As the clock ticks on and the looming pressure builds, Advanced Placement Studio Art students rush to finish the final strokes of their 17th piece of the 24 needed total for the AP Test on Fri., May 10.
“We start in June because it’s challenging to start at the beginning of the school year and finish by May,” APSA teacher Ms. Mihee Kim said. “I always tell them that this isn’t a class that you can wait until the last minute and memorize because it’s performance based.”
The APSA Program offers three portfolio options for students to submit for the test: 2-D Design, Drawing and 3-D Design, but TCHS currently only offers 2-D Design and Drawing. Current juniors in the class can take it again as seniors and prepare the other portfolio for the AP test, in an effort to further develop and refine their skills.
“I always like to push my students out of their comfort zone to stay out of the stagnant side,” Ms. Kim said. “Once you hit that plateau, you don’t see growth, but this class is a wonderful place to experiment, explore and discover your limits.”
The 2-D Design and Drawing portfolios consist of two parts: 12 Breadth and 12 Concentration pieces.
The Breadth section tests the mastery of skills, techniques and compositions. By the end of summer, students completed five of the 12 Breadth pieces.
The Concentration section tests the artist’s ability to form a theme and then create cohesive variations of that.
“My Concentration is creating humor from things that happen in everyday life and making parodies of artwork,” Senior Sophia Huynh said. “My style is still developing, but taking this class gave me freedom to explore different styles.”
Since they complete all of the pieces prior to test day, the only task APSA students have to do on the exam day is choose five actual works to ship to College Board. Afterwards, they submit all 24 of their works as digital images on the official APSA Digital Submission website.
“The work load in APSA requires time, but it’s something I love to do,” Junior Jameson Wen said. “When I take this class again next year, I’m going to put it before other classes and use my time wisely.”
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