Dartmouth High students show off artwork

Mar 28, 2018

Kailey Humason is quite a superstitious high schooler.

The Dartmouth High art student wanted to tap into those beliefs for her art project, but ran into a problem: she had to confront them head-on. She had her friend break a glass mirror - and take the seven years of bad luck for her - for a photograph she turned into her self-portrait.

Humason was one of ten Dartmouth High studio art students exhibiting work at the Advanced Placement Studio Art 2-D and Drawing classes' "Rods and Cones" exhibit on March 27. Students had to come up with a specific concentration, or subject, and produce artwork around that subject.

Art comes naturally for Chloe Bachstein, as she has plenty of family talent - she’s the daughter of Dartmouth High art teacher Judy Cronin. Her pieces concentrated on how nature plays a role in people’s growth.

Her work was colorful and featured flowers as a symbolic reference. She named “Open Mind” as her favorite. She spent a lot of time working on it, beginning with the sketch. It is a drawing of a serene woman who is encompassed by nature and has a third eye.

Victoria Houde also taps into her family for inspiration - her grandmother was an artist. She settled on looking at life and the ways it could be fractured to show the complexity of living organisms for her focus. Houde’s favorite piece was her self portrait.

“It was the piece I got the most mad at when making it,” Houde said. “I was pushed a lot to fix every little detail and it kind of like aggravated me, but once I finished it i was so proud of it.”

Other works were inspired by events in everyday life, like seeing her boyfriend or tae kwon do.

Iric Rodgers has always loved simplified straight edge work. His inspiration and ideas for pieces comes from what he is feeling at the moment or things he likes, such as ballet.

One of his works, titled “Yes?” showed a woman with a shall that was intertwined with the woman’s hair. Another piece, “Glamour,” used bright colors and a unique facial expression of a woman.

Michelle Sherman wanted to stand out with her own style, featuring colorful pieces and people. “Freckled” shows portions of two different faces - her favorite because she was finally able to draw emotions in the eyes of people to convey feelings. Her work is often influenced by the diversity of people.

“It’s just so important to remember that even if you look different you are still incredibly beautiful,” Sherman said.

Kate Mello went a different route with her pieces, focusing the seven deadly sins.

Lily Canario’s artwork used juxtaposition to show how things may not always be what they seem. Her artwork included bowling pins actually being avocados, but prepared she said she likes the simpler pieces more.

Maren Harrison’s artwork was influenced by Japanese anime. She loves drawing characters, and wanted to bring her characters to life.

“I like making things people can relate to and I like having complexity the people I’m drawing,” Harrison said.

Kris Tavares’ work looked at growing up and the realities of adulthood, like swapping cartoons for the news.

Eibhlin Maher drew pictures and laid patterns over them that may not have related to the piece in order to tell a story.

Advanced placement classes offer high school students the opportunity to earn college credit. Students have to create 24 pieces broken down into three sections - breadth, concentration and quality - for the final exam. The portfolio of then sent to the College Board to be reviewed. The class was taught by Christine McFee.