Emily M. AP Studio Art

My senior year has been quite hectic. College apps, AP exams and activities have made this year especially important for my future. The one thing I ever turned to for relaxation was my art class. Whether it be sketching or painting, creating art gave me the opportunity to get away from the world and focus on what I was creating.
This year I wanted to create a diverse portfolio and expand my repertoire of mediums. so, I used everything from graphite to watercolor, and drew anything from coins to portraits.

My concentration focuses on women from different places around the world facing adversity. It is dedicated to their strength and courage to face those adversities every day. The project gave me the opportunity to express my love for world cultures, and also sends an important message about the strength of women in overcoming their challenges in life. I, too, have faced challenges. I used that inner strength to overcome my challenges, and changed my life completely for the better.
My works depict women from various places around the world. The backgrounds are comprised of patterns and colors associated with their particular cultures. On each card I focused on representing the person’s personality and culture. The size is intended to be small, as I wanted the viewer to be able to hold it in their hands, to make it almost personal. Additionally, I envisioned the size to be symbolic, like a tarot card, intended to reveal something to the viewer about herself. By seeing the card, she will see one word: “courageous”, written in each individual language. I chose this particular word because all women, no matter where they live, share a common thread of inner courage. Whatever path in life a woman takes, she will need that courage. Around the world women are treated as inferior, and are burdened with countless expectations. I want to show that Women can do anything they set their mind to if they have courage. In the process of creating these pieces, I followed my own personal journey to overcome obstacles in my life, which made this intended message all the more personally fulfilling.

McKenna B. AP Art

Taking AP Art this year really helped me to grow as an artist. Through the process of creating my portfolio, I learned more about both myself and my art.My medium of choice ended up being watercolors, as I feel they are one of the most expressive mediums to work with. My concentration in AP Art was linked to personal experiences.

COMMENTARY
1.) The central idea of my concentration has been overcoming my internal battle with depression and anxiety. The stark black and white details in my art work represent the depression always lingering in day to day life, despite how small the amount may be. The watercolor represents anxiety. While the bright and beautiful colors represent how the world as a whole tends to see me, the messy patterns of it all depict the turmoil inside; disorganized yet coinciding to create an interesting image.

2.) My concentration has developed into a strong focus from a single painting. I first painted a portrait of myself in simple colors and tones, but with a chaotic scheme of patterns flowing together to create the picture of myself. This idea is what developed into my concentration- the idea that seemingly disorganized brushstrokes can coincide to create something beautiful. As I continued with this idea, I watched it form to include the depression and anxiety I’ve faced from a young age. I worked to include various issues I’ve faced psychologically, and use the material to create a piece of art. This theme further developed by implementing single features, which I feel can be the most expressive traits a person can use. I used the facial features to convey a morose tone; the black and white once again used to display darkness or emptiness, with a variety of watercolor splats being used to symbolize the idea of something pleasant being created from chaos. This ties in with my final piece in my concentration, the mouth holding the pentacle; this displays the strain associated with rising above stereotypes of the social norm, with bright fiery colors, and of course the pentacle, symbolizing this. I feel that the colors implemented in my concentration are what complete the emotions which are meant to be conveyed to the viewer.

Chris M. AP Art

My year was good. I had a good time.

Concentration:

I’ve always been interested in the change and evolution of people. Not just physical transformations but mental as well. My concentration explores these ideas through self-portraits. It began as a study of physical change and styles over time. After a while my self-portraits began mimicking my feelings while creating them.

My concentration became a personal experience as I created these self-portraits. Through each drawing, the viewer can see my evolution as an artist and as a person. As I started my concentration, I was just setting out to show my physical changes. But as I continued drawing myself over and over again, a lot of my insecurities and thoughts about myself started showing in my drawings. Soon my drawings started looking more and more unlike me. The process of drawing myself started to become a very personal experience for me, sometimes showing things about myself that I had never really thought about before. Constantly drawing myself became therapeutic in a way. It made me come to some realizations and I became more comfortable with myself.

Hana Elizabeth's ap art

I am a huge procrastinator. I wait till the last minute to do my work and then cram all my ideas into my work during a little crunch time. Usually my work turns out better when I'm put under pressure. Many ideas come to mind that I would love to do and create but pursuing the project without messing up is usually what gets me stuck. Once I free the ideas I have though; it feels so good. It's like telling a huge secret and a weight is lifted off my chest. It's like my own little way of sharing how I feel and the crazy things my imagination can come up with.

For my concentration I focused on struggles following up to new beginnings. Throughout high school I’ve faced too many struggles to coujnt but optimism and eagerness were the keys to finding the silver linings in it all. You must be eager for the result of the struggle because that’s going to be the next chapter in your life. To be optimistic makes a big difference in how each struggle impacts life. There will be lessons and there will be memories forever from everything.

During this school year, my youngest cousin found out she’s going to be having a little girl. She’s only sixteen years old and is scared like you wouldn’t believe. Luckily our family is very supportive and there for her. We know that there’s going to be many struggles to come from this; but optimism is definitely our key. It’s a new beginning in her life and for the whole family. Her and her boyfriend will be new parents to the baby; it’s a new chapter that will have many giggles and smiles, tears and frowns, and lots of love all for a little girl named Amiyrah Sylvia Rose. It’s the start of a new life; a very precious and new optimistic beginning.

Savannah L's AP Art Studio

I have always had an obsession with putting my thoughts down into an art journal. My concentration focuses on my journey through journal pages I have made throughout the year. It is a reflection of my year as a whole through my personal journal and photography. I started with the idea of a blossoming young love and continued through the representation of that relationship. Which then leads through the ups and downs every person feels when they are experiencing that tremendous first love.

My idea in my pictures was to showcase and emphasize the feeling from the journal page. When you look at the photo and the journal separately, there is no real uniformity, it doesn’t make sense. Layer them together and you can honestly see what the intent is. It’s not a picture you’re looking at, it’s a feeling. My intent is for the viewer to feel what I felt or sympathize with my emotions. Image twelve displays this, the girl, isolated and lonely underneath a journal page about sadness and how serene it is. Each page I have made reflected all of the emotional challenges I have faced through the year. Such as image six, the theme of freedom and flying away shows just how I felt stuck and wanted to be free. Followed by image seven which has that air of acceptance and knowing that while you may not be the happiest you’ve ever been right now, you know you are free. My emotional rollercoaster through the year in a few photos doesn’t completely show everything I went through, but reflects it best.

My Amazing AP Art Studio Students

It's that time of year again. Over the next few days my amazing AP Art Studio students will each take a turn at posting their favorite pictures and explaining some of their work from their AP Art Studio 2013-14 entries. They have each worked hard to develop their Breadth (12 works), Concentration(12 works)with a short essay, and Quality (5 works)for their AP Art Studio Portfolio Exam. Check back each day and Enjoy!

FREE Online Photo Editing Resources for Class

Here is the list of free online editing resources that my students found and presented to their classmates.
Check them out and find the one that works for you.
Online photo editing sites:
www.gimp.org
www.befunky.com
www.picmonkey.com
www.pixlr.com
www.lunapic.com
www.fotoflexer.com
www.fotor.com
www.ipiccy.com
www.phixr.com
www.ribbet.com
www.pizap.com

Drawing & Design Resource

I've recently started teaching a Foundations Drawing & Design course.  Since I've spent the past 6 years teaching mostly Digital Photography, Fibers, and AP Art I felt I needed to look for some solid resources to freshen up my old curriculum.  I've been pleasantly surprised by all the online resources available.  One in particular I really like is http://www.drawspace.com/ .  Brenda Hoddinott does a wonderful job of organizing and developing lessons for drawing students.   Check it out. 

Schoology-paperless artroom here we come!

I found a great online site for secure student group management  www.schoology.com . I looked at it over the summer, but have not had a chance to set up classes and groups till recently.  As I've mentioned before our district uses Moodle. I'm not overly impressed with the user friendliness and overall appearance of Moodle.  Apparently others feel the same way, because as a district we are starting to look at other options that might be out there...yeh!  The www.schoology.com site is far more user friendly and is set up similar to facebook so the students have no trouble navigating through it. You can link it to your Moodle site too if you want.  As a district with student email account difficulties the, to say the least, an invite code rather than email option is wonderful.  I can just give them a preset code and they can log in to their course or group.  There are separate codes for each section/group and you can change them as needed and/or remove students that you don't want in that group or section.  If you do have reliable student email accounts they can register with them as well. www.schoology.com has a gallery(albums) you can set up for students, which I love for online critiques!.  Also included are discussions, attendance, tests, links, apps, calendar of events, and the list goes on.  Oh, and did I mention it's FREE! I think I found a good fit for my students and I. I'll let you know how things go.

Give it a try if you haven't and let me know how it goes.  If you are using it or have in the past let me know what you think too.    www.schoology.com

Student Teacher-Guest Blog

I had the most wonderful semester with my student teacher-Laura. Whenever you have a student teacher come into your classroom it can be a bit unsettling to give up those classroom reins to someone else.  Well, this time there was no reason for worry!  Laura did a phenomenol job. She was dynamic in the classroom, organized (more than me most of the time), and just an all around great addition to our program. She ROCKS!!!!  So, that being said, I'd like to give Laura an opportunity to share with you one of her many success stories while student teaching with me here at BDHS.....

My time at BDHS included teaching Introductory Drawing and Painting, Introductory Fibers, and Beyond & Advanced Digital Photography.  Going in to the placement, I was confident that I could teach drawing, painting, and fibers, as these were all strengths of mine in my coursework and personal artwork.  My confidence was a bit wobbly, shall we say, as I prepared to teach digital photography.  Fortunately, I had recently taken a Digital Art class to update my Photoshop knowledge (hadn’t touched it in over a decade – eek!) and borrowed a quality digital camera to refine my photography skills.  Teaching this class turned out to be a great opportunity for me to grow as a teacher and artist. 

One particular project that was fun to see progress was a copyright-free photo contest for middle and high school students called Image Ideas.  The Ideas website is sponsored by the UW-Extension to “provide Wisconsin educators with teacher-reviewed, standards-aligned lessons, interactive tools, video, high-quality digital images, & other resources for use in curriculum development and classroom instruction.”   As I introduced this project to my students, I tried to impress upon them that they needed to do their homework and understand what their client – the Ideas website – wanted from them as photographers.   I required them to investigate the website to see what photos were already available and consider what types of subject matter teachers would be interested in using.

Silo by E. Dean                                              Contest Submission

Each student was to submit five photos with at least one having a Wisconsin-focused theme.  I encouraged them to revisit locations, refine images in Photoshop (without overdoing it), and revise their selections as they progressed toward the deadline.  This was a great opportunity for student growth as they attempted to take and select photographs that would not only be high quality, but highly useful for their client as well.  After we dropped the envelope of CDs in the mail, they eagerly awaited the results.  I think I got questions daily for at least a week! 

Columbus Restaurant by T. Simon              Contest Submission

The ImageIde@s team would be awarding only two firsts and two seconds in the high school category, so we knew the competition would be intense.  I was thrilled to open the webpage of contest results to find that we had a second place winner!  It was exciting to share with the class that Emily Gibson’s photo of jellyfish at the Shedd Aquarium had earned her a new iPod Nano.  It was great to see the smile on her face as this quiet, talented student got a round of applause from her classmates.



Jellies by E. Gibson                                                                                                   2nd Place Winner

This was one of many successful projects and satisfying moments this semester.  I thoroughly enjoyed teaching at BDHS and am amazed at what our students can accomplish.  I could not have asked for a better experience in student teaching!