Senior exploring possibilities opening through artistic word

By: Amna Haider

Ink bleeds from the tip of a pen. Conversations evaporate. Senior Meredith Brich sighs in uneasy frustration, capping her fine-tipped pen. She stares at the piece of paper laid out on the wooden table in front of her. Running her hand through her faded chestnut hair, she picks up a gray marker and begins to shade.

Brich has been drawing ever since elementary school. “At some point I realized that it was something I could do, and I just really enjoyed it. My teachers were also really encouraging, and I felt compelled to keep going,” she said.

Throughout the years, Brich has taught herself how to draw and paint using various different techniques. Although she is skilled in various different tools, her favorite tool to use is just a regular pen. She said she enjoys working with a pen because of how “bold and crisp” it is.

“I also use chalk pastel; it’s easy to blend. It was actually the first thing I picked up when teaching myself how to draw, and I just stuck with it,” Brich said.

When drawing, Brich takes inspiration from things around her including, music, stories and poetry. Her art pieces are often painfully precise, consisting of linear lines and explicit detail.

For the piece above, Brich was inspired by the song “Everything’s A Ceiling” by an alternative rock band called Death Cab For Cutie. “The one that I’m working now is based on a song lyric. The line that I’m trying to illustrate goes, ‘Cause when you’re so far below the floor, everything’s a ceiling.’ So, I have the layers of the earth. I’m trying to convey how sometimes you feel so small, everything is above you and you’re just kind of trapped,” Brich said.

She plans to submit the piece included here into a nation-wide contest in the near future. Although Brich is unsure if she will pursue a career in art or not, she is sure of one thing, “Art is something I’ll always do no matter what. So, whether I pursue it as my career or just have it in my life, it’ll be there.”