Even though we are a small high school, we still have an abundance of artistic talents. We have students participating in Drama Club, Theatre Arts, Art Class, and other artistic programs offered at Freedom. Whether it is performing, writing, or drawing, the work that comes out of this school seems to be incredible. I recently sat down with a student artist, Courtney Frain, and talked with her about her latest creations. Courtney is a very artistic creative person. She painted a wonderfully colorful painting of birds. She was inspired by a picture she noticed on the internet while looking for unique designs for a tattoo. This is shown in her drawing. Her background is a fleshy color that is masterfully blended to give the illusion of skin. The birds in the painting are colorful, wispy looking, and appear to be floating on the skin background. The separate colors represent different emotions that we all experience in everyday life. She describes the colors as the multi-faceted stages of emotions that make us all human. There is an inscription at the bottom of the painting that reads “A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” She says that this quote came from a display she saw at the aviary. To her it symbolized the freedom that birds have. When most people think of birds’ freedom, they think about the ability to fly. Courtney sees their true freedom in the melody and songs that they sing. It represents her freedom as a person and the freedom she demonstrates as an artist when she expresses herself in her paintings. This painting is her favorite piece she has done so far. She claims it is “her baby”. It took her a total of three weeks to complete, working on it every day and in her art class. I watched this wonderful creation come to life. Every day, I was more and more impressed. I got to see the utter joy in her eyes every time she showed me the progress that she made.