Unlike other Advanced Placement classes offered at Hackley, the AP Art class does not focus on learning material throughout the year that appears on a cumulative test in May. Instead, around the end of April and beginning of May, the AP Art class of seven seniors prepares to submit an “AP Studio Art Portfolio” to the College Board. 

These portfolios are two-dimensional and consist of three sections: Selected Works, Sustained Investigation, and Range of Approaches. These sections have their own specific requirements and demand different numbers of pieces and varying forms of submission, either online or by sending the original in the mail.

The “Selected Works” section of the portfolio allows the AP Arts to exhibit their greatest artistic accomplishments. This section requires five pieces of work to be sent in for review by the College Board.

The “Sustained Investigation” section focuses on the student’s specific concentration which they have worked on throughout the school year. For this section, the College Board requires students to send in twelve images via a digital portfolio. This section also requires students to write a 500-word description of their sustained investigation idea. In this description, students must explain their vision and how they feel their pieces have evolved throughout the year. However, this description is not scored.

The third section called “Range of Approaches” requires students to send in 12 images that best represent their individual abilities. They use a range of conceptual and/or technical approaches to create various styles of work. Also referred to as the “Breadth” section, the students must demonstrate their potential to create pieces, ranging from a series of paper collages to self portraits in color.

All of the students in the class have worked tirelessly throughout the year to complete their pieces in time for the submission of their portfolios.

“There have definitely been nights that I have had to stay up hours after midnight to finish a piece that was due,” said senior Morgan Zepf.

Even though the class requires a lot of work and commitment, the students always feel a sense of accomplishment when they decide a piece they have been working on is complete. The concentration each student chose has allowed them to focus on specific techniques throughout the year, which have progressively improved their skills and their pieces.

The AP Art students will be able to show their final pieces to the community in this spring’s Hackley Art Show which premiers at 6 PM on May 15, in Allen Memorial Hall. The show runs through Thursday, May 18 at 3 PM. The art show allows all Hackley students, faculty, and parents to appreciate and share in the hard work the students have put in throughout not only their senior year but their entire Hackley careers.

Sunya Hassan

Sunya has always been inspired and fascinated by the beauty of the paintings by American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who is known for her signature flower paintings. Particularly, Sunya was captured by O’Keeffe’s ability to turn something, “as mundane as a rose or a poppy into a world renowned masterpiece.” Sunya has decided to use O’Keefe’s influence and her skill to approach subjects including an array of flowers. Sunya has focused on using more saturated colors and in a more abstract manner than O’Keefe’s pieces. For her concentration, Sunya has decided to use oil pastels in her depiction of close ups of flowers in an effort to focus on the various colors and textures.

Morgan Zepf

Throughout Morgan’s youth and early adolescence, she felt that being very feminine or “girly” was a weakness rather than a strength. However, as she has grown up, Morgan has come to realized that there is a unique and incredible power in femininity that deserves recognition. In her AP art concentration, Morgan hopes to “exhibit the graces and vigor of the female figure- from large to small scales.” Morgan has implemented techniques including, “floral accentuation to demonstrate the intensity, beauty, and strength of female femininity.” In her artwork, she has done just and has explored integrating and juxtaposing flowers and the female figure.

Camille Butterfield

Camille has focused on depicting people’s inner thoughts which she feels have either “empowered” or “paralyzed” her in her life. In her AP art concentration she has sought to depict these thoughts and ideas in a tangible form. Camille’s concentration, “explores portraiture, combined with visual representations of ideas and emotions as auras emerging from each person.” While Camille recognizes that processing thoughts may seem like a very private and individual endeavor, she also believes introspection is a fundamental part of the human experience, and, “provides the foundation for interactions and unbreakable bonds between people.” She remarked that through her artwork she hopes to inspire those connections spurred by self-analysis. In Camille’s artwork, she has managed to bring internal reflection to life by intertwining unique faces with individualized creative designs.

Ashley Halloran

Ashley has developed a passion for architecture throughout her high school career after attending several architecture programs over the past few summers. Her love of architecture has influenced her decision to focus on structures and models in the pieces of her concentration. Last summer she spent six weeks at an architecture program at Cornell where she experimented and learned more about model-making and design. In her concentration, her love of architecture influenced her idea to first use colored lights while photographing the models creates. “I enjoyed painting and the effects that I could create by using paint, but I found it difficult to be precise with the paint. From there I started working with pen to build the images of the models,” said Ashley about her implementation of new techniques throughout the creation process.