Eli Vandenberg: “part-time emo, full-time queer, artist on the side”. No, not really, Eli’s always drawing something. We share a period and whatever paper–be it a class handout or homework–nothing is from getting doodled on.

Like most artists, Eli doodled before taking art up seriously – watching, admittedly disappointing, art advice on YouTube. Eli recalled that a 5th-grade math tutor would motivate him and his endeavors in drawing with fancy pencils and art books. Fully self-taught, he intends to enroll in art school, being interested in story boarding and concept art.

Eli’s favorite things to draw include possums, pigeons, and little fictional characters. Eli also does digital art at home. Some of his favorite artists include: rommieartz, tamaytka, Trevor Henderson, and bruhmozg.

However, his art isn’t just confined to the 2D space. I recall visiting Eli’s room on his birthday, and besides being completely aesthetically pleasing, the walls were dotted with handcrafted masks, mostly of the paper-mâché variety. In fact, the giant mâché key in Sahuaro’s library is none other than Eli’s own work. He’s even won awards for his art at the Pima County Fair.

Besides his art, Eli’s interests include naturalism and PC gaming (hosting an impressive setup in an already cramped room). Watching monkey videos in his 6th period has become a staple tradition in his life.