Senior Artist Spotlight: Joe Lingo
Enloe is known as a breeding ground for creative young talent. The visual arts program at Enloe has helped many callow artist’s find their voice through developing a passion for art. Senior of class 2019, Joe Lingo, considers himself an artist. Lingo has been a student in the Enloe visual arts program for the entirety of his time at Enloe, each year growing, expanding, and maturing as an artist. The senior expressed his gratitude for the program and the teachers behind the scenes. “It’s really a great program. It provides a lot of resources and opportunities that students may not have access to at home”.
As a freshman Lingo focused mostly on creating portraits of celebrities in hopes of being noticed, using instagram as a platform. “For a long time I hoped they would see it and validate me”. His portraits drew attention from a few celebrities and many instagram followers, including Hobo Johnson and Felly. Ms. Klenow recognized his budding potential. “She encouraged me to do more than recreate a picture that already exists. Both the teachers are really awesome at pushing you to spend more time on originality and creativity”. Lingo emphasized how the program curriculums are centered around individuality, originality, and growth.
”At some point there comes a time you want to do something more, for yourself more than anything else”. He began developing his own style, inspired by something more personal and rich. Much of this development stemmed from in-class assignments. “When they give those assignments, it pushes me to adapt it and make it my own, it becomes more than just another assignment for school”.
Social media remains his go-to method for sharing his artwork. His instagram features snapshots straight from his sketchbooks. “Over the summer I do a lot of sketching because it’s an easy and fast way to get ideas down on paper”. The main subject of his art is people, from marvel characters to NBA stars.
From the age of three, Lingo had a fascination with creation and comic books. This style is reflected still in his compositions today. Lingo says he draws the most inspiration from Steve Ditko, the man behind Marvel comics drawings.
Looking to the future, Lingo hopes to travel abroad and see what the world has to offer, but ultimately wants to return to the tarheel state. He plans to attend North Carolina State University to pursue a career that will utilize the fine-art skills he has studied during high school. Although the future is unclear for the young artist, he says there are a myriad of career paths open to him by his artistic training. He has his eyes set on studying graphic design. “The fine art skills I have learned will translate well into something like that”. In the meantime he will continue to do what he loves, “drawing and painting for the sake of drawing and painting”.
To young artists seeking validation he encourages them to persevere and find their own voice through art. He says the best way to combat artist’s block is to “look back at what you started with because you will see how you have grown and remember why you started”.
