Artist of the Week: Vanessa Steiner

MISHAWAKA—This week, the Bethel Bea­con high­lights Art Ed­u­ca­tion ma­jor Vanessa Steiner, the cre­ative force be­hind the Se­nior art show­case "Still Sov­er­eign."  

Steiner came into Bethel as an El­e­men­tary Ed­u­ca­tion ma­jor, but switched to Art Ed­u­ca­tion be­fore the end of her Fresh­man year af­ter re­al­iz­ing how much she missed tak­ing art in high school. "I had a back­ground of ce­ram­ics and I knew that if I ap­plied my­self, I could be­come pro­fi­cient in draw­ing and paint­ing," she says about her tran­si­tion. 

As she delves into her work as an artist, Steiner finds her in­spi­ra­tion in church ser­vices. "Dur­ing a mes­sage I will get a vi­sual rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the pas­tor's mes­sage and how I ap­ply that mes­sage to my own life," Steiner ex­plains. She im­ple­mented this cre­ativ­ity with her se­nior show­case piece, "Still Sov­er­eign," the ti­tle of which finds its ori­gins in the bib­li­cal story of Job.  

De­spite the chal­lenges of pur­su­ing art, es­pe­cially as Steiner ac­knowl­edges, a lack of time, Steiner is filled with pas­sion for her path in life. "I love art sim­ply be­cause I find peace and so­lace in it," Steiner says. "It is the one thing I do that I lose track of time while do­ing it."  

Those in­ter­ested in view­ing Vanes­sa's work will find "Still Sov­er­eign," along with other new works by Bethel artists, in the Weaver Art Gallery through March 12th.