Final Advanced Art Portfolio

Finishing up the 2018 school year, I’d have to say that Advanced Studio was probably one of my favorite classes that I took. The whole open-ended-ness of it really gave me room to be creative and focus on the projects that I felt invested in; while still having that structure with a rubric and critiques, something that you would also find in any other art class. I think another plus that this class has is the opportunities that you get to explore new media’s that you’ve potentially never deleted with before. During sophomore year our materials were more limited, as they had to fit with the rubric, and even when we were given free reign, I had the habit of sticking to watercolors and ink. Though my love of these two media’s still existed going into Advanced Studio, I also began to develop a liking to media’s that I had never considered before; the biggest probably being magazine colleges. Going through National Geographic and picking out all the images that I thought could either tell a story or have a meaning to them, some of the works that I’m most proud of that I made this year were ones that I created with magazines.

Though I did enjoy Advanced Studio this year, there were some aspects that I struggled with. Workload being one of them, deadlines for artist critiques and projects in other classes always have a tendency to fall on the same date. That’s why I would recommend to any underclassmen that are considering taking this class: really plan out your schedule. The workload in junior year is no joke. But if you understand that and make the time, it is all possible to complete. Something else that I struggled with was establishing my concentration. I bounced around with a few ideas but I really couldn’t decide. But after looking back at a lot of my previous pieces I saw a pattern of snakes appearing. I really enjoyed creating those pieces that I looked at, so when I was questioned about what I wanted my concentration to be, I decided that snakes would work.

Overall I really enjoyed Advanced Studio this year. I created plenty of works that I’m really proud of in the end, my three favorites this year probably being “Expansion of Nirvana”, “Doberman”, and “Blue Serpent”, and I think the class really helped me advance as an artist. And besides this being a really fun and interesting class, another reason why I would recommend this to other students would be the opportunities for recognition. There are many competitions that Ms.Medsker enters students works each year, and besides the potential prizes, these awards also look good on a college resumes. In the end, I really though enjoyed this class, it was a fun learning environment and a class that I suggest all students with an interest in art take.