Sterling Heights honors 8-year-old as Featured Artist

STERLING HEIGHTS — Becoming a Sterling Heights Featured Artist isn’t child’s play, but at the same time, it is no longer an honor solely confined to grownups.

According to the city of Sterling Heights, Aurora Bohlinger recently became the youngest member of its Sterling Heights Featured Artist program. As the Featured Artist for December 2023, her artwork went on display on the second floor of the Sterling Heights Community Center.

Aurora, 8, lives in Harper Woods and attends Collins Elementary School in Sterling Heights. She said she was “very, very excited” to be honored and explained that she started painting when she was 5. She said she has refined her talents over time, thanks in part to watching and learning from YouTube how-to art videos.

Based on the artwork selection that she submitted, some of Aurora’s favorite things to paint include hearts, animals, “scary things,” and characters from TV shows, movies or video games, such as “Wednesday,” “My Little Pony,” “Lilo & Stitch,” “Pokemon,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “Poppy Playtime.”

While Aurora currently wants to keep her work and is not ready to sell her art yet, she also is looking forward to growing and developing as an artist.

“I’m just going to keep going,” she said.

Aurora added that she often paints with acrylics with her mom, Natalie Bohlinger, as a family activity. Natalie said she learned about the Sterling Heights Featured Artist program while looking for opportunities for Aurora to put her work on display.

“And there was no age limit, so we wanted to see if it would work,” Natalie said. “(Aurora) wanted her own art show because she had many paintings. … In the early fall, we sent in pictures and printed them off.”

According to Natalie, Aurora is looking forward to painting a blue moose statue from Niagara Falls that she saw during a family vacation in Canada.

“She’ll say, ‘Mom, take a picture of that. I need to paint that,’” the mother said.

Jeanne Schabath-Lewis, from the Sterling Heights Arts Commission, said this was the first time someone so young has applied for the Featured Artist program. She said Aurora’s work is good for her age and that her number of art pieces is “outstanding.”

Schabath-Lewis said that while accepting Aurora might cause an increase of parents submitting their kids’ artwork, Aurora’s submission was unique.

“They were very thorough,” Schabath-Lewis said. “We thought, ‘Let’s give them a chance and see what happens.’ … Art is across generations.”

Learn more about Sterling Heights by visiting sterlingheights.gov or by calling (586) 446-2489.