Gale Gerada
“Since she’s from another culture, she can bring in ideas and views to the people who think inside the box. A lot of people see things small because they haven’t seen a lot outside of what we see in our everyday lives...she’s seen so many big things” -Ana Grace Alvarado
Cool, fashionable, cultured, and artsy all describe senior Gale Gerada. For being a self-proclaimed “super indecisive” person, our interview consisted of sarcastic quips paired with insightful ideas about drawing projects, politics, and her experience of high school in America. She brings a unique perspective to everything she does, having moved to America from the Philippines four years ago.
Gale is well known for her affinity for painting, even though she only started this medium her junior year and quickly advanced to the AP level her senior year. When the AP 2-D design (drawing, painting, and graphic design) class was removed from BSM’s curriculum, Gale stumbled into painting at the suggestion of her painting teacher, Ms. Leah Klister.
“I didn’t know anything about painting: I didn’t know how to mix colors, properly hold a brush or different pressures. And so, to be honest, painting is really frustrating, and I know a lot of people think it’s fun so it’s supposed to be easy. It’s really hard; it takes a lot of patience, especially for me, so it’s helped me work on that,” Gale said. This is clearly an understatement; I remember looking at her paintings in Painting 2 last year in awe of how she not only mastered the use of oil paints but also created powerful and eye-catching pieces.
In her AP portfolio, she is able to submit both paintings and drawings, the medium she started out doing and finds more satisfying. Not one specific artist or painting most inspires her work, but she looks to Pop Art, vintage advertisements, and other images to voice modern issues and her experiences with them.“My concentration is making satirical interpretations of issues. They don’t have to be on a global scale; they could be personal like drastic measures women could take for beauty… I’ve done something about politics before. I’ve addressed environmental stuff like pollution,” Gale said.
Gale also expresses herself through music; she finds time nearly every day to play the guitar, mostly trying out her current favorite song and trying to relieve stress from school work. “When I get bored I play guitar. I play guitar because I get stressed out from all my AP classes, and when I can’t deal with math. And I’ve been playing guitar since I was 10,” Gale said.
Although artwork and music are a big part of her life, she credits her biggest achievement not to any awards she has received, but to her ability to have an education in America and have so many possible opportunities in the future.
“I think it’s just coming here in general and doing well in school because it’s really hard in the Philippines …There are so many kids back home who don’t get this chance, and I’m lucky to be here. So my accomplishment is coming here and working hard for what I’ve got. I’m going to college and hopefully I’m going to do well, try for everybody back home for my friends and family who won’t get this chance,” Gale said.
Next year, Gale plans on going to Loyola University Chicago undecided, but with hopes to try to incorporate artwork as a minor or through elective courses. “I have way too many things on my list … I want to go into psych, political science, neuroscience, communications, marketing; those are the main five but who knows––I could go into college and be a veterinarian,” Gale said.