Though not enrolled in an Art class on campus, freshman Hannah Eberhardt considers art a haven from the throes of everyday high school life and spends her free time drawing and designing fashion.
Eberhardt credits her artistic skill to natural talent. “It just kind of comes to me. I just was always creative, I guess,” she said. Art has served as “a good outlet for creativity.”
Eberhardt finds inspiration in the work of professional designers.”I really look up to Coco Chanel, because she basically started from nothing, she grew up in an orphanage and has led such a successful career out of nothing,” she said. “My mom used to do drawing and stuff, and I saw those, and those really inspired me.”
Eberhardt also is inspired by her surroundings and is motivated to reproduce its beauty. “Architecture, nature, colors, [inspire me]. I’ve just been doing random stuff,” she said. However, Eberhardt’s skills are an asset in her academic pursuits, particularly on projects that require visual elements.
Being an artist has also taught Eberhardt how to learn from her mistakes.”I’ve definitely learned to take my mistakes and make them into something new. I definitely have problems finishing stuff, I’ll start something and then I get distracted or I get frustrated with it so I’ll put it down for a week and come back to it,” she added.
“It takes a lot of patience and sometimes I’m just not in the mood, I’m like, ‘Nope, I’m not going to do this’,” she said.
Eberhardt’s favorite mediums include “either paper or fabric. I really like using charcoal or colored pencils.” She doesn’t limit herself to a singular form of art, preferring to practice all different kinds. “I do a lot of drawing, especially with charcoals, which is really fun. And I do do some fashion design, in my sketchbook, and sometimes make clothing,” she explained.
Due to a scheduling issue Eberhardt was unable to take Art as an elective this year. “I’m hoping to take Art next year. I want to take all the way through AP Art,” she said.
Savannah Hilton, Eberhardt’s friend, commended her artistic skills. “When she’s bored in class and doesn’t have any work left, you should see the drawings she does. The people she draws are really nicely done. They look very cool. Hannah is an impressive artist,” she said.
Eberhardt considers one of her best pieces so far to be a project for last year’s French class. “Last year I made for a French project a dress in the style of the French Revolution, but I made it out of newspaper,” she explained. She committed “a little longer than a week” to the project.
Over the summer Eberhardt attended an art program at a local art university. “It was basically two classes a day for two weeks at California College of the Arts in Oakland. Mine were graphic design in the morning and drawing in the afternoon,” she explained.
The course helped Eberhardt identify her true passion. “That was really fun and made me realize that I really love graphic design and that may be a career later on,” she said.
Eberhardt wants to take her art further this year, even to a professional level. “I really want to to start designing more prints and I really want to start my own business on Etsy and sell my own scarves and stuff with my own fabrics,” she said. Etsy, a website for selling hand-crafted products, has become popular among young artists over the past few years.
According to Eberhardt, she hasn’t “really looked into colleges yet.”
“I either want to go to art school or a college that has a really great art program, obviously,” she added.
Whatever the future holds, Eberhardt hopes she can integrate her affinity for art. “I want to experiment with more stuff but I think graphic design’s really versatile,” she explained.
“Graphic design can be fabric design to stationary to packaging design, anything,” she said.
