Artist of the issue: Cooper O’Hair

Lizzie Kotlove

More stories from Lizzie Kotlove

Senior Cooper O’Hair has taken his love for art and transformed it into car design, a hobby he hopes to continue pursuing in the future.

O’Hair began his artistic journey similar to many aspiring artists by doodling and sketching in notebooks. Eventually, he sought to develop his work deeper by embedding messages and themes.

Sometimes [artwork is] pretty surface-level, but recently I’ve been exploring how to create an emotional reaction with art pieces.

— O’Hair

O’Hair attributes great importance to sketching his works before finalizing them and sometimes even prefers the drafts over his final pieces.

“You can get your ideas out fast and there’s no pressure to make it perfect. There’s a weird honesty in just making a sketch because it communicates everything you want to,” O’Hair said.

O’Hair’s interests always revolved around art, though he has only found his passion for car design recently. Passions take time to develop and O’Hair feels extremely grateful to have found something that encapsulates his passion

“I got kinda lucky, but that moment will come for you, too, when everything just clicks and you find what you want to do,” O’Hair said.

As an experienced artist, O’Hair believes the best way to become a better artist is to thoroughly invest in your interests, as success follows passion. In addition, O’Hair also recommends sketching constantly, as he finds it greatly helps his creative juices flow.

“Sketches are the best way to be creative and come up with ideas and then you can make your finished piece. The final piece will benefit from your initial sketches and creativity, ” O’Hair said

Just like most seniors, O’Hair has been thinking about college for a while. He plans to study at College of Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, where he will pursue transportation design.

“I always knew I wanted to do something art-related like career wise but I didn’t know anything beyond that until about a year ago when I found my passion for car design,” O’Hair said.

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