AP Art Show: Inspirations of the Inspiring

The AP Art Show currently exhibited in the gallery features collections from six seniors, with each student’s pieces reflecting distinctive focuses while also amalgamating to create an overall fluid, inspiring installation. Each portion of the gallery displays a different student’s efforts, allowing viewers to experience six unique showcases in a single stroll, with each individual exhibition offering a window into its artist’s creative process and artistic passions.
Hannah Morrell’s works express themes of femininity and natural beauty, using art to challenge societal expectations often embodied by beauty standards. Hannah recognizes her “Spa Day” piece as holding the most value because it conveys the connection between skin and beauty standards, exploring the relationship between self-care and beauty. Hannah’s artworks employ bold hues, using textured clay to form powerful works that are both striking and compelling. Hannah notes that Mrs. Kimmell and her classmates encourage her to craft with “thought and passion”, and remarks that flaws are an integral part of creation, with some of her artistic mistakes becoming her favorite components of her pieces.
Stefani Robinson’s showcase aimed to offer glimpses into the importance of the environment by uplifting the earth’s intrinsic worth, drawing her motivation to create from current environmental issues. She feels most strongly about her “Forest Piece”, portraying wildlife in watercolor and a city in ink so as to vividly represent how nature has been impacted and permanently changed by man. Many of her works utilize organic materials and shapes to craft intricate detail, with charcoal, ink, and watercolor being some of her most commonly used mediums. As advice to future AP art students, Stefani suggests keeping a schedule and developing clear themes through each work, ensuring that every piece contributes to a moving whole.
Sarah Burgamy’s collection possesses a common emotion-centered thread, with each product signifying a sensation that can overwhelm, ultimately enabling her sculpture series to symbolize vulnerability and rawness. The objective of her collection is to provoke deep thought from the viewer, inspiring one to seek his own interpretation of her pieces, uplifting the ambiguity bound to art that is also explored in her individual pieces. Sarah finds her vibrant head splurging words to be the most meaningful, as it exemplifies mental illness and the daunting thoughts that can deluge one’s mind. Sarah mentions the importance of “being free with your art” and using creation to relax and find joy, noting Mrs. Kimmell’s advice and her own visceral feelings as her goad to create.
Kamryn Williams’s abstract pieces commonly employ clay to create unique shapes and establish distinctive forms and textures, with repetition linking her installation together, creating unity between different visually stimulating, expressive pieces. Kamryn credits art as a soothing process, uplifting its capacity to serve as an escape, being an outlet for pressure and having a liberating appeal. This is apparent in her works, which often serve as methods to reduce her stress and represent herself. In her collection, Kamryn seeks to showcase her progress over the past two years of her artistic journey. She uplifts her “Flag Piece” as holding rich, personal significance, as it resembles her heritage, serving as an embodiment of herself and her origins.
Elizabeth Wilcox strives to capture childhood memories though sculpture in order to make her pieces “especially personal”, with past experiences being a main inspiration for her works. Elizabeth mentions the piece featuring a woman with a bookshelf beneath her skirt as her best craftsmanship, being dear to her due to the efforts required and the worthwhile result. Many of her artworks have a 3D-concentration, employing texture, mixed-media, and vivid hues to create focused works that represent her own childhood and the idea of growing up, allowing her pieces to evoke a nostalgic appeal. Elizabeth extolls Mrs. Kimmell as a valuable resource, oftentimes asking for feedback and coming into the art room outside of class time in order to develop her pieces to their fullest potential.
Thomas Mack’s works focus on the fantastical, with his exhibition aiming to showcase his creative ingenuity and ability to craft “unique locations and worlds”. He is inspired by the experiences not accessible in reality, using art as a means to reach these intangible ideas, rendering the inaccessible palpable. Thomas favors watercolor and consistently uses it through his pieces to enhance their dreamlike qualities, making bold concepts seem soft without detracting from their power. His favorite piece is the miniature world he created featuring a traveler checking a map, each component of his exhibition overflowing with creativity. He advises future art students to complete their work diligently and stay on task so that they can continue to progress.
Every student has poured passion, dedication, and vigor in both the arrangement and creation of their pieces, so make sure to appreciate the installations and support the students’ efforts. With such an array of focuses and mediums encompassed into a single gallery, there is much to explore, with each piece holding rich purpose, each work being meaningful.