Starting when she could first hold a crayon, junior Mikayla Maher began growing a passion for art. As she grew older, it became more than just a hobby.

“For me, it’s really stress relieving,” Maher said. “Drawing takes my mind off of things that could make me anxious. It’s also a really easy way to express myself without using words.”

Maher’s go-to drawing is mythical creatures— like dragons— and is often drawing in a sketchbook. She even leaves fun drawings around the school.

“If you’ve noticed around the school, I like to draw a little cartoon chicken on all the whiteboards and chalkboards,” Maher said. “It is a lot of fun seeing the reactions to my whiteboard chickens.”

Maher created an art account on Instagram, mystchic_art, that features some of her favorite pieces. 

“People would always tell me, especially friends and family, that they would like to see more of my art but I usually wouldn’t have any photos of it on me,” Maher said. “So I made my art accounts to have easy access to my art, and I started showing my art off to the big world.”

Although Maher wants to show her art off to the world, she’s taking a slightly different route for her future career.

“I’m not planning to go to any art school currently,” Maher said. “What I want to do is write graphic novels and possibly try to find a way to publish them and sell them to stores and stuff like that.”

One of Maher’s favorite pieces she’s created was her mixed media dog drawing shown in the slideshow above.

“This is probably one of the most mixed media art pieces I’ve ever done,” Maher said. “I especially like the contrast between the black and white versus the colors. Plus, I rarely draw dogs, making this quite an outstanding one.”

With Maher’s future in art looking bright, she will continue to post on her art Instagram accounts. To see more of her artwork, check out her Instagram by clicking here.