Advanced Studio Practice

For Seniors who have built their skills and developed personal concepts for their artwork. How will you continue to build your creative voice after graduation? Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.” This course will explore creative strategies to keep art in your life after high school, including workshopping, refining your interests, and learning to seek out and enjoy seeing art in the world.  Open to 12th graders who have taken at least one level 2 class and with permission from the Department Head. 

Advanced Mixed Media

If you are committed to Mixed Media and ready to go deeper, this class is for you. Working with materials you already know and love, you will develop a portfolio of works about a particular theme. Research into how and why artists have used layering and alternative materials in their art will support your studio practice.  Prerequisites: Mixed Media and recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Advanced Sculpture

This course builds off your interests and success from Sculpture 1 and provides the opportunity to improve in technique. You will deepen your understanding of a chosen process through rigor and self-direction. Exhibiting completed artworks with intention and concept is required. Prerequisites: Sculpture and recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Advanced Drawing + Painting

This course builds off your interests and success from Sculpture 1 and provides the opportunity to improve in technique. You will deepen your understanding of a chosen process through rigor and self-direction. Exhibiting completed artworks with intention and concept is required. Prerequisites: Sculpture and recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Advanced Ceramics

This course builds off the foundational skills from Ceramics and provides the opportunity to expand on hand-building and wheel-throwing practices. You will explore your point of view as a ceramicist by creating a portfolio inspired by a theme or chosen process. Research into how and why artists have and continue to use clay as a method of expression and functionality will support your studio practice.  Prerequisites: Ceramics and recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Advanced Digital Art

This course builds off your technical skills and interests in Digital Art. You will enhance your understanding of digital art-making tools while developing your point of view as a digital artist. Researching contemporary digital practices will support your self-directed process and help you explore how to display your work on campus. Prerequisites: Digital Art and recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Ceramics

This course is dedicated to the exploration of how a ball of clay can lead us toward complex ideas and functional objects. Based on hand-building techniques and wheel throwing students will focus on form, structure, making mistakes, and idea development. By exploring the cultural connections of food and community and the rituals they were created for, students will build vessels and tableware for a social gathering. There will be time for students to design their paths as their skills and confidence grow to give them more control over the objects they envision. Prerequisites: Intro to 3D or by the recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Graphic Design

How does design impact how we think, learn and interact? In this course we will investigate these questions as we explore how graphic communication is woven into our daily lives. Students will gain insight into a range of graphic design applications such as branding and advertising, illustration, typography, information design, and editorial publication. Working primarily with Adobe Illustrator, students will develop their digital drawing and design skills while establishing a workflow between Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. Open to Grade Levels: 10, 11, 12

Intro to Photography

This course spans photographic processes from the first camera to the darkroom, to the DSLR, to digital post-production Adobe Tools. As photographers, students will learn to observe and notice light, color, and form to understand visual composition, to make a photograph. Reflecting, discussing, and thinking critically about these photographs and photographs made by artists will lead to deeper ideas. Prerequisites: Intro to Visual Arts or by the recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head. Open to 9th and 10th graders

Digital Art

Identify your artistic interests, build on past creative experiences, and develop the technical skills you need to make your ideas visible. Instruction will cover a range of tools including Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, and experiments in Augmented Reality. Critiques, documentation, and presentation will be essential elements of the class, with an emphasis on both process and product. Prerequisites: Intro to Photography, or Intro to 2D, or by the recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Mixed Media

Find. Cut. Glue. Spray. Transfer. Draw. Repeat. How do we create meaning through layering? Combining what we find and collect, we will develop innovative ways to build two-dimensional works of art. Rubber stamps, spray paint, wax, and Xerox transfer are just some of the techniques we will explore. We will also look at contemporary artists who create meaning by layering materials and techniques, discuss the results of our experiments with each other, and share ideas on a regular basis. Be prepared to play, to make a mess, and to produce a lot of work.  Prerequisites: Intro to 2D or by the recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Drawing + Painting

Building on your prior knowledge of drawing and painting, you will expand your technical skills and work with new materials in this course. Concepts and subject matter for your work will come from your interests, and you will have the opportunity to design your own studio practice at the end of the term. Regular discussion of The World of Art and Art History will provide context for our work. Critiques, documentation, and presentation will be essential elements of the class, emphasizing process and product. Prerequisites: Intro to 2D or by the recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.