Art is everything. Art is special. Art is one of the oldest human activities. Art shows us how we evolved and grew as a species. Thousand year old drawings on cave walls are examples of early art. Art changed as humans changed. Early forms of writing were art, such as hieroglyphics. As humans discovered and developed writing with letters, art evolved to illustrate books such as early bibles. Writing changed art because we were no longer drawing to tell our history. 

Art has changed from drawing on cave walls to memorizing important events to painting as a career or even just for fun. From drawing on cave walls we have sculptures, pottery, or even art created on computers. Art can be found in our parks, our schools, businesses and our churches. Art has evolved along with humans. Over the last few years, computers with artificial intelligence are now generating art based upon inquiries and directions from humans. Art has come a long way from where it started centuries ago and it will continue to go new directions and evolve with us. 

We talked to an art student, and she told us a little bit about their art class projects. Let’s look a little closer at her art class. The class at Mercy High School explores art techniques, art appreciation, and the history behind it. Her class has just finished a project involving raised printmaking. Raised printmaking is a type of art where the painting rises above the sheet of paper. While practicing the raised printmaking techniques, they also learned its history.

The art students are learning much about art. In addition to raised printmaking, they also made ceramic mugs and learned how to glaze them. The students learned this and many other things in art class. Art student Kenzi Konopik states, “I’m really looking forward to continuing our mugs and learning about more of the artists in the past!” She has much to learn as art has a long history and there are many different styles and techniques. In art, there is always more to explore and learn. Mercy High School strongly encourages its students to take art classes and learn more about art. 

One form of art we experience almost every day is the beautiful art of our Catholic religion. Here at Mercy, we have amazing paintings and sculptures that help remind us to live like the saints. We even have art that honors Mercy’s founder, Catherine McAuley. Art serves as a way to honor and inspire us. 

Art is one of the oldest human activities. It started with ancient humans painting on cave walls and now humans are programming computers to create art. As we have seen, art is everywhere and a daily part of our lives, from the buildings we go to school in, the statues in our church and school, to art in our parks and homes, art is constantly changing and evolving and is only limited by human imagination.

In art, it is really true that the “sky is the limit.”