Although she juggles a busy schedule, including being a full-IB student, participating in theatre and being co-captain of the improv team, junior Lily van Veen always makes time for art.
Van Veen said she has been creating art for as long as she can remember. Though van Veen said she participated in art camps and classes during a few sum- mers, she only recently became serious about art during freshman year. After she quit gymnastics, she said she was able to
discover what she enjoyed.
“I had a lot of free time, so I just kind of put it all into art,” van Veen said.
One of Lily van Veen’s digital art pieces. Art courtesy of Lily van Veen
Upon doing so, she said she discovered her favorite medium to use is acrylic paint because it is cheap. She enjoys painting in general, but she also dabbles in digital art.
“It is what I do when I don’t want to make a mess, and I just want something to kind of de-stress,” van Veen said.
In her IB Visual Arts class, van Veen uses art in many ways. One of her main reasons for creating art is not school related.
“I mostly use [art] to unwind,” van Veen said, “like when I get really stressed, I just need to make something.”
Van Veen said she uses art as a way of expressing herself and in her classes when possible. She said IB Visual Arts gives her a reason to value art over other assignments.
She plans to continue creating art in the future as well.
“I don’t know if I want to go to an art school or major in the arts, but I definitely want to do [art] in college and find a career that utilizes art in general,” van Veen said.
Her family and friends have always been supportive of her interest in art and some teachers have even challenged her in her art by looking at assignments from a different perspective.
“I’ve definitely had art teachers, who like to teach me to look beyond what’s obvious and kind of go past that,” van Veen said. “I think it’s also really good to like, broaden your horizons and experiment with new stuff because maybe you’ll end up liking it a lot.”
A stunning acrylic painting on canvas produced by Lily van Veen.
Van Veen said her favorite thing about art is that there is no right or wrong way to do it.
“You can express yourself however you want. No one can say that that’s like the correct or incorrect way to do so,” van Veen said.
According to van Veen, artistic skill is not something you’re born with — and she wanted other students to know that with effort, they will get better.
“[Art] definitely takes a lot of practice,” van Veen said. “If you want to get better at drawing, it’s going to take a hot second, but you can get there, so you just have to commit.”
