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Schools

DHS Senior Paints Her Way into Prestigious Art School

Each week Patch will highlight a youth or youth group whose accomplishments have wowed us. Meet Laurel Silberman, this week's pick.

There is something remarkable about viewing a work of art that captures the world—or the abstract—in a spectacular new way. Laurel Silberman, a senior at Deerfield High School, is a painter who has tried to do just that throughout high school.

Upon viewing her work, it is clear that Silberman has worked hard at creating incredible visual art. Most notably, she paints portraits with lifelike faces.

"Obviously, the face is the most expressive part of the body. I’d rather paint a face than the side of a building,” she said.

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From a young age, Silberman has had a passion for painting. "I've been interested in the arts since as long as I can remember," she explained.

After taking lessons at the Deerfield Park District at age 7, Silberman steadily got more involved. As her high school years came and went, she focused even more on the hobby that would eventually blossom into a major field of interest in college.

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Next Fall she will attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she plans to earn a dual degree in painting and visual and critical studies.

“I'd like to go to graduate school at Yale because their program is fantastic,” she said of the Ivy League university in Connecticut. “But all that seems quite far in the future to me.”

Despite her natural talent, Silberman constantly works at improving her artistry. "My least favorite part [about painting] would have to be the social stigma attached to artists as being slackers,” she said. “[A]rt is really hard!"

When she does put down the paintbrush, Silberman sings in Deerfield’s chorale programs as well as participates in the school musical. For leisure, she enjoys cooking, shopping and going out for coffee. Though she said "finding a new coffeehouse gives me a huge rush,” the teen artist is always excited to get back to her canvases.

“The feeling of pure creation is like an addiction. I fell in love with the viscosity and luminescence of the colors of paint the first time I used them,” Silberman said.

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