The image of a boarded-up Santa Barbara County diner has made it to Washington D.C. thanks to 2013 Ernest Righetti High School graduate Christa Weston.
Weston won the U.S. Congressional Arts Competition for California’s 24th District with the photograph and will head to a reception in Washington, D.C., on June 26. Her image is of a former diner off of U.S. Highway 101, north of Buellton, that consists of two old train cars.
Weston, who will attend college in Long Beach next fall, believes photography is special because everyone can relate to a photograph, and it’s one of the best storytelling mediums in art.
“Art is my life,” Weston said in a press release. “I love how art is so much more than aesthetics, it’s about an artist having a conversation with the viewer through their work. I love it when my artwork can make a stranger feel or think something, even if what they are thinking wasn’t my intention.”
She has taken art classes since elementary school and eventually wants to be a museum curator.
In the release, Autumn Jennings, a Righetti High School visual and performing arts teacher, said Weston’s work is of a professional caliber. In the Advanced Placement Studio class, Weston printed her photos on less typical materials such as fabrics, and experimented with techniques that included photo emulsions, paint transfers, and cyanotypes.
“It’s clear that this has really elevated her photography to a more artistic and less commercial level and given her work new depth,” Jennings said in the release.
Weston’s photograph will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol for one year.
