On any given day as a child, Elena Tontoni could be found drawing mini masterpieces in colored pencils and bright markers on her coffee table. “I always have been, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with art”, she reflects.
This passion for art has grown as Elena, now a senior, takes AP Studio Art, Photography II, and Ceramics I. During her high school career she has been involved in a plethora of art classes including Art I, Digital Photo I, and Portfolio Prep. She has come a long way from the days of learning how to mix colors in Montgomery Elementary and has a glossy canvas of opportunities waiting for some color and imagination to become something amazing.
Elena credits her high school art teachers, Mrs. Harris, Mr. Werner, and Mrs. Keefer with cultivating a deeper appreciation of art. “They made me develop and Mrs. Harris helped me become more independent.” In AP Studio Art students create their own concentrations, which is a theme that is continually portrayed through their artwork. This element is a large part of students’ portfolios.
“My concentration is the passage of time, a series of pictures of teddy bears in a person’s life.” This only represents one out of many pieces of art utilizing this concentration. Elena is deciding as to whether to make the last drawing of the teddy bear sold at a garage sale or the bear placed in the person’s first child’s crib. She may go with the last one just to keep an upbeat theme. “I don’t have anything depressing in my portfolio”, she states.
Although Elena has had her fair share of interesting projects, she likes drawing self portraits, which she has been required to draw many times, because “[She] can basically do it with [her] eyes closed.” She enjoys drawing still life’s because each time she notices something different. That is the eye of a true artist.
Since art is such an integral part of her life it is not surprising that Elena attends dance classes (ballet, pointe, modern, jazz, and lyrical) and plays the guitar every week. This is her 15th and final year taking dance and 3rd year playing the guitar. Elena also is supported by both of her parents. Artistic ability runs in the family because her father’s hobby is photography. “He is constantly taking pictures and I use his old cameras.”Coincidentally, Elena’s grandmother studied art in high school.
Becoming an art teacher was a decision she made about two years ago. Although Elena has wanted to become an artist since childhood, she realizes it does not have the same appeal as a “starving artist”. Graphic design was always an option but Elena can see herself more as a high school teacher in ten years.
“It would be nice to have a variety of studio art and photography” she adds about the classes she would like to teach. Maybe North Penn will have a Miss Tontoni on the staff in the future? In August she hopes to be decorating her dorm room at Kutztown or even Vermont, where the weather is a perfect match for her love of snow. Surely her many pictures and paintings will make great dorm décor anywhere she goes.