Andrew McClave is a senior at Fossil Ridge High School. McClave was originally born in Las Vegas, Nevada, but moved to Fort Collins in fifth grade. He has two dogs, Lady and Jackson, and two younger siblings. His sister attends Fossil as well. McClave’s family is closer now than a few years ago, simply because everyone is more mature. His favorite thing about his family is how they listen to “lit music” and “have the whole house bumping with their loudspeakers.” McClave is really close with his parents, especially his mom because she’s very similar to him. They have the same taste in music, they get along pretty well, and she has a lot of experiences that Andrew can learn from.

In his free time, McClave likes hanging out with friends just chilling, making memories, and doing things that are going to last. He has a really close friend group and loves how he can go to any of them for anything and can talk about everything. His best friend is Alexys Ruiz. They have known each other for a few years now and he states, “She is very open, super sweet, and there’s just nothing I can’t of that you can’t love about her”. McClave describes himself as unique. He is not really one to conform to a lot of things but is not a crazy rule breaker; he just has a different perspective on things. One of his weaknesses would be not always being up-front with his thoughts, and keeps a lot to himself. A strength he has is being very real with people, himself, and what he should be doing with his time. That is what drives his motivation to put in hard work.

McClave’s extracurricular activities include social media marketing and just marketing in general; he loves to make ads for people. He is into digital art because it is different to him, it can be applied to more things and leaves room for creativity. He can make things look a little more realistic, and McClave likes getting that reaction of making something that is mind blowing, rather than a traditional art style. He gets very inspired by music, culture and friends. He gets a lot of ideas from his friends and also likes the critiques they give, but most of his inspirations comes from music. One of McClave’s favorite digital artwork was Norwegion Wood. It came to him out of nowhere and he got inspired when listening to music. He also puts in a little piece of his favorite childhood movie, The Wizard of Oz. He also really enjoys pictures related to space because it is really interesting to him.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Andrew McClave

Double Exposure

McClave’s favorite class is AP Studio Art because some of his good friends are in it and he loves the teachers, especially Mrs. Ermer. He had Digital Design with Ermer and he enjoyed it very much; they learned a lot from each other. He wants to improve his work by getting into video making and applying the same techniques he applies from photos to videos to make small motion pictures. McClave has made a lot of changes from freshman year such as sports, what he does with his time, and his friends. He has gotten to learn a lot more about people and has made his range of skills larger. His long term goal is owning a marketing firm. His short term goal is learning as much as possible to gain the skill set he needs to achieve his goals. McClave wants to continue what he is doing and continue to learn something new, get to know more people, and enjoy his time before graduation. He is looking forward to living a happy life, being stable, and “kicking it with his homies.”