Takoya Marks. Photo: Chieko Hara.

Path Scholar Takoya Marks has always loved to draw. When she chose to focus on art at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts in Hot Springs, she got her own studio in her senior year and began to paint, primarily using acrylics. “Sometimes I use brushes, but mainly I use my hands; I feel like I have more control,” she said.

Marks said anything can inspire her work: “I absorb my environment; things I hear and learn stick with me.” She likes to listen to music when painting — K-pop, soft rock, BTS and Eric Satie. “I mainly do what feels right in the moment — I just do it!” she said. “To judge whether it’s done, I’ll leave it alone for a while, and figure out what it needs.” She favors highly saturated primary colors and produces figural, abstract and collage work. 

Marks is majoring in architecture and pursuing minors in sustainability as well as interior architecture and design. Long-term, “I want to build structures that have little to no negative impact on the environment while also implementing art into my creations.”

“I want to build structures that have little to no negative impact on the environment while also implementing art into my creations.”