Junior Bobby Stitt worked with his father on a painting, filling in blocks of color in the sketched shapes. His father, Ed Stitt, is a professional artist who works on landscape paintings. Bobby Stitt, in turn, had the chance to be a part of the artwork.

“He did the general outline, and I helped him out with colors,” Bobby said, “Now it’s a painting in our house, and there are a couple prints. It was cool, knowing I could do something.”

Students with artist parents grow up with art around them, and even if art is not the child’s passion, the environment is supportive and inspiring.

For Bobby Stitt and his sister Audrey Stitt ‘15, creating art has been a part of family life since they could remember. Both siblings said that their father influenced them and taught them about art from a young age.

“I have always been doing it. My dad tells me about when I was young enough that I couldn’t even walk, he would put me on the center of a huge piece of paper and give me crayons and let me draw,” Audrey said.

Ed Stitt said that he never forced his children to do art but rather provided them with art supplies and let them learn by themselves

“I never gave them formal lessons,” Ed Stitt said. “If and when they had a question, I did my best to answer it, but for the most part, they were very motivated on their own to do that. Each of them has a creative spark, and they take it out in different ways.”

Sophomore Chloe Barber’s mother paints abstract landscapes. Barber said that she started doing art with her mother at a young age and learned about painting through her.

“We go either at home or at a park. We’ll set up and paint outside, paint landscapes. We’ll come up with an idea and both go off from that,” Barber said.

Barber said that initially, her mother was the one asking Barber to do art together, but more recently she has been the one to initiate the sessions.

“There really hasn’t been a time when I would be pressured to do [art]. It’s always been a neutral thing,” Barber said.

Junior Emma Ewas’ mother, Laura Fuoco, is a professional woodworker and furniture builder. Ewas said that although she is not likely to follow her mother’s footsteps in becoming a woodworker, she learned a lot about putting everything she has into her passion from Fuoco.

“She puts 100 percent in,” Ewas said. “She’s really outgoing, and she takes really good care of me and my brother. She’s really supportive.”

Fuoco said that Emma is currently taking Woodworking II at the high school and that she and her brother have been doing woodworking for school projects since they were young.

“I like to support them,” Fuoco said. “If they want to do [woodworking] great, if not, then I support whatever they want to do.”

Barber said that she enjoys learning more from her mother and working together with her, even though her mother knows more about art.

“I just try to get better. I don’t think I’m good or bad, I just want to keep on learning more things. That’s what I like about taking art classes, and that’s what I’m learning from my mom,” she said.

Ed Stitt said that he sees benefits in having art in his family because he feels that art can help people express themselves better.

“Art is this beautiful thing that we can share as a family,” he said. “It’s not just visual art. There’s musical art, fashion art, and I’m really thrilled that my kids and my wife enjoy something different.”

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