“As You Are: Moments in Time” is a student art show by Danbury High School seniors Kaylan Alexander and Samuel E. Ramirez depicting the topic “Moments in Time:” how our sense of self is shaped by our interactions with others.

Visiting “As You Are” is a great personal experience and positive affirmation of funding towards the Danbury Public Schools fine arts program are two amazing reasons to attend this art show over the next week.

The exhibit focuses especially on the personal experiences of the two artists and how it shaped them,how art serves as a medium of their self expression and as a pathway towards inner understanding. Ramirez focuses on self portraits and the physical depiction of self in his pieces such as Faith, Through the Looking Glass, and Labyrinth. His confrontations with a sense of self are evident through the descriptions alongside them. IRamirez said he uses the description to talk about his understanding of faith in Faith, even as he learns to “develop more complex emotions surrounding my religious perspective,”Through the Looking Glass is a piece detailing issues of self image and “anxiousness about how I look.” All three images use himself as a subject.
Alexander, in contrast, focuses on settings and environments in their pieces such as Odd One Out, Tabula Rasa, and Yosemite. These pieces truly place the viewer in the place with the detail and real-world feeling, even in a piece such as Odd One Out which adopts a more stylized approach to form. Tabula Rasa is a beautiful appreciation of dark nights and the idea that one is a product of their environment, with Alexander adding on by saying “humans absorb traits from other people ”, in the description of the piece. The varied messages and attention to detail of the 20 pieces is truly something to marvel at. Words can’t do these pieces justice, so visit and support Danbury Arts at the Brookfield Craft Center until April 20th.

Broadly speaking, attendance to a show like this emphasizes the value of art to Danbury High School. The art programs at Danbury High School and across the district are under fire. In 2024 a proposed budget for Danbury Public Schools would have brought a 13.1 million dollar cut to the funding of the district. Thankfully this budget did not pass but it is important to know that first to bear the brunt of this cut would be the fine arts programs of every level of schooling. When arts are put on the chopping block, evidence of the appreciation of an art show like “As You Are” proves value.