AP Art stresses rigor, creativity

Maiesha Hossain, Features Editor

While many seniors are busy filling out college applications and writing college essays, there is a group of Manhattan High students who have another load of work on top of all that: the AP Art students.

MHS offers an AP Art class for which students work on numerous art pieces independently. Each student has a portfolio that must have 20-30 of the student’s best pieces from throughout their high school career, in addition to their works from class this year. All the works are 2D and can be any medium, including acrylic, watercolor, paper cut and ink.

Unlike other art classes, AP Art is more of an independent work class. However, the students still have some requirements to meet in order to make their grade, including a themed section, a breadth section and physical copies of their best works for the college board to examine.

During a normal class period, the students work on their pieces and sometimes do critiques to get suggestions from their peers. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the class is the creative freedom the students are granted, allowing them to paint things they like in their choice of medium.

“In the classes leading up to it, we’ve had a solid structure on the types of materials we could use and they types of things we could paint,” senior Maddi Shaneyfelt said. “However, this year we have all the freedom in the world to decide for ourselves, which is amazing. We can use watercolor, oil, pastels, chalk pastels, ink, pencils, scratchboard and acrylic paint all in whatever size we want. This makes art really fun because we get to use the most creativity and take control of our own style.”

The class is rigorous and demanding, with many students having to commit a lot of time outside of school in order to average the required two projects per week.

“We do about two projects a week every two weeks,” senior Kendra Geisbrecht said. “It’s honestly very stressful to produce high-quality pieces in this amount of time, especially just in class, so it is a lot of outside work.”

During the first semester, the students are scheduled to finish 16 pieces, all of which have no overall theme. The second semester, however, requires 14 pieces that do fall under the same topic but with various mediums.

Unlike most AP classes, there is no AP exam in May. Instead, the students’ portfolios are submitted to the college board where they are examined and scored. Like any other AP class, the students are given a 1-5 score. Helping them prepare their art is Sonda Copeland, the AP art teacher.

“I love the environment and Mrs. Copeland helps push our creativity and our skills, which is so necessary and helpful,” Shaneyfelt said.

The class is ideal for anyone who wants to advance their artistic ability while also having the creative freedom to create what they want.

“My favorite piece I’ve done so far this year is the lion surrounded by flowers,” senior Neely Joyce said. “It was a lot of fun to paint and acrylic is one of my favorites. [In the class] the students say they gain inspiration from the others and it’s overall a great environment.”