Ashland High School is renowned for being a strong academic school.  However, the students at AHS have interest and talents that extend far beyond the classroom as well.  Many students at AHS are gifted in some area of the arts; whether they excel in acting, painting, playing an instrument, or singing, their talent is undeniable.  Zena Coffman is one such student.

Zena has been creating art since she was six years old.  Her preferred medium is simple pencil and paper, though she has experimented with painting.  Luis Royo is a painter that Zena has always had a high regard for and, to a certain extent, modeled her work after his.  Though Royo’s work can be provocative, his strong female subjects and attention to detail are elements of his art that Zena admires and tries to incorporate in her own drawings.  Zena often looks to Royo and other artists to help build her own skills, and to get inspiration from their work. However, her greatest inspiration comes from the feeling she gets when she finishes a piece. “It’s never been the really deep emotions that are my inspiration; it’s the feeling when I finish a piece.  It’s almost like an adrenaline rush,” Zena explains.

Recently, one of her pieces of artwork has been all over campus.  Did you notice the posters for the Winter Fine Arts Festival?  The artwork on the poster was done by Zena.  Zena is hoping to see her artwork displayed in the main office soon as well.  Her current project is the creation of a superhero, named The Crow.  Her ultimate goal withthis project is to create a storyline surrounding the character and to have the story published as a children’s book.  Zena is considering making a career out of art, but she knows that the path of an artist isn’t always an easy one so she is keeping other options open.