illustration

Over the weekend, there’s a good chance your social media feeds were flooded with photos and video from Coachella.

Over the past two decades, the music festival has become a kind of unavoidable cultural juggernaut, famously spawning not just scores of imitators, but also an entire season on the fashion calendar. 

On any given day you might find senior Aaron Gonzalez sitting in the Commons drawing ideas; in the printmaking lab creating his own sketchbooks; or at the skate park next door to campus, an added bonus of going to Otis College of Art and Design. He might be hand-lettering announcements on the chalkboard in the Communication Arts office where he works part-time, or utilizing the campus laser-cutter in the 3D printing shop.

At the Los Angeles Arboretum, a collaboration with Otis College Extension is fostering the artistic growth of those already interested in the beauty of the natural world. Olga Eysymontt, an instructor at Otis College, has been drawing botanical figures for more than 20 years. “Unlike taking a photograph, where you may have to manipulate it to get the image you want, when you look at something with a more natural form, it has an imperfect, organic flow to it,” Eysymontt said.