Gulliver Prep senior Catie Schwartzman is the school’s Silver Knight nominee in Art.
“I do 2-D art,” she says. “My favorite thing to use is colored pencils.”
She has to develop a portfolio for her Advanced Placement Art class and she has chosen horror movies as her theme.
“I’ve been going through things that you tend to see in horror movies, like eyes in the background, a cabin, a creepy doctor,” she says. “It’s cool. I’m not a very dark person but it was fun to take a different approach.”
She wanted to challenge herself in create art using different colors than she normally uses.
Her expectation is to major in something that incorporates art, possibly computer science and digital art.
“I think there is a lot of overlap,” she says. “Especially in animation and computer graphics.”
She’s looking at marketability for when she finishes college and is looking for a job.
“I’m good at math, I’m good at art,” she says. “I’m going to try something that balances the two.”
Her college choice comes down to the University of Florida or Northeastern. The financial packages each offer will determine which one she’ll attend.
For the last few years, Schwartzman has volunteered at the Ventilation Assisted Children’s Center Camp, a one week camp during spring break that the children and their families attend.
“They get to do a lot of activities that we take for granted,” she says.
The camp is affiliated with Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and takes place at A. D. Barnes Park off Bird Road. She learned about the camp at a Key Club meeting.
“It struck a chord with me. It looked like a lot of fun,” she says. “The campers have changed my life.”
She has volunteered at the camp for four years, but she’s not sure if she can commit to the camp for next year since she will be attending college. But if she can find a way, she will.
“I’ll keep in touch with my campers,” she says, “Which I have been doing since I started.”
To help the campers, Schwartzman designed a necklace inspired by the camp to sell.
“It’s the symbol of a tracheotomy,” she says. “It’s a silver washer with two bolts on the side and tags of leather.”
The proceeds from the sales are donated to the camp. She’s raised $700 through the necklace sale. She has a Facebook page set up for sales – facebook.com/breathebycsloane/.
At Gulliver, Schwartzman is a member of the National Honor Society, the Cum Laude Society, the National Art Society, Mu Alpha Theta and the Spanish Honor Society. She’s a member of Key Club, which is a community service club.
She also volunteers as a counselor at Michael’s Magic by the Sea Camp, held at the Biscayne Nature Center. She works with children from Liberty City and Coconut Grove.
“We take them in the water and help them,” she says. “They go through the seagrass and drag their nets and try to capture animals.”
Although she’d experience the emotions from VACC Camp, she was surprised at how emotional she was at the end of this camp.
“For this one, the kids are on scholarships,” she says. “It was sad because some were under the impression they would be able to do it again next year.”
Life was different for the children. During the camp, the kids were scared because there was a shooting in their neighborhood.
“The most dramatic things in my life are trivial compared to that,” she says.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
