A handful of Bloomington South seniors are currently taking a class called AP Two-Dimensional Art, but many students have been wondering: what exactly takes place in an AP art class?
Senior Lydia Amos is one of the 10 students currently enrolled in the class.
“I decided to take AP Art because I’m hoping to go to art school next year, and I thought that it would be a really good way to help build my skills as well as help me to get material for my college portfolios,” Amos said.
Throughout the course of three trimesters, students must complete 24 original works, 12 of which are a part of a concentration with similar subject matter and created with the same medium. The other 12 are part of a breadth, which are meant to have varying mediums and subject matter to show artistic versatility.
“My concentration at the moment is a series of abstract acrylic paintings that focus on color theory and organic forms,” Amos said. “I use a lot of dots and curves and graphic blocking of color to create visually intricate but organic acrylic paintings.”
Since there are no set prerequisites, students who might benefit from the class are typically approached by one or more of the fine arts teachers.
“I heard about the class through Mrs. Chrzastowski. Before this class I hadn’t taken that many art electives because I hadn’t had space,” Amos said.
The students in the class find inspiration from a wide variety of sources.
“I use my own photography for a lot of pieces. Since I work both in digital photography and physical media, it’s easy to use my own photos as a reference,” Amos said. “I also really love pinterest, and obviously the other people in the class help provide a lot of inspiration; we all are able to help each other and influence each other’s work and help inspire each other with what we’re all doing.”
The time commitment and workload are similar to those of an academic advanced placement class.
“I would say that it takes up as much time as any other AP class. It’s pretty demanding. You have to do 24 quality pieces in a year to submit a full and cohesive portfolio, which is pretty much like one gigantic final that you’re working on at all times,” Amos said.
“I would say that you should take the class if you’re interested because it really does help you improve, but it’s also a substantial amount of work. It is an AP class, and just because it’s art doesn’t mean that you’re not still going to have to put in the same amount of work as you would for another AP class,” Amos said.
“I feel like it helps me personally to grow a lot in my skills because I came into this class really having no applicable skills outside of my ability to paint, and it’s helped me branch out to a lot more mediums,” Amos said. “It’s just been really great to have something to force me to get outside of my comfort zone.”
