Visual senior Anna Miller expands the skills she has learned from her art area into a business venture where she sells painted pet portraits.

“In the summer after seventh grade, I really wanted to get better at painting, and I had a lot of free time on my hands,” Miller said. “I started out by not charging anything for them (the pet portraits). Then, I made a website, I emailed a bunch of people, and I started getting a ton of orders. I collect orders during the school year, and I only start working on them in May. By then, I usually have enough to keep me busy for the summer.”

Most of Miller’s clients are those who find out about her art through her past clients. She has now sold more than 250 paintings, donating 10% of her earnings to a non-profit organization called The Pet Cottage that takes care of pets that don’t have homes.

“I hate painting people because of how daunting it is to capture a person’s look,” Miller said. “With pets, I found it a lot easier to capture a pet’s essence. I pride myself in that.”

For some students, utilizing knowledge from their major can be helpful when working, even when their jobs aren’t in industries directly connected to their art area. Theatre senior Joseph Good applies the technical aspects of theatre to car mechanics and the communicative aspects of theatre to business.

“In freshman year, I wanted a golf cart,” Good said. “I bought one that wasn’t running, and I made it my goal to get it running. Once I got it running, I had a golf cart to drive around my neighborhood all the time. I then got bored, I sold it, and turned a profit.”
Good realized that he could repeat this process and start scaling up his business, so he bought more old golf carts and sold the newly fixed ones by using media platforms such as OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace. Good’s own garage became a “mini shop for golf carts.”

“It was very fulfilling,” Good said. “I continued this cycle for two and a half years until I made enough money to buy my first car.”

Brushing off the exhaustion from a seven-hour school day, theatre senior Matthew Blunt trades his everyday school clothes for overalls, preparing to sell locally grown produce and other goods during his afternoon shift at Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market in Boynton Beach.

“It’s in the middle of nowhere,” Blunt said. “Most days I’m outside working at the corn, ice cream, and turkey leg stands. We have this big, giant rotisserie oven where we roast the corn and turkey legs. We also churn the ice cream in a bath of ice and salt with the hydraulic pump.”

Blunt found it “refreshing” to work at a place that was different from what he was normally used to, comparing it to “working alone at a Walgreens.”

“I wanted to get away,” Blunt said. “It’s cool to see other families get together. It’s more community centered. I get to be out and enjoy nature.”

Although some occupations are independent, others are rooted in familial businesses. Communications junior Charlotte Handel partners with her father’s honey business, which he runs from their own backyard.

“After a couple of weeks of cultivation, we put on the hazmat suits, go to the beehive, and take the honey out tray by tray,” Handel said. “We take the honey out in hexagons, put it all together, then boil it and melt out the wax from the honey.”

Handel originally thought of it as a way to “have a bonding experience” with her dad, but stuck to it as she found it enjoyable.

“A lot of people have this misconception that bees are going to sting you and kill you,” Handel said. “But it’s really important to recognize that we have to take care of the animals that produce our food.”

Strings junior Mia Hakkarainen began crocheting and knitting by learning from her mother. As she grew up, her skills expanded. She now works at the knitting store called Knit or Knot in Jupiter.

“Working there has taught me how to familiarize myself with the workings of a business,” Hakkarainen said. “I also get to learn more specific details about the crafts of knitting and crocheting.”

Hakkarainen was a frequent customer before she started the job. She works with yarn and is the co-president of the Knit and Crochet Club. The store allows her to collaborate with other textile artists.

She explains that working at the store heightens her sense of community.

“Having a local yarn store allows (knitters and crocheters) to access nicer materials and to find others who share a similar appreciation for the same hobby,” Hakkarainen said. “Lots of customers will come in on the weekend just to sit, work on their project, and socialize with others who are doing the same thing. It’s amazing that the store provides that comfort and community.”

by Gabriele Pettener
photos by Sadie Kanter
design and graphics by Kiara Benoit