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After finishing high school, some graduates celebrate with a vacation or a new car. But for Alexandra "Sasha" Volynets, commencement coincided with her first professional showing as an artist, which for her was just as exciting.
"I've been an artist for as long as I can remember," Volynets says. "My parents just put a pencil in my hand and I didn't put it down." Volynets, a 2004 graduate of Fremont High School, monopolized the walls at San Jose's Cafe Pomegranate for the entire month of August.
The cafe is just down the street from San José State University, where she'll begin classes this fall. "I just really like that cafe, and I'm friends with the owner," she says.
With her friend's blessing, Volynets hung her collection of female portraits, which are done in oil on canvas or with watercolor pencils.
"[They're] an exploration of the human face, its expressions and the emotions behind those expressions," she says. "The two styles are drastically different, which contributes to the works themselves."
Volynets will continue to live at home in Sunnyvale once she starts at San José State, where she'll major in art with an eye toward a career in animation or illustration.
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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer