AP Art is a college-level course where students develop and showcase their artistic voice through a personal body of work. Over the year, students explore themes, experiment with techniques, and reflect deeply on their creative process. The final portfolio, submitted to the College Board, demonstrates both technical skill and conceptual growth. What you see here is the result of months of dedication, curiosity, and bold self-expression. 

Liv Nelson

Sustained Investigation

Inquiry:

The inquiry that began my sustained investigation was how humans fear change, and why. Although

we go through many evolutions and stages throughout life, for a lot of people, it comes with a large

emotional resistance. I wanted to explore this psychological aversion through biological processes. I

used imagery of evolution, mitosis, and some of the oldest types of animals (lizards, fish,

amphibians) as my subjects.

At first, my sustained investigation was very cut and dry. I mainly focused on the parallels of phases

through life and evolution. But later on, I began to focus more on the psychological aspect, and what

the aftermath of large life-altering changes feels like. And to me, this felt more of a reflection of

mitosis, where the cell splits into two, and you have to leave half of you behind. I enjoyed

experimenting with different physical mediums to express my inquiry, such as felting and knitting.

Evan Cannon 

Sustained Investigation

Inquiry: 

How can a story be told in a single image? I have always found storytelling to be interesting and how

they can express ideas and emotions. As I began work on my sustained investigation, I started to

experiment with different ways of telling stories like composition, color, mood, shapes, and facial

expressions and body language. I created artwork that explored different genres and themes for the

stories.

I explored my sustained investigation by experimenting with different ways to convey stories. In

works 11 and 12 I used character’s expressions to convey the mood of the image. In works 10, 11,

13, and 14 I used light and shadows to give the pieces more dramatic moods. For work 8 I created

characters to appear in the piece to help convey the theme of the story with their designs.

Savannah Gray

Sustained Investigation

Inquiry: 

My work reflects my interest in discovering where we can find beauty and what we can learn from it. I

hoped to create pieces that highlight the beauty and meaning behind things that people might

overlook. I wanted to develop this idea through more detailed paintings and a highlighted focal point

in many of my paintings in order to highlight the beauty and the qualities of it we can learn from. I

wanted to explore things that went under the radar that have a simple and inspirational beauty about

it.

As I created my work I practiced painting children & nature in order to explore the beauties &

pureness of them. I wanted to look into the innocence & kindness of children & the stability &

elegance of nature. This can be seen in image #9, & #7, with many of my other works like #10 & #4.

I developed through my inquiry by branching out from illustrating kids (while getting faster at creating

them) & doing more nature investigations. I did this by finding things that we may take for granted or

admire such as kids or trees & showing qualities about them that are beautiful & we can learn from.

Emily Sticco

Sustained Investigation

Inquiry:

My sustained investigation explores the constant underlying fear that comes when you feel fixedly

different from the people around you, and eventually, the avoidance and exhaustion that can stem

from that fear. I wanted to show the terror that can come with mundanity by exaggerating my feelings

into unrealistic/abstract situations and by incorporating horror elements into my art. I wanted to

balance anxiety and apathy, as deliberately failing to resist against a fear is an easy coping

mechanism to fall back on.

Originally, my sustained investigation was more focused on the causes of the fear I felt (particularly

identity and interaction), but became more focused on my reactions later on. Themes of terror gave

way to unease and eventually apathy as I learned about my gut reactions to danger. The focus of my

inquiry also shifted gradually from natural processes to man-made situations.

Jasper Luker

Sustained Investigation

Inquiry: 

How do different people view the creation of humans? Humans have always been curious about

absolutely everything, and every culture seems to have its own interpretation of where we come

from. Despite this, many of these stories share common elements, perhaps suggesting that some

of them descend from the same parent stories or that there was an exchange of ideas at some

point. Many stories involve a deity sculpting humans from clay, and usually breathing life into them in

some way. How do humans relate to each other and their creators?

Originally, I chose my inquiry because I found it fascinating that many cultures believe that humans

were created out of earth. I liked the idea of creating something living out of something inorganic. To

get to know the materials I meant to depict, I experimented with the process of refining and sculpting

clay, and I ground rocks down to make paint. With further research, I found stories that didn't fit into

this earthy trend, such as the Norse myth in which humans were created from trees. After doing this

research, I created my own myth that was influenced by existing myths.

Aspen Engh

Sustained Investigation

Inquiry: 

I wanted to explore the horror genre and create my own story, characters, and world. My story

sprouted from a single question. What would happen if you could grow meat just as easily as you

could a plant? What would be the implications? Could that meat feel pain? Would that meat be

considered vegan? If they could grow cow meat, what's to stop them from growing human meat?

Would that meat even be considered human?

I started this project with a VERY different idea. I wanted to design a Y2K-inspired doll line, but I was

never quite sold on the idea. Halfway through the project, I began to lose interest. I took a break from

my doll project to explore a story that I had been working on in my free time. I wiped up a quick

sketch of a scientist standing in front of a wall made of meat. I developed her story as I drew. The

more I came up with, the more my interest in the story grew. I decided to switch projects completely.

That way, I could focus my energy on something that I was actually excited about.

Chelsey Weaver

Sustained Investigation

Inquiry: 

What kinds of connections can be made? Then what does connection do to affect a persons daily

life, if the type of connection is made different how does it effect it then?

Finding how people make and break different connections. What happens if you lose connections

and how that effects your state. What kinds of connection can be made with things other than

people? Can a relationship start good and end bad. Exploring how permanent mark making effects

how to make a piece. Experimenting with more traditional art materials. different kinds of textures. i

started off wanting to keep throughout the pieces having the lion and the rat, to show the positive

and the negatives. i found later different ways to show good and bad. and going to more obscure

kinds of connection