The Buzz

How does art look to the people who create it? How do they find meaning in their work for both themselves and how do they express that meaning for other people to see? How do they develop a sense of themselves through their artwork? Bluntly put, what does art mean to artists? This is the question that I explored when I got the opportunity to sit down with a couple of NRHS’s own art students to ask them about their work, their work ethic, and what they think they get out of these creative and reflective classes that the high school offers.

Art Portfolio

A little known class that the high school has carried for some years now is known as Art Portfolio, an Honors class that builds upon skills developed in Foundations of Art as well as other preliminary art courses. The course is offered to both junior and senior students. The class, taught by Mr. Dexter, serves “to build technical, conceptual, and aesthetic mastery in the artist’s medium of choice,” which essentially culminates in what’s known as an “artist statement”, a consistent theme or messaging that the artist highlights in each of their works.

So then, what will this portfolio be used for?

“Showing this to colleges for art degree, it shows that I can create, ” says Michael Foley, a senior taking the class currently, and “ that I can do hand-drawing.” Both of which are essential skills for his aim of majoring in architecture during college. However, Foley says that’s not the only reason he chose to take the class. To him, the class is also about the process, not always the end result. “ I don’t know what ideas I’m going to get,” He explains, “so whatever pieces come out of it, it’s going to be interesting to see.”

For insight into the daily experience of an Art Portfolio student, Foley explained the basic structure of the class. When students get an assignment they work to conceptualize the drawing, sketch it out, fill it in, and balance other work as well. On top of that, deadlines are cut close so the students must channel their ideas in a limited amount of time. “Completing the work is definitely a time crunch,” He notes, but still, he believes that the class is, “Not just for [people] into art, but if other people want to experience” what it feels like to be an artist, they should definitely look at this course.

Inktober

In addition, Art Portfolio is responsible for the yearly Inktober artwork that hang on Main Street of the school during the spooky season. Each day of the month there is a new theme, brought by a single word which they then have to translate into a piece with one of the simplest mediums: ink and paper.

“[It’s] very limitless because artists can choose to interpret that word in however way they prefer.” Explains senior Cybele Miller, who participated in the tradition last year. Her work, in response to the prompt word “spiders” is featured below. When approaching this assignment, Miller told me how she wanted to “include some semblance of the word” but also make her version of the word more complex. At the time, she was inspired by her Anatomy Capstone Project in which she compared spider limbs to that of humans. “So that was on my mind when I was doing Inktober and I sort of translated that into a piece.”

Foley also created an Inktober piece in response to one of this year’s prompts: binoculars. “I felt like maybe I could do something out of my own style.” So his mind went to aliens and eventually, to robots. “When you look at the piece it’s not fully shaded or anything, cause some other [Inktober] pieces are shaded, but mine I kind of realized that I don’t like this look of having it fully shaded.” His work is featured below.

AP 2D Art & Design

Starting last year, North Reading High School introduced the AP 2D Art & Design course for, according to the Program of Studies, “ junior and senior students planning to major or minor in visual arts in college.” This course, also taught by Mr. Dexter, emphasizes key values in its AP curriculum such as Synthesis, Development of Ideas, Exploration, and Documentation. Like Art Portfolio, the goal of AP Art is to progress towards an end of the year portfolio, a collection of the student’s hand-chosen works. But the rules for this portfolio are slightly more divisive, as it must include 15 total pieces for the final art portfolio within a customized theme that you create which will be critiqued for an exam grade by a panel of AP judges at the end of the year.

Miller says that she chose to take this class because, “I’ve always identified as an artist,” and “I’ve always wanted to be challenged in an art class.” She enjoys the freedom of the class which allows her to create more complex, interpretive pieces, and to be challenged much more than she has been in the past. In addition, this year AP 2D Art & Design has run at the same time as the Art Portfolio class for which Miller notes, “I feel lucky” to be able to take the class and work alongside the Art Portfolio students. She enjoys embracing the culture of artists exchanging ideas and crafting new work with friends. “Regardless of the difficulty level of the class, we’re all there for the same reason… we’re making stuff.”

To students interested in taking AP 2D Art & Design in either their junior or senior year, Miller says you should go for it:“ If you really do feel passionate about creating meaningful art, then it is a class that will help you grow as an artist.” This class is very important to her because as she illustrates, “You can come in with your own values and you own ideas, and you have the freedom to execute them the way you want to, and you have a teacher that can help work through that with you.” To any students interested in taking AP 2D Art, be sure to reach out to Mr. Dexter with any questions or concerns for an even more in-depth preview of the assignments/expectations of the course.

Miller’s outlook for the year is hopeful and she wants to truly embrace the explorative spirit that AP 2D Art has offered her, saying in part, “maybe use a bigger canvas, maybe even using oil paint… just experimenting and exploring.” She and other students have noted that they are very grateful to have had the opportunity during high school to express themselves. More than notoriety, Cybele emphasizes that “people should care about the effort that goes into those [art] classes” and know how much it means to the people in them that they have an environment where they can express themselves, collaborate, and be challenged by work that they enjoy. If anything, these conversations have shown me what a unique opportunity students at North Reading now have to demonstrate their interest in art through more challenging courses that, like AP 2D Art, treat their work with a certain maturity and prepare them skillfully for college.

_{Featured Image courtesy of Cybele Miller.}