IB Visual Art Show

    On Monday April 14, 2008 artwork created by 18 students decorated Clausen Hall. The students gathered there to celebrate the hard work they have done throughout the year. The IB Visual Arts program has been running for three years at AHS. In all, the years students have brought different talents to the program.  

    This year the portfolio display ranged from drawings and wire work to photography.  This display was the first part of the students’ IB grade, which included the studio or practical work the students did.  

    “The display involves 18 students who are both diploma and certificate [candidates] of the IB program,” said Art teacher Ann Harper.  The presentation had two years worth of artwork created by  the individual student artists.  

    The artworks included wire works, photography, paintings and cutouts.   The students chose their theme at the beginning of the year and made every artwork based on this one theme.  The display revealed many aspects of each theme.  

    The themes ranged from Food to Mythical Creatures.  Senior Hannah Thorpe chose Identity as her main theme and took self-portraits based on this theme. Thorpe brought a new idea by hanging her pictures to the ceiling in a rectangular shape.  
Each of her pictures portrayed an occurrence on each day for the past five months.  

    “My whole theme is Identity and focuses on introspection and looking into yourself,” said Thorpe.  Her pictures were accompanied with a journal entry about each picture. Thorpe started her artwork in December and she plans to continue until she reaches 365 days. When finished, the artwork will be similar to a story told with images and a little description.  

    “I definitely think IB is a very tedious program,” said Thorpe. “But it really pushes you especially in Photography because you’re on your own.”  Thorpe plans to attend Corcoran College of Art and Design in the fall to major in Photojournalism.  

    Senior Jenny Phung, who did her portfolio on Texture of Food, used Macro Photography to explicitly represent her idea.  
“We kind of take the little things for granted, and that is why I decided to do something on food,” said Phung.  On some occasions, Phung took more than 300 pictures in one day just to get the right image and effect she needed.  “It took me a long time to figure out that I really wanted to do something on food. First, I had to experiment with toys and people and other things.”  Phung’s artwork was part of the brilliant display and captured viewer’s attention.  “As a photographer, art is  everything in life because everything in life is basically art,” said Phung.

    Phung believes that anyone who likes art should try the IB Visual Arts class.  As for Thorpe, she enjoyed being in an IB Art class. “Art is just a part of me,” said Thorpe, “my life is art. And my art is my life.” Most of the students in the display share the same opinion and believe that art gave them a different perspective on the world.

    Every student at the exhibition was requested to explain the theme to the guests. This was intended to allow the students to practice for the second part of the IB exam.  In this part, the students gave an oral presentation about their theme, artwork and the materials they used to produce their artwork.  The artworks were on display for four days and were then put away to protect them from damage.

    “Its nice to see the unification of all these works displayed together,” said Art teacher Catherine Stark; “It has more of an impact.”  Art teachers were present with their students and worked hard to provide them with necessary help during the ceremony.