Senior Sydney Fentzke is awaiting her new start.
Throughout her time in high school, Sydney has learned and experienced many things. From starting her first year during the COVID-19 pandemic to participating in high school sports and activities, she has experienced both personal gain and loss. But, the one thing that has continued to stick with her over the past four years is art.
“Art has helped me through a lot,” Sydney said. “It’s helped me connect with people I wouldn’t normally connect with. [When] people come up to me and compliment my art it makes me warm inside and happy, and I have conversations with those people, and I’m just happy and excited that other people are appreciating my art.”
Sydney has tried many different art classes over the years where she has grown fond of the numerous different styles of expression and has decided on a path surrounded by art in her future.
She will be attending one of the best art schools in the country, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she will continue to further her studies of art and find herself on a new footing on this fresh start as she moves away for college and obtains her Bachelor’s in fine studio arts.
“I’ll be surrounded by a lot of people there that have common interests and that are motivated by the same things that I am motivated by,” Sydney said. “It’s going to be a lot more of a healthier environment to make friends, do things, see the world, and make those connections that I need to become a successful artist.”
One of the things Sydney is most looking forward to in this transition from high school to college is the new opportunities she will have for her art. Though her high school classes did offer her different options, she was still set to limits that she will not have at SAIC.
“I like that I’m going to be able to do so much,” Sydney said. “I am a multi-media artist and I do so many different medias [like] clay, photography, digital drawing, painting, and drawing, and SAIC has a lot of resources available to me that I’m going be able to utilize. I have full access to the archives of the art institute and that’s going to be a really huge resource that I’m going to use.”
Sydney will be able to expand her artistic thinking and further her creative abilities as she has the opportunities to immerse herself in new forms of art, even ones she never would have thought would have sparked her interest such as fashion design.
Currently, she sees herself going into commercial art, where she will learn more about and grow her love for interior design through the graphic design element and expanding her styles from here.
“Right now, I feel like the world does not really cater to artists that just autonomously make art,” Sydney said. “I’ll probably go into commercial art and on the side do [an] internship. I love interior design and architecture, so maybe I’ll go into some sort of graphic design element for commercial art and then do some free lansing art when I’m older. I want to own a little art store when I’m an old lady.”
During her time in high school, art played an impactful role in Sydney’s life, making her who she is and healing the parts of her she expressed in her pieces. Moving into this fresh set of new opportunities she will have, Sydney is looking forward to growing not only as an artist but as a person.
“A lot of my art exhibits some of my insecurities and some of the struggles that I faced throughout high school,” Sydney said. “I really like to see the growth, and art has really helped me embrace it because when people come up and [compliment my art], they don’t know they’re also complimenting me, and it kind of heals that insecurity.”
