Lily Rosenberg ‘22
William Sargent ‘22 is February’s Artist of the Month for his prowess and dedication to visual art. Head of the Art Department and Sargent’s teacher, David Sigel, explains that “watching William work in the studio is inspiring. Time and patience seamlessly work together under his direction. William is deliberate, skilled, and dedicated in his pursuit to build a piece of art. You can’t help but be pulled into his scenes and constructed worlds.” Although Sargent works with many different types of art, he explains, “My favorite medium is painting because I feel that I am able to work with it a lot more than other mediums. Particularly when painting with oils, I always know that I can go back in later and fix anything that I am not satisfied with.” Sargent describes one of his favorite projects of the year, saying, “one of our earlier projects this year was creating a portrait of a randomly assigned classmate using colored pencils, and even though portraits are not something I make often, I had a lot of fun with it. The first time I had ever done any portraiture was last year when we did our self-portraits, and I found that I really enjoyed it because it got me to think about art from a completely different perspective.”
Photo courtesy of Ashley Kennedy ‘22
Rather than focusing solely on the final product when creating a piece of art, Sargent instead likes to enjoy the process and individual steps toward making the piece excellent. Sigel comments on this characteristic of his, saying, “William understands that art is an intellectual pursuit and a powerful visual language. His work is a true reflection of the artist. Kind, intelligent, insightful and full of life. To view his work once is to miss the depth of discovery and invitation to be amazed!”
Sargent sees art in a unique way, applying every aspect of the creation to our lives, stating, “I think that color and form play such an important role in our lives, that it can be really moving when one harnesses them in a way that gives life to abstract feeling.”
Sargent sees art in a unique way, applying every aspect of the creation to our lives, stating, “I think that color and form play such an important role in our lives, that it can be really moving when one harnesses them in a way that gives life to abstract feeling.”
Not only does Sargent take pride in his own works, but he also takes the time to truly value that of his peers, describing the benefit of the classroom studio experience. Sargent shares, “Everyone always has such a unique angle that they see the project from, and I think that being able to see each person’s creative process is so valuable to developing one’s own skills in art.” One of Sargent’s classmates, Fiona Riley ‘22, exclaims that “William is one of the most talented people I’ve met.” She continues, “He can draw so realistically that the paper looks like a photograph, but also with a really unique style. He produces really beautiful and detailed drawings of architecture and scenery, and his authentic vision is shown in everything he creates.”
Sargent’s advanced works and artistic talent portray not only who he is as an artist but also the qualities of his persona. Sigel comments, “Willam is a wonderful human being and I am honored to be his teacher and advisor. You asked me to describe him as an artist, and yes, I would describe him as such and so much more. William is simply someone you should know because you’ll be all the better for it.” Sigel further praises him, stating that “William has never made a high school art project. William makes art. Each assignment is always just a framework from which to share his aesthetic.”