Photo by Julia Baker.

This summer, freshman Lydia Yoder was sitting in her room at three in the morning when a random but inspirational image popped into her head.

“It was one of those things where I thought I was going crazy,” Yoder said, “but I saw myself standing in the room with a bunch of colorful strings hanging down from the ceiling.”

Yoder grabbed some old acrylic paint tubes from a drawer of her house and brought the image to life. The end result: a man, peeking out from behind a rainbow of hanging strings. Yoder entitled her painting, “The Search,” but the meaning of the artwork is left for each viewer’s interpretation.

“I just had to draw it,” said Yoder.

Yoder is from Pennsylvania, and she took art classes throughout high school. She is exploring art as a major.

“Art to me is one of several ways to show others exactly what I see in my mind,” said Yoder.