Drawing On Talent: Jensen’s Art Takes Her Far

People say some children are born talking. For Paisley Jensen, she was born drawing.

The Highland Sterling Scholar for visual arts has been making art for as long as she can remember.

“My dad also loves art, and we would do these things where he would draw something, then I’d draw it in my style,” Jensen said. “We started that when I was about two.”

Her fascination with creating art was obvious right from the start. Throughout the years, her style evolved into a colorful and unique form of art.

“As soon as I could hold a pencil, I started drawing,” Jensen said.

It was in middle school that art became more than a casual hobby for Jensen. She quickly discovered that art and media were perfect escapes from struggles in real life.

Her love for shows and movies like Marvel and Gravity Falls soon began manifesting itself in her art– and the art that Jensen herself consumed.

While she may have a “hard time telling” her own talent, others can see it clearly, and her unique art style quickly became popular with fans.

“I don’t think I ever really noticed I was ‘good’ at art,” Jensen said. “I just started to see that my style was very different from others. It’s very eclectic.”

For the past 4 years, Highland has had the fortune of being the attention of some of Jensen’s talents, with Jensen designing six of the posters for Highland Theater– including Highland’s production of Cinderella.

This year, Jensen also took on two new jobs for Highland theater: costumes for Cinderella, and theater council president.

“We’re getting the costumes made out of house, but I was able to do some sketches of them,” Jensen said. “It was really interesting and sort of a passion project.”

She works hard as the president of the theater council, a job that makes her second-in-command to Sara Ragey, the theater teacher, only.

“I’ve spent the last four years dedicated to the theater department at Highland, so it’s crazy to be here now,” Jensen said.

After all of her achievements, it came as no surprise that she became the Visual Art Sterling Scholar.

Jensen hopes to become a director of animated films, and wants to go to an east coast school like NYU to study film and art.