Katie Thomas, a passionate artist and a senior from Westerville South High School. As an offering of her solicitude, she donated a painting depicting the spirit of a beloved member of Camp Hamwi.

This is a traditional camp for youth to engage in group accomplishments and appreciate individual differences while in a medically supervised environment.

Thomas has been taking art classes at Westerville South High School since her freshman year. However, she skipped her sophomore year to complete some required credits. 

In addition to other hobbies, Thomas has a passion for art, a passion that she has received many compliments on from not only her art teachers but her friends and family as well. Although the talent for art may not run in her family, she shares this passion with her grandmother.

“Everyone starts somewhere; no one is automatically good at art. It takes time to perfect it,” stated Thomas. She emphasized that every art piece consists of different styles and techniques and that there’s no uniform way of illustrating the image in your mind to the viewer.

For the art piece she used acrylic paint on a section of roofing tile because this will give the painting a more subtle, non-reflective finish. She loves to experiment with various mediums and does this often.

 “Experimenting with different mediums is the fun of it, you have to trust the process yourself or you’ll never be proud of the piece,” Thomas said.

As previously noted, the art piece was in commemoration of a member of the camp Hamwi family who had passed away. The art piece depicts the camp family holding hands at their final campfire, and in their midst is the spirit of their beloved member. This is displayed at the height of the fire where the face of the member appears to be smiling, insinuating that though he may be gone he spirit still lives among them. 

According to the greek philosopher, Aristotle, “Art completes what nature cannot bring to a finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature’s unrealised ends.” Though this may be affirmative in a sense, art can often be misconceived.

For this reason, art teacher Roush explained that every artist has an original intent with how they want their art piece to be portrayed; this intent is usually misinterpreted by the viewer, so it’s advisable to have a caption statement that explains the techniques used and what the viewer should be looking for.

As an artist, Thomas found this piece to be one of her best works because of how sentimental it was to her and quite loved the end result.

 “This piece means the world to me,” Thomas reflected. 

She eventually donated it to the camp as a way of offering her sincere condolences to the Hamwi camp family.