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By Gia Clark
The AP Art section of the Nyack High School Super Duper Cool Art Show gave students a chance to turn their personal experiences, memories and perspectives into artwork that represents who they are. The show included paintings, portraits, still lifes, and mixed media projects all with different styles and themes. The AP students were required to connect their work to one main theme or message, bringing their ideas together.
A lot of the artwork focused on personal moments and relationships. Several students created portraits of their friends and family, using their art to share stories from their lives. Student, Kiki Martignoni, recreated moments from her childhood and present life by painting portraits of herself at different ages. Her most memorable pieces were the paintings with her family, including a painting of her Dad holding her as a child and another of her older sister losing her first tooth. Through these paintings, she explored how the theme of trust and stability are crucial in the field of medicine, which she wants to pursue in the future.
Another student Stella Artin, focused her artwork on her friends and everyday moments. The theme that she chose was finding beauty in the little things, such as small moments that some people might overlook. One standout piece was a portrait of her and her friends braiding each other's hair and painting their nails, while another captured her and a friend baking together. She used warm colors and lighting in the pieces to reflect how finding beauty and warmth in memories is what makes them so special to her.
While many students focused on realism and personal memories, others used symbolism and abstraction to express emotions and ideas. Student Anders Artin, combined collage, acrylic paint and pastels to represent the rhythm and emotion of jazz music. In his pieces, he painted lines flowing outward from trumpets, creating movement to reflect the improvisational feeling of jazz. His artwork stood out because the movement and emotion in each piece captured the energy and sound of jazz itself. Another student explored the relationship between real and online worlds. One piece that represented this was a painting of a girl running down a path toward another world, showing how people can often use technology as an escape. Another piece showed a rainbow over a mountain, one side of the mountain having grass on it while the other was bare to show the separation of the digital world from the real world. Through contrast and symbolism, the pieces conveyed how technology can often blur the line between isolation and connection throughout people's lives.
What made the Art Show memorable was the fact that each student's work was different and unique. Some pieces were highly detailed and realistic, compared to other pieces that were abstract and contained more symbolism. Even though the styles of the artwork varied, each collection reflected experiences and perspectives of the artist behind it. The art show was more than just an exhibition of artwork but a way for students to share their voice and tell stories about their lives.
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