Art, the good ole days. You throw some paint around, poorly write your name at the bottom of the project and boom, art. But what happens when you hit 8th grade? Presented with two options, Art 8 and Studio Art you get to experience the magic all over again!

You may even remember having Ms. Marvin guide you through the shaky waters that art holds.

However, as of August 2021 she became Mrs. Sarneckis. Married with two dogs, Sarneckis teaches up to four different art classes and has her own side business.

Ever since she was a little girl she knew she wanted to be a teacher, it was her passion. It wasn’t until 7th grade when her art teacher/lacrosse coach inspired her to become an art teacher. Despite facing the push back from her friends and family of her dream, Sarneckis went to Nazarath and studied Art Ed and out of the gate she got a job here and has been teaching for five years now.

Mrs.Sarneckis teaches both in the junior and senior high. In the Junior High she teaches Art 8 as well as the accelerated version, Studio Art. Similarly in the Senior High she teaches Studio Art and some years she teaches Art Skills which is the special ed class.

While the classes have similar curriculum the students are very different. With 8th graders they’re wild while trying to prove their maturity as the oldest in the school.

Freshmen have a very different outlook. “Something happens over the summer, they just mature like crazy and they come back and they’re almost adults.” Faced with this new challenge her goal is to get all the freshmen excited about art again. Despite the differences between the two groups, she loves them both.

Even though working with kids can be amazing, Sarneckis talked about some of the downsides to her job. “I think that the hardest thing about teaching is the going home part and letting go of the day.” It’s hard to always put on a brave face and deal with the impact that kids can leave without even realizing it. One bad day can affect a kid’s entire mood and while it’s not your fault, you’re still in their line of fire.

A way Sarneckis has found to overcome this and to “let go of the day.” is by sketching. She does urban, quick sketching as a way to release her feelings without aimlessly staring at her phone for hours on end. While they never become full blown projects, it pushes creativity and makes a negative situation a positive one. 

Mrs. Sarneckis gets most inspired from 3D works such as sculptures. Whenever she and her husband are in New York City they go to the Met and the Moma(the Museum of Modern Art). Sarneckis appreciates the artists who got us where we are today in art, but it’s not what inspires Sarneckis. With modern art “you have to think about it and have an opinion about it and it just inspires me for more projects.”

One of her favorite websites to get inspiration from is https://www.thisiscolossal.com/. It updates every day with some new project that can creep you out and question your life but that’s the fun in it. All in all it shows you many ideas that make you think “how did they even come up with that?” It pushes your creativity to the next level.

Another thing that Mrs. Sarneckis pursues outside of school is selling earrings. She sells out a small business shop and that’s one of the ways she expresses art. Plus, she gets paid so it’s a double win.

We can’t forget about her amazing french bulldogs Thor (three) and Zeus (two). Their personalities contrast heavily but Mrs. Sarneckis loves them with her whole heart (and then maybe some saved on the side for her husband). She describes Thor as having “a soul of an 80 year old man.” At the same time being incredibly sweet. Zeus on the other hand was a covid dog and she describes him as a sour patch kid. “He will do the naughtiness of things and then all of a sudden, he cuddles you.”

Mrs. Sarneckis is an amazing teacher who I get the pleasure of seeing every day and I think everyone who’s had her before should stop in and give her a hello. She’s here in the high school, fourth period room 007. Plus anyone who hasn’t taken an art class yet, should totally join, you won’t regret it!