Light streamed in from the tall windows, covering the room. Colored pencils and markers were strewn in between drawings. An empty canvas lay on the center table, waiting, hoping, to be used soon. She burst through the door, mind racing. Quickly gathering her supplies, she sat down and sketched. An unwavering smile developed as she continued, the feeling of happiness building. Inspiration had struck. 

Art has greatly shaped sophomore Sehar Kapadia and continues to influence her motivations and hopes for the future by being a prominent part of her life.

“Ever since I was a little girl I would always come home from school and see my mom painting, and it made me want to create something like that,” Sehar said when asked what first got her interested in art. “She’s an art major and influenced me a lot, and I can go to her when I have questions and need advice.”

It wasn’t until the 6th grade that Sehar took her interest in art to a whole new level. 

“I think sometime in middle school was where I found my focus,” Kapadia said. “That’s when my dad started advising me to push myself if I was serious about it, and so that’s when I started drawing pretty often and trying to go further with it.”

Sehar has tried different genres and created several pieces as her artistic skills and capabilities have grown over the years. Her favorite, she says, was one she submitted to the VASE (Visual Arts Scholastic Event) Competition last year. 

“It was a picture of my sister, and I had done it abstractly,” Kapadia said. “I think that was my favorite one because I managed to capture my sister’s personality in that. She was 3 or 4, so she was still really tiny and messy, and she was a huge inspiration. She’s a really fun person and someone I try to guide and protect. I ended up winning 3rd place for the painting.”

While Sehar dabbles in several categories, she tends to stick to a more emotional style of creating. While she does a bit of digital art, she prefers drawing, specifically sketching on paper. 

“Art is the way I express myself,” she says. “I think my favorite part is just sketching out the drawing because you can see a lot more emotion in the lines. And usually when I color, most of my sketches are not as detailed or precise, they’re a lot freer and have more expression.”

Sehar’s inspiration comes from various places and people before she begins a piece. She enjoys drawing a mixture of nature and people, and will pull inspiration from others, as well as using her own imagination, to express what she wants the piece to say.

 “My inspiration is a mix of a lot, but I like to have references when I draw,” she says. “I’ll take a picture of what I want to draw, and then I’ll look through some of the artists I know to see how they’ve done it, if they have, to see if I want to use a similar technique, and then I’ll combine everything together and start.”

While influence from her parents have played a big part in Sehar pursuing art, she has continued it willingly due to the joy and fulfillment she feels during and after the process.

“I’ll be able to sit there and draw for hours without getting bored,” she says. “I think seeing the end piece, looking back and realizing I made that, makes me want to continue.”

Sehar’s best friend, Keerthi Bitra, reflects on the beginning of Sehar’s journey until now, and how art has always been somewhat of a constant.

“Sehar is really good and has always enjoyed drawing,” Bitra said. “She would always have her sketchbook with her and has always been consistent with drawing since I first met her, and she’s improved a lot too.”

The incredibly strong bond Sehar has to art is shown through her past projects and future endeavors. Hoping to continue with art as a career, she recognizes the obstacles she will face and already has ideas on how to overcome them. 

“I think you need a lot of connections in art if you want to go somewhere or sell your pieces, and I think that’ll probably be the hardest thing to do,” she says. “However, there’s a lot of ways I can try, like talking to artists I see on Instagram and teachers, so I think I know some ways I can build those connections.”

Stemming from more than an interest, art proves to be a significant and vital aspect of Sehar’s life that makes her who she is. Her inspiration and motivation seems to be thriving as she continues to create daily, art never failing to make her happy.

“I always imagined having a place somewhere in the future dedicated solely to art,” she says. “I just can’t see myself doing anything else.”