Special Projects: What is it and how does the year go?
Early in my career, we taught in 56 minute classes and we were asked to offer the AP Studio Art course. With the time of class and the amount of work needed, we found many students made amazing quality work, but not nearly enough to pass the portfolio review from the college board. Putting our heads together to understand the most important aspects of working as an independent driven artist, Mr. Wind and myself created the Special Projects course at Willow Glen. This course is UC approved and allows our students the chance to go beyond our first and second year courses and truly grow working like a professional artist, or college art student.
Specifically, here is how I structure what we do in painting and drawing. We begin the year in an experimental phase. Each student has built a foundation of how to create in first year, and explored various ways to attack the process of art making in advanced, so this year is about working beyond the individual work and creating a body of work that fits into a theme. After discussions about our favorite mediums and subject matter, students are encouraged to explore whatever they like. It might be further development of past work. It might be working in a new medium to sample it. It might be a focus on ways to execute value change, or multiple ways to explore the portrait. This time and the direction of exploration is completely up to the individual to decide.
After the initial exploration we critique as a group, and offer feedback and insight to each other. This helps us first understand our audience, and how what we are doing is being perceived. Then we push to move toward creating multiple work under a theme or concept of or choice. We review and refine this direction until we feel confident that the direction is both satisfying and something we can stay with.
The final step is to create the body of work under a theme, craft an artist statement and prepare to present ourselves as artists to the world.
The year of the pandemic was rough. We were isolated. The work on this page is from an amazing group of artists, many of whom I connected with as sophomores, when we were in the classroom before the shutdown, and built a partial year in advanced together. Our connection was strong, it kept us tethered on our zoom calls. The support, advice, and love each of these artists offered each other was inspiring and honestly helped me get through the tough year. I leave you with the end result of their journey and the knowledge that this is what we do in special projects. We help amazing young artists find their style and voice.
Specifically, here is how I structure what we do in painting and drawing. We begin the year in an experimental phase. Each student has built a foundation of how to create in first year, and explored various ways to attack the process of art making in advanced, so this year is about working beyond the individual work and creating a body of work that fits into a theme. After discussions about our favorite mediums and subject matter, students are encouraged to explore whatever they like. It might be further development of past work. It might be working in a new medium to sample it. It might be a focus on ways to execute value change, or multiple ways to explore the portrait. This time and the direction of exploration is completely up to the individual to decide.
After the initial exploration we critique as a group, and offer feedback and insight to each other. This helps us first understand our audience, and how what we are doing is being perceived. Then we push to move toward creating multiple work under a theme or concept of or choice. We review and refine this direction until we feel confident that the direction is both satisfying and something we can stay with.
The final step is to create the body of work under a theme, craft an artist statement and prepare to present ourselves as artists to the world.
The year of the pandemic was rough. We were isolated. The work on this page is from an amazing group of artists, many of whom I connected with as sophomores, when we were in the classroom before the shutdown, and built a partial year in advanced together. Our connection was strong, it kept us tethered on our zoom calls. The support, advice, and love each of these artists offered each other was inspiring and honestly helped me get through the tough year. I leave you with the end result of their journey and the knowledge that this is what we do in special projects. We help amazing young artists find their style and voice.
A sample of all the artists work
The individual artist and work:
Theme: Human Experience
Making art has always been a way for me to escape. I would shut my mind off and just do what I wanted, not really aware of what I was doing until I had finished and was staring at a completed work. Art is still like that for me. It gives me a way to focus on something besides the constant anxious static that tends to take over my mind. It gives me a way to make something beautiful. Through this year, I wanted to push myself to grow as an artist, to challenge myself with color and line quality, with shapes and movement. I wanted to see what I was capable of. Through critiques and feedback, I came to realize that art was more than just making pretty colors and images I enjoyed. It was also a way I expressed my feelings. I discovered that there were subconscious meanings I put into my art, feelings I couldn’t approach on my own or bring up to anyone else. Creation gave me an outlet for those feelings. For this body of work, I tried to control that more. I tried to focus on what I felt and how I wanted to convey that through art. Whether it was the loss of control anxiety forced upon me, or the hopelessness about the darkness of the world, or the joy of imagining and dreaming of worlds that exist only in our minds. I wanted to capture humanity. All that it means to be human. Complete with ups and downs, with oppression and freedom, struggles with mental health, hatred, love — the whole package. I know that people who see my work may not be able to put themselves in my shoes, but I hope that they can recognize something in it. Something they see in themselves or in others they know. I hope they see stories and think back to good times they’ve had or recollected times where things didn’t seem so great. I hope my work can make people feel something, make them think about things, and see that being human isn’t just about the good things, the ups on the metaphorical roller coaster. Being human is so much more. And I hope that people can see that even when things are at their lowest, even when everything seems dark and hopeless, that maybe we can find a way to find the light again.
Making art has always been a way for me to escape. I would shut my mind off and just do what I wanted, not really aware of what I was doing until I had finished and was staring at a completed work. Art is still like that for me. It gives me a way to focus on something besides the constant anxious static that tends to take over my mind. It gives me a way to make something beautiful. Through this year, I wanted to push myself to grow as an artist, to challenge myself with color and line quality, with shapes and movement. I wanted to see what I was capable of. Through critiques and feedback, I came to realize that art was more than just making pretty colors and images I enjoyed. It was also a way I expressed my feelings. I discovered that there were subconscious meanings I put into my art, feelings I couldn’t approach on my own or bring up to anyone else. Creation gave me an outlet for those feelings. For this body of work, I tried to control that more. I tried to focus on what I felt and how I wanted to convey that through art. Whether it was the loss of control anxiety forced upon me, or the hopelessness about the darkness of the world, or the joy of imagining and dreaming of worlds that exist only in our minds. I wanted to capture humanity. All that it means to be human. Complete with ups and downs, with oppression and freedom, struggles with mental health, hatred, love — the whole package. I know that people who see my work may not be able to put themselves in my shoes, but I hope that they can recognize something in it. Something they see in themselves or in others they know. I hope they see stories and think back to good times they’ve had or recollected times where things didn’t seem so great. I hope my work can make people feel something, make them think about things, and see that being human isn’t just about the good things, the ups on the metaphorical roller coaster. Being human is so much more. And I hope that people can see that even when things are at their lowest, even when everything seems dark and hopeless, that maybe we can find a way to find the light again.