From painting faces at fairs to giving back to the community through art, National Art Honor Society president Smrithi Venkatraman has found art takes a special place in her day-to-day activities.

What is your favorite thing about art?

It’s a way to express your emotions without talking. There are people who have a harder time getting their thoughts out there, and art is like a relief to [those] people because [they] don’t have to talk, but [they] can still show how [they are] feeling.

What drew you to art?

There wasn’t something crazy that drew me to it. I had a close family friend who did art and I would draw with her, so I decided to take art in middle school. 

What art-related activities are you involved in?

This is the first year I’m not taking [art] as a class, but I’m a part of NAHS. A lot of our events have to do with face painting, crafts and booth-running. We work with kids a lot, so I do more simple art now.

What do you like about working with kids?

Adults and maybe even high-level AP art students are very critical of themselves, but kids are so free. They’re just happy with their art. It’s fun to see them hold a colored pencil and draw with it; they’re still developing their hand muscles, [so] the way they hold pencils and crayons is really cute. 

What’s your favorite NAHS memory or event?

We do this thing every year – sunflower paintings – in which we paint 10-12 of them and donate them to a women’s shelter in Grapevine, [The Gatehouse]. We got affiliated with the shelter a long time ago. We all make canvases and donate them to the women’s shelter, and each canvas is put in a different room for each person. When the woman is rehabilitated and ready to go out into the world on her own, she takes the sunflower painting with her, so we have to keep painting the sunflowers to replace them. So many people like them and take [the paintings] with them because it’s the brightest part of their room. We got to have a tour of the different rooms in the shelter, and it was really cool to see our work hanging there and what it meant to all these people. 

How do you think art affects people?

It depends on the person. Art is up to interpretation – whatever you see in it, you can connect it back to your life. It doesn’t have to be a certain thing meant for one person. It’s meant for anyone to draw connections to, and that’s what I like about it. 

What does it mean to be an artist?

It’s about giving the voiceless a voice. It’s to paint and draw and make works of art that shed light on ideas that may be controversial or that people don’t think about or a perspective that isn’t heard.