Advanced Art student Julia Smith uses painting as an outlet for her emotions and as a way to assure herself that perfection isn’t necessary.

“I like being able to express myself freely through painting and let my emotions out. There’s no stress involved at all. It’s really calming to be able to sit down and just draw or paint. It’s different from other classes because I’m not worried about getting an answer wrong or something. Whatever I do is right in some way,” she explained.

Smith skipped from Art 1 as a freshman to Advanced Art Honors, as Art teacher Jill Langston recommended she do. “Art 1, I thought, was really laid back, and it was easier, and you weren’t judged as harshly on what you do. Now that it’s a higher level it’s harder to get a good grade, but I think it’s more fun because we’re given a little more freedom,” she said.

“Freedom” is why Smith’s favorite medium of art is painting. “It’s the most fun,” she said. “I like painting because it’s looser than a lot of other art forms; a lot of other forms like drawing and charcoal – you have to be really careful because if you make a mistake then there’s no going back – but if you’re doing painting you can just paint over it.”

Her favorite project was the Art 1 wire sculptures, though sculptures are “harder to plan in advance” than paintings. “That was really, really, really fun. It was of a dragon. It took a long time but I really liked the end product so I thought it was worth it. It was really cool because we designed it out first, so we drew it all out on paper and it’s just a different medium,” she explained.

According to Smith, the majority of her art is done at school, though Honors students are required to work at home as well. “We have a couple of projects a year that are outside of school so I do those at home,” she said. ‘We did dog bones that were in charcoal, and for the 1st honors project we also did another charcoal drawing and I did an arm, and then we did the light project, which was really, really fun, and my group did an umbrella.”

Sophomore Fiona Deane-Grundman said that, upon first meeting Smith, she was impressed by Smith’s artistic talent. “Julia is an amazing artist and I remember last year, in the beginning of the year, when we were almost first meeting each other, she showed me these drawings of dogs that she had done, like small, cute animals. We were friends before that, but then she showed me them, and I was like, ‘I want to be friends with this person.’ She can design my tattoo of a wolf,” said Deane-Grundman.

Smith occasionally shares her art with her friends, and uses them as inspiration. “Sometimes she posts it to her homies’ Insta [personal Instagram] and sometimes she’ll be inspired by theater and my cat. She painted my cat and it was at the Lafayette Art and Wine Festival and I got it and it’s in my room. It’s a very cute drawing, except she gave him a tail and he doesn’t have a tail,” Deane-Grundman said.

Smith has enjoyed art ever since elementary school, but became more serious about the subject in 7th grade, when she began taking art classes in and outside of school. “It was never a sudden realization that I was good; I just worked really hard at it so I could get better. I would always sketch when I was younger and none of them were very good at all, but I liked doing it so I just continued. I also had a friend who was really, really, really good and I wanted to be as good as her but I was never at her level, so I was always pushing myself,” she said.

“I’m the only one in my family that’s gotten the art gene. So it’s really funny because my parents try to draw stuff out and I’m like ‘what is that supposed to be?’ and sometimes my parents try to critique my art and I’m like, ‘but you don’t really know what you’re doing,'” Smith said.

Smith doesn’t see herself doing art for the rest of her life. “It’s kind of a hard business to get into,” she said. “If I did anything I’d probably do costume design for theater because I do a lot of musical theater.”

“I want to go to a normal college because I want to be a teacher but I want to do musical theater on the side. I want to be an elementary school teacher,” she added.

Deane-Grundman hopes that if Smith becomes a teacher, she will incorporate artistic activities into her curriculum. “She’s a really good teacher so I hope she goes on to inspire young children to do art and express themselves through art,” she said.