Advanced Studio Art

Overall, advanced studio art was a great experience. I was able to further develop my own style, while learning which techniques I enjoy the most and which ones I will avoid. I think the skills I have developed in this class have been invaluable and have affected even the art I create outside of school. I have had to create so many different pieces this year it has forced me to learn and practice over and over again, and I am really happy with how this year has gone.

The biggest part of advanced studio art was my concentration. It developed so much over the course of the few months that I worked on it. I think it is clear that my abilities were developing rapidly as I was able to achieve beautiful and bright colors early on in these pieces. The theme changed a few times. It started as sea creatures, and later I wanted to have a message so I began working with the theme of hunting abuse to these creatures; however I settled back into more portrait style images as I studied their complex movements and gestures through my art.

Another part of this class that I notice clear development is in my ability to work with others. At the beginning of the second semester we did out first independent project. For this project I chose to work with a partner to create a piece of work that would show both of our style in an interesting way. I think we approached this in the wrong way. We were to afraid to tell each other when something was a bad idea artistically. We ended up going with things we would have never done on our own. I do not think either of us had our artistic style developed much at this point. When we got the chance to do our environment project together at the end of the year, I saw a big change. We got the chance to recognize where we were each stronger, and took advantage of this. We were able to meld our style together into one cohesive piece where we cannot tell who did one section versus another.

Advanced Studio Art has been my favorite art class so far in my high school career. It was one of my favorite classes this year. It has allowed me to develop artistically, but it has also fostered a growth in who I am as a person. Art has become very important to me, and this importance has been so clear to me this year. Creating is an essential outlet to me. I need to have art to balance out the kind of work I have to do in other classes. Even if I can't take an art class next year or after a graduate, I never want to stop creating.