Rebellion and sparks

Walk into the art studio on any given day and you might catch Sydney Caretti introducing a concept that sounds surprisingly radical for a high school art classroom: rebellion. But here rebellion isn’t about causing trouble. Rather, it’s about diving into art conventions and questioning them.

“Art is a way of expressing yourself. It's also a way of rebellion, right?” she explained. “You can be rebellious with art. Art has been rebellious over the years—like just thumbing your nose at whatever is going on in your current cultural climate.”

For Caretti, viewing creative work as a bold statement of identity comes from a lifelong journey. Growing up near Boston, her mother, a nuclear engineer, first exposed her to Manhattan art galleries. Her own interest in art started at age nine during a trip to an art supply store, where she noticed a trio of strikingly unique, eclectic individuals.

“One had a trench coat on and one had a briefcase,” Caretti remembered. “I leaned over to my mom and I said, ‘What do those people do?’ She said, ‘Those are artists.’ And I said, ‘I want to be [one].’ My mom bought me my first sketchbook and I still have it to this day, and I drew those three people. I wanted to be like those three people."

That early spark ignited a passion, though her understanding of creation evolved over time. Early on, she thought talent was accuracy in representative drawings. This mindset nearly directed her toward medical illustration. However, as she matured, she realized that true creation extends far beyond replication.

“I thought that art was supposed to look like what you were drawing,” she said. “As I got older, I realized instead of looking at a piece of abstract art and saying, ‘That sucks,’ I understood why and how we make art. I learned the rules about how to express yourself—composition, contrast, all of the elements and principles of art and design that make artwork strong.”

Before stepping into education, Caretti tested her skills in the commercial art world. While selling original pieces provided a living, the commercial gallery market felt cold and transactional.

“I made money selling artwork to people and I didn’t necessarily believe in the artwork,” she reflected. “It was a way to make money, so if I saw someone come in, I’d look them up and down like, ‘I can charge them this much for the painting.’”

Leaving commercial sales behind to become an educator transformed her relationship with art. In the classroom, her main goal is ensuring every student realizes their potential without fear of judgment.

“I want to connect with students and hopefully help," Ms. Caretti shared. ‘“ always want to be of use, and I want students to see themselves as artists. I never want to be the teacher someone looks back on and says, ‘I had an art teacher who told me I was awful at art.’ Nobody is awful at art. We just have to learn the baseline rules of making it, and once you have that foundation, the sky is the limit.”

Today, Caretti continues to pass on the spark she found as a nine-year-old girl, driven by the belief that every student holds a voice worth sharing. As those individual sparks gather together in her classroom, they ignite into a creative fire that propels students far beyond their initial limits.

“We all are artists because we all have something inside of us that we'd like to share, but some of us share who we are differently,” she says. “Art is a way of expressing yourself.”