Advanced Art and Design
Mid Year Reflection
This first half of the year was challenging for everyone, the new schedule and rules that went along with the pandemic were difficult to adjust to. I had to learn how to do my schoolwork on the go, bring my art supplies from home to school and not forget anything, to not forget due dates and so on. The past 3 years I had art all year for most of the time and I had gotten into a rythym with my schedule for art class. This first half of the year was difficult in the sense where I had to learn how to accept what was going on and do my best. I had to learn how to perservere when doing sustained investigations and thought how could I show my inquiry question another way? When I thought I had thought of everything, and suddenly I would get an idea. This first half has definitely taught me to be a better student.
Advanced art and Design this semester wasn't always a challenge, but relaxing. During the pandemic where everyone has had their fair share of annoyance that came with that stress. One thing that brought me back to easier and simple times has been art class. Like I said, every year of high school I've taken art and usually I have it first thing in the morning like I've always had it. Sitting there and doiing my projects and generating ideas brought me back to my old normal and that has been really good for me.
This year I also discovered a new style I enjoy to make art with. For my sustained investigation I've been drawing modern pop culture and media pieces about the pressures on womens minds and bodies due to the way the media defines what "pretty" or "beautiful" is, and I've also done a little bit about what younger children see and are influenced by when they see the media or they buy toys like barbies. I've enjoyed doing artwork like this because it's something that everyone should see and it makes you think about how unimportant you're smaller insecurities are just because you don't look a certain way.
Moving forward, I hope that I learn to get on a good schedule to get all my projects not only done on time but also done as well as I can make them. I've definitely worked hard to do this already but I have a lot of room for improvement. I am excited to see what my artwork looks like at the end of this year.
End of Year Reflection
My learning in this class has been a large component of what I've taken away from my senior year. I learned a lot about life lessons like perserverance and time management. I had quite a difficult time coming up with a project with the same prompt all year, this definitely forced me to think deeply and perservere even though I was sick of my inquiry question. Even though I was stuck on ideas and those things I knew I need to get this done, I need to quickly and thoroughly think because a new project is due every single week. This was key to my learning this year. The thing that I learned for my skills in art I would also count as one of my favorite successes this year, that is branching out on how I make my art. I never did paint or collage before, and if you know me I hate changing the way I do things. This taught me to embrace change.
A struggle I had was staying motivated. I quickly grew sick of my inquiry question and did not want to do it at all. But in my personal life I started to feel insecure myself even though I was doing these art projects about women insecurity. I honestly forgot the meaning of it when I was struggling with it on my own. But as I got more motivated this year I realized that the art I was making was true and the message was extremely correct. This helped me personally and acedemically.
As a newly commited student to Quinnipiac University, I hope I can continue to do some fun art classes. High school has taught me the importance of art for the world but also for yourself. The way you dress or do makeup or how you decorate things is all art, this concept has been building for me since freshman year and I have so much more to learn about such an important thing. I hope that I continue to further my art education. Thank you, Mrs. Medsker for your patience and dedication because it really made an impact on me these last 4 years, before I would've never considered taking any art classes unless it was a requirement.