Wilsonville High School is well known in the Oregon for its great Visual Art department. Because 2D art is easier to display, however, only half of the visual artists are able to reach a wider audience when their art is displayed in galleries and coffee shops. Wilsonville is home to amazing 3D and sculptural artists and they deserve a lot more recognition than they are given.

Senior Athena Lackides is one such artists. Lackides has been doing sculptural art and jewelry since she was a freshman at Wilsonville High School and this year she is taking AP 3D studio art, the most advanced class a art student can take the sculptural field.

Lackides is known around the high school for her sense of humor and it comes through in the sculpture she creates.

No stranger to pop culture, Lakesides is deftly able to pinpoint the exact inspiration of her pieces “I’m currently working on a prop piece inspired by (TV Show) American Horror Story. Most of the inspiration was drawn for the title sequences, specifically the one from season 2, Asylum. The sculpture itself is a medical box covered in blood-stained portraits of old gross people, filled with bloody medical equipment and strange anatomical specimens.  

In addition to television, Lackides is influenced by the LGBT community. “A lot of my sculptural inspiration and artistic inspiration, in general, comes from the gays. RuPaul’s Drag race, Twitter gays, and Shawn Mendes just to name a few.”

“Some of my other pieces that i’ve been working on include a pair of fully beaded sunglasses, a wire figure piece modeled after the MichelAngelo painting ‘The Creation of Adam’, and a veil made from tissue paper and reed inspired by Lady Gaga’s music video ‘Bad Romance’,” recalls Lackies of her other recent projects, never failing to make references to some of popular and historical culture’s most iconic moments.

One of the biggest themes in Lackides art is not taking itself to seriously which is reflected in her favorite artist. “BY FAR my favorite artist is Yayoi Kusama. Her work is so mesmerizing and she isn’t afraid to bounce between art forms. She has done paintings, sculptures, installation, clothing, and even movies. Her work is enjoyable, it doesn’t take itself so seriously and she doesn’t reach for unnecessarily dramatic meaning that a lot of other artists do.”

Lackides’ 2D art is amazing but she’s gravitated towards sculpture for more practical reasons. “The truth is, I never really learned any technical skills for drawing and painting since i’ve never taken a drawing or painting class, so I gravitated to sculpture mostly because you don’t need much technical skill to create a compelling and interesting sculpture, just a lot of problem solving skills.”