By Lauren Whelan’14, Arts and Entertainment Editor 

As a member of Newark Academy’s prestigious visual arts program since her freshman year, Mia Smith’15 has risen to prominence as an artist in the school community. While she is currently engaged in a challenging and fully immersive art program at the Oxbow school in California, Mia’s art career began at a very young age. Mia recalls her eagerness towards art as ever-present throughout her life — beginning when she would wake up on Saturday mornings excited to simply have the opportunity to draw. She realized she truly had a deep passion for art in eighth grade, the year before she arrived at Newark Academy. “It allowed me to exist in my own world and rest my mind,” said Mia, recalling her early motivations for her art.

As Mia’s passion for art grew, she found that this original motivation continued to pervade her art. “I’ve learned throughout the years that creating art (in any form) allows me to take refuge from anything that may be bothering me at the time. For me, it’s the equivalent of getting a runner’s high – there’s no other feeling like it. Knowing I am able to produce something I and other people enjoy makes me feel valuable and incredibly unique.” Mia’s deep emotional investment in her art seems to be what sets her apart as a unique artist.

Mia’s artwork ranges across a variety of mediums and techniques. When asked about her favorites, Mia mentioned mixed media, oil paintings, scratchboards, metal sculptures, and glasswork in particular. Her passion for different techniques has become one of the most treasured aspects of her artistic experience. While she cannot identify a singular piece that is her favorite, Mia states, “I thoroughly enjoy when I find myself immersed in a new medium or technique, especially when I plan on returning to it later.” With such talent across several forms of art, it truly is no wonder that Mia’s work has gained such recognition among the Newark Academy community. Fellow IB artist, Maia Yoshida’14 said, “One media Mia particularly excels in is painting in oil. Her self-portrait was completely life-like and recognizable by the school community.”

To Mia, the choice to travel to Oxbow for the spring semester of her junior year seemed like the obvious choice: the Oxbow semester is essentially an artist’s dream. Mia stated, “The first time I heard about The Oxbow School, the first word that came to my mind was ‘home.’ I couldn’t believe that a place that sounded so much like heaven really existed, and that I had the opportunity to attend.” Mia digresses that art class for only an hour a day at Newark Academy, for only 4 days out of every 6 cycles days, was simply not enough to fulfill her artistic passions, and was a driving factor for her Oxbow application.  “Art-creating time is invaluable to me, so knowing that the opportunity of being able to make any type of art essentially whenever I want (while also being able to use mediums not available at school) existed, I knew I had to do everything I could to make the most of it,” says Mia.

Upon her return from Oxbow, Mia looks ahead to what her artistic career may involve in the future.  She comments on perfecting her current talents in metal sculpture, and expanding her artistic palate to involve new mediums. She hopes to achieve expertise in her artwork, and in the more distant future, open an art gallery of her own. As Mia’s art career progresses, we wish her the best for her future artistic endeavors, and are eager to see what sort of art she will bring back to Newark Academy upon her return from Oxbow in the fall!