The room was bustling and the only thing the conversation didn’t drown out was the student films being presented on a small flat screen to the left of the entrance. Taking place a week after Halloween, five days after Day of the Dead ended, the art show displayed a lot of the works surrounding that theme in the gallery.

One of the pieces showed a woman of flesh and bone but her face was painted to look like a sugar skull and she wore a flower crown. The pictures were vibrant in themselves, shining brightly even when some of them were taken in a dark light. There was a glare when the luminescent lights in the room hit the pictures around the edges.

The paintings of apples hung along one wall did not need that added glare because they were painted with intricate details to make them resemble shiny, three-dimensional apples.

On Nov. 7, the annual Fall Art Show in Gallery 2501 presented the works of students in varying art classes like Digital Imaging, AP 3D Media and Studio Drawing.

The textiles made by students in Fiber, Fabric, and Fashion 1 were hard to miss even if they were tucked in the back corner of the room. Popular among the textiles was scenery which included plenty of textile Cloud Gates and Chicago skylines.

The same sense of nostalgia was brought by the self-portraits of the faces we see all around our community. One such portrait was by Dinaluz Torres, Div. 864, who has taken Studio Drawing for two years at Lane Tech.

Torres’ art career at Lane has affected her choice in career, as she is planning on going into medical illustration. Even though Torres plans on incorporating both science and art in her future, she believes that there is still a stigma between the two subjects.

“Most people think of the stereotype of the ‘starving artist’ and it’s not actually how things work,” Torres said. “You can still make a living and have a lot of fun in your job. Science is still a really good field to go in and doctors, you know, they’re respected but art is also a really good field to focus on and you can have fun being creative.”

However, Torres said that she believes that students might not have the same opportunities at other schools that students at Lane have when it comes to presenting their art. Amy Diamond, who teaches four art classes at Lane- AP Design, Media Crew, Digital Imaging 2 and Independent Study- would agree.

Diamond said that she believes equal opportunities are granted to a certain extent but that Lane focuses on art slightly more than other schools by having a designated art gallery for student works. She said this is an example of how the competition between art and science is gone or, at the very least, disappearing.

“I think we’re finding our balance. When I first started six years ago, our art department doubled, which was fantastic,” Diamond said. “I think each year different departments have the opportunity to grow and it’s trying to find the balance. Some years it’s focused on the growing science department or computer science. This year we created the drama department. It’s not taking away from any of the art classes we offer.”

Diamond said that she feels it’s a shame that some students are turned away from art because they believe they are not going to be “good.” She said that expanding all departments is essential because it is teachers’ job to make students well-rounded.

“Everybody’s good, it’s just another skill that you’re learning,” Diamond said. “So it’s our job as teachers to be able to teach you so you can have that confidence to realize that you are good.”