A senior sits at the expansive art table with a piece of paper in front of her. Her hand curls around a colored pencil, in need of a sharpening from all of its use. Finally, she looks up from her drawing and shakes her hand out from the cramps. The temporary pain of cramping is well worth the reward for senior Veja Kazlas.

Kazlas has been an artist as long as she can remember. Growing up in a family of artists, it was hard for the influence not to rub off on her.

“[Everyone in my] family is an artist of some type,” Kazlas said.

Kazlas is constantly challenging herself to try new artistic styles and step outside of her comfort zone. Over the course of her art career, she has tried many different types of art, including painting with oils and acrylics, photography, ceramics, pottery and many others.

“[The assignment] we just did was really hard,” Kazlas said. “It was a perspective and I just colored in colored pencil. It was painful, but fun.”

The assignment was a perspective portrait of the friend of one of Kazlas’ friends, senior Valerie Antiago.

Kazlas moved from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in 2016 and she was amazed by Wayland’s art program.

“[The visual art program is] completely different, because at LS they are more relaxed and this (Wayland’s visual art program) is intense, [similar to] what you would be doing in art school and college,” Kazlas said. “It’s better in the long run to get the benefit of the fast pace of the program.”

According to Kazlas, art is just as taxing as any sport. The concentration and mentality that goes into art is demanding and takes patience to perfect. Another challenging aspect is that art has many different mediums that Kazlas uses. However, Kazlas enjoys creating conceptual art.

“[My art is] weird but interesting, and [it] has a purpose,” Kazlas said. “It’s often inspired by politics and other topics that interest me, like women’s rights.”

Art has played a huge role in Kazlas’ life, and she hopes to continue it in the future in the form of fashion design. So far, Kazlas has been accepted to the Savannah School of Design and Drexel University’s Design Merchandising program.