From playing guitar to glass blowing, Hope LaFreniere can do it all. This Seward sophomore loves art, and her creativity really shows. LaFreniere can play a mean guitar piece, sculpt beautiful pottery, make blown glass, sings and is a photographer. Making beautiful things out of nothing is what LaFreniere loves to do, and has been doing it for quite a while. LaFreniere started playing guitar when her grandfather gave her a cheap acoustic guitar as a present at age 12, not thinking she would stick to it. As LaFreniere started learning how to play it, her love for the instrument grew and has been growing for the eight years since. Les Claypool, renowned bassist, is LaFreniere’s musical hero. She aspires to be able to play like Claypool sometime in the near future, and listens to his music for inspiration. LaFreniere also makes pottery and blown glass. She started with just making pottery, and then decided to try glass blowing also. While she enjoys making both, LaFreniere says they require very different techniques. “With pottery, you make a plan for what you’re going to make and it usually turns out like that. When blowing glass, you basically make it up as you go and hope it turns out good,” said LaFreniere. LaFreniere has approximately 10 to 15 glass pieces made, although she cannot remember exactly how many. She loves giving them to her friends and family as gifts, and gave one of her newest pieces to her mother. Another art medium that LaFreniere uses is photography. She enjoys capturing the beauty of everyday life through her lens and being able to do it with friends. Her subjects often include her several dogs. LaFreniere is also a singer, and is in the upcoming SCCC musical “Once on this Island” as the character Erzulie, the goddess of love. The musical will be LaFreniere’s first time in a stage performance, and she is looking forward to the experience. “Once on this Island” will show from March 29-31 in the SCCC Theater. “Hope is very talented and has a great personality. She’s usually backstage, so this is a very different setting for her to be up front in the musical,” said stage manager and student assistant Tyconda Millsap. Although she graduated from Liberal High School and is currently a student at Seward, LaFreniere just transferred back to her hometown from Hays, where she was a student at Fort Hays State University. LaFreniere says that she enjoyed the school and will miss the friends she made there. The reason why she left Fort Hays is because of the climate. While not too much north of Liberal, the winter was unbearably cold for LaFreniere. “When they told us to be sure to cover our faces and everything because we could get frostbite in a few minutes outside, I knew I couldn’t handle it anymore,” said LaFreniere. The many warm days in the past few weeks in Liberal have affirmed LaFreniere’s decision for a more comfortable temperature change, and proof that she made the right decision. LaFreniere currently is pursuing a general arts degree, although is planning on majoring in broadcasting in the future. Her plans are to either transfer to West Texas A&M University next fall majoring in broadcasting or to work in broadcasting in Oklahoma City, Okla., and pay off her student loans before continuing school.