VIDEO: Portrait of a Young Artist: Carley McEnery's Pop Art

Carley McEnery is the product of an artistic upbringing. The Seekonk High School Senior has won recognition for talent which seemed as natural as her speech.

“My sister played with dolls, my brother played with cars and I was always making things,” said the 17-year-old explaining her artistic genesis.

Learning her way around differing types of art was easy in a home which housed a dark room, screen printing equipment and an oil painting mother to boot. Perhaps early exposure to a smorgasbord of artistic options is the key to McEnery’s versatility.

McEnery came to Thursday’s art class prepared with two-dimensional pieces filling the table’s surface. Ironically, the ingenue attests that her claim to fame is in ceramics. Fortunately, SHS has two kilns with which to fire her creative creations.

“I kind of pioneered my own way through the art work. We have a really small art program. It’s a great program, but it’s small,” said McEnery of the quality with which art teachers Elizabeth Machado-Cook and Nancy Corrigan Wilbert conduct their classes.

Even though her heart is in ceramics, her two-dimensional pieces are a superlative batch of various techniques. The pieces spread across the table were mostly the results of class projects.

A study in light could be seen in the shaded wooden limbs of the drawing mannequin still life, whereas the vibrant saturation of varying blue hues in her pop art piece displayed some strong color theory. In another self-portrait, words representing the artists’ facets supplied the black contrast which defined and shaped her face and clothing in the ink piece.

 Art is a continued constant in McEnery’s life, but it may not be her main focus post-graduation. Despite winning an art scholarship sponsored by the school, her interests lie elsewhere for the future.

“I’m going to Arizona. . . I’m interested in policy and I love the environment. . . [When I was younger] I went to Earth Camp."

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