Featured Artist: Laurell Stegelman

Q: When did you really start getting into art?

A: I’ve been interested in art since I was a little kid. I was never really into sports really. I like them, but it wasn’t my thing. So, pretty much since elementary school. Interesting enough, I had Mr. Finkleston as my elementary school art teacher. I would enter in contests when I was younger, but I kinda lost sight of that when I was in middle school. But I’ve been starting back up.

Q: What mediums do you like to work in?

A: I really like oil pastels and anything that is kind of build-able. I wish I was better with oils. Over the summer, that’s kind of my goal. I really like photography. I took photo class my sophomore year and I’m really glad that I know how to use film to a certain extent. I’m a photographer for yearbook. I think photography is really cool because there is so many things you can do with it. Like if you use different color lights, there’s an amazing number of ways to manipulate that or just use that to get a really cool image.

Q: Do you remember the first piece you were really proud of?

A: I had this one that was 5th grade that I entered into a PTA reflections contest, and it actually ended up winning one of the prizes for the state. It was a watercolor painting, which is a medium I’ve kept up with since I like them a lot. Art is so cool because you can do anything with it and water colors I especially like because there’s so many ways to manipulate it. It’s a good release.

Q: Who are the artists that inspire you the most?

A: I really like painting but I’m not really good with oils. I haven’t really worked with them a lot but there’s this oil painter, Mike Dargas, and he’s so talented. I follow him on Instagram and I look on his website. He’ll post process pictures as he’s painting them and it’s so cool to see the little differences, like the little highlights on the peoples faces and what difference it makes.

Q: Do you have one subject matter that you tend to steer towards when you’re drawing?

A: I like people. I used to only be able to draw like women’s faces and I dont know why but I like branched sort of to make myself learn how to draw like guys faces. I can draw small things that are not like people but like faces is the only like big thing I can really do.

Q: Do you want to pursue a career in art?

A: I would like to it’s just such a competitive field to be successful in. If I don’t end up picking something creative as a career, I would like to still like keep up with it just for like sake of my happiness.

Q: What field would you go into?

A: Photojournalism. I love the creative side of photography and I think you can do so much with it. I think it really sucks that photojournalism in itself is kind of, I don’t want to say, dying, but kind of is. People can take pictures on their iPhones and that image can get as far as a lot of the ones that are professionally taken. I mean like national geographic, of course, their photographers are amazing and you can’t get that kind of quality with an iPhone, but it’s also hard to get to the point where you’re top notch like that.