{"id":2455035,"date":"2020-02-26T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=321513"},"modified":"2020-02-26T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T12:00:00","slug":"two-aspen-high-teens-bring-art-passion-to-the-collective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/two-aspen-high-teens-bring-art-passion-to-the-collective\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Aspen High teens bring art, passion to The Collective"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Artists Axel Livingston, left, and Jake Bozza pose for a photo in front of one wall of their art displayed in the Tapping into your Creative Edge Teen Art Opening in The Collective in Snowmass Base Village on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. Livingston is the Aspen High School Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Key and American Vision award winner. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Art is a word with many definitions used to describe a multitude of things.<\/p>\n

Some loosely describe it as all creative activity expressed through human skill and imagination; others associate it with the medium that resonates most, like paint on a canvas, melodies from an instrument or skis turning down a snowy slope.<\/p>\n

For Axel Livingston and Jake Bozza, seniors at Aspen High School, art is a lifeblood.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, art is therapeutic. I always have to have my sketchbook on me,\u201d Livingston said. \u201cI love to talk about art, to talk about my art, inspiration and process, and it\u2019s great to have people want to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last weekend, Livingston and Bozza shared more than two dozen pieces of their work with the Snowmass community at their one-night art opening at The Collective.<\/p>\n

Both were celebrating regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards recognition, with Livingston earning four top \u201cgold key\u201d awards and an American Vision nominee for his work, and Bozza earning an honorable mention.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-olds dubbed the Snowmass event and celebration a success, expressing excitement about being able to discuss their art and its meanings with the people who came to support them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expected it to be more of a slow gathering with a bunch of people I didn\u2019t know, but it turned into a party at one point where I knew almost everyone in the room,\u201d Bozza said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love seeing my art on the wall and having people ask me questions about it. It really motivates you, you recycle in your head what people tell you and can get ideas for new work.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Jillian Livingston, Axel\u2019s mom, local writer and founder of the Aspen Real Life blog, creating connection and sparking conversation was the main goal of the recent teen art opening in Snowmass.<\/p>\n

Jillian organized the event with the Aspen High seniors as both a way to promote their art and to launch her winter and spring Aspen Business Connect series, which aims to bring together business leaders, locals and visitors through storytelling events.<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s series will include a mixer at Here House, a \u201cWomen Empowering Women\u201d guided conversation to help women realize their potentials, and an event on limiting perceptions led by Kirstie Ennis, a decorated Marine veteran and adaptive adventure athlete, Jillian said.<\/p>\n

She also aims to bring more community networking events for area locals of all ages to Snowmass in the coming months, noting the desire to do more for teens and The Collective and East West Partners as supporters of the connect series.<\/p>\n

On a recent afternoon at an Aspen coffee shop, Jillian and Axel talked about the dynamics of their relationship as a mother-son duo and business partners, emphasizing that their family\u2019s work ethic and creativity go hand-in-hand.<\/p>\n

All three of Jillian and her husband Wade\u2019s sons are artists, which she says is evident after stepping inside their home. The boys converted one room into a studio, Jillian said, and Axel\u2019s bedroom walls are covered in doodles.<\/p>\n

But Axel\u2019s goal isn\u2019t just to create work that\u2019s visually pleasing \u2014 he said he\u2019s constantly pushing himself to explore new mediums and visually dig into ugly, hard to talk about issues in new ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think your job as an artist is to reflect reality,\u201d Axel said. \u201cI\u2019m really interested in how struggling makes people better and in bringing light to issues so people see them and talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Art is more of a family matter for Bozza, too. He said his dad is an artist and started teaching Bozza to draw and use tools at a young age.<\/p>\n

Now as a high school senior, Bozza said he creates all sorts of abstract and contemplative art, using oil, ink, watercolor and more to depict his ideas on paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe art room is a safe place for me. I have four classes in there and the door is always open for me to come in and work,\u201d Bozza said. \u201cIt helps me express myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he graduates, Bozza plans to pursue product design at the University of Oregon, but said he will always continue to draw and paint.<\/p>\n

Axel plans to continue to build on his art as a career, hoping to drop a clothing brand soon and looking at either going to art school or taking a gap year to pursue his creative passion.<\/p>\n

Whatever he decides, Axel said he\u2019s confident in what he\u2019s doing and that it\u2019s \u201call gas and no brakes\u201d from here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just the beginning,\u201d Axel said.<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artists Axel Livingston, left, and Jake Bozza pose for a photo in front of one wall of their art displayed in the Tapping into your Creative Edge Teen Art Opening in The Collective in Snowmass Base Village on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. Livingston is the Aspen High School Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Key and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 13:41:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}