Creating Beauty in Art
Written and Photographed by Hope, March 20, 2025
Sadie Schumacher
As someone who was previously an art major and is now an art minor, I was so excited to jump back into the art world to find out from an art major what they have been working on and what they plan to do after college.
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“Anything creative is what I was passionate about. Whether it was painting, sculpting, sewing, creating little videos, decorating cakes. Anything creative, I loved.”
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Sophomore art major Sadie Schumacher has always had a love for art ever since she was younger, and she knew that was something she wanted to go into when she entered college.
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“Whether it was painting, sculpting, sewing, creating little videos, decorating cakes, anything creative I loved,” Schumacher said.
​Once she entered college in 2022, Schumacher wasn't sure which art emphasis she wanted to go into. After a few art classes at Union University, such as 3D design, sculpture, painting, ceramics, etc., she figured out what route she wanted to do: a Bachelor of Fine
Arts (BFA) with a primary in sculpture and painting.​
“For sculpture and painting, I wanted to do it because coming into college, drawing and painting was what I was most familiar with and most comfortable with. Then I took 3D design and loved it. That helped me decide on sculpture and painting,” Schumacher said.​
Schumacher then revealed what inspired her to do sculpture. She loved watching the behind the scenes of Lord of the Rings and seeing all the beautiful art - creation of armor using prosthetics, doing makeup illustrations, concept art and more. ​
The second was when she went to the Ark Encounter. There, she got to see the 3D life-sized model of the ark, the realistic animals, wax figures, props and the sets. All of it was beautiful to her, and she loved every bit of it. ​
Both of these experiences both happened in high school and ultimately led her to two dream jobs. The first one, tying in the Lord of The Rings, is to be a floater, which will enable her to gain experience and work on mini figures. ​
The second dream job is tied into the Ark Encounter: a 3D designer. This job will give Schumacher the best of both the 2d and 3D design world.​
Right now, she is still on the road to finishing college, but a door opened up when she applied for a summer internship with Answers in Genesis. This group is also the ministry that made the Ark Encounter.​
“I applied for an internship for their exhibit artist internship, and I've already had some interviews, and I got an email from one of the guys saying, ‘I told HR to send you an offer,’” Schumacher said. “I'm really excited about that. I would be making thousands of little trees for a Jerusalem diorama. So I'll be painting those. I think they give the interns the more tedious jobs, but I'm fine with that. I'll be working with Answers in Genesis, which is what I wanted to do.”​
Even though those are things to look forward to in the future, Schumacher is still working on getting through the rest of this semester before anything else can start.​
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I started to wonder though, what is the most challenging thing she has come across as an art major. The quickest thing that came out of her mouth was time management. ​
“Having all nighters, not having enough time, fighting off more than I can chew. That's been a difficulty,” Schumacher said.
But to counteract that challenge, she shared something that was also rewarding.​
“Finishing any project is always rewarding, especially the difficult ones or the ones you stay up all night on,” Schumacher said. “I spend a long time, like hours and hours on a project, particularly my curling iron. That was really rewarding.”​
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I remember being in the class when she worked on that assignment - which was making an object out of cardboard and upscaling it - and the outcome was most definitely amazing. ​
In addition to the curling iron, she also added a couple interactive pieces. First she made the little heat knob actually moveable. Then, the handle could be pressed to move the clamp of the curling iron.
Even though Schumacher is only halfway through her time at Union, she has definitely had classes and projects that had a significant impact on perspective and skills.
​Both Sculpture One and Two taught her new skills.​
“With each project, we were learning new material,” Schumacher said. “With metal, clay, wood, my skills grew immensely, and 3D printing. I learned everything I know about 3D printing in that class.”​
With all of these new skills and experiences that Schumacher has learned, she hopes to use them to take advantage of the art shows while she is still here. ​
Schumacher had shared that she has actually gotten a few of her pieces in shows, such as Bellwethers, Art Upstarts and Student Shows.​
Regardless, out of the any places she had her work shown in, the most special gallery was Bellwethers because she was able to get art in, because Art Upstarts doesn’t usually accept everyone and the student show was for students, so it was easier to get in.
Schumacher also thought it was so fun to walk through the gallery especially when she got to see her art there.​When artists create art, they all have their own unique style as well as personal values tied into the piece when they create it. ​
“My desire is to connect art and faith and my major will allow for that, especially at Union, in a really powerful way,” Schumacher said. “I want to make beautiful things, and that's my nature. That's within me.”​
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Having classes not only has helped with her skills but has also been able to help her learn more about how faith and art interact. She has also pondered this idea through different books as well as discussions with one of her Professors and watching how others work their skills.​
While there are many skills being taught, one of the bigger things that Union likes to bring in is why art and faith intertwine.
In the world outside of college, art and faith are less likely to be talked about, but one place that this can be found is in churches. ​
Unfortunately where other people think art is distracting in a church setting, Schumacher believes it can aid in worship.​
“I would argue that you'll get distracted by anything. I would prefer to get distracted by something beautiful that draws me to Christ than by something pathetic.”
Now that could be considered one misconception, another one that all art majors would agree on is how non art majors say art looks “easy.”
They all know that it is super time consuming, but yet they are still able to complete what they need to get done. Sometimes they have to turn in what they have even if it isn’t fully completed, but they can always work on it more after their critics.​​
I’ve seen Schumacher almost finish a piece - to the point where I thought she was done with it - but she had told me she needed to finish a few more details.​
Considering Schumacher is halfway done with college, she has accomplished a lot, from working hard on her pieces to getting work in shows, I am excited to see what she will do by her senior year.