(Courtesy of Justine Arenas)
Arenas talks about her passion for pursuing creativity in different forms
BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, SPORTS EDITOR
The world of Justine Arenas is something more than being a senior at Mason majoring in business management information systems. Rather, Arenas is an artist, guitarist and chef all at one.
Since childhood, Arenas wanted to do everything her parents did, but it was her dad, the family’s creative soul, who immersed her into the wonder of art. “When I was little, my dad and I would have these mini art competitions where we would draw Pokémon and be like, ‘Alright, who did it better?’”Arenas said. “That was him teaching me his skills, and I was just enjoying the hobby [with him] together.”
Arenas spends her time exploring Pinterest or the Instagram Explore page hoping anything will capture her eye. Once she’s assembled an inventory of ideas and design inspiration, then she gets to work.
During COVID-19, Arenas often visited Goodwill and other thrift stores with her sister and friends to find pairs of jeans for painting projects to express her art through fashion. Additionally, she loves self-styling and modeling for themed-photoshoots with her friends.
(Courtesy of Justine Arenas)
In addition to thrifting and photo shoots, Arenas said she plays the acoustic guitar to learn basic chords at home, going on Ultimate Guitar to memorize chord fingers. During Night Market, Arenas played for Viloria and msgloria as a bassist. One of the challenging parts for Arenas was singing and playing bass at the same time.
“Individually, I feel like I’m pretty, like, decent at both, but putting it together, you have the one rhythm of the bass guitar, and still trying to stay in tune,” Arenas said. “Also, trying to sing the specific melody, it’s hard to clash that together without messing up one or the other.”
What got Arenas into music was her eighth-grade jazz band class, where Arenas learned to solo play “Moanin’” by Charles Mingus. Arenas said Hysteria by Muse is a favorite that she loved learning due to its fast and repetitive nature. Arenas music influences arrive from the legendary Stevie Wonder and two-man group Silk Sonic when playing jazz, funk, R&B, and rock.
(Photo courtesy Arenas’ Family)
Arenas fell in love with food because of the opportunity to taste new foods and cook dishes spiced to her specific liking. Another reason Arenas grew attachment to cooking was due to the Nintendo DS game, Cooking Mama.
When constructing dishes, Arenas tends to strive for a perfect balance between taste and plating. “I just try to be like a very creative person through art and everything, I feel like it has to translate in my cooking too, because not only are you looking for food that tastes good, you first see it and smell it,” Arenna said. “If it looks kind of not so good, but it tastes really good, you might not be as inclined to eat it. So just making sure, it’s a very beautiful plate.”
Arenas serves as vice president of the GMU Culinary Club, which gathers to host inclusive cooking workshops and discuss cultural dishes.
“I think food is a very easy way to teach people about different cultures because for everyone, food is the soul or heart of the culture that they love,” Arenas said. “A lot of parties [and] festivities always involve food. So, [it’s about] trying to get people’s toes into different cultures that they might not be aware of, or not as knowledgeable about. I feel like food is an easy way to do that.”
After graduating, Arenas is looking forward to little jam sessions with friends as they prepare to perform at local gigs. But, she is most excited to have an empty course load so that she can finally go back to doing art with her friend Carmella and posting on their art account.
“I do like the prints or the digital art, and she does like little trinkets and jewelry making,” Arenas said when talking about the joint art account. “I’m excited to finish up all my work in progress, make new stuff, and then potentially get more serious about a little art business stuff.”
Arenas’ creative journey continues through weekly meetings with her band and cooking with the culinary club every other Friday.
