Full of vibrant colors and vivid textures, Ms. Moncure’s AP Studio Art class resembles an art gallery as much as it does a classroom. The students in the class produce a wide array of two-dimensional media for artwork, from oil paintings to graphic designs to photographs, and ultimately develop a portfolio to submit to the CollegeBoard for scoring.
Studio Art gives students an opportunity to practice a variety of different skills in their artwork and develop a detailed body of work focused around a specific theme. The first half of the year is designed to give variety to students’ artwork. The so-called breadth semester of the class exists to give students, “range in design and content matter,” Ms. Moncure said. This piece of the class provides 14 broad concepts, for example, “letter” or “balance.” Students are then expected to produce a piece of original artwork that clearly displays the topic. One topic, for instance, is ‘extreme’, the goal of which is to show impactful points of view or emotions, or work with an unusual material. Hannah Katz (’16) made a portrait out of yarn to fulfill the requirement.
During the second semester, students complete in-depth work centered around a theme. Usually all in one medium, the “depth” portion of the year typically has a broad subject which students present in different contexts through 12 pieces of art. While students this year have not begun working on their concentrations, past concentrations have focused on topics like typography, which is the art of arranging letters to make them legible and aesthetically pleasing, global fashion trends, and more.
Ms. Moncure described the class as a lot of hard work. With a new piece of art due almost weekly, students are constantly working on and creating their next masterpiece.
