Baylin Manusov Paints Her Way Through High School

Artist Baylin Manusov has spent the past four years of her high school career being the “face” of Springside Chestnut Hill’s arts program, winning the annual Arts and New Media department distinction award twice. Outside of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, Manusov, at seventeen years old, has been able to display her artwork at coffee shops, cafes, and galleries in the local Philadelphia area. On an even larger scale, Manusov won the Scholastic statewide competition, earning a gold key for one of her pieces. Now that her high school career ending, the big question is what will she do next?

For Manusov, becoming interested in art held a deep meaning. “I figured out that my mom was an artist from seeing her paintings. I just wanted to, like, pay homage to her in, like, my four year old’s brain,” she recalled.

Manusov’s dad and sister Hannah helped her fuel her interest. “Baylin always loved to go to art museums. So we’ve, we’ve spent a lot of time going to art museums, including going to the same art museum again and again and again … We also enrolled her in art classes … And then finally, and probably most importantly, we just gave her the time and the space that she needed to paint and to draw.”  From the assistance and support of her family, Manusov started to excel. “My dad and sister Hannah have always supported my art … I’m extremely lucky and grateful to have their support. As they both challenge me to be a better person and artist every single day.” 

Manusov’s childhood art experiences have led her to where she is today. “I’ve kind of been focused on portraits and figurative painting. I’m very much inspired by an American painter named John Singer Sargent,” she said. The Springside Chestnut Hill art department has been extremely helpful in regards to her success. “I’ve had the opportunity to work in my own studio, which has been amazing… I’ve had the opportunity to work with three different art teachers, such as Mr. Brewer, Mr. Brooks and right now Paper Buck, and they’ve all been very amazing, and they’ve all taught me something different that’s really helped my art career.” 

Her current art teacher at SCH is Paper Buck who is new to the school community this year but has a lot of experience with talented artists like Manusov. “She raises the bar for the community in general … A part of what I’ve really enjoyed about working with Baylin is that … in terms of her skills in painting, she doesn’t just sit back and let her prior skills do the work. She’s continually pushing herself to paint differently and to paint in ways that she finds uncomfortable,” Buck said.  

Manusov has taken advice from art professionals and is constantly improving her work. “In Middle School it was mainly just me trying to find out what I liked to do and what I didn’t like to do … Now I work more maturely and with more of a process than I did in Middle School.” 

Besides her successes, there have been challenging moments through her art career. “During the school days, like, if I have a free period or during break, I have to choose whether to work on, like my college art portfolio or, like, study for an upcoming math test sometimes,” Manusov said. Balancing school with college applications and artwork is not easy, but Manusov has mastered the art of balancing all these aspects. “She’s been able to prioritize the school activities or her responsibilities outside of school. She’s been able to get done what she needs to and at the same time make the time that she wants or she needs to do her artwork,” her dad said. 

From here there is not a straightforward path for what to do after high school. “I definitely want to continue art in college, and the goal for, I assume a lot of fine artists, is to be, like, a freelance artist as their career.” Knowing how competitive and risky this field of work is, it is hard to guarantee what will happen next .“I’m definitely open to exploring a lot of opportunities in the museum business, whether that’s being a curator or, like, a part of a marketing team for a museum … I definitely want to be, you know, involved with art and art history anyway, in any way I can for the foreseeable feature,” she said.

“With art, it’s just something that, like, I need to do. I don’t think I would be able to function as a person without having the opportunity to express myself creatively. And I think the aspect of honoring and cherishing my mother, who was an artist before she passed away, is still a big aspect and reason as to why I do what I do.. It forms a way for me to, like, connect with her,” she said.

Note: If you would like to see Baylin’s work visit her instagram page @baylins.paitings