Angela's AP Studio Art

This has been a crazy year for me. A lot of personal things happened in the beginning of the year. It was pretty hard to get through. Ap art allowed me to express how i was feeling through my art work. My artwork shows the changes i experienced with myself throughout the year. It also shows how everything has effected me in different ways. Ap allowed me to grow and test my skills with a variety of different art styles. It also allowed me to figure out who i am and who i want to be. It showed me that even though everything around me may suck at the moment it gets better with time. My concentration was the main focus of what i was experiencing throughout the year. It shows everything i was battling by myself in my own ways. It also helped me develop my new art style that I have today. Life may suck at times but never give up.

When you look at someone can you see all they have been through? Is their act pretty well put together? Can you see past their fake smiles and see how deeply they are hurting inside? I’ve always had to put up a front with others to save myself from more hurt, from dealing with how others react to my appearance, seemingly never ending depression and anxiety, to putting others problems onto myself. This broke me down and built me back up, always trying to please the world but not myself.

You can change for the better or worse, depending on how you react to it. i always keep things in & hiding my true feelings, wearing different masks every day just to get by to the next day. Simple anxiety can be very crippling, making simple everyday things seem almost impossible. Like having someone behind you saying “you aren’t good enough” or “Their just lying again”. There’s a little monster inside my head feeding me lies. Making me believe things that aren’t true, making me over think everything & everyone.

Depression, never ending pit of sadness & anger. Fills you up inside until you can’t take it anymore. Having random break downs. Taking it out on the people you love the most without really seeing it yourself. Makes you do things that you normally wouldn’t but you. Sometimes it comes without reason & stays like a leach slowly sucking you dry.

Being a wolf in a world of sheep isn’t easy. Always trying to fit in when you really don’t fit in at all. Trying to please others while destroying yourself. Becoming the complete opposite of yourself. I always tend to put others problems onto myself to make it easy for them. I’m to loving & caring, they just take advantage. Taking everything I have to give but giving nothing in return. It’s a never ending cycle but the world is already bad enough so I try to put good into it.

Mary's AP Art Studio

AP ART has given me quite the insight. Battling my skills to  accomplish pieces in a certain amount of time and the ability to self-approve of my creations have only strengthened my perception on life. This class has enriched the thought that I am my biggest critic, and once I come to terms with being overly judgemental I can finally release myself into this world and freely ooze myself all over God's plantations. I am a woman of revolution, revolution of independence with a hint of vibrancy. Conformity has only engulfed me into its horrors; giving me the false belief that I must stay in the lines. Art has offered me the distinct opportunity to swallow the thoughts of society in whole and regurgitate my own perceptions.

My concentration focuses on the mental and physical development on my perception of reality. The provincial views I’ve suffered involving the purpose of life started in a concentrated manner. I lacked wisdom and vibrancy which showed in my beginning art with the dull tones and strict artistic methods. As I engaged in experiences and opportunities with both artistic abilities and world insights, I have shaped my mind from a 2-D atmosphere of law into an individualized universe of enlightenment.

The artwork in which I have entwined myself in has portrayed my crucial drive towards an organic mind. I began this year with an isolated vision to stay in the lines of life. As I suffered the manmade dream that society had preprogramed into my destiny, I developed pieces of art that remained hopelessly conformed in character. My concentration is first revealed through a self-portrait to emphasize the illusory restraints that kept me confined within the lines and drained of color. Although I began with such restriction, through opportunities and experiences my discovery of self has aided me in developing a more individualized and free artistic strategy. Moving away from conformity, I sought beauty in abstract realism and created pieces based on that movement. With those pieces I enhanced my vibrancy and even opened my mind to a bigger picture. This “big picture”, involved the deception of society’s order and the strength of my own. I gathered my experience from both a strict vision and a surreal outlook and unveiled my artistic nirvana.  With the birth of combined methods I demonstrated my route to self-discovery by finding myself through the freedom of art. 

Emily's AP Studio Art

AP has been a roller coaster ride for me over these 9 months. Although we had some assigned projects, I really liked the freedom to explore what I really wanted to capture in my pictures. Taking art this year helped me grow as an artist and kept my stress level low.

My concentration focuses on a teenage girl who is suffering with depression. My goal was to show her story and battle with self-harm with each picture. The project gave me the opportunity to match a face to a reoccurring problem that many teens face.

My concentration is a PSA to raise awareness about self-harm and that what you say to people could leave a damaging effect. With the help of my subject, I showed the physical effects caused by hurtful words said out of ignorance. Even though she is in the process of healing, she is still shy to tell her story and feels alone. She is not only scarred physically, she is scarred mentally. I tried the pictures in color, black and white, and sepia. I felt that color did not fully capture the emotions I wanted to portray. The black and white edits made the subject look nonhuman, or monster-like. The sepia edit captured the emotions and still kept the human quality. This project is a journey throughout perception…from pencil sharpener to a resource…from clean to scarred…from how you see a person to how they in fact see themselves.

Cheyenne's AP Studio Art

AP has ended up being something I never expected. Along with having some assigned projects to make me think,  I enjoyed having the freedom to photograph whatever I wanted for the most part. The most encouraging part of this course is that I will get college credit for free for doing what I love and photography is exactly what I am going to school for, so everything I have learned with my AP class as well as my two other photography classes I took this year have most certainly prepared for continuing on with my photography and expanding my knowledge of the art form.

Most everyone has an inner struggle. Whether it be confusion, depression, hatred of one’s self, or any other emotion; ergo, that is what I decided to focus on. My concentration focuses on those inner struggles through my self-portraits and the help of Photoshop. I photographed myself in states in which I have personally experienced as well as those of other people. Though very abstract, I have expressed emotion, in most cases deeper ones, to show the true struggle people face in life.

Having chosen to focus my concentration on emotion and one’s inner struggles, I was guided to show the inner feelings but have also shown the faces of those who hide those emotions with a less concerning facial expression. A smile is one of the most common facial expressions used to cover up any inner distress, although not everyone is so strong as to put on that smile to hide it. Through the series of photos, I had used Photoshop to my advantage as it gave the photos more meaning when it came to expressing the emotions in a stronger fashion. The layering of the images showed the different layers of emotions within someone. Starting off with a single, black and white image, I feel, opens the viewer up to what is in store throughout the rest of the series. Regarding the next photo, I layered several images to portray the feeling of paranoia or being trapped and not being able to get out. Continuing, many different emotions were layered to express the feeling one may have as they struggle to fight though the feelings. Being relieved with some layered images of a smiling faces portrays the smile someone can put on to hide what is deeper within. I feel this all relates to me and my inner struggles, creating this made me realize that I can relate to others as I too hide my deeper emotions with a smile.

Low Budget Lighting Effects with Big Results

With school budgets decreasing daily and art curriculum expanding to incorporate more of the media arts we find ourselves in a constant budgeting dilemma.  I question every purchase..."Do we really need it?...or can we get by with something else?" Teaching digital photography can be taxing on the expense account of an Art Department. For those of you who teach digital photography or even take photos on a regular basis of student work will understand how incredibly important it is to understand basic lighting effects and have the opportunity to take your camera off of auto. So important that I couldn't justify ignoring or avoiding it altogether because of cost. With that being said, I am proud as pie when I find DIY ways to solve expensive equipment needs. With the help of Pinterest, informative websites, and creative students I've developed an inexpensive yet effective way for students to experience the indoor photo booth shoot.

For an indoor photo booth shoot you need a backdrop, lighting, reflectors, a tripod, camera, something to defuse the light and a subject.

I spend the money on a nicer camera/tripod so the students can control the settings and understand how to use the manual settings to capture just the right effect. I hang the backdrop up with bulldog clips, vice clamps, and/or velcro depending on the area.

Inexpensive clamp lights work for basic lighting.

Cardboard covered with foil works for reflectors

Sheets, curtains, or an inexpensive cotton fabric are great for back drops.  Place the lights on either side and/or above behind the fabric to defuse the harsh light.  You can also place a small piece of fabric over the light itself to defuse the light.  Just be careful it might get hot after a little while.

A subject to photograph is usually pretty easy to find.

You can also create a smaller photo booth for objects or art projects you wish to photograph. We have created box type photo booths out of foam core board and tissue paper or fabric. Even a cardboard box painted white with sections cut out of the sides and top covered with fabric works great. Here is a great post on DIY Photo Box on Ninth & Bird with directions that are easy to understand.  

For lighting techniques checkout Simple Lighting Techniques at www.digitalcameraworld.com

Student Photographs using DIY photo booths

Stress Free Handing in, Organizing, and Grading Digital Images

I know I have mentioned schoology.com as a great secure resource for your paperless artroom in the past. However, I think it warrants mentioning again. This site is awesome! Over the past two years I have found schoology.com to be a life saver for handing in, organizing, and grading digital photography images.  

Here are the basics of schoology albums so you can try it for yourself. 

*Just to be safe I used older albums for the images since the students have graduated and the codes have been disabled.

I create courses for my classes.  

Within each course I create an album for each student within the course.  The course has an access code that allows students to join. Once the students have logged in they find their albums and upload their photographs.  

As the students upload their photography a date appears at the bottom to let me know if it when it was posted. This feature eliminates "But I turned it in on time, really!" 

I have the students write the name of the project in the caption so it shows up with the photo in their album.

I love having access to my schoology.com account from anywhere. I can grade over weekend or in the evenings easily.  The students love the fact that they can hand in their photography outside of the school day too.

And yes...there is an app for that too  

The students can only see the albums from their class.  I have them critique each others work by adding comments. 

 schoology.com has made handing in photos and grading stress free! I could go on and on but my lunch is almost over, so time to go! There are many more great features to this site...a discussion for another day. Checkout schoology.com for yourself.