Every morning at 6:45 a.m., Graeme Gunn wakes up. He then makes his way to the shower. Next, he eats breakfast. He takes the bus to and from school, or he walks home. After school, Gunn likes to hang out with friends, read, and play video games. (His favorite book is Name of the Wind, and his favorite video game is Witcher 2.) Yet, there is one thing that Gunn is particularly passionate about: something which enables him to relax and reflect — this creative medium is his artwork.

Beginning when he was two years old, Gunn’s mom enrolled him in a community art class, and ever since then he has not looked back. While he no longer takes lessons at the art center, he is just as involved in artwork these days as he was back then. Gunn, a senior at Scituate High School, is an avid designer who specializes in drawing. While he enjoys drawing many things, his favorite things to draw include faces because this is an area of art where he has experienced the most improvement.

Aside from drawing, Gunn is also passionate about martial arts. A student of karate for nine years, Gunn is a third-degree black belt. In other words, he knows what he’s doing when it comes to karate. When asked about a possible artistic marriage between drawing and karate, Gunn replied that while he has not combined the two yet, he has thought about it, claiming that it would be “an extreme, either chaotic and filled with detail, or a very simple aesthetic.” In other words, that piece of art would either be very detailed and busy, or very simple and peaceful.

In a sense, Gunn is an enigma, which would explain his unique creative process. He stated, “I’m not too serious about my art. For me it’s used to relax and think. While I understand the necessity of having meaning in art and the joy of doing art with meaning, I feel that sometimes you just have to say ‘What do I want to do?’ and just do it.”

With this mindset, it is easy to see why Gunn is such a remarkable artist.