MARIAN HIGH SCHOOL
AP ART & DESIGN
2021 SHOW
Welcome to Marian High School 2021 Virtual AP Art and Design Show.
AP Art and Design is a rigorous year long art course. Students are asked to create a Sustained Investigation (SI) where they try to answer a question with their artwork. Throughout their exploration students must document their work, experiment, revise, and show their process. The student AP portfolios, which are sent digitally, have 15 spaces to include these process photos and finished works but no specific number for either category! When you look through the show you will see students with experimental work, pieces in progress, finished works, and sketchbook images.
This year has provided these young ladies with numerous challenges and learning formats. Switching several times from hybrid, to virtual distance learning, to full in person learning- having to pick up and drop off art work- constantly learning to adapt AND still make artwork! Through all of this they have persevered to create the diverse artwork you will see below.
Congratulations Students and Enjoy the Show,
Mrs. Bailey
LAUREN SASS
My SI question is: “In such a chaotic and loud world, where can we find the beauty in nature around us?”. My SI started out as more of an architectural view, however, I found that as I was working, as the world became more and more crazy, I found peace in the natural world around me. While I am very interested in architecture, I decided that I wanted to make my SI something I felt truly inspired by at that moment, so I changed it. I took all of my favorite pictures from my favorite places I had visited, and took new and different ways to represent them in different mediums.
My experience in AP art this year has been very different. Since normally we would be meeting every day, I had to work extra hard to get work done at home and brainstorm ideas on my own. I often had moments when I thought to myself if I was going to be able to come up with an idea, and spent time changing and reworking themes and finding what inspired me. Working at home and showing what I had done on zoom presentations was not ideal, however, it helped me throughout my process to hear others opinions and thoughts, to get a different perspective. I had a huge moment of pride when I suddenly felt like my SI was coming together. I had started to get lost in my SI, until I had a moment when I realized exactly what I wanted it to be. Right then I knew that I had found what I felt i was supposed to be doing. I felt more confident in my art, tried experimenting more, and felt happier about it overall.
ATHENA MAMATAS
3D AP Art and Design
How can I use sculpting and clay to express the beauty within the unexpected?
My experience in AP:
Starting as a Pottery I student, I would have never imagined myself in this position. I did not consider myself to be an artist or creative until I sat down in that class. Mrs. Bailey would assign us projects and I oftentimes felt myself wanting to push the boundaries and create something more than what was the bare minimum. She always gave us plenty of room to express and alter our pieces no matter if we were just to create a mug or a tile, every piece would represent who we are. It was when Mrs. Bailey asked me to be in AP 3D art that I realized I was able to create pieces that would express and inspire. My experiences in AP Art have revealed to me my creative side and allowed me to express my ideas through my pieces. This class has shown me the endless possibilities I can create instantly with my hands while incorporating personal experiences or thoughts into them. I have realized that with the more pieces I create, the more comfortable I feel using materials and processes that I have not done before. I am inclined to continue experimenting in this class and ultimately creating a portfolio that represents what I have gathered from my time in AP art.
CHLOE WALBLAY
My Experience in AP Art
My experience in AP art this year has been wonderful. Even though I've been stuck at home I've been able to experiment with clay sculpture. I've never taken a pottery class or done anything with clay before, so these are my first pieces EVER created, and I couldn't be more proud of myself. I have been on a spree of making small clay creatures for my friends, but I haven't gotten to paint them yet. I've also created a massive clay zodiac mask; it is a 3D creation of one of my 2D paintings, "Snakes Poison", that has my astrological chart incorporated into it. It starts at my rising in Pisces, with the planets all in their correct position to the degree surrounding my signs.
ADRIANA GRILLO
My experience in AP Art has definitely been interesting so far this year. I have struggled with my creativity and the ability to produce dedicated pieces. Thankfully, Mrs. Bailey suggested that I loosen up and try working with charcoals on larger pieces of paper. I currently paint/draw the students in the room while they are working on their own pieces. Through doing this I focused less on accuracy and more on movement and shape.
GRACE SHAPIRO
AP Art has been my escape from the stress of school this year. Senior year has been rough, but having this art class has made it bearable. I have been able to explore with art in ways that I have never had the freedom to before. The constraints of the AP Portfolio have actually been immensely fun since I have never done a series of connected artworks before. I don’t enjoy analyzing my work for experimentation and revision, but I think that it has forced me to develop my work and create more advanced pieces.
My sustained investigation follows a girl as she travels through her life, depicted in terms of her emotions. The series of artworks begins as she falls out of reality, and travels through landscapes of fear, confusion, anger, peace, and happiness before returning to her childhood bedroom. I also wanted to use every medium that I could in order to show the differences between the emotions we feel and how we react to them. I kept the same style throughout the pieces to contrast the different mediums and create a sense of continuity. Despite the different emotions, landscapes, and passing of time, it is still the same person who is experiencing them.
KARA SIGLER
My sustained investigation is, “Why is Feminism important?” I remained fairly on task with my SI throughout the year because I love painting the beauty of femininity. I used a lot of blue tones to combat the “pink is for girls” trope. As a woman, in a society where our voices are silenced by the patriarchy, I enjoyed being able to have a voice through art. Every piece that I have made has had its mouth, or voice, shut and taken away. The melancholy expressions that I displayed on the subjects are supposed to convey all of the negative emotions associated with sexism and misogyny. Over the course of this year, I’ve been able to reconnect with my passion for art and advocating on women’s issues; and enjoyed every second of it.
I experienced a lot of artist and mental blocks this year. With the constant changing of online school to in person, I had a hard time staying focused. There were several instances where I despised my work and wanted nothing to do with it. Other than only one, I grew to love them. I am proud of the way I was able to use oil paint, for I used to steer clear of them because I believed I wasn’t experienced enough to use them. I learned that going out of your comfort zone is part of being an artist. Pushing boundaries on the canvas allows an artist to grow. Because of this realization I had during this year, oils are now my favorite paint.
AINSLIE VANNESTE
I am trying to use architecture from all over the world to try and influence my artwork. I look at the colors and the structures and shapes from the architecture of the buildings. With my art I try to capture the scenery and structure of different countries all around the world. In AP pottery I feel like I get to do art to express myself. It gives me a break from the rest of my stressful day and time to decompress.
LILY GABOS
This is my first year in AP Art and my only regret is not taking it last year, or even my sophomore year. I love using my creative outlet whenever I can. Being in AP Art this year has given me the opportunity to use that outlet everyday. It’s oftentimes very difficult to find time in the day to set aside a chunk of time to just do art, so I was very grateful for this opportunity during the school year.
Not only do I enjoy the basic forms of art like painting and drawing, but I also enjoy the art of writing. Quarantine at the beginning of 2020 last year really opened my eyes to the art of writing. I developed a long lost love of mine, reading, specifically poetry. Something about the art of using articulated words to convey a message brings me so much joy. Aside from reading poetry, I began to write my own, which soon became a big hobby of mine. Whether I was having a great day and felt like I was on top of the world, or I was having a bad day and felt destroyed by the world around me, writing poetry became my outlet to release all of those emotions into my little black journal.
In late 2020, when we started discussing our portfolios and our SI, I was having a lot of trouble. After lots of thinking, I asked myself, “What do you love to do?” Or “What do you feel passionate about?” My answers were short and simple: painting, mental health, and writing. I soon developed the idea of creating illustrations forr my poems. So I did. For the past few months I have been creating pieces, mostly paintings, some photography, based on the poems I have written. Some of these tackle mental health, social injustices, addiction, death, and just life overall.
I can’t wait to finish everything up within the next few weeks and for everyone to see everything I have been working on!
LIZZY CARTER
My SI is “how can we see the beauty in something that is incomplete?” At the beginning of the year, my SI had more to do with imperfection and I also explored the idea of contrast.
My experience in AP Pottery this year was something I really am proud of. At the beginning of the year, I had no experience throwing on the wheel and very little experience in pottery all together. I had to try to tie pieces into my SI while also trying to learn the skills needed to be successful in this class. Pottery has been a huge stress reliever for me and I am very proud of all that I have been able to accomplish while being online for a part of this year.
CARA KOLWICH
I have always enjoyed working with arts and craft, so I decided to venture into ap 3-d art to explore more techniques. I love keeping my art fun and ugly. In this class I have been able to challenge myself with new concepts, while still keeping my own personal style. I have experimented with fabric structure, contrasting elements, brush strokes, color combinations, and perspective. I have tried many new mediums, my new favorite being clay. I feel like I have grown as an artist in this class and love the new ideas that I have come up with.
