My Passion - Art

Since she was very young, Lucy Sparks’s family have always known where to find her: sitting at a table with pens and paper, drawing something. “I’ve been drawing ever since I can remember,” she says. “It’s always been with me, and my parents have always been supportive of it.”

Inspired by classic art and artists such as the Mona Lisa and Van Gogh, Lucy nevertheless doesn’t have a particular style, she says. At the moment, she loves to sketch “people, things that look cool or interesting, or whatever I feel like in the moment”. Drawing, for her, is also character-creating. “A lot of the time I’ll draw someone I don’t know. I’ll create my own person and add anything I want.”

Her passion for art has flourished at ZIS. “My teacher, Rainer Jutzi, is so much fun. He really challenges us but also makes the class exciting and enjoyable, and takes me out of my comfort zone.” She found a recent project, to create a piece of art around social protest, particularly inspiring. Students were asked to pick an issue they felt needed to be spoken about and represent it.

Improving her craft is tough, she says. She’s already familiar with the artist’s struggle for inspiration – “I know it’s a stereotype, but sometimes I’m just staring at a piece of paper and I don’t know what to draw!” – and still life is a challenge. “I find many things hard about art, but it’s always been a struggle for me to draw things that have a lot of detail or texture, because I’m more on the creative side.”

Art, she says, takes her out of this world and transports her to a completely different place, with none of the traditional rules or boundaries. All she needs is that table, paper and pens. “When that happens, I’m lost. I’m in the moment – I’m experimenting and creating, and nothing else matters. Art is a great place to lose yourself.”

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