Grandmother Inspires Art Passion

From a young age, Emma Quimby has not been afraid to jump into the unknown when it comes to art.

Although Quimby only began painting in her freshmen year, her passion for art started in 1st grade with sketching and drawing. Regardless of the subject, Quimby admitted she she “would always want to draw” instead of following directions for various assignments.

Quimby’s earliest artistic influences came from within her own family. “I remember drawing with my grandma,” she explained.

Since childhood, Quimby’s family has compared her with her grandmother. “I just remember growing up and everyone in my family would say that I reminded them of my grandma, and I always looked up to her and she taught me how to cook and taught me how to do everything,” said Quimby. “She would just sit down after dinner and just start drawing, and I remember watching her and just thinking that it was the most amazing thing ever.”

Quimby and her current art instructor agree that how she incorporates different colors and how she approaches her artwork makes her stand out. “I think a lot of people are really good at pen and ink, but am better skilled in watercolor,” says Quimby.

Quimby views her artwork as a way to tell some of her stories. “For a lot of the artwork that I do it has a deeper meaning than what it looks like. Like if its a painting of the woods it will be, like, I’ll be thinking of a story of when I did go to the woods with my dad and sister and we went looking for bears,” said Quimby.

Quimby finds a way to incorporate art into her everyday life. “If I have a lot going on I’ll get most of it done, and then I’ll set aside some time to just draw whatever I want. Or I’ll go sit outside on the hill in my backyard and I’ll just go sit and draw,” she said. Quimby draws for an hour a day on average. “If I can’t sleep I’ll just draw.”

Fellow art student Hannah Eberhard, who works with Quimby on various art projects, said, “This is the first time [year] I’ve been in her class. She’s a really talented artist and she does some really good work.”

Quimby looks at her art as a passion, something that will always be there for her. “I don’t really know what I want to do when I grow up. I do think that going to an art school would be fun, but I was thinking of more doing art on the side,” she said.

Jill Langston, who has taught Quimby for three years in the Art program, has noted her pupils individuality. “Emma has mostly been doing assignments…when she is doing the assignment she has a kind of personal twist to it,” said Langston. “I would say her personal twist is that she is pretty energetic on brush work and on textures she’s pretty bold.”

Langston noted that Quimby’s “gotten so much better” since freshman year.

“I think, like I’ve been doing art the whole time I’ve been here, and I think that Ms. Langston has really helped me because I always did things one way but she kinda taught me how to incorporate other ideas into that and go deeper and explore with more colors…which really helped my artwork and now it stands out more,” Quimby explained.