Arts Student of the Week Sadie Warren

Sadie Warren has two complementary ideas about her future. She has wanted to own a bookstore since she was a little girl. Warren remembers playing a game she called "bookstore" where she would use her mother's bookshelves, had a small cash register, and her mother would buy books from her. She would also like to own a publishing company.

Warren admits that books are her favorite things in the world. She loves to organize them in unusual ways. "I have a wall of books in my room that are in a circle," she said. "They're pinned to the wall on the circle and it's my favorite thing."

But for now, Warren is exploring the world of visual arts. To date, she has completed courses in 2D design, beginning painting, intermediate painting, and beginning sculpture.

Crystal Hinds, arts educator at Niwot High School, selected Warren as Arts Student of the Week. "Sadie is a junior and has been a part of the art-track off and on since her freshman year," Hinds said. "In that time, Sadie has been determined to increase her skill, explore her ideas and fascinations through visual communication."

Ever since Warren can remember, she has loved color. Nothing in her bedroom could ever be simply white or black. She puts color everywhere. As a child she loved drawing, and her favorite activity was melting crayons.

Warren also loved painting. "There's a huge box in our basement of all my finger paints," Warren said. "So, it has always stuck with me and it's always been something that I have gone back to. I've tried other classes and more sophisticated art, but it always comes back to painting or sculpture because I just love doing things where my hands get messy and colorful."

Hinds has watched Warren's artistic talent flourish. "The amount of growth I have seen in such a small amount of time speaks volumes to her dedication," Hinds said.

"She is courteous, bright spirited, and a pleasure to be around. She works well with her peers, encouraging and pushing them to rise to their best selves." Hinds added.

Warren finds inspiration for her art in everyday life, but she is especially inspired by her African American and Cherokee Freedmen heritage. She is her great-grandmother's namesake, who spelled the name "Saide."

"I believe I am the third or the fourth generation of my family removed from slavery," Warren said. "I was born a year after my great-grandmother, the first freed woman in our family, died. I can feel my ancestors in me, helping guide me. When I'm stumped on what I want to paint, I just close my eyes and breathe and almost feel their voices in the back of my head.

"I also find inspiration when I look at my cats Shuri and T'challa. My cats are black and white. And every time I see them, they remind me of my family. They're just so cute. Sometimes I just want to paint their eyes and their little faces."

In elementary school at Twin Peaks Charter Academy, Warren was top of her class and voted the school's top artist twice, and she continued her love of art in middle school at Flagstaff Academy before coming to Niwot High School.

Her parents encouraged her love of art by buying her supplies, and Warren's aunt, Kristine, who is also a painter, taught both Warren and Warren's cousin Lynn how to paint. "How to do all these fun, cool creative things," she said. "I grew up with art everywhere."

Warren credits Hinds, her art teacher, as another inspiration. "She has taught me how to accept my art the way it is and how to make it better. She gives critiques but it's not mean. It's more like 'What if we do it like this?' She's helping me find my way to do it, while also giving me these little bits of advice that she's learned."

Warren's friends have also influenced her art. "I have so many friends in my art class. Two of my favorite friends, Jo Jo and Cora, are in class with me and just the fact that they create a little environment for me to be happy and peaceful and positive really helps me paint or just be creative in general. I feel that I can do anything in that class."

The Colorado History Museum is one of Warren's favorite places. "I love it because it has things from my family heritage," she said. "We are Cherokee Freedmen, so I get to see a lot of my culture there and it's really beautiful to see that." Another favorite is The Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys, because as a sculptor, Warren loves making tiny things. "It's an entire museum of items from 1 to 12 ratio down to something the size of your thumbnail, and it's amazing."

When she describes her artistic values, Warren says art is "putting everything that's happening in your brain, whatever is happening at the moment, on a canvas and allowing your hands and your mind to guide you. I think it's just more of following what it is your brain is telling you to do and there's nothing too big and there's nothing too small, just doing whatever makes you feel right in the moment."

Warren loves reading and music. Her father is a DJ and she has grown up with music her entire life. "Music," she says, "is one of my obsessions. I can't go anywhere without headphones and Spotify." She listens to a lot of indie rock, especially when she is creating art, including the musicians Mitski and Rae, and slower Afro beats, but she also likes modern pop. "Really anything except for country," she confessed. She also enjoys making jewelry, and she loves fashion.

Art, in her mind, is subjective. "The most important thing that you need to know about art is that if you are happy looking at it, it doesn't matter what else is going on. That's really all that matters. I overthink my art a lot. Are they going to like it? What are they going to think about it? and then I just have to remember that if I look at it and I get a warm fuzzy feeling or I get proud of it, then that's what it's meant to do."