Creative Minds
Creative projects are a popular way to express yourself and do what you love to do. At Seabury, students have the obligation to choose an arts elective where they spend their time working on creative feats of artwork, songs, plays, and writing. However, many students also spend their time outside of school working on the same thing.
In particular, a few students like spending their time on projects that they have shared online, gradually collecting hundreds to thousands of views and followers.
One of these students is freshman Alesia Brovtcyna, an artist who mainly focuses on watercolor and digital art. The Russian foreign exchange student not only runs a tumblr blog for her artwork, but has, since coming to Seabury, started commissioning her artwork to fellow students.
“I had an idea on how to make my art into a business” says Brovtcyna. And she did, already having commissioned and completed two drawings for students with several more planned. She displays some of her artwork, as well as information on how to commission her, on her locker. Brovtcyna’s hobby is not surprising either, since she comes from an entire family full of artists.
Freshman Mia Ramirez is another student who likes to spend her time making covers. Ramirez covers music from genres such as R&B and Indie Alternative, as well as artists like Billie Eilish and Daniel Caesar. She then posts them on her Instagram, which has attracted over 1.3 thousand followers since she started posting covers in June. She also recently started a YouTube channel dedicated to her covers as well.
One set back to undertaking large projects outside of school is that school limits your work time, and large creative projects do take time.
“Each cover is about four to five retakes, which is like forty-five minutes,” says Ramirez, when asked how much time her covers take to make. “But editing adds another thirty minutes.” And that doesn’t even account for the time it takes to learn the song.
Like Ramirez, junior Ethan Hall also pursues music outside of Seabury. Although, instead of covering music, he composes it. Hall composes songs in genres such as pop, electronic, and soul before recording himself singing and playing. He also works with a Brazilian DJ.
It takes Hall a bit longer to compose and produce his music than Ramirez. “It takes about two months,” says Hall. This encompasses the entire time it takes to compose the song and lyrics, record the performance and get it edited. Hall also reports that he is currently working on an album.
Lack of time is not a problem for everyone, however. Sometimes students get to pursue their hobbies inside of school, like in the case of seventh grader Campbell Helling. Helling is a writer who got to self-publish her first book sixth grade year. This was part of the annual writing project NaNoWriMo, standing for National Novel Writing Month, in which writers attempt to write a whole novel in one month.
Every November the sixth graders choose their own word count goals and attempt the challenge, and last year Helling decided that she was going to list her novel on Amazon afterwards.
“It wasn’t for profit, just for fun,” says Helling, when asked why she chose to sell her book. Nevertheless, Helling has already sold thirty copies.
Helling was not new to writing when she had started her novel, but admits that it was different to write a whole novel for once.
Sometimes these creative hobbies show up earlier than later, like in Hall’s case, who has been playing violin since he was three years old. Other times they emerge later, like in Brovtcyna’s case, who only started pursuing art one to two years ago. Even still they sometimes gradually become a hobby, like in Helling’s case.
No matter what, it seems, the reason for pursuing these interests is always the same.
“I make them for fun,” says Ramirez
“I like to do it and music actually makes me happy” says Hall.
And Helling also agrees, saying “It helps me release my inner thoughts, and express what I’m trying to say better.”
Whoever the creator is, or what they do, these hobbies are pursued because they are thought to be a fun way to spend time and express oneself, and explore what one is passionate about.
