No amount of blood, sweat, or tears could make Shannon McCabe take a $15000 a year scholarship for art, even though she’s poured her life into it for years. She wants to focus on real blood and is dropping art for medical school.

McCabe was one of the four seniors who received an art scholarship from Illinois High School Art Exhibition (ISHAE), creating a portfolio of up to 25 pieces and writing a personal statement. McCabe, who has been in art since middle school, really got into art during her eighth grade ceramics project.

“I totally fell in love with it,” Shannon McCabe, senior, said. “I really loved the idea of being able to make a tangible object, and that’s when I got into sculpture and art.”

Although the scholarship was an honor, McCabe turned it down due to her interest in the medical field. And despite the fact that her focus is going to be on medicine, she hopes to continue art in some way.

“I had already committed to the school I was going to [when I got the scholarship], and they were for schools that I wasn’t interested in going to because they were only art schools. I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to go into the medical field, so that’s why I’ve turned it down,” McCabe said. “I’m majoring in nursing, so if I did art in college, it would be on the side.”

McCabe says that she took art for fun and never expected to get anything out of it. Despite knowing her major, McCabe still took AP Art and focused on what truly inspires her.

“For AP Art you have to have a central theme that you make most of your art around. My theme was nature, so I would say nature is my inspiration. I’ve always liked making natural-looking pieces. I like to draw inspiration from nature and natural elements,” McCabe said. “I’m really inspired by marine life. I did a lot of pieces this year that were inspired by fish and sea plants.”

Although McCabe draws her inspiration from nature, her favorite piece is what she initially fell in love with, a sculpture.

“I made this piece last year that I put a lot of time into it. I had an amazing idea from the get-go and the painting part turned out good, and I actually liked it for once, and it all really came together. Nothing broke, nothing bad happened, and it’s at my house now. I keep it in my room and I don’t let anyone touch it. It took a lot of time and effort and that’s why I appreciate it.”