Students at Hillsdale College find it worth their time to cultivate their inner artist by working on crafts outside of the classroom.
“Freshman year, I didn’t craft very much,” sophomore Lulu Celecia said. “My crafts were more prank related. We made a cardboard cutout of our head RA, and I took a Guess Who game and created it into Dale Who, putting professors’ faces all over it.”
Celecia said the freshmen have inspired her to do more crafting, and she now enjoys crocheting while sitting desk in Olds Residence.
“It’s so much better to be doing something like crocheting or knitting with your hands as you talk to people,” Celecia said.
Sophomore Veronica Fogo said she uses her spare time to write poetry.
“It’s very fulfilling, and it’s a good time for rest — a fruitful rest,” Fogo said. “Sometimes I wish I could just not do school at all and just write poetry all the time.”
Fogo said she appreciates the way poetry can turn anything into a piece of art.
“It’s also a beautiful way to express what you’re going through in your day-to-day life,” Fogo said. “It’s different than just journaling or talking to a friend, but it’s a way to bring beauty into your life.”
Fogo said doing crafts in college is not just a source for rest and entertainment in leisure time.
“In a way, it’s an education because my goal is to learn how to write poetry really, really well,” Fogo said.
Similarly, freshman Caleb Diener, a professional wedding photographer and filmmaker, said he appreciates photography not merely as his business, but also as an art.
“The beauty of photography is that it requires learning how to see the world around you differently,” Diener said. “Photographers take ordinary, everyday things that people see and they look at them and present them in a way that’s beautiful.”
Diener said he has noticed his perception of the world is different even when he’s not doing photography.
“I see myself observing nature and people as a photographer, and it makes me more attuned to beauty,” Diener said. “At a school where we’re pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty, working on a craft that helps you see beauty all around you seems like a worthwhile use of my time.”
Deiner said he thinks using artistic skills is a part of human nature and that making art is innately connected to the liberal arts.
“Honing a craft and working on an art is a deeply human endeavor,” Diener said. “The purpose of a liberal arts education is to make us more human, setting us free, and getting a chance to express and explore those things outside of the classroom is valuable for your development as a person.”
Sophomore Cecilia Jansen said letter writing is a way for her to practice her artistic skills and share them with other people.
“One of the resolutions that I made starting my freshman year was that I was going to write a letter every weekend,” Jansen said. “It’s one of the resolutions that I’ve actually stuck with.”
Jansen said this resolution has made creating art outside of the classroom a regular activity which she said she prioritizes.
“I think it’s really important to be able to cultivate those talents that you have and use them as a gift,” Jansen said.
Taking the smallest thing such as a letter and making it into a beautiful piece of art is not only an opportunity to improve one’s skills, but also to give to others, Jansen said.
Jansen is pen pals with her grandma and younger sisters because she finds it’s an easier way to communicate than over the phone. They appreciate her pieces of artwork that accompany each letter.
“It’s always really cool seeing my little sisters save the envelopes that I’ve made them or see my grandma comment on the watercolor that I did on her envelope,” Jansen said.
