Art Appreciation at Neuwirth

For the past 5 years, Ms. Stobart has been Neuwirth's very own art teacher and curator, contributing multiple murals to the walls of the school and teaching every new year of students the love of painting, bringing more life and creativity to this school. However, it isn't just Stobart that is doing all of this good work, it's the students too.

Junior Prints

Starting on June 12th, Junior Art students will begin creating their Final Projects and they've been preparing for this moment all year. Currently they're working on what's called and Ink Block Print, where they carve into a foam tablet to create a drawing in which they'll later roll ink over so they can print it onto a piece of paper. Here are some examples of what students in the Junior Class have made for their ink blocks and for their watercolor projects. A standout of them all would be Pablo Martinon’s Strawberry Ink Block. The Ink Block itself is pretty complex and detailed, with the drawing itself being very appealing on its own. The lines pop out a lot, and it’s exciting to wonder how the final product will look like. 

He, among the many other students in her class, have really made Stobart proud of their work, even though some aren’t recognized for prowess as much as they should. Stobart has said that “for example, Citlali Salgado. She’s amazing. She does amazing work, she is always so dedicated. Michelle Aguilar same thing. She's always very dedicated to what she does. I really really appreciate that in her.” Citlali Salgado’s print is also showing a lot of promise, with all of its surprising amount of detail and just how much both the flower and heart pop out in the sketch. 

It shows a lot of promise from all of these students that they were able to make such creative pieces of art and many in the school are excited to see what their finals will look like.

Senior Send Offs

By June 6th, Seniors in the AP Art class would have started creating incredible clay and lego figures and art pieces, in which here are a few standout examples. These Seniors took Stobart’s Junior class and loved it so much that they wanted to take her class again. Stobart has stated that one of the biggest reasons why she started this new advanced art class was because she had “a lot of kids that in art one are destined for more than art one, or they come in even though maybe they haven't done a whole lot with block printing or watercolor or acrylics, they're still really innately talented; or even if they're not innately talented they're dedicated to their own artistic process practice and want more.”

AP Art students receive a lot more freedom on what they want to do for their class. They can ask Stobart for specific materials so that they can try out a new medium of art and they can spend their entire class times just on that. They can even revisit past year projects and do them again, but with more advanced materials. ​​There were even some Seniors who participated in making Ink Blocks, just with a more difficult and professional tablet. Even some Juniors took a part in using those same materials. Here above are examples of some of many works of art that these incredibly talented students. There are also currently Seniors who are using clay or legos to create statues and figures for their finals. 

There’s a lot of promise in all of these students and Ms. Stobart loves “the way that students are hungry for more.”–“That's always a good place to be as an art teacher, when kids want more. I love that kids that are wanting to move on from certain media that they're playing around with to working with the same type of media that the advanced our kids are.” Stobart has been very proud of her students, and even though she wishes she could do more for them, like take them on even or do art shows, it gives her a lot of joy seeing all of the improvement that her students have made and how talented they are. She looks towards a lot of her students having much success in the future.

Artist Spotlights

Stobart herself has highlighted these two students specifically when talking about students she feels should get more recognition for their amazing work. Since day one, Maria Hernandez has shown much dedication and talent in her art and a willingness to try out new artistic endeavors even when it’s incredibly difficult. Maria has even become a published artist all on her own and now that she will be graduating in just two weeks, she’ll have to face new challenges as she goes into the workforce as an artist. Stobart has said that she “could not be more proud of her. That girl’s going places.”

Jeffrey Hernandez is another shining example of a student who has also shown much dedication to art and a strong willingness to push himself, though he wasn’t always such an amazing artist. At the start of his Junior, first entering Stobart’s class, he wasn’t the best artist. However, as time has gone on, he’s shown an extreme dedication to his craft and has improved massively. Currently, he has the biggest part of the mural in the art room and the figure he made sits right atop Stobart’s desk at all times. Stoabart has praised his for how “he always wants to go for it. He always wants to challenge himself. He's definitely shown a lot of growth. A lot.”