Artist of the Month: Zander Peterson

Zander Peterson, sophomore at Santa Barbara High School (SBHS), is creative through and through. He has been interested in art his entire life, and that passion doesn’t end with visual art; it also extends to theater, music, and everything in between. Peterson illustrates the origin of his artistic undertaking, “My parents tried to throw me into sports over and over again, but I sucked at each and every one…Usually ending with me getting hit in the nose with a football and getting a bloody nose.” Given his limited success in athletics, he was forced to explore the world of art. Lucky for him, however, he was a natural– and this was only the beginning.

VADA, SBHS’s Visual Arts and Design Academy, allows Peterson to incorporate his creativity into his classes. He’s currently taking Freehand Drawing with Brandon Teris, who speaks graciously about Peterson as a student, “I’ve only had him for, what, five weeks, and he has some amazing potential in the visual arts. I love how he focuses in class, like, he’s surrounded by all these distractions, but he locks in every time.” One of the biggest things Peterson appreciates about VADA classes is being part of a community of exceptionally talented artists, which motivates him to improve his own skills. However, while healthy comparison can be helpful, he makes an important distinction: “I’m also always gonna be comparing myself to somebody that I think is better than me…when I should really be just comparing myself to how I was, like, last week, right?”

One thing about Peterson is that he loves to act. Not only is he in Advanced Theater Arts here at SBHS, but he’s also a part of Lights Up Theater Company, which is a teen-focused theater organization based in Santa Barbara. He has starred in several roles in Lights Up’s local theater productions, including the “Tin Man in Wizard of Oz” and Lucas Beineke in “The Addams Family”. He hopes to pursue acting as a career in the future. His passion for acting roots from his devotion to self expression, “I like theater because it’s like I can express myself in different ways that I can’t on pen and paper.” He elaborates, “It more allows me to get a window into other people rather than just myself… to explore other characters, which further emphasize different aspects of myself that I haven’t really paid enough attention to in the past.”

Additionally, and possibly most prominently, Peterson loves making music. He is the lead drummer for two bands, by the names of “As If’ and “Last Minute”, he also plays the guitar in his free time. He enjoys making music because he finds it fun and interactive, and is currently experimenting with synthesizing. Aside from his bands, Peterson is currently working on an independent album to be released in the foreseeable future. Having been making music for years, he sends a message to any other aspiring artists out there, “Just keep going, stop comparing yourself to other people… Because that’s gonna make you want to stop.”