Dispatch from Lincoln High: Art By Talented Student Featured on Muni Buses
Dispatch from Lincoln High is a series that features the reporting of journalism students at Lincoln High School and their student newspaper the Lincoln Log.
By Kailen Shew
People sit quietly in plastic seats. Cool wind from the windows scratched with graffiti flows through the air. An unfortunate spillage of sticky substances covers the floor. Your eyes scan the walls of your surroundings, only to find artwork painted from the front to the back of the bus.
For the past eight years, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Art Program annually chooses five artists around San Francisco to showcase their work in different buses. This year, the MUNI Art Program instead collaborated with the San Francisco Unified School District to pick their winners. Natalie Deiner is one of these featured artists.
SFMTA set a theme, “the Sights of San Francisco,” but Deiner had the creative freedom to produce a diverse selection of art. One of her pieces featured on the MUNI buses, for example, is an interpretation of the Botanical Gardens that illustrates a double image of a swan and a koi fish.
“The work I made is multimedia. For most of the pieces, I did all the components separately and then put them together later in photoshop. Some of the materials I used were watercolors, acrylic, and micron pens,” Deiner notes.
She also explains the backstory behind some of her other work. In a Chinatown inspired piece, Deiner uses Josiah Tom, a senior, as a model holding a dragon fruit. He’s surrounded by red lanterns and traditional Chinese dialects painted on buildings.
“Winning the award made me feel very grateful because kids don’t get a chance to really showcase their art a lot, and I was able to do that,” Deiner says.
She began working on a portfolio for the contest during her first semester of senior year. She was to create one piece based on a poem in addition to submitting some of her previous work throughout the years. After being selected for the next round, Deiner was given eight weeks to make eight different pieces. She notes that the short amount of time given was stressful, considering her busy class schedule and effort put into the work.
Deiner has constantly been creating and learning new skills both in and outside school. Being involved in a program called the Youth Art Exchange since freshman year, she helps create billboards and murals around the city. Additionally, she takes fine art classes that focus on using pastels and oil paint, which give her more options to create unique pieces.
Deiner has also taken multiple Advanced Placement (AP) art courses, including AP 3D and AP 2D art, taught by Daniel Stingle and Kathleen Lussier-West.
In Deiner’s AP 3D art class, her work involves themes portraying human exploitation of natural resources, like pesticide usage on produce and clothing made from animal skin.
“Environmental issues are just on my mind a lot and I think it's super interesting to think about our relationship to nature. It’s been really nice to have a space and time set out in my day to make art,” she states, highlighting the visual and performing art courses offered at school.
These teachers have specifically helped Deiner become more versatile with different types of craft, like sculpting, while also offering opportunities to demonstrate these skills in various contests and awards, including the MUNI art program.
“Ms. West especially helped me a ton while I was making the MUNI pieces by giving me feedback, advice, and motivation whenever I needed it,” Deiner says.
Stingle and Lussier-West offer nothing but appreciation for her devotion to art and recognition of her talent. Lussier-West enthusiastically explains how Deiner’s consistent curiosity and desire to learn in class reminds her why she became a teacher in the first place.
“She’s an amazingly gifted artist. Her willingness to fail and find her way through something that isn’t obvious makes it really rewarding to teach her,” says Lussier-West.
Stingle also mentions, “Her strongest suit is definitely taking on challenges. It wasn’t hard to ask her to apply for the MUNI art contest because I knew she’d follow through on it.”
Aisling Mcmanamon, Deiner’s best friend since kindergarten, shares similar qualities mentioned by Lussier-West and Stingle. She notes how Deiner has always been extremely creative and extraordinary at art.
“I could definitely see her art being put up in museums and art galleries in the future,” Mcmanamon says.
Deiner will graduate in the next couple of months, and she hopes to incorporate her passion in her college experience with a minor in art.
Lussier-West, holding strong aspirations for Deiner’s future, claims, “Natalie is going to be an innovator--something where she’s utilizing nature, research and development, and her artistry to create solutions to combat worldwide problems, like climate change. It’s going to take every single person to fight it, and I hope she’s one of them.”
Reported and written by Lincoln High School student journalist Kailen Shew. We encourage student journalists in high school and college to volunteer as writers for Supervisor Engardio’s newsletter. Interested? Apply here. Do you know a story you would like to see featured in the newsletter? Tell us about it here.