Freshman Raegan Rudd loves animals.

She has chosen to express her love for them through painting.

“There’s a lot of different textures in their faces,” Rudd said. “And I just like being able to blend colors for their bodies.”

Rudd has painted a fox and a wolf, and she just finished a lion with plans to work on a bear next.

The lion is an explosion of golds and browns. Finding the right base for this painting was difficult and took many trials. Rudd spends about an hour and a half a day working on the lion.

Rudd looks up to artist Vincent Van Gogh’s different style of painting.

“I find his life so interesting,” Rudd said. “I love his style of painting and just how he found beauty in everything around him and put his heart into all of his work.”

Painting can be frustrating for those who cannot sit still, but for Rudd it is a way to take a load off after a long day or to just relax.

“I have a hard time expressing how I feel about things and so it just makes it easier,” Rudd said. “If I have something going on, I’ll go outside and paint or draw. It distracts me from everything else that I have going on. It makes me calm.”

Although she loves painting, she doesn’t see it as a career option and has decided to pursue a career in child psychology with a minor in art therapy.

“I’m definitely going to incorporate art into any career I choose to pursue,” Rudd said.