Finding the thing you want to do with your life can be a struggle for many, especially if you don’t have a passion. It can take time to figure it out, unless it’s been under your nose your whole life. Senior Hannah Kim began art when she was just a kid who was playing with crayons and paper.  

Kim’s parents enrolled her in art classes in elementary and middle school. At first she did art for fun with friends and as a hobby. Eventually, though, Kim shared that her parents wondered if she wanted to do art as a career. Kim agreed it was a good idea.

Troy High School offers a variety of art classes designed to take students through the basics to college-level, advanced techniques. Throughout this variety, they also offer classes that go beyond just drawing and painting. 

Kim has taken a variety of these classes, including Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics 2, Ceramics 2, Drawing 1 and 2, Advanced Placement Art, Studio Art and Photography. “My favorite art to do is probably environmental design in digital art,” Kim added. “I started it sophomore year and I began getting into environmental design because, at first, I was doing just ink and traditional but once I did digital I really liked focusing on perspective and world building.”

Once Kim decided to do art as a career, she got more serious about it, as did her classes. Kim conveys the progression into more serious art and some advice on how others can improve too: “The Studio Art class here at Troy High was very helpful because they would have critiques where you share your piece and explain what you did and ask where you can improve.” She continues, “People would then share their critiques and inputs, then you go back and change it. That helped me out.”

Kim’s route through art classes helped her achieve vital skills for more challenging experiences. “I never really did the basics of art because I skipped a multi-media art class. [It’s] more of a beginner art class where you learn all the principles of art, but I skipped it, so I didn’t understand it before but after I did I think my art definitely improved a lot as well as composition.”  

Furthermore, Kim has achieved many different awards for her art. She has received two Gold Keys, one Silver Key and three honorable mentions in the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She was also recognized as a Scholastics Silver Portfolio for her artwork. 

Kim, like many artists, has pulled inspiration from the world and media around her. “I’m really into drawing sci-fi stuff so this one movie, “Akira,” is a really famous movie made in the 1980s,” Kim shared. “It has a lot of sci-fi stuff in it, and sci-fi at that time was really new when it came out. It’s just an amazing film and the drawings are just amazing and still holds up to this day. The production was just amazing. I was inspired by that a lot. I really love that movie.” 

Kim plans on going to art school for video game design where she hopes to work on environmental design for games. Although that could also possibly change in the future, she says this is what she envisions as of now. 

When asked what advice she has for aspiring artists, Kim stated, “Just keep drawing. Finish your projects and if you start doing something, do it until the end.”