Students proudly unveil a new Studio Art Exhibit

The AP Art Studio students were busy at work this summer creating their art projects. The artists are featuring their summer pieces in the display cases across from the senior courtyard. After a long summer of creating their pieces, it is finally ready for the viewer’s eye. 

Each AP Art student’s display case reflects their “sustained investigation,”also known as their theme. Some artists created an overarching idea or aesthetic for all of their displayed pieces to share. As you can see, every student’s personality shines through in their art. 

“A lot of my paintings were inspired by my everyday thoughts,” junior Jenine Ruszkowski said. “I wanted to really tell a story with my feelings.”

Students spent anywhere from a few weeks to the entire summer working on their projects. Not only did they improve their artistic skills, but they also learned important lessons.

“I worked really hard on that one [his self portrait], and I actually ended up restarting originally because I erased too many times,” senior Jake Barnhart said. “That one really taught me to be patient, and that restarting is not the end of the world. It ended up turning out way better than my original, so a lot of these pieces just taught me how to be an artist and how to go about my process.”

Taking art classes at York is very important to some students due to the fact it is a way for them to display their emotions and ideas. 

“It’s a way to just let my mind rest for a while and not really worry about anything else,” senior Nikita Sidoryk said. “It’s also a way to just showcase ideas or concepts I’d like to display.”

The creative nature of this AP project allowed for students to express themselves and their opinions through their art. When coming up with a theme, each student’s meaning behind their paintings is unique.

“One of the pieces is on climate change,” Barnhart said. “I wanted to shed light on an issue with overfishing of yellow fish tuna. I like focusing on important issues or story telling opportunities, and I really like that aspect of getting to research and explore a new topic that I hadn’t learned about before.”

The AP Art Studio exhibit is a perfect example of what you learn, create, and express in the York art classes. One outcome that the exhibit hopes to have on students is more people being inspired to create art, whether that be at home or in a York art class. 

“I highly recommend taking any art class,” senior Caroline Dorion said. “All the teachers are great, they’re super helpful, and you’ll learn a lot.”