A student at Elgin Community College explains his passion for art and how it has impacted his mental health and future career path.
Q: What can you tell me about your love for art?
A: I would say I really like art because I like to be creative, so I mainly paint and miniature model.
Q: How long have you been into art?
A: I’ve liked art for most of my life. I would say mainly in middle school is when I really started getting into it and getting interested and good at it. I mostly did colored pencils sketches and then towards high school I started getting into sculpting and painting.
Q: Is there anything in particular that you tend to create, and why?
A: I really like painting, ocean and coastal seascapes along with animals, and then sculpting and modeling foam clay.
Q: Why do you choose those?
A: Because I, specifically for the ocean part of it, I like the tones of those paintings, and I feel like ocean animals are really interesting and cool. And then towards the sculpting side, I really like to create miniature worlds that are very detailed.
Q: What benefits have you found in your fondness for art throughout the years?
A: I’m able to black out the rest of the world, and I’m focused on the problems of the piece and how do I best complete the piece, rather than all the little pieces of the world.
Q: Has your interest in art impacted your mental health at all?
A: I would say yes. It’s definitely become an outlet for me to look at that piece and focus.
Q: Do you believe you wouldn’t be where you were today without art by your side?
A: I would definitely say yes. My art has influenced my life a lot. If I didn’t have art in my life, my life and my house would look a lot different.
Q: What do you mean, your house?
A: A lot of the things in my house are painted or renovated in some way, so if I didn’t have painting specifically as a point in my life, there would be a lot less artwork on the walls.
Q: Can you see art being a part of your future, whether that’s in your future career or being aside hobby?
A: Yeah, definitely. I’m interested in going into interior architecture, and that specifically is going to be a lot of interior design focus, so that’s going to be how my metals play together, along with different color scapes and fabrics, but I also see it as a side hobby. I will continue to paint for most of my life and sculpt my village houses.
