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Feature

May 28, 2014

Quezadas illustrates her passion for anime

By CARMEN VESCIA
Feature Editor
Someday, senior Morayma Quezadas hopes we may see her name in the
credits of the years biggest animation movie or even hear her name
called at the Oscars. Until then,
shes content to pass her time
wearing blue wigs, watching
anime and spending every free
second she has creating her
own art.
Her love for animea Japanese animation stylebegan
in the fourth grade and
has become an integral part of
her life since.
Anime actually opened up
more doors for me, Quezadas
said. Its really fun to express
this love for a new culture.
To some of her friends, she is
known by the playful nickname
Miku, after one of her favorite
characters; she owns a blue wig
inspired by the character and can
be seen wearing it while cosplaying
(short for costume playing) or even just
for fun.

On what he does in his free

time: Je fais de la musculation tous les jours.
Translation from French:I
lift weights every day.
Neil Chan

[Shes] creative and very spirited

because she always happens to find the
bright side of things and tries to be very
happy around everyone, said Quezadas
friend, senior Erik Munguia.
Quezadas is part of the
Electronic Arts Academy
(EAA), where she has explored her passion for animation.
Next year, she hopes to
pursue this interest at Cogswell College in Sunnyvale, a
school known for its digital
media programs. Famous
alumni from Cogswell
include Oscar winners for
Life of Pi and this winters
smash hit, Frozen.
When youre drawing,
youre just drawing out
a basic idea of what
the character will be,
whereas if you animate it youre bringing the character to life,
Quezadas said. Its a really
wonderful feeling to see your plain
2D character come to life.
She hopes to someday be a character
concept artist for a company like Dis-

Procrastination is my thing...
its strategic procrastination.
Kate Elliott

ney or Pixar.
I want my art to reach out to people
with problems like depression or who
have suicidal thoughts. . . so they feel
like theyre not so hopeless and [realize
that] there is hope out there, Quezadas
said.
I love creating characters that relate
to other people.
She spends around five hours per day
drawing and never tires of creating new
characters based on her friends personalities, as well as her own.
I have a character named Natsume.
I actually created him around middle
school when I was barely opening up to
other people, and I based him off this
shyness I had, Quezadas said.
Since then, she feels art has helped
her gain confidence. She has even begun
to receive commissions for her work.
This year, she has drawn four editorial cartoons for the Raven Report, and
the hallways are adorned with posters
shes designed.
When people ask if I could draw
them something I feel really happy. It
is a really good feeling that people are
noticing me for my artwork, Quezadas
said.
Shes the secretary of the Anime and

I dont feel like anyone here

is persecuted for their beliefs
or anything, we have people
of all different races and
everyone is just accepted.
George Archbold

Photo courtesy of Erik Munguia

Quezadas plans to attend Cogswell

College in the fall.
Japanese Culture Club and is always
willing to share her artwork and knowledge with others.
She has definitely come through as
quite the artist, club adviser Rebecca
Goodwin said. Shes humble though.
I dont see her coming and saying Oh
look how great this is. It seems to me
that she doesnt show it off.

Ill miss the camaraderie

thats built up around the IB
group.
Francesca Vescia
I think [valedictorian is]
based on attractiveness.
Evan Schulz

Meet the valedictorians: a talented ten

Compiled by Claire Bugos
and Abigail Wang

I really had to go to the

bathroom at Prom, and I
saw Reibstein and I was like
Hey do you know where the
bathroom is? And she was
like Wait are you Henry
Zatarain? And I was like
Yeah, and she was like Oh
youre valedictorian and I
was like Ok good to know,
but I really have to go the
bathroom.
Henry Zatarain

On what he does in his free

time: I watch trash TV
my favorite is Jersey Shore.
Amir Amerian

I was dared to try a

behind-the-back clap pushup. Turns out Im not strong,
and I ended up splitting my
chin open [right before the
last number of the Dance
Show], a week before Prom.
If someone had threatened to
take away my valedictorian
title, I would not have been
surprised.
Ty Dewes

On what hes looking

forward to doing at college:
Being up all night to get
lucky.
Gareth Wang

Im really going to miss

the friendships Ive made...
it will never be the same, it
will never be everyone here
together again.
Kate Boudreau