2017-18 AP Studio Art Exhibit

Alexis Chavez

Henry Ford Academy Alameda School for Art + Design, San Antonio, Texas

Teacher: John Medina

Media: charcoal, and ink on paper

Anh Pham

The Gunnery, Washington, CT

Teacher: Andrew Richards

Media: digital drawing

Student Statement:

In this digital piece, I depict global warming's possible consequences, along with the seriousness of the damage that humans have inflicted on the environment. The boy, a young survivor of world-ending calamities, is looking through a cracked window in an abandoned factory. The space behind the glass, which is flooded as a result of rising sea levels, is being reclaimed by nature. Even with the elaborate machines in the drawing, humans cannot fight against the effect of natural disaster caused by pollution. In order to illustrate post-apocalyptic machinery accurately but in a stylized way, I have included intricate details and referenced video games like The Last of Us and Bioshock.

Annette Hui

Plano West Senior High, Plano, Texas

Teacher: Sarah Depetris

Media: india ink pens, watercolor paint, and Photoshop

Student Statement:

Listen here.

Bailey Hatcher

Westlake High School, Saratoga Springs, Utah

Teacher: Susan Purdy

Media: oil on board

Student Statement:

This piece is the fourth painting of my concentration titled “Identity Issues”. The collection of works were inspired by the afflictions I held to myself. I secretly battled with depression for years, leaving me stripped of my identity. I remember trying to figure out who I was and what I stood for, but I couldn’t find the answer. The only defining factors of myself had been absorbed from what I admired in others. My identity was fraud. Illusion. So my concentration was a journey to claim what I had once lost.

I began seeking out models for my paintings and discovered that I was only comfortable asking my closest friends. I decided that I should branch out and paint someone I barely knew. That led to a close inspection of people from all sorts of backgrounds. This painting is of a girl who was incredibly shy and apologetic, but when getting to know her she had incredible emotional depth. I felt connected to her in some way, just by painting her. This, as well as the other paintings, sparked unexpected friendships.

Aside from an emotional gain, I allowed myself to explore color, shape, composition, and the material limits of oil paint. I went through many paint brushes because my style called for crisp lines. My use of colors progressed through the concentration. It was during this painting that I was able to find more greens and blues in skin tones. My perception of the human face became clearer.

All in all, I was able to find some closure after working through my concentration. I still felt like something was missing after completing the last artwork. Although I did not resolve all of my battles, I do feel more like myself.

I would like to thank the people who have inspired me to pursue art. Roland Amendola, my ninth grade art teacher, showed me that I have great potential when I did not believe in myself. Susan Purdy, my current art teacher, is the biggest supporter of my career. She pushes me to achieve seemingly impossible things. My family and friends have been with me every step of the way.

Teacher Statement:

Listen here.

Caitlin Savage

Plano East Senior High School, Plano, Texas

Teacher: Ashley Bruegel

Media: Micron pens, white chalk pencil, white gel pen

Student Statement:

Listen here.

Teacher Statement:

Caitlin came to AP 2D Design with an innate sense of color theory and character development. We worked hard throughout the year creating a concentration narrative that was coherent, yet innovative and unique. This piece specifically was a breadth piece that she rendered with pen and ink, and, as she did with many assignments, this was an additional expansion of an earlier design piece. Many of her pieces transitioned from traditional media to digital painting as the year progressed.

Caitlin has an endless wealth of ideas and is somewhat spontaneous and stream of consciousness, so it is not uncommon for her to be working on several pieces at the same time that are completely unrelated narratives. Our challenge often centered around creating areas to let your eye rest and areas to build up depth and detail, and specifically what was important about the details she wanted to highlight in each individual piece. We tried to focus on utilizing texture and color schemes to procure a specific feeling and/or mood that helped to connect with the character or environment she was rendering. This is especially important and specific to Caitlin because she often renders futuristic scenes that are dependent on correlating colors, features, and other contextual environmental details.

Caitlin has a wonderful sense of artistic talent, but it is her engagement with space and time that makes her characters, environments, and artwork quite timeless and thought provoking. Her beautifully rendered pieces are not only visually stunning, but ironic social statements that are wise beyond her years. She is definitely a creative force to be reckoned with. 

Cici McMonigle

Harrison School for the Arts, Lakeland, Florida

Teacher: Mary Garcia

Media: pen and watercolor

Student Statement:

My pieces are never intended to give my audience any specific thoughts or experiences. It is all up for interpretation. I throw paint onto a canvas and just see what the splotches look like. It's almost like a Rorschach test every time I draw. I would go off of what I believe each paint blot looks like and would work from there. Nothing is ever sketched out, and if I'm unsatisfied with what is put down, I would layer it with more paint until I can pick out another pattern. In the end, my piece turned into an almost surreal interpretation of a World War II pilot’s struggles. I define success as being able to create and doing it well enough that I'm recognized and appreciated by others for it. The most successful aspect of this piece is that it is uniquely identifiable to me as an artist. My piece has an effective combination of line, texture, and vibrant colors within the composition, and even though I did not start out with a concept, the content eventually formed into what can also be interpreted as a lone man’s perseverance. Through my expressive style, my work evokes many emotions. It started out as a very difficult piece, but in the end it became one of my favorites. 

Dylan Etienne-Ramsay

Design & Architecture Senior High School, Miami, Florida

Teacher: Ellen Abramson

Media: digital media, writing

Student Statement:

Inspired by my experiences and ongoing exploration as a young Black male in a predominantly White and Hispanic private/isolated arts education, in this "SELF BOOK", I am bringing awareness to the reality of being isolated while still being apart of a community. In order to try and break down the stereotypical ways of thinking when it comes to segregation, judgment, and mental limitations within the African-American people.

Segregation and intolerant, close-mindedness in education as well as in ones upbringing or home life has major social repercussions. The prejudice that many young African-Americans experience and adopt causes them undue stress, as well as unnecessary mental barriers which has proven to undermine cognitive development and hinder their ability to accept and/or even tolerate things or people who aren't the status quo. Such as the assumption that all heterosexual men have to be "macho", "manly men" to be thought of as a homosexual or "soft" simply because you have feminine characteristics, or approach situations in ways that don't include violence.

With my work, I ultimately plan on pushing boundaries that have to do with personal identity within a community, strip down the walls that were created by social norms, and also celebrate individuality and the fact that you don't have to fit into any stereotype previously created. In the end, suggesting an open-minded possibility.

The image is the sum of its parts and should suggest an even more exciting and beautiful reality than the one from which it was formed.

Dylan Etienne-Ramsay

Design & Architecture Senior High School, Miami, Florida

Teacher: Ellen Abramson

Media: digital media, writing

Student Statement:

Inspired by my experiences and ongoing exploration as a young Black male in a predominantly White and Hispanic private/isolated arts education, in this "SELF BOOK", I am bringing awareness to the reality of being isolated while still being apart of a community. In order to try and break down the stereotypical ways of thinking when it comes to segregation, judgment, and mental limitations within the African-American people.

Segregation and intolerant, close-mindedness in education as well as in ones upbringing or home life has major social repercussions. The prejudice that many young African-Americans experience and adopt causes them undue stress, as well as unnecessary mental barriers which has proven to undermine cognitive development and hinder their ability to accept and/or even tolerate things or people who aren't the status quo. Such as the assumption that all heterosexual men have to be "macho", "manly men" to be thought of as a homosexual or "soft" simply because you have feminine characteristics, or approach situations in ways that don't include violence.

With my work, I ultimately plan on pushing boundaries that have to do with personal identity within a community, strip down the walls that were created by social norms, and also celebrate individuality and the fact that you don't have to fit into any stereotype previously created. In the end, suggesting an open-minded possibility.

The image is the sum of its parts and should suggest an even more exciting and beautiful reality than the one from which it was formed.

Emma Varland

Savannah Arts Academy, Savannah, GA

Teacher: Carrie Chapman

Media: slide film, string

Teacher Statement:

Emma created her art work for Junk 2 Funk. It a school wide fashion show that has a new theme every year and last years' theme was African Safari. The students are encouraged to create wearable garment out of recycled things.

Emma was influenced to make her work out of inspiration and interest in fashion and the assemblage method of using multiples to create a form.

Emma is self-driven student from a Montessori background. She is an excellent artist who is always working and developing her craft and creativity.

Kevin Cole says, "Good art is the result of intelligent decision making." I have this posted in my classroom.

I also have learned the more personal the students make their art the stronger the work seems to be. And practice makes perfect, the more time the students spend working with materials and trying to think of new things the better they get.

Emma Varland

Savannah Arts Academy, Savannah, GA

Teacher: Carrie Chapman

Media: slide film, string

Teacher Statement:

Emma created her art work for Junk 2 Funk. It a school wide fashion show that has a new theme every year and last years' theme was African Safari. The students are encouraged to create wearable garment out of recycled things.

Emma was influenced to make her work out of inspiration and interest in fashion and the assemblage method of using multiples to create a form.

Emma is self-driven student from a Montessori background. She is an excellent artist who is always working and developing her craft and creativity.

Kevin Cole says, "Good art is the result of intelligent decision making." I have this posted in my classroom.

I also have learned the more personal the students make their art the stronger the work seems to be. And practice makes perfect, the more time the students spend working with materials and trying to think of new things the better they get.

Emma Varland

Savannah Arts Academy, Savannah, GA

Teacher: Carrie Chapman

Media: slide film, string

Teacher Statement:

Emma created her art work for Junk 2 Funk. It a school wide fashion show that has a new theme every year and last years' theme was African Safari. The students are encouraged to create wearable garment out of recycled things.

Emma was influenced to make her work out of inspiration and interest in fashion and the assemblage method of using multiples to create a form.

Emma is self-driven student from a Montessori background. She is an excellent artist who is always working and developing her craft and creativity.

Kevin Cole says, "Good art is the result of intelligent decision making." I have this posted in my classroom.

I also have learned the more personal the students make their art the stronger the work seems to be. And practice makes perfect, the more time the students spend working with materials and trying to think of new things the better they get.

Feng-Ching Chang

AJ Diamond High School, Anchorage, AK

Teacher: Cullen Lickingteller

Media: marker, pen, colored pencil

Gabriell Cohen

Nova High School, Davie, Florida

Teacher: Elizabeth Vitale

Media: digital photography

Student Statement:

My photography has grown as I have. Throughout my year in AP 2D Studio Art, I found my passion in photography and have developed my perspective as an artist. The more pictures I took, the more I found my style. My breadth was a collection of pictures I always dreamt of taking, I incorporated my assignments from class with my style of photography and found myself successful. This particular piece came out of an assignment for positive and negative space and I had been messing around with the props in my class. After trying different poses and positions, I captured this photo. As the class progressed, I put my emotions into my work and my concentration became a reflection of my diary. I would suggest other artists to try everything so they can find their style. I take pictures of everything and anything I find, and it pays off because the more pictures I take the more my photography develops. Being a photographer is more than taking pictures, it's knowing what the pictures are going to look like before you even take them. That was my goal when photographing my assignments and it's what I suggest any photographer to strive for.

I used my iPhone 6S to capture this picture and one prop. The dimensions are 11" x 11". The title of my work is Squared Space. 

Grace Behrends

Potomac Falls High School, Potomac Falls, VA

Teacher: Elizabeth Chodrow

Media: digital art

Student Statement:

Listen here.

Teacher Statement:

This conceptual image, by student Grace Behrends, is the result of research, observations and inspirations from her life. Created as a part of her concentration, Grace examines how people in her life relate to their gender and sexuality, especially in regards to gender dysphoria. Her theme and emotion are symbolized through imagery and color. The caged bird image represents the inability to be one’s best self due to assigned genitals, and relates the feelings of discomfort and disconnection.

Grace initially started creating a graphic narrative as her concentration. After several panels, Grace realized the narrative really wasn’t something she actually wanted to continue, as she was not feeling passionate about what she was doing, so she began exploring a theme that was extremely personal to her - dysphoria. By altering the direction of her work while staying within the same medium, the content seemed to have a natural flow from Grace, enabling her to successfully convey personal, but thought provoking and technically strong work.

In an AP studio class, creating an environment that challenges, encourages, and supports students in their own process of discovery in decision-making and risk taking while developing personal aesthetic and voice, is paramount. Exposing students to a plethora of relative artists and other inspirational content to inform their own personal creative process, and exploration of contemporary practice, techniques and materials that best serve their intent and expression, are essential components of the class. Informal feedback and formal critique is crucial for all students, as they discuss and challenge each other’s thinking and work.

Watching Grace and all AP students grow and develop as artists while creating a portfolio of work that represents their personal passion, voice and artistic intent, was truly rewarding!

Grace Ritch

The John Cooper School, The Woodlands, Texas

Teacher: Emily Taylor

Media: clay, mirrors, wood

Student Statement:

Watch here.

Teacher Statement:

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Grace Ritch

The John Cooper School, The Woodlands, Texas

Teacher: Emily Taylor

Media: clay, mirrors, wood

Student Statement:

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Teacher Statement:

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Hannah Lawson

Lovejoy High School, Lucas, Texas

Teacher: Brice McCasland

Media: oil, spray paint, plastic baby arm, found paper, canvas, felt, house paint, graphite, and wood stain on carved wood

Teacher Statement:

Listen here.

Jennifer Lee

Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington, Kentucky

Teacher: Deborah Eller

Media: digital

Student Statement:

Wolves are a major part of various fairly tales throughout multiple cultures and therefore have been depicted through many cultural masks throughout history. The inspiration for the mask in my piece came from a combination of Eskimo and Japanese wolf masks.

When creating this piece, I was thinking for various ways to incorporate a mask on a human subject. Masks have the distinct ability to combine two forms or species into one. Therefore, through the use of three masks I was able to depict my version of the Greek mythical creature. When creating the rest of the piece I was aiming to create a distinct surrealist feeling similar to ones conveyed in various comic books and movies.

Teacher Statement:

Listen here.

Jessie Freedman

Greenwich Academy, Greenwich, CT

Teacher: Sherry Tamalonis

Media: collage and digital

Teacher Statement:

Jessie Freeman is a dedicated, talented art student who has been working as a weekend volunteer at the Jewish Museum in New York for the last few years, and she is working as an intern at the Guggenheim museum this summer. She has looked at a lot of artwork, both representational and abstract.

Jessie came to AP 2D Design class ready to work! Her process started with her Breadth section. She began by creating individual pieces of artwork, including ideas and subjects that emphasized certain elements and principles of design. She used traditional materials and computer assisted approaches in her work.

Having honed her understanding of what it takes to create excellent design artwork, Jessie began her Concentration. She started with a small sketchbook of personal line drawings and collaged pieces of artwork that inspired her. Jessie scanned some of her images into the computer and pushed her ideas forward, creating at least 50 pieces for her Concentration. Each piece took inspiration from the piece that preceded it, but was more abstract. With this process of pushing her ideas from representational to abstraction, over months of work, Jessie was able to choose the twelve pieces that best exemplified her ideas.

Jimmy Zhu

A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, West Palm Beach, Florida

Teacher: Peter Stodolak

Media: balsa wood, cardboard, plastic cylinder, lightbulb

Student Statement:

Inspired by the Gherkin Building in London’s financial district with its unorthodox floor plans and building structure, my ideas revolved around the core and skin concept. I believe that the silhouette of the building should not be dependent on the structural limitations and the current construction technology. The interior skeleton is free to take on the shape of the building’s organic membrane or shrink to allow negative space in between the floors and exterior shell. A difficulty that I faced was the procedure of lighting and photographing the piece to reveal both the interior and exterior in clear exhibition. I also wanted to construct the piece out of commonplace items in order to simplify the material selection and exemplify the leading design concept.

Teacher Statement:

Listen here.

Julieta Villalonga

Southwest Miami Senior High, Miami, Florida

Teacher: Michelle McCoy

Media: collage, can wrappers, bread, resin, oil paint, acrylic paint on cigar box

Teacher Statement:

Experiment! I tell my students that in order to grow as an artist the most important thing they can do is throw all fears out the window. They need to allow themselves to experiment, to explore, to engage, to work outside their comfort zone, and to not feel precious about their work. We are constantly in a state of learning and this process is never over.

Julieta's work is a wonderful example of this ideology. Her sensitivity and facility with materials to execute her concepts is impressive. This artwork makes a strong commentary about the inequalities of life depicting a child who is beyond the point of starvation and is juxtaposed with a cockroach that has more food to eat than the child.

Ms. Villalonga grew up in Cuba and has seen first hand the injustices people have had to suffer at the hands of the Cuban Regime. Poverty, desperation, and survival are a day-to-day reality for many, while the select few have an over abundance of everything. This work reflects her passionate commentary about the terrible injustices in the world. She chose to use non-traditional materials to further strengthen her concept.

Julieta Villalonga is an extraordinary human being and to say that she has influenced my life as a person, teacher, and artist is an understatement.

Kaitlyn Jones

Lake Howell High School, Winter Park, Florida

Teacher: Sandra Rivas-Cole

Media: aged portrait of Martin Hildebrant, referenced hand drawn tattoos superimposed on skin

Teacher Statement:

Listen here.

Kyra Steck

The Governor’s Academy, Byfield, Massachusetts

Teacher: David Oxton

Media: digital photography

Teacher Statement:

Listen here.

London Williams

Pius XI High School, Milwaukee, WI

Teacher: Cathy Burnett

Media: mixed media on nylon

Student Statement:

Listen here.

Louise Fung

International Christian School, Hong Kong

Teacher: Chris Meyer

Media: patterned paper, ink, illustration board

Student Statement:

My concentration uses symbolism to describe insecurities individuals might have, with each piece representing a different insecurity. Initially, I had wanted to create pieces that depicted different types of dreams and nightmares, however as I continued to brainstorm I realized that a lot of my ideas related to insecurities. Since I knew I wanted to incorporate writing into my concentrations and had always liked the style of antique botanical illustrations, I decided to use the same layout for my pieces and finalized my concept of using symbolism to depict insecurities. Each object included represents a possible aspect or effect of the specific insecurity. The everyday objects and insecurities I chose to incorporate were based on personal experiences, society’s stereotypes and cultural beliefs/practices. However, the meanings and significance of the objects are ultimately up to the audiences’ interpretation, as insecurities are unique to each individual. Even so, my initial ideas for the “Intelligence” included objects such as an ice bag that represents overthinking, a dart representing the fear of not knowing the correct answer and a pair of glasses that represents the fear of others stereotyping the individual because of their intelligence and only measuring their worth through their cleverness.

Teacher Statement:

Listen here. 

Megan Hall

Hardin Valley Academy, Knoxville, Tennessee

Teacher: Benjamin Eng

Media: ink on layered paper

Student Statement:

Fundamentally, my concentration is an examination of familial relations. Ultimately, I aim to understand my relationships as a means to catharsis. Conceptually, my portfolio focuses on kinetic relationships and human emotion. Kin are apparent throughout my work, though it’s didactic to me the familiarity may not be apparent to those outside my family.

A central idea throughout my pieces is connectivity and a means to an end. Pieces throughout my portfolio feature similar imagery, such as woven hair and white dresses, which work in tandem with my familial relations. 

Meredith Carlile

Flower Mound High School, Flower Mound, Texas

Teacher: Michelle Harper

Media: watercolor and ink

Student Statement:

This work standardizing stupidity was created in a moment of humorous frustration. Created as a distraction, it was in itself the result of distraction. In advanced classes, many students push beyond their ability and find themselves confused and frustrated. Which is where this piece comes in, allowing students to continue on a path of mediocrity alone without guidance or support normalizing failure. Which is why I created this piece, to bring attention to the ludicrous notion that a student struggling alone is meant to be complacent with their ability. We should be furious in our failure and work harder to improve.

Montserrat Patino

Independence High School, Frisco, Texas

Teacher: Ryan Rimmer

Media: marker

Student Statement:

As an artist I have always been driven to push the boundaries of my creativity. My inspiration for my piece started out as somewhat of a dare for myself. I decided that I wanted to draw a collection of ninety nine somethings and challenge myself to make each of the ninety nine completely be unique. I settled on hats because I thought that it would be an easy subject for this challenge. However, only a few hats into the piece, I already found myself struggling to come up with new ideas. It truly did turn out to be a difficult piece to complete, and throughout its making I was hard pressed to keep designing more and more hats. But when all was said and done, I felt like I had accomplished my goal of pushing my imagination to its limit.

Nadia Lezcano

Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Towson, MD

Teacher: J. Cyressi

Media: oil based clay on a wooden plinth standing on threaded rods

Student Statement:

Listen here.

Teacher Statement:

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Natalie Colao

Fox Lane High School, Bedford, NY

Teacher: Heather Kranz

Media: glass burned wood panels

Student Statement:

Watch here.

Teacher Statement:

Listen here.

Rachel Ryu

Stadium High School, Tacoma, WA

Teacher: Heather Gilson

Media: digital photograph

Student Statement:

Listen here.

Ruoh-Fei Liu

Kang Chiao International School, Taipei City, Taiwan

Teacher: Lisa Chen

Media: acrylic, ink pen

Student Statement:

In my work, Junk Food Crisis, I wanted to bring awareness to the seriousness of childhood obesity since it is often overlooked. I did this by delivering the idea of the increasing trend and variety of junk food use nowadays and emphasized that children who are born at this time are being affected the most. Despite the society being more improved in history, the food children are supplied with is only getting less healthy and more artificial. Therefore, this piece depicts how children these days are becoming obese from the large variety of junk food they consume, and I exaggerated this concept by portraying an overweight child who is already hospitalized, but continues to munch on his favorite junk food. The child is displayed from a side view perspective to show his obesity, and the action of licking his fingers shows how he enjoys every little bits of the junk food. Also, with an IV bag connected to his veins on his wrist and the background of a hospital depicts how he is already sick. Through this investigation and many other AP art works, I have improved in my artistic abilities and have made my goal for my future clearer. I want to be able to use illustration to bring awareness to the problems that are often overlooked.

Teacher Statement:

Watch here. 

Taylor Piiohia

Iolani School, Honolulu, HI

Teacher: Evan Tattori

Media: silver, moss

Teacher Statement:

For her AP Concentration, Taylor wanted to investigate how to represent large-scale landscapes and environments in the miniature scale of a ring. She began by thinking of different settings and feelings for each ring. For this piece she wanted to create a whimsical landscape set in a forest. However, instead of just creating a miniature forest, she decided to select specific elements from the forest that best expressed the feeling that she wanted to convey. For this ring, she felt that mushrooms and the moss best expressed and alluded to the whimsical feel that she was looking for.

My advice to other AP teachers would be to allow students as much freedom and autonomy as possible in creating and designing their work. Hopefully the classroom is an open environment in which the students know that they can present any idea that they dream up and that they will be given support, guidance and honest feedback from their teacher. This definitely requires a lot of flexibility on the part of the instructor as each student follows their own path working in different media with different techniques. That being said, student autonomy and instructor flexibility helps to build a stronger, more diverse program.

Taylor Piiohia

Iolani School, Honolulu, HI

Teacher: Evan Tattori

Media: silver, moss

Teacher Statement:

For her AP Concentration, Taylor wanted to investigate how to represent large-scale landscapes and environments in the miniature scale of a ring. She began by thinking of different settings and feelings for each ring. For this piece she wanted to create a whimsical landscape set in a forest. However, instead of just creating a miniature forest, she decided to select specific elements from the forest that best expressed the feeling that she wanted to convey. For this ring, she felt that mushrooms and the moss best expressed and alluded to the whimsical feel that she was looking for.

My advice to other AP teachers would be to allow students as much freedom and autonomy as possible in creating and designing their work. Hopefully the classroom is an open environment in which the students know that they can present any idea that they dream up and that they will be given support, guidance and honest feedback from their teacher. This definitely requires a lot of flexibility on the part of the instructor as each student follows their own path working in different media with different techniques. That being said, student autonomy and instructor flexibility helps to build a stronger, more diverse program.

Taylor Quillinan

Okemos High School, Okemos, MI

Teacher: Rachel Hollenback

Media: acrylic paint, flower decals, gesso, ink, charcoal, oil pastels, marker

Student Statement:

Starting off with the making of Fruitful, I was rather young. In fact I was only in the 7th grade. I wasn’t thinking too much through out the artistic process. I wasn’t afraid to make mistakes. I just wanted to play with colors and images that appealed to me. Essentially, I just wanted to have fun, and I feel as artists mature, we are too afraid to make mistakes and enjoy the journey. The fact that this piece is so free flowing is what I believe makes this piece interesting.