received an email asking if I was interested in being the lead set designer for Into the Woods and was overjoyed that my dream came true.