Adviser nomination: "Congratulations to Emily Kassulker as our visual fine arts student of the week! Emily can be seen working in the art studio every free minute she gets. If she isn't working on a painting or an artist book, she is helping to organize or straighten up the room. Emily's dedication and curiosity makes her artwork always a pleasure to view. Emily is especially good at layering unusual textures and adding her own image and word for a strong composition in her artist book creations. Way to go Emily, you are so deserving."
Artist most admired: Lea Anderson, her art teacher.
Other visual arts activities: Pottery.
Your favorite art medium and why: "I like it all ... My background is I like to do painting and then add layers to create a 3D dimensional artwork. I also like to use lettering to tell a story with my art."
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Emily Kassulker
- Grade: Senior
- Age: 17
- Art focus: Brainerd High School Artist Books.
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Your proudest art piece: "The one I am working on now. I can tell my art looks much better now than it did when I first started.
"I'm working on an artist book on 'Things about Minnesota.' The first page I did is about the lakes and facts about it and the second page is on the woods, as we have a lot of woods and the third page is about winter and the fourth page is about the language we use (and so on).
"(Some of the things I used for my lakes page) is I took the Land O Lakes brand as it's on all our butter, milk and stuff. I also took a map of the Brainerd lakes area as it's where I am from and people are familiar with it. I Mod Podged it down and then I put a nose pushed gesso paint over it. It's a thinner white paint that makes the page look older. I also took pictures of memories I have at the lake to make it feel more at home. Lakes are big in Minnesota and there is a myth that Paul Bunyan created the lakes with his footsteps. I added a dock and I took sand for the beach and some orange netting to represent fishing; and a walleye as its our state fish."
Where do you get your ideas: "I look at other people, things and then think about how I would like it."
Have you always been into art: "No, I doodled here, but I wasn't really good at it until recently. I started spending more time in here because I had nothing else to do. I had to take an art class and I heard artist book was fun. I took the class and learned I was good at it and it makes me feel very accomplished. When I first started artist books I wasn't as good at it, but I started to spend more time in here and got better at it."
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How does creating art in general make you feel: "Accomplished. It also makes me feel relaxed and helps with stress. Before I took art, I would watch TV on my phone in the library when I had free time and I was like this is a waste of time. But now that I am in artist books, I come in here and work on it during my free time."
How much time do you put in your artwork: "I usually start a page and lose interest and come back two to three hours later and then work on the page again. I was thinking of changing some electives for next semester as I have an open hour and I'm a student aid in the office, but I would like to take some more art classes."
After high school plans: "To get my generals at CLC (Central Lakes College). I need more time to think about what I want to do."
Favorite subject: Artist Books.
Favorite movie: "Hot Rod."
Favorite TV show: "Stranger Things."
Favorite type of book to read: Mysteries.
Favorite song: "Lonely Eyes."
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Favorite band: Chris Young.
Favorite restaurant: Texas Roadhouse.
Biggest pet peeve: "People turning off my music."
Something people don't know about you: "I really like nature."
Pets: Two dogs-Roxie and Sampson.
Parents: Heidi Kassulker and Randal Kassulker of Brainerd.
