With the swift brush of a pen across her iPad screen and the occasional use of the undo button, junior Ananda Geller creates inspiring and meaningful digital art.

Geller started making different types of art from a young age in elementary school. Through exploring her artistic style, Geller found comfort in digital art, using it as an expressive outlet to communicate complex emotions.

“I’d always just drawn on paper with pencil and I remember always being reluctant to color it. I was worried I would ruin the whole sketch,” Geller said. “One day, I thought I could take pictures of my drawings and put them in a drawing app. That way, I could be able to digitally color it in.”

According to Geller, the process of creating digital art is not easy. Geller often finds herself facing multiple challenges, the biggest one being her perfectionism.

“When you can zoom in and look at every little pixel, it makes me have the need to make everything look perfect to my own standards, which are usually not very attainable,” Geller said.

Junior Charlotte Stokes, a close friend of Geller’s from first grade, continues to admire Geller’s drive and determination to enhance her artistic skills.

“She puts so much work into everything and she’s so talented at everything she does. I’ve seen her work past many things and figure out how to take value in herself,” Stokes said.

According to Stokes, Geller’s level of artistry has always stood out among her peers, even at an early age.

“She’s always been an artist. Compared to the other 1st graders, she always valued art and was a little bit above everybody else in terms of the details she put into her drawings.” Stokes said, “I think a lot of people stopped drawing over the years and found other interests, but she really kept at it.”

Junior Sophia Schneider, Geller’s close friend, said that Geller’s drawings have improved over time as Geller developed a unique style and continued to aim for improvement.

“The proportions in her drawing have definitely gotten better, and her mechanical style has driven itself into view. She’s also gotten so much more creative with including people of different races and different kinds of bodies in her art,” Schneider said.

During the transition from online school to in-person learning, Geller said the increased amount of schoolwork often gets in the way of setting time aside for her art. Being a junior with a high focus on the future, Geller’s focus shifted from art to academics.

Through the ups and downs of junior year, the adults in Geller’s life continue to encourage her by inspiring her to produce more digital art.

“The adults in my life have always been very supportive of my art, which has been helpful because they always tell me that I should draw more. From that, I always start with an idea of what I want to draw, and then I go from there,” Geller said.

Geller said she can always turn to art when she’s feeling overwhelmed, as both an escape and creative outlet.

“Art is so subjective that I can make something I can be proud of without there having to be a rubric. I can be happy with something I do, which has always been a sense of pride for me,” Geller said.