Senior Shelby Endris

Q: How long have you been doing art?
A: “I’ve been doing art for as long as I can remember.”

Q: What inspired your love for art?
A: “I’ve always found a different interest in visual things- anything visual. From nature, to design, to pictures and movies in general, even as a kid I’ve always been obsessed with how things look and the colors of things. This made me want to make my own visuals for other people.”

Q: What methods do you typically do? (painting, sculpting, drawing, etc.)
A: “I draw the most, but drawing is really the basis for most art. Once you get drawing down, it’s easier to do everything else. But I love to paint, that’s my number one medium. I like acrylic paint, wash paint. I used to use a lot of watercolors but I’ve kind of strayed away from it but I still love the look of it. I’ve been doing it for so long that I can really draw anything, I’m just better at some things. I like making smaller details but making the color makes the piece. That’s really what it all comes down to, making the color and the contrast and the size of things count. I don’t really do realism, I don’t do just portraits, I more so just do whatever comes to my mind.”

Q: Your work is very creative, when would you say you are in your most creative element?
A: “Ideas come to me during the night time- when it’s dark outside. I’ve noticed that throughout the day I seem tenser and at night I’m more relaxed so ideas can come to me better.”

Q: When did you begin to post your work? Were you nervous?
A: “I started posting the beginning of my junior year. I realized that’s what I want my career to be and what I want to do with my life, so I made an account hoping to outreach. It was very nerve-wracking because not a lot of people knew that I did art or that I enjoyed it very much. I felt like not a lot of people supported it, not because they didn’t want to be, but because they just didn’t care.”

Q: What have been some of your biggest challenges as an artist?
A: “It’s hard to balance my time. Art is very time consuming, it takes a lot of time to not just do it in general, but to build and maintain your skills.

Q: What would you say to someone who enjoys art but is too afraid to pursue it?
A: “Make sure you really do like it enough to where you are confident enough to put it out there and produce things that you would be happy with everyone seeing. Don’t just do it off the bat, you have to think about things, you can’t just do it to do it. It takes a lot of time and patience. The keys are patience and research, it’s taken me my whole life to get to where I am today with my skills. Also, you have to know how to draw first before you can do anything.”

Q: What are your plans for art in your future?
A: “I am hoping to go to art school and make a career out of my art in all industries, including cosmetics, fashion, and music. I just want everyone to see my art.”

Q: How has art impacted your life?
A: “Art has gotten me through everything, it really is the brightness in my life, it really is what makes me happy; it keeps me going. The way things look, the way people look- everything to me is art. I see everything as something that can be drawn or reciprocated onto paper, canvas, or even a computer. I see things how I see them and I realize everyone else sees things how they see them, and this has helped me understand other people and their points of view.”

For more, visit @shelbsendris on Instagram.