Featured Artist: Eliza Scheck Leaves a Mark Through Her Art

by Maya Moore | Editor-in-Chief

Senior Eliza Scheck excels in countless areas of art. She draws, acts and sings, among other art forms. Since she was little, art has just come naturally to her, Scheck said. Her passion for art is apparent to those around her, explained theater teacher Jackson Dorris.

“She’s so full of passion for every area of art,” Dorris said. “She’s so willing to give up so much of her free time to dedicate to her passion, whether it be on the stage acting or painting or creating every piece she makes. Whether it be performative or physical, it always turns out beautifully … You can tell how much fun she’s having and you can tell that she is loving every second of what she’s doing.”

From a very young age, she has been surrounded by music and her love for it has only grown. Her father has a bachelor’s degree in music education, and her family sometimes sings together, and her siblings play various instruments. Scheck loves to sing and even enjoys trying out different instruments for a time – anything from a didgeridoo to her current fascination, the lyre.

“When I was a kid, I had a terrible singing voice and I was basically tone deaf,” Scheck said. “I loved singing, [but] no one loved listening to me sing … I just remember someone telling me I was singing really flat when I was 5 and then I was just like, ‘You know what, I’m going to change that.’”

For Scheck, singing is also a way of relieving stress and processing her emotions. Scheck explained that singing is scientifically proven to be calming because it forces you to focus on your breath.

“Art is just like one of the most vulnerable expressions of yourself and it’s a really powerful expression …” Scheck said. “It’s like running a race, like just full-on sprinting, leaving your heart completely out on the track in the song. It can be really emotional and I don’t know, singing always helps me, like if I’m really stressed, … it always helps calm me down.”

Not only does she perform through singing, but she also acts. In her junior year, she acted at Lolek, a Catholic theater company for ages 8 to 18. At Lolek, she acted in “Sound of Music,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Newsies,” as well as stage managed the smallest ensemble of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

“I think it really clicked this last year for me,” Scheck said. “I think ‘Little Mermaid’ was the first show that I actually figured out how to act. Like, you just become your character. You bring something to the character, but the character also gives you something to take away.”

At KMC, she has participated in seven shows and has had some experience on crew in addition to acting. As a freshman, she played Belinda Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol” and more recently she acted as Clea in “Black Comedy.”

“When I came back to Kapaun for ‘Black Comedy’ I was like there’s actually change happening here and it’s looking up …” Scheck said. “There’s just been a little bit of a culture shift from, oh, we’re just here to hang out and mess around, to, it’s starting to shift more towards, we’re here to glorify God with our performance and put on a good production.”

During “Black Comedy,” a lot of student artwork was showcased onstage. Scheck was one of the students contributing to this, always willing to create a new piece of art if Dorris needed it.

“I can’t imagine the obstacle of being like, hey, create a ‘60s painting on the floor and you have this giant platform,” Dorris said. “And, I see the gears in her brain start turning already and I can tell that it’s going to be good no matter what she makes. … She really thrives on taking that unknown and moving it into, instead of a scary unknown, she takes it into an exciting opportunity to create.”

Art teacher Will Hiebert has also noticed her dedication, going farther than other students, he said.

“Eliza is a very diligent, hard worker,” Hiebert said. “She loves to be meticulous about the things she does. She takes the intentionality of art to the 10th degree and that’s what I think is most important about art: intentionality. Like, ‘this line is here for a reason.’ She takes that as far as any student I’ve ever had before.”

Hiebert described the uniqueness of the way she views the world around her.

“She sees the world through a different lens and she follows that lens to a certain degree,” Hiebert said. “And, I like that about her … She knows the directions she wants to go and she’s going to go that way regardless of what anybody else says.”

Scheck explained the impact that is left with every piece of art she creates.

“I think the main goal or what I’m aiming to share with others through my art is the beauty and complexity of the human person,” Scheck said. “It takes at least five hours to do a drawing of just a head and that process behind the product, there’s a story there, too. It’s in every drawing you leave. Of course, I love realism and I’m trying to stay as true to reality as possible, but my own experience and life and artistic style leave their mark on whatever I make. So, I guess I’m sharing my unique perception of the world.”