Cover Image: 10th Grade student's found object collage titled "All That's Left of You"
The 2022-2023 school year is in the books at New Buffalo! In the final days, my Art Portfolio students completed their pieces and presented their portfolios. The Art Portfolio class is designed for motivated high school students who want to develop their artistic skill, originality, and personal voice through a portfolio of independent artwork.
We began the trimester with a collaborative project where each student contributed with their own plaster sculptures to a group piece that was featured in Harbor Country's Art Attack festival in downtown New Buffalo. After Spring Break, the students shifted to planning, researching, and creating drafts related to a theme of their choice. The students had approximately six weeks to develop a concept and create a portfolio of two or more original works of art that would be presented in a final critique to the class.
In that first week, students narrowed down their themes, researched artists related to the media and conceptual work they planned to create, and developed sketches for their independent artwork.
Drafts from a 10th Grade student's fantasy theme on good versus evil
Sketchbook research related to 10th Grade student's theme of painting people in their life
Artist research inspiring the student's portrait theme:
In the beginning stages of portfolio development, I met with each student daily to guide them in the process of mapping out a timeline and settling in on a theme. The students were excited to have creative freedom to choose their own subject matter that was meaningful to them.
Research for artwork development of 10th grade student's theme inspired by "The Dying Earth"
Time goes by quickly in the art room as students had to develop time management with completing each artwork in 2-3 weeks to stay on track for their final portfolio.
A 12th Grade student's process development on a series of ceramic pieces :
Students learned to problem solve and work through challenges in the process of creating their artworks.
We held in-progress class critiques to check in with each artist's concept and give feedback on the next steps of their portfolio pieces.
The critiques gave students small checkpoints along the way for accountability and allowed them to contribute to their classmates' progress by engaging in a dialogue with helpful notes and feedback.
A 9th Grade student's theme with their interpretation of Georgia O'Keeffe's desert paintings:
In the last couple weeks of the trimester, the students worked each day to complete all their pieces for the artwork deadline due one week prior to presenting their portfolios.
Artwork in-progress during independent class studio time:
We finished the trimester with final critiques for each student to present their portfolio to the class. Students explained their the inspiration for their theme, their artist research, and shared development photos of their final artwork. They also reflected on what they learned from the process and answered questions from their classmates about their artwork.
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12th Grade Student- "Childhood Memories"
9th Grade Student- "Desert Landscapes"
9th Grade Student- Inspired by their poetry and mental health
10th Grade Student- "The Things We Left Behind"
10th Grade student- "Making People Feel Beautiful Enough to be Painted"
10th Grade student- "Good vs. Evil in the Dying Earth"
12th Grade student- Ceramics inspired by the natural beauty in her hometown collected from pressed flowers on a large vase, platter, and set of coasters
There is always a final push at the end to complete art projects, and I'm proud of these students for pulling it off! The students shared that they appreciated the chance to create their own independent artwork in school but realized that no artwork is easy. These projects took time, patience, effort, self-discipline, innovation, creativity, and self-expression to create meaningful works of art in just a few weeks. The Art Portfolio class was a wonderful opportunity for these students to plan, research, and create as independent artists!
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