Senior Yuna Sato has a special touch when it comes to drawing. Expressing herself through intricate collages, vivid watercolors and detailed pencil sketches, she is able to incorporate her unique style and talent in all of her pieces.
Sato has been drawing for as long as she can remember, but her skills started to develop when she came to the high school because of the classes that are offered.
She started her freshman year taking Drawing I, and then continued in other drawing classes throughout high school. Sato is currently taking AP Portfolio, where she focuses on 2D media such as drawing and painting.
Sato creates primarily in three mediums. She is interested in working with oils and acrylics and has started experimenting with charcoal.
“I started with drawing, using pencil and colored pencil, but recently I’ve been trying out other media like water color. In the drawing classes at BHS I started using charcoal. It’s cool but super smudgy. I’ve been doing water color now, and I’ve also been trying out collage as well.” Sato said.
Sato said that she is usually not completely satisfied or unsatisfied with a particular piece.
“I think in all of my pieces, there’s one or two things I really like, but there’s also a couple of things that I would want to do better. But there are definitely pieces that I’m overall very happy with,” Sato said.
Both Sato’s current art teacher, Donna Sartanowicz, and previous art teacher, Elizabeth Brennan, spoke highly of Sato’s drawing abilities and her classroom presence.

“She’s curious, she’s really flexible, she wants to get better. She’s so teachable because she’s so open,” Brennan said.
Sartanowicz discussed Sato’s thought process behind her pieces and explained how Sato has begun to thrive in the conceptual thinking involved in art.
“She is intrinsically motivated to make her work, so it’s not just looking outside of herself at the world. It’s incorporating her inner experience with her outer experience to make the work very personal,” Sartanowicz said.
One of Sato’s strengths, according to Sartanowicz, is how deep of a thinker she is. Sartanowicz said that how watching all of the little bits and pieces come together in Sato’s head and then having them be regurgitated onto the page is amazing.
“Her work tends to be illustrative in some ways. What stands out to me most is when she’s telling stories, it has a kind of a narrative vain to it,” Sartanowicz said.
Sato described herself as someone who has always been creative and how art is an outlet for her creativity.
“Sometimes artists just want to draw and doodle on their classwork. You have all of these ideas hitting back and forth in your head and you just barf them all up,” Sato said.
Brennan said that Sato’s passion for art is what makes her work stand out.
“You can tell she loves it. You can just feel it,” Brennan said.

One of Sato’s favorite things about drawing is being able to bring ideas in her head to life by putting them down on paper.
“Having an idea in your head and being able to transfer that onto paper in front of you, it’s fun to experiment with that,” Sato said.
Through experimenting for almost four years within the high schools’ art studios, Sato’s teachers have watched her transform and develop from someone who was quiet and soft spoken to someone who has found her artistic voice.
“She’s just a great kid, she’s so sweet, and I think wherever she lands and wherever she decides to go to school, they’ll be lucky to have her. She is just a remarkable young lady,” Brennan said.