(January 27, 2006) — Design may not be able to produce a Renaissance masterpiece according to most people, but Junior Nicole D’Netto thinks otherwise. D’Netto is in her second year of Design, an alternative art class, and she sees it as every bit as worthy as “regular art.” “I had actually opted for Art 1-2, and I got Design instead, which was my second choice. I didn’t really know what Design was, so it didn’t really mean anything to me,” D’Netto said. “But after taking the class, I realized it was a lot more than arranging things inside the house prettily. It’s a complex and interesting class.” However, D’Netto started her life in art long before she came to Clark. Her interest began when she was five years old. She would just doodle on any appropriate surface, and her talents remained largely unused until her father encouraged her further. An amateur artist himself, D’Netto’s father taught her how to turn her doodling into real art. One of her first attempts at sketching was a proportional face, which she showed to her family once complete. While her family members viewed the sketch, each person saw someone they knew, where at the same time, D’Netto thought the sketch bore a vague resemblance to someone she knew. The oddly surreal picture steadily turned D’Netto’s interests from sketching to more unconventional forms of art. “I can sketch, and I like to paint with acrylics, but I prefer collages or a painting coupled with a collage or illustrations or any random thing that comes to mind. I don’t really have a purpose when I start doing something; I come up with a purpose after I’m done.” One of D’Netto’s works recently won a ranking in the PTSA Reflections Contest. She submitted her tessellation of cats that students had done in class. She wasn’t expecting anything, so she was surprised when she actually placed in the top three. Her unexpected success reminded her of another time in which a professional artist commended a seemingly shapeless paper house she did not think much of. “I suppose that shows you that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I didn’t think it was my best work, the cats or the house, but I was proven wrong. Art is what the viewer sees, not necessarily what you see.” D’Netto said she does not plan to pursue art in the future but instead intends to keep it as a hobby. Her disinterest in pursuing art as a career, however, does not keep her from giving advice to her fellow students. “For anyone who thinks art is a waste of time, don’t say that until you’ve tried it. You don’t have to draw or paint; you can consider writing a story or composing a poem as art. But if you don’t have something to do other than work, you won’t be able to enjoy life,” she said.