Glenbrook North graduate focuses her art on social issues

Since she first picked up a crayon, Glenbrook North graduate Zoe Bendoff has been creating art.

As she's matured so has her media, to marker, pen and watercolor. Whatever the materials, she's increasingly wielded her art with an eye toward current events and human rights.

“I just think that it's been really cool to go from having art as a hobby to be able to develop mature emotions about the crazy things going on in the world, and to be able to spread awareness and express my beliefs through art,” Bendoff said Monday.

A young woman who already has worn many hats, she was speaking from Decatur, Michigan, where it was opening day at the Lake of the Woods Camp for girls. Bendoff was starting her second summer as a counselor and art instructor at the camp she'd annually attended growing up.

Camp counselor is only one line in a resume that, for a 19-year-old, already is an impressive one.

An incoming sophomore in the School of Journalism & Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, as a freshman Bendoff worked as an illustrator for the school newspaper, The Daily Cardinal. In April, she said, she was asked to take over as the paper's graphics editor, “which was pretty exciting.”

Bendoff eventually would like to be an art director in an advertising company, to “lead the creative side of marketing campaigns,” she said.

At Glenbrook North she participated in student government and served in several leadership positions while working as a staff writer and graphic artist for the school newspaper, the Torch. Taking advanced placement classes in art and a member of the National Art Honor Society, Bendoff earned a Blue Ribbon for editorial cartooning by the Northern Illinois Scholastic Press Association.

She's worked or volunteered for several diverse organizations, including Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe and Easy Hoops, “which allows people to connect through the unifying platform of basketball, promoting the beauty of neurodiversity,” as she stated on her LinkedIn profile.

The through line in her life has been art.

After she picked up that crayon her parents, Tammy and Mike, signed her up for a variety of art classes. Zoe's grandparents, Judy and Bruce Bendoff, not only were involved with SOFA Chicago (that's Sculpture Objects & Functional Art) but are collectors of glass artisans such as Dale Chihuly.

They've since moved to Naples, Florida, but when Zoe was young she'd explore her grandparents' Glencoe home as if it were a gallery.

“I think that was a huge part of what interested me as a kid, even though what I do is totally different,” she said.

Art is art, and is created for a variety of purposes. At The Daily Cardinal Zoe Bendoff's once- or twice-weekly illustrations accompanied articles on topics important to students ranging from political and social interests to issues surrounding campus life.

Sent home by COVID-19 to finish the school year remotely, despite doing her school work, “nannying and working a couple of jobs,” she supported the Black Lives Matter movement through her art. The use of Copic markers lent her striking images a boldness to match the topic.

It was exactly what she intended.

“I just couldn't sit there and not do anything, so that was the best way I could use my talents and a passion I've had since I was a child just to help spread awareness of a movement I feel is so important,” she said.

Sharing her images with “friends and friends of friends” and posting her work on Instagram at zoeleigh.art, her Black Lives Matter works have received more responses and comments than any art she'd previously posted.

“They've gotten a lot more exposure than I expected, which I think is great because it helps create awareness,” she said.

As well, she's had requests from people to create similar art works for them, contemporary statements Bendoff hopes will age well.

“Something that they can hold onto forever and hopefully look back on when our world's a better place,” she said.