Wilde Lake High School
Kyan Kelly
Grade: 11 Course: Photo II Title: Something to Chew on Medium: Digital Photograph Instructor: Matt Pickett Artist Statement When I was assigned the typology assignment, I knew that I wanted to photograph something that most of us see everyday but overlook. I also wanted to photograph something that would be unusual and make the viewer go "huh?" The idea for taking pictures of gum on the sidewalk came to me a day or two after the typology was assigned; I was riding my skateboard around the mall in Columbia and I just noticed the mass amounts of gum that had been thrown down on the ground and left there for years. That piece of gum could have been there for 5 years, or even just 5 minutes, yet hundreds of people a day walk right over it not noticing it. So, for my typology I rode my skateboard around Columbia, stopping every time I saw a piece of gum, crouching down, and taking a picture of it. I'm sure I looked like a psychopath to the other people around me, but I had fun spending my day doing it, and I am proud of the final product. |
Rachel Polon
Grade: 11 Course: Art IV AP Title: Presence Medium: Oil on canvas Instructor: Kevina Maher Artist Statement This year I had focused on near death experiences and showcasing them through my work. In this particular painting I used a story where the woman had gone unconscious and had been in the in between worlds state. She couldn’t see anything, just darkness, but felt two hands grasp her shoulders. She then felt comfortable and safe. I started off my work with sketching out different poses to showcase her emotions. I used oil paints since I can get great detail and emotion out of them. Henrick Aa. Uldalen has been an artist that has inspired me. I incorporated his style throughout my piece, more particularly on the abstract part connected to the head. This way I could show different aspects of what the woman could be thinking and feeling. My journey creating this piece has influenced what kind of art I like to create. |
Meghan Barnum
Grade: 12 Course: Photo 3 AP Title: The Pitfalls of Social Media Medium: Digital Photograph Instructor: Matthew Pickett Artist Statement The topic of my sustained investigation is the effect social media has on young adults. This piece is focused on the unconscious effects social media can have on a young developing brain, especially during such a fragile and important developmental stage of young adults. The nature of social networking amongst our generation has become increasingly casual and in some ways harmful. The young woman in the image is taking a pill to emphasize the addictive effects that social media has on impressionable youth. I chose lighting that calls attention to the sinister characteristics in order to highlight the repercussions that young people are exposed to. |
Satya Emerick
Grade: 12 Course: Art IV Title: Bell Curve Medium: Acrylic Instructor: Kevina Maher Artist Statement This piece, “Bell Curve” was inspired by the song ‘Love, Me Normally’ by Will Wood, particularly the line “I want you to tell 'em that you love the way ...that they crawl their way up the side of the bell curve, stick their flag in the peak, and slide their way back down”. I created the piece using a combination of acrylic paint on canvas followed by more detailing with oil pastels. I’ve been finding myself more able to achieve the depth and textures that I want using mixed media, and layering media like this rather than sticking to one. The piece was a more abstract visualization of the song, showing how I imagine this bell curve to be, sort of dream-like and elusive, out of reach and not tangible. |
Yoel Ged
Grade: 12 Course: Art III AP Title: About Face Medium: Acrylic and Ink Instructor: Kevina Maher Artist Statement African fabric (Ankara) is a major part of my heritage and every print tells a unique story. Ankara is so tied to people's everyday lives that it has become our identity. When a baby is born, they are wrapped in Ankara fabric, it is the holsters for women to carry babies on their back, it is our bedsheets, our clothes, our cover for books, our curtains. My artwork represents how Ankara is all around us and adds color to our identity. Marcellina Oseghale Akpojotor is an artist who uses scraps of African fabric to create mesmerizing collages, and like her, I hope to explore the politics of fabric and identity in my work. My artwork combines acrylic paint to create a motif of Ankara design and an ink pen to create abstract, geometric forms that give the portrait a powerful look. To be an artist is to notice the world as it moves around you. Creating art based on my heritage and culture has given me the opportunity to take a personal journey and self-reflect to recognize my own individual differences. As an artist, I have no choice but to appreciate and be inspired to make it. |
Gabrielle Marasco
Grade: 12 Course: Art IV Title: Enclosed Medium: Watercolor and Ink Instructor: Kevina Maher Artist Statement This painting is one of a series that I composed inside of specific shapes. The shapes are chosen to enhance the mood the painting conveys. I have been struggling creatively during quarantine, so I wanted to depict that feeling in this piece. The creature is trapped inside of a teardrop shaped jar, forlornly looking out at the world. She is pointing and gazing at where she wants to be. The thick, hard edge of the jar, created in ink, contrasts the toxic, floating watercolors surrounding her inside the jar. Is there a way out? This is how I feel about my ability to be creative right now – trapped. |
Fin Stein
Grade: 12 Course: Photography III AP Medium: Photography, Digital Instructor: Matthew Pickett Artist Statement Home photographs are incredibly valuable for preserving memories of loved ones and cherished experiences. The goal of this piece is to create an artificial home photograph by combining disparate background and foreground elements in a photo-manipulation program. The result portrays a memory that belongs to no one. My fascination with home photography began with the passing of my grandmother last autumn. In the final years of her dementia, she sifted through hundreds of family photos to practice distinguishing the faces of her relatives. These scratchy images portrayed family dinners, summer outings, and Italian relatives I’ll never meet. Yet, when I saw them for the first time after her death, I felt emotionally detached. The people and places felt irreversibly lost to time, not just because the photographs were old, but because they presented a side of my grandmother I never had a chance to know. The version of her I’d known for all my life, the version I had lost, suddenly felt incomplete. These are orphan images. They still exist, yet they will never be more valuable to anyone than they were to her. I wanted to experiment with this challenging contrast between familiarity and absence. This photo is a composition of nine images sourced from various time periods, constructing an environment that is impossible to center in time, place or memory. The subjects don’t pay attention to their absurd surroundings, because this is the normal world they inhabit. What do they know that you, the viewer, do not? The process of combining home photographs has given me insight into their true, temporary purpose – to evoke memories that stretch beyond the frame. Without these memories, an outside viewer can only guess why the photograph was preserved, where its meaning begins and ends, and for how long that meaning will survive. |