AP Art students submitted their final portfolio pieces to College Board on May 9. The class, offered only to juniors and seniors, helps students explore their artistic abilities and creates an organized space for them to try new techniques, themes, and mediums.
College Board requires all AP Art students to submit a portfolio of 15 pieces that follow a chosen theme. Each piece must then be accompanied by a detailed description of how their pieces relate to the selected theme. If their work passes College Board’s criteria at the end of the year, AP Art students will receive college credit and the opportunity to opt out of intro level art classes in college.
There are many benefits to taking AP Art, but the class is not without its challenges. Specifically, students find the 15-piece cap on portfolios to be limiting and choosing a central theme to be challenging. Yet, most students welcomed the challenge, and ended up coming out of the exam with a deeper appreciation for the class and mediums of art.
“Building a portfolio is really hard and sticking to the same theme all year is challenging but fun,” senior Miles Marroquin said. “Having to word your entire piece and portfolio in 600 characters was probably the most challenging part.”
Even if the final examination’s structure seems restrictive, the class gives students the freedom they need to ultimately let their creativity flow. Students were able to use a medium and choose any theme as long as it was cohesive, which can prove to be quite diverse given the scope of the class.
Many AP Art students appreciate this flexibility, citing that it prepares them for college and, hopefully, their future careers. Senior Avery Link, who plans to pursue architecture or interior design at Virginia Tech in the fall, believes the class is particularly useful for her intended study.
“There’s no set curriculum or set plan,” Link said. “You do whatever you want for your project, so you get free reign for whatever you’re doing. I feel like that kind of prepares me mostly for college, because a lot of [Virginia Tech’s] architecture classes you get you make your own decisions on what you’re going to be doing.”
Like in college, students are able to choose any type of theme to base their art work around. Themes ranged from lighter, more humorous topics to more serious themes based on their own lives and environments.
“My theme was how societal pressure contributes to dehumanization so people we’re designed to, within our society nowadays, to go into school, the work force, get a job, etc.,” senior Vanessa Griffith said. “I wanted to put that in my artwork and what that does to the average person, so in my artwork I use a lot of human characteristics. It’s kind of chaotic and all over the place.”
While Griffith took the chance to explore a bigger idea like going into the flaws of society, Link picked a theme after her own personal life experiences.
“It’s a little corny, but my whole portfolio kind of followed me having a severe nut allergy as a kid up until now,” Link said. “I kind of played off the corniness, so a lot of it was ironic and how, ‘Oh my god, yeah, I have a nut allergy. That’s so funny.’”
The course challenges students to think introspectively about themselves and the world around them. The skills they learn in class not only helped them with their art, but everyday life.
“I learned that It’s okay to be in a slump,” Griffith said. “It’s okay to not feel inspired, creative, and motivated. If you are [unmotivated] just trying to work out of it. Working out of it will probably help you more than just creating. Art is used everyday–in writing, in anything really. I think it helps me just keep an open mind, keep being imaginative.”
