Lucas Wick: Igniting Creativity in Art

Scholastic Gold Key Award winning photo Star by Lucas Wick.

In 1st grade, Lucas Wick, graduating class of 2020, started to get involved in art. “I made a self-portrait and I was so proud of it; I carried it around with me,” says Wick. The rest is history. Now, as a senior at Hamilton High School, Wick uses photography, digital, and graphic design as the primary mediums for his artwork. Wick says he is inspired by, “A political topic I’m invested in. Or, I’ll mess around in Photoshop until I’m inspired to make it look cool.” He has been honored this January as Hamilton’s Artist of the Month. Wick has also won the Gold Key Award for a picture featured above, titled Star.

The Gold Key Award is the highest award a student can win as a part of the 2020 Scholastic Art Awards at the Wisconsin Regional Competition and Exhibition. Hamiton Art Teacher, Mrs. Ellen Acuff, says “For me, as a teacher, it’s nice to see [Wick] grow and be successful.” She says that the photo is “hanging in the Milwaukee Art Museum right now...it will be judged at the National level in New York.” Additionally, “The results of that won’t be known till April or May.” When asking Wick how he feels about receiving this prestigious award, he says, “It's cool to have an award that Andy Warhol also has.”

No More by Lucas Wick. — *No More* by Lucas Wick.

“He has been gaining the skills since I had him as a freshman to communicate the things he is trying to say in his artwork. Many of those things are political,” says Mrs. Acuff. As a result, Wick has been subject to controversy for his artwork (pictured right). “Nothing like starting a 57 thread on Instagram about how I’m wrong,” says Wick, and he continues to explain, “Half of it is me fighting back because I’m right.” The photo shows a gun being broken and surrounded by flowers, captioned, “A little anti gun design I did. Peace prevails in a world with less guns.”

Visual art is not Wick’s only passion. He is also involved with the new Dungeons & Dragons club as well as the Drama club. Wick is an avid music lover and plays the drums for a band called Mü. They created the band at the start of summer 2019 and have played a live performance. Mü also has two demos out on YouTube and is now working on an EP. Mü plays hard-core punk, and Wick easily proves himself to be talented in more than just photography.

For his future plans, Wick intends to go to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) next year for Fine Arts, specifically focusing on photography. Wick says he would like to be a teacher, and, “if I could, a rockstar.”