Framed and hung, it’s official. 
Against white plaster walls, senior Misaki Kobayashi’s artwork is currently on display in a seven-week exhibit of student work at Ojai’s Porch Gallery. The gallery, located at 310 E. Matilija Ave., is hosting its second annual Generation Art exhibit, a show aimed to teach aspiring artists the entire process — from editing to marketing — of promoting their work.
Misaki went to the first installation of the exhibit last year with a group of students and Upper Campus art teacher Chia Hersk, and Ms. Hersk had asked to be contacted about the next installation.
“I was surprised when she told me about this big event,” Misaki said. “I’ve been practicing art for a long time, but I’ve never had a show like this.”
Ms. Hersk said she knew Misaki could handle the extra work involved with the exhibition, and being in her second year of AP Art, she would have a variety of work to submit.
“Misaki has worked very hard on her art and I am proud of her,” Ms. Hersk said. “She is an extremely talented artist and motivated student.” 
Along with Misaki, students from Thacher, Nordhoff, Oak Grove and Besant Hill are showing their work in Generation Art 2015, which runs through Jan. 3 at the downtown Ojai gallery Each student was required to work with the gallery directors to compile a cohesive body of work, consistent in both theme and style.
Porch Gallery Director Lisa Casoni said she and other gallery representatives were so pleased with last year’s show that they decided to make it an yearly event.
“It was a treat to see how impressed the community was with the quality of work,” Ms. Casoni said. “We wanted to show the students the importance of taking the final steps in completing their artwork – that the process doesn’t stop with the last stroke of ink, drop of paint or when the final photo is printed.”
For Misaki, her love of art never started at a particular point – her mind has been steeped in it for most of her life.
“I know it when I cannot draw, even before I start drawing,” she said. “It’s the same when I can draw, I know that I will do a good job before I start.”
This trait, common in artists, is much like having a sixth sense. 
Misaki, who draws mostly women, aims to get into the mind of her piece in order to truly understand what the woman would be feeling.
“If I’m drawing a mother with two small children, I try to become her by imagining what it is to be a mother of two kids,” she said. “And I feel strong, because I have to protect the kids, and feel love because I love them and the husband. It’s the fun part, because I feel like I’m reading a book.”
Many artists get into a zone while creating, a strange limbo that if broken could result in an idea and fire being extinguished in their eyes. But that’s the thing about art and inspiration — it’s an elusive beast that must be invited in before it can be utilized.
That passion and creativity is on full display at Porch Gallery.
As one takes a stroll through the gallery, it’s like taking a walk through a strange forest of brain stems that make up the teenage psyche. It is a tapestry sometimes hard to understand for the viewer, and to the artists even harder to understand themselves.
After all the photographing, framing, and meetings, the exhibit is now open for viewing, providing a peek into the mind of the artists, and a chance to walk their paths and see what they see.
“Maybe to me, drawing those women is like drawing my self-portrait,” Misaki said.