Photographed by Rennie Svirnovskiy

Colin McHugh, senior, doesn’t want you to be a phony.

In his new work, now featured prominently at the front of the library, the artist explores raw teenage emotion and honesty.

“They’re all kind of based on the same thing, and that’s that teenagers feel things pretty intensely,” McHugh said. “They all feel everything that they feel and people kind of downplay it a lot. You might feel stupid because, you know, you’re a teenager, but you’re still feeling these emotions.”

McHugh said his paintings are trying to capture certain emotions that teenagers might feel in phrases and colors.

“If you notice, in the three of them, one [figure]’s looking back, one’s looking straight at you, and one’s looking forward a little bit and looking up,” McHugh said. “You’re stuck in the past, but you’re also trying to live in the now, and look to the future at the same time.

The phrases, McHugh said, are trying to capture the essence of each image.

“They’re all pretty personal for me, but I feel like they’re all pretty relatable for everybody,” McHugh said. “Like, if you’re in high school, you’re going to get your heart broken at some point. That’s where the first picture came from. No matter who you are, you’re gonna break somebody’s heart and you’re gonna get your heart broken. It’s pretty inevitable.”

McHugh said the center one is about the period in high school during which one feels like they should just give up.

“But luckily, you’re not dead yet,” McHugh said, quoting the painting. “You’re still going. You’re not giving up.”

McHugh’s reason for including the iguana in the painting doesn’t really relate to the painting’s message.

“I saw a picture of an iguana on the Internet that I thought reminded me of Bill Murray,” McHugh said. “So I was like, I want to make a picture with an iguana in it and then everything else just sort of spiraled out of that.”

The final painting, dubbed “Strange Purity” is based on another feeling McHugh said everyone’s going to have.

“It’s where you’re just calm,” McHugh said. “Something is going right for you and you don’t know how to explain it. Things are just kind of aligning perfectly.”

All three paintings are done in acrylic paint, McHugh said.

“I finger-painted them,” McHugh said. “I used my hands to give them more of an organic, personal touch. For some of the small details, I used brushes and stuff, and I spray painted the words. The colors just felt right, too.”

McHugh’s big message in this art is that being a teenager doesn’t devalue your emotions.

“Just because you’re a teenager, doesn’t mean your feelings are unimportant,” McHugh said. “Don’t be afraid to let people in on what you’re thinking because you think you’re being ridiculous, because, chances are, there’s going to be someone out there that feels the exact same way.”0