A girl sits in her art class as she diligently works and sketches out her next project with a unique design already planned in her mind. Hours later, a piece will emerge from the initial pencil sketch. Senior Amelia Stansbury is a traditional and digital artist who is living a life of creativity as she expands her artistic horizons.

“What initially got me into art was maybe around middle school, where I had some friends in an art club,” Stansbury said. “I joined Art Club, and I learned more about it because I’m creative in a right brain kind of way.”

Art has not only served as a creative outlet — it has helped in other circumstances such as helping with her ADHD. 

“For someone who has ADHD, I found it as a way to just stay focused a lot, and it’s just a lot of fun for me,” Stansbury said. “I stayed [doing art] longer and longer, and I’ve just learned how to work that way.” 

After graduating from high school, Stansbury plans to continue an art based career and even spread her love for the subject through a teaching position. 

“I want to be an art teacher, like an elementary art teacher, and teach other people more about art. I thought that’d be really cool, because I’m really good with kids,” Stansbury said. “That’s what I want to do.”

Over the last few months, Stansbury has begun including digital work along with traditional pieces as she grows her skillset in multiple forms of art. 

“I just started digital art this year because I got an iPad for Christmas, but everything I’ve done [before] is traditional,” Stansbury said.

When working with both traditional and digital media, Stansbury has witnessed the drawbacks and advantages of using different media and how they have built on her previous skills. 

“[In] traditional art, it’s hard to erase things, [but] in digital, you can easily erase with a click of a button,” Stansbury said. “The one thing with traditional is if you first start off with traditional, you know how to do things better.”

With the ongoing debate on what qualifies as genuine art, Stansbury expresses her own opinion on what she thinks real artwork is. 

“Mostly traditionals favored a lot because there’s that saying of is digital really art and there’s been a lot of controversy with that,” Stansbury said. “But I think anything that you do, that you take that much time in can be art whether that’s painting or making a movie or anything like that.”