Davis Humphrey ’19 began drawing as a child alongside his father, who is an architect. He reflects on how he came to discover his artistic interests and says, “[the desire to draw] is something you’re born with.”

In the 2019 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Humphrey submitted a drawing portfolio composed of portraits and earned a Connecticut state gold medal. However, like many other young artists, he waits in anticipation of the regional “key” awards, and the national medals, which include a cash prize.

As a fairly new participant in the competitive art world, he expressed a genuine elation when reflecting on his accomplishment, “it was exciting because I started drawing [for the portfolio] last year during art survey. The whole portfolio is a years worth of progression, and I’ve never really won an award like that before.”

When he had entered Kent as a sophomore, he experienced a tough beginning, but eventually grew to adore Kent. He says, “coming back [on campus] is always difficult, but the routine is important, and the appeal of art helps draw me back in.”

For Humphrey and many other creatively minded students, drawing is an outlet, a tool to destress. Interestingly, even his favorite colors mirror his artistic dedication. He expresses a particular penchant for “toned tan or gray because that’s the paper I use for charcoal or pastel portraits.”

Even though most of his winter afternoons are consumed with hockey practices and games, he still finds free time to spend either in the art studio, or his room where he may be found listening to the Arctic Monkeys, and experimenting with his other passions: engineering, industrial and structural design (bike frames in particular), and the software that goes along with it.

Likewise, his future plans encompass two different options: entering the ENVD program at CU Boulder or going to Rhode Island to pursue industrial design there. Were his path to align perfectly, he imagines he would eventually find himself having a “bike company,” because “if I can combine a passion for that activity into a career, it would be ideal.”