Megan Mikuen ’19 entered The Hill School as a new sophomore at the beginning of last school year. During her one year here, she has established herself as a student-artist.

Recently, Mikuen was chosen as a finalist for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Celebration of the Arts. Out of 500  submissions, her piece “Tampa Together” was one of the 41  pieces selected. Mikuen’s award winning piece focuses on the hands of Tampa.

When asked about her passion for art, she explained that while she was always an artistic child, she didn’t discover her potential until much later. Mikuen credits her discovery to her time spent at an art camp one summer.

“When I was growing up, I was always creative but no one would say I was particularly artistic,” Mikuen said.

It wasn’t until the camp’s animator acknowledged her talent that she believed in her potential. Mikuen said he was the first person who looked at her art and saw that I had creativity and a love for the arts.

“All I needed was that spark of recognition to really make me passionate,” Mikuen said.

Since discovering her talent, art has been an important part of her everyday life. Whether it is for a class assignment, or just for fun, Mikuen paints, doodles, and draws whenever she has the chance.

While at Hill, Mikuen has taken two studio art courses, Studio Art 3 Honors and 4AP.

She believes that her time in Ellen Nelson’s art class has helped her to master her style, and try out different art techniques.

Mikuen’s interest ranges from sculpting to watercolor painting, and even to the digital arts.

When asked if she would like to pursue her interests as a career path, she said no.

“I think once you put a business side into art, you lose your initil creative spark,” Mikuen said.

Although Mikuen doesn’t plan on having a career in the arts, she still plans on taking art courses in college.