As generative AI continues to threaten content creators, it is more important now than ever to highlight artists and artisans who continue to create original work. Hawkster’s Highlights features student artists at Henry Ford College, showcasing the talent that lives on campus.

Autumn Sternberg

Autumn Sternberg is a third-year Honors Program student studying graphic design. She first began practicing digital art in middle school, but it wasn’t until high school that she tried graphic design as a way to further explore digital art.

“There’s a lot of potential for digital art,” Sternberg said, “There are things in digital that are just harder to achieve traditionally.” “It’s always been fun to do and fun to test things and see how far you can get on a digital project.”

While she is passionate about graphic design, she also pursues other artistic mediums such as traditional painting, digital art, felting, and linoleum carving. “I love hopping between things,” Sternberg explains, “It’s whatever I see on Pinterest. If I see stuff on TikTok, I’m like wait, that seems so cool.” Experimentation and exporting different mediums help Sternberg engage in her art. “I feel like what keeps me motivated is switching between stuff and always doing something that is at least a little creative.”

In terms of what drove her to make art, Sternberg says, “I’ve always loved art. I’ve always known I was going to go into art.” She adds, “It’s always been there for me.” Sternberg is committed to her craft, but she finds more enjoyment in making art than in its meaning. “I don’t think any of my art is like, ‘oh, here is this super deep meaning behind it,’ like I just like doing it.”

As for the future, Sternberg doesn’t find a career in art appealing due to the fear of burnout, but states that art will always be a part of her life and she will continue to create for the people she cares about and attend the occasional art market.

When asked what advice she would give to new art students, Sternberg said, “You should allow yourself to experiment. Just try whatever.”

Sternberg encourages, “I want people to go out and experience art, and just like go to museums, go to art markets, go to conventions, go to whatever you could be interested in, and just look at art.”

Luciana Decina

Luciana “Lulu” Decina is a third-year fine arts student. She has been interested in art from a young age. But ceramics is her main passion. It wasn’t until she started her classes at HFC that her love for ceramics was fully realised. “I came to HFC for just art in general, and when I took Steve’s (Professor Steven Glazer) class, that was when I was like, ‘hey, I really love this,’ so that kind of kick-started it.”

Decina adds, “I knew I wanted to be an art teacher and that kinda further solidified that I wanted to be a ceramics teacher.”

Decina shares the process of working on her capstone project, a 25-inch-tall ceramic sculpture of three dragon heads with claws. “Right now I did the first head. It was really challenging because I’ve never done something like that before. I’ve done a coil project, but not to this scale. There were a lot of problems that kept going on.” She details issues with the construction, including the sizing of her piece, and at one point, she found herself wanting to give up. “I did the head, I want to say, one or two times before I got it, like how I wanted it, because it was either too big or too small, I just kinda felt defeated. But I did finish this portion, and I really like how it turned out.” Because of the trial and error with the first head, Decina felt much more confident constructing the other two heads and the claws of the dragons.

Decina tells future art students, “Try everything. I mean, going into the arts program, you are going to have a plethora of classes that you have to take for art, just be open-minded, cause when I came, I hated ceramics and now I am doing it.”

Decina plans to transfer to Eastern University to further her fine arts studies and eventually become a high school ceramics teacher.