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     Portfolio Preparation

    A college level course that will enable the highly motivated, committed art student to complete a substantial portfolio of work.

    The portfolio - an accomplishment suitable for college interviews, exhibition and possible

    Advanced Placement credit.


    From the College Board's Chief Faculty Consultant of AP Studio Art:

    So what is it we want students to accomplish in a studio class in the visual arts?

    Are there some specific fundamental learnings that every student should master? If so, what are they? Renaissance perspective? Then where do Joan Brown and other contemporary artists fit in? What if the egocentricity of that form of perspective is not corollary with intents, beliefs, and desires? Are all students bound to learning a specific color system, a particular method for composing a page, and how to create a certain mood in a drawing before becoming visually literate?

    One answer to these questions is that the more a student can become a self-directed, self-motivated individual, the better. The closer a student can come to studio practice, as opposed to an artificially school induced regimen, the better. What is essential in a studio class is for students to experience the search, the use of feeling, sense, and past experience as a means of discovering what is immediately intriguing a and useful, and what serves to create those kind of visual events that are satisfying and alive…A forum for direct engagement of abilities that may conjecturally be needed years later.

    …Creating in the arts is an intensely social act. Ultimately in the arts, you're not just swimming for your own life but for the lives of others...

    Most students in art classes do not go on to become professional artists. Many of the best potential artists go into government, medicine, construction, business, law, etc.

    Every individual is involved throughout life in making decisions that are essentially artistic.

    Individuals who become literate in an art form are conversant in a world language.

    New Paltz High School

    Visual Arts Department

    Mrs. M. Rappleyea

    Voicemail: 256-4175x1454

    Observe - See, merely looking is not enough

    Read - it will broaden your point of view

    Analyze - appraise and design carefully

    Create - produce newly conceived art form

     
     
     
    Visual Workbook Assignments:
    These Assignments are to be done as homework. The titles of the assignments are given as a starting point - the style and media you choose should be geared to the portfolio you plan to complete and can be interpreted according to your interests. The finished work can be in or out of the workbook, but the thought process (thumbnails, thoughts) should be documented in it. The work will be part of a group critique during the last class of each week- it must be hanging to receive credit. Prepare to offer constructive criticism and to take it. A rule of thumb for a studio class is that you will spend at least as much time out of class working as you spend in class. Please attend open studio hours on Tuesdays until 4 pm and the open studio figure drawing sessions at the college are also strongly recommended. Also, use the work book as a place to doodle, document your thoughts, collect images and research, dream and create - keep it with you! You never know when a brilliant idea is going to hit you. The workbook will help you stay focused. (Colleges often ask to see sketchbooks to get a glimpse of your creative process)
     
    Week1:     Talk Politics sans Words

    Week 2:    Cri de Coeur

    Week 3:    Repoussoir

    Week4:     Vanitas or Pronk

    Week 5:    Golden Ratio

    Week6:     Petit Genre or Kitchen Sink School

    Week7:     Physiognomy

    Week 8:    Owning my Visual Culture/Visual Anthropology

    Week 9:    Trompe l’oeil

    Week 10:  Nocturne: Tenebrism & Chiaroscuro

    Resources:

    http://www.artlex.com

    http://apcentral.collegeboard.com

     

    Studio Assignments:

    The first ten weeks we will be using studio references and studio practice for the exploration of the elements and principles, media, technique, style and art history. These will include observational exercises, design and color studies. The studio exploration is intended to expand your repertoire of media before you make final selections for your portfolio. AP Studio students are independent and committed - but can also be messy - please take good care of your work and the space that you use!

    We will be documenting work as soon as possible. Please have your sketchbook/workbook ready for class notes, handouts and keep images of works - past and present organized in your class folder.

    Review the summer letter re: fees, supplies, materials and expectations.

    We will attend portfolio day together after the first marking period and this will be your portfolio's debut - to get feedback from college admissions professionals. This will be helpful if you plan to pursue art in college but is also important as a preliminary portfolio review to get ready for the AP ‘reading’. The work will be selected, organized, collected and carefully prepared. Quality work can be matted.

    The Mill Street Loft Regional Portfolio Day will be held in Hyde Park in November

    Field Studies:

    To be announced. Trips to local museums and galleries will be scheduled regularly and sometimes on short notice. Please bring permission slips back ASAP- listen to announcements- suggestions welcome.

    Art is the only thing you cannot push a button for.
    You must do it the old fashioned way.
    Stay up and really burn the midnight oil.
    There are no compromises.
                                                           Leontyne Price
Last Modified on June 21, 2010