Austin Dubinsky: So, tell me a little about yourself. What you are like, where you are from…
Alex McClellan: When I first started going to Parkway, I transferred from my old school, Westminster, and I came in sophomore year. Basically, I don’t get involved in much school activities or anything. I do a lot of stuff outside of school though. My art and lots of other stuff like that.
AD: In 3 words describe yourself.
AM: I would say I am pretty creative. Not to be narcissistic or anything. Two other words, this is hard. Pretty outgoing, I don’t really care about much stuff. Pretty active, I am always doing stuff.
AD: I noticed not a lot of kids in school dress like you; you have a very unique style. How do you pick what you wear everyday?
AM: I’m a very individual person. I like to set myself apart in a way with my style. I like to really keep a good look to myself. I think I see myself in the mirror and say yeah that looks cool, that looks good. I’ll go to Rue 21, Hot topic, I’ll go down to the Lopp a lot and go to the discount thrift stores. I just go around to multiple places and find whatever I like really.
AD: How are you drawn to this mysticism?
AM: I started defying what I was raised up with. My parents were Christian, and rose me to be Christian.I didn’t like that so I started thinking about other things. I started experimenting with other cultures and Paganism. I gathered a personal attachment to those things.
AD: If you were to see a piece of your art anywhere in the world, inside , outside, in a museum, if you had to pick one place and say if I get my artwork there I know I’ve accomplished something,where would that be?
AM: Basically, I’m planning later in my life to end up going out to maybe Japan. They have a really interesting culture that has a lot of art in its culture. I’d really like to get something out of the country.
AD: What’s some of the inspiration you get for your art? Where do you get it, where do you find it?
AM: I might need to censor this. I do a lot of things to open my mind like different concepts and abstract things.Basically, I try to do a lot of things to inspire myself. In the just of it , I tend to have a lot of visual “dreams” that I can inspire myself off of and that come from my own mind that I put onto my art. That’s where I get my modern and abstract and more design type of feel to it. I have a lot of innovative thinking going on here and I just spill it all out on paper.
AD: You said you go down to the Loop alot. They have a big, big music scene there. They have the Pageant there, Blueberry Hill, Chuck Berry is from around there. How is being near that local scene helped you out with how you are and what influence has it had on you?
AM: I’ve had a major part of my life spent at the Loop. I mean, I went there for my 18th birthday and got my piercings and it was fun. I’ve gone to concerts there and the Moonrise Hotel and all that. Really, all the experiences I had there were amazing and just fun. It’s really influenced my ability to relate with different kinds of people and the music scene and the art scene and getting into that rich culture.
AD: If you were to ask someone what to take from this feature, what would it be?
AM: I think that people when they are living through their life, need to gain as much exposure and experience with new things that are out of their usual norm and try to really work on themselves and develop themselves by who they really are and who they want to be. Try to do your best to be comfortable with what you’re doing in life, yet driving yourself to do what you really want to do when you look back and say this is what I’ve done with my life.
