Amidst the seemingly incompatible worlds of sports and creativity, a Winthrop junior defies the odds on both the canvas and the soccer field.
Adelle Pruitt, a dual-discipline drawing and painting major, captures the admiration of her peers and mentors through her passion for both art and soccer.
With a penchant for painting vivid pictures and abstract concepts, Adelle loves spending hours in the studio, giving life to her vivid imagination. But when the sun sets, she dons her soccer cleats and takes to the field as a defender on Winthrop’s soccer team.
“It’s definitely hard being the odd one out sometimes. I would love to take classes with my teammates, but I am the only person in the Fine Arts department on the team,” Pruitt said.
However, she said she would still recommend simultaneously participating in sports and the arts at Winthrop. “There are numerous talent scholarships that students don’t realize are stackable. So many doors open up to you when you can apply for both arts and sports scholarships. I would love to see more people on the field and in the studio,” Pruitt said.
The fine arts department at Winthrop offers various visual arts classes meant to allow students to explore and fine-tune their ideal major. From photography to printmaking, students interested in fine arts have a number of options to choose from. For those who cannot decide, Pruitt explains that dual discipline allows students to explore two different concentrations simultaneously.
While most students juggling many responsibilities would relax during their time off, Pruitt enjoys running away to the comfort of the mountains.
“Hiking is one of my favorite hobbies. The landscapes of the natural world help me understand the creative one a bit better. In an ideal world, I would spend all my free time on the trails. My goal is to move somewhere mountainous for graduate school.”
Pruitt said her favorite class she’s taken at Winthrop was one on ceramics. “I loved creating something using a medium different from my usual oil and acrylic paints. Taking that class inspired me, and I would minor in ceramics if it were an option.”
Since she was 14, Pruitt has spent her summers teaching painting classes in her hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. She enjoys helping beginning artists reach their fullest potential, as her passion for art stems from watching her older sister mature as an artist.
“I saw the amazing things my sister was creating and knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Pruitt said.
While she loves realistic paintings, Pruitt prefers to use more unrealistic and bright colors. She also says that she “likes to utilize line work and brush strokes to investigate how those things can interact with color.”
Pruitt also spends time painting numerous murals around local businesses in her hometown. She has completed three projects for 11.11 Training, a positively ranked soccer training facility in Greenville.
Winthrop students can look for Pruitt on the soccer field, in her favorite studio in McLaurin or hiking Crowders Mountain.
