Gillian Hopkins- Brighton High School

In the studio at Brighton high school, senior Gillian Hopkins puts the final touches on a piece that's sure to touch hearts- a drawing of an orphan in el Salvador.

To create a lasting memory... and perhaps a lasting bond... Gillian will send the portrait back to the boy in El Salvador.  It's one more adventure for someone who's on the brink of making art a possible career.

Hopkins explains the way she sees it, "I like seeing something and then translating it onto paper, as close to what I see as I can."   

And for now, she’s enjoying working in a new medium- charcoal.   "It's so easy that you can make so many mistakes and go over it so many times and you don't need to worry about it being perfect," Hopkins says.  

Teacher Debra Burger says Gillian is a risk taker, and that courage is a theme in a lot of her work,

"She wants to see things in a different way, she doesn't want to do things in just a very conventional way.  She pushes her ideas and I think that really does show her maturity as an artist."

Gillian says the hardest part of drawing is the beginning, and finishing a piece isn't quite as satisfying as working on it., “Because whenever you're done you always see things you want to fix and go back through so you just have to step back and be done or else you'll always work on it."    

Future plans for Gillian Hopkins include studying studio art in college, but her talent is already winning her recognition.  That includes second place in the Congressional Art competition… and a new friendship in El Salvador.