About the Art Teacher

Mrs. Molly Velikis grew up in Alton, IL and currently resides in Jerseyville, IL. She is a 1997 Graduate of Marquette Catholic High School. She graduated Cum Laude from SIUE with a degree in Art Education and taught for seven years in the Jacksonville School District before accepting a position at MCHS five years ago. Mrs. Velikis currently teaches all of the visual art classes including Art Appreciation, Drawing, Ceramics, Painting, Sculpture, and Textiles. She also facilitates a Student Art Show every spring at the Jacoby Art Center in Alton.

"I chose a career in art because it was really the only thing that I both excelled at and brought me joy. I have always had a passion for creating and prescribe to the philosophy that when you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life.

I was led into teaching because I wanted to share my love for art and inspire others to be creative, innovative and explore different media and materials. After teaching for 7 years at the elementary level in the public school system, I chose to come back to Marquette because as a 3rd generation graduate, I wanted to give back to the school that gave so much to me."

Alumni in Visual Arts

Matthew Cook, 2016 MCHS Graduate &

Current student at Parsons, the New School for Design in New York City

"Not only is Marquette one of the top schools in the area for academics and athletics, but they are also at the top for art. My art instructor, Molly Velikis, has always let me express my creativity the way I perceived the art task and not how the normal student would go about it. She would always support me to break boundaries. I started to pursue and love art and decided I wanted to make a career in fashion because of the well-rounded education I received at Marquette."

Matthew applied and was accepted to the top three art schools in the country. He received a total of $184,000 in scholarships from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California, and Parsons the New School for Design in New York City. These artistic scholarships are primarily based on your GPA, ACT, and AP classes, which Marquette prepared Matthew well for.