Chesterton High School senior Anna Stein stands beside her painting of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. She has transposed the image to t-shirts, and developed a complete line of art-adorned products featuring saints and other notable Catholics. (Supplied photo)

Anna Stein has found a way to explore her passion for art while deepening her Catholic faith (and save up for college) all at the same time.

Anna (18), along sibling sisters Ellie (14), Clare (12), Maggie (9) attend St. Mark Parish in Peoria with mom Laurel and dad Mark.

She has developed a complete line of products adorned with her art and honoring saints and other notable Catholics – everything from t-shirts to tote bags, phone cases to candles.

And there’s a whimsical touch to many of the illustrations. She even imagines G.K. Chesterton dancing to Taylor Swift.

DRAWING HER WHOLE LIFE

Speaking of Chesterton, Stein is a senior at Academy in Peoria. Home-schooled before entering Chesterton, her mother Laurel says Anna has been drawing her whole life, but it really took off during COVID.

“There was nothing to do so she just drew and drew and drew.”

Anna says, “Everything I learned up until Chesterton was self-taught through books or YouTube or trial and error.”

She adds the art program at Chesterton has taken her to a whole new level in more ways than one.

CHESTERTON FACULTY APPRECIATED

She’s had the opportunity to try mediums she wasn’t able to before, and “It’s been a lot of fun learning new things with people I really enjoy being with.”

“I owe a lot . . . to all of the faculty here, not just the art teachers, but the philosophy teachers, the theology teachers, the math teachers, they have all just shown me the beauty of creation, and it sparked my love for the arts and the beauty I see around me.”

After high school, Anna is looking toward future studies that may involve a major in art or illustration, animation or graphic design.

One of Anna’s illustrations imagines G.K. Chesterton dancing to the various “eras” of Taylor Swift.

On her further horizon, Franciscan University is currently exploring the possibility of creating a master’s degree in fine art with a concentration in sacred art that would be taught in Gaming, Austria, in the midst of the art and architecture of Europe’s great cultural centers.

Meanwhile, all of these plans require underwriting, and that is the goal behind the business side of her art as marketed on her Etsy website, Holy Inklings.

As mother Laurel says, “The Etsy shop is 100% to help fund her college!”

In the end, Anna circles back to her love of art – in particular sacred art – and where that love takes her.

“It’s like a physical sort of prayer . . . . as I’m putting something on to a page or a canvas.”