The door creaks when you swing it open. The yellow wall holds up a beautiful framed painting. The dark grey carpet covered with sheets of plastic to keep the work area clean. The black metal easels dirty with fingerprints stand still carrying the canvases of the artists. Large perforated hardboards are set up on wooden legs and hold up the student’s reference sheets.

For Jillian Prescott ’21, this place is a normal sight. She attends teen art classes at Maroger Fine Art Classes in Coralville, IA like many other students of West High. She stays there for nearly an hour or sometimes an hour and a half with her art teacher, Yvette Jury. Her brother Ian Prescott ’19 also attends these classes and describes Jury as “friendly and helpful” and the place as “really fun and inviting”.

The environment of her art class gives off a nice vibe, but critiquing plays an important role when working for Prescott. “I’m really hard on myself and there’s always something that I want to do better. Like in all my pieces I’m just like ‘oh, I can change this little part of it,’” Prescott said.

When it comes to art, Prescott prefers watercolor pieces compared to other mediums they’ve used including pastel, oil paint, charcoal, etc.. “It’s really loose and uncontrolled and you can always make it as perfect as you want it to be. Unlike other styles of art, watercolor just does what it wants.” Prescott said. She has made around 10 to 15 watercolor pieces and often each piece would take around 3-4 weeks to finish up.

Prescott’s thought process for art is often whatever comes to mind in the moment. She takes what she has seen by other artists and takes another path with it by making it her own thing. She works individually and doesn’t mind the noise around her. “It’s really about expanding where you are and if you’re behind or on a different part of art, then that’s fine because everybody is doing their own thing.” explained Prescott.

“Jillian really has improved throughout my classes and never fails to surprise me. She shows good understanding of what she is working on and has a great personality. She gets along with the other students and is very focused.” said Yvette Jury.