Hey Coyotes! During April, we got the chance to learn about the Art program here at Buena Park High School! We learned a little bit about the things that the students do throughout the school year, such as projects. We also learned about the Art shows that they attend throughout the year!
Before actually going into the classes and getting to know about our school’s amazing program, we did a little bit of research to know the background of what art is and how it came about.
To get started, Art is referred to as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual medium like painting, sculpture, or architecture.” Meaning that there are many different forms of art. Sometimes, people use art to express their emotions and thoughts.
Yes, art has been a part of the world for a very long time, but have you ever wondered how long it’s been around? According to the Grove Gallery, “The world of art essentially began when humans first started to express themselves, long before people started keeping records. Artefacts have been traced back to the Old Stone Age/ Palaeolithic era, when early humans began using stone tools.” One of the earliest forms of art around that time was cave paintings. Over the years, different forms of art started to emerge. Today, art comes in many different forms, such as painting, drawing, sculpture, pottery, abstract art, and many more.
After doing some research about what art essentially is and how long it’s been around, we decided to go into our school’s art class and learn about what it is that our school’s art program does. We started by interviewing students who are currently taking art classes.
Crystal Zavala started by asking AP student Taylor Marshall, “Why did you decide to take this class?”
Taylor says, “I’ve been taking art since my freshman year, so it was kind of just something that interested me and I wanted to stay doing it.”
Crystal then asks, “What’s your favorite project you’ve made?”
Taylor says,“ Probably something that I’ve kinda redone like all four years, and it just kind of has pieces all together, and it’s something that I’ve worked on all four years.”
Crystal ends by asking, “Can you tell us about the district art show?”
Taylor explains, “The district art show is something that they do like every yea,r and some kids from the Drawing and Painting class do it, and then mostly AP kid,s they do it every year, and you could win a Mayor’s award, you could win like second place, first place. You could enter pretty much any medium except for 3-, which is what I’m doing this year.”
Crystal then interviewed AP student Monica Valle, starting by asking, “Why did you decide to take this class?”
Monica says, “I decided to take this class because I’ve had previous years of art experience, like when I was little, and it’s just my passion.”
Crystal then asks, “What’s your favorite project you’ve made?”
Monica says, “My favorite project is probably a project that I made for my exam.”
Crystal then asks, “Can you tell us about the District Art Show?”
Monica explain, “The district art show is a really good opportunity to show off your art and your success and all your progress and it’s like by levels and by mediums. It’s a good experience.”
Finally, Crystal asks, “Can you tell us about the Congressional Art Show?”
Monica say, “The congressional art show is mnationwiderather than just the district. do you have more competitors and stuff like that and it’s also a nice opportunity to show off what you’ve done and get recognized on a statewide level.”
After interviewing some students and getting their perspectives on the art class, we decided to interview both Ms. A, the student teacher, and Ms. Brown.
Crystal Zavala started by asking Ms. A, “How long have you been student teaching this class?”
Ms. A says, “I started the fall of last year, so August 12 was my official first day.”
Crystal then a, “What inspired you to start teaching?”
Ms. A says, “This is a second career for me. I used to work in the add a present agency, and I realized that I wasn’t doing a lot to help peopl, so I kind of wanted to do a little bit more to further education in younger people, make their lives better.”
Crystal then as, “What are some things you do differently as a student teacher?”
Ms. A says, “In opposed to my mentor teacher, we work very closely with each other, I’ve learnt a lot from her. I guess maybe just my teaching style might be a little bit different than my mentor teacher’s, but neither one is worse than the other.”
Crystal then asks, “What is your favorite type of art to teach?”
Ms. A says, “I like teaching painting because it’s my favorite.”
Crystal ends by asking “Do you have any art pieces of your own that you could show us? If,o could you explain what it is and why you drew it?”
Ms. A says, “So I have a lot of pieces, but one of the things that I actually really love to do is I go to zoos and I photograph animals and then I paint them and I actually get a full fact story on them.”
Crystal then goes on to interview Ms. Brown, starting by asking, “How long have you been teaching this class?”
Ms. Brown says, “I’ve been teaching at Buena Park High School for sixteen years out of the twenty years I’ve been teaching art.”
Crystal then asks, “What inspired you to start teaching?”
Ms. Brown says, “I volunteered for a second-grade class, and she wasn’t good at art, so she asked me to come in. I had a bachelor’s degree in art and I was just a makeup artist at MAC at the time and decided to go ahead and volunteer and teach her second grade art lessons and I had so much fun with the kids that I’m like “Alright this is what I wanna do” and so I was lucky that her mother was a principal at another school she said “All you need is a bachelor’s degree for art” cause it was a private school. So I applied for the job and I got it.”
Crystal then asks, “What is your favorite type of art to teach?”
Ms. Brown says, “My favorite type of art to teach is drawing, painting, and photography. All college-level. The advanced placement classes”
Crystal then asks, “Do you have any art pieces of your own that you can show us? If so, can you explain what it is and why you drew it?”
Ms. Brown says, “Absolutely. Every single art assignment that the students do, I create my art work to show them so for example, one of the big art pieces that the students do in the beginning class, once they learn the ropes of how to draw id they do a self portrait, so I have a self portrait that I illustrated in graphite and then we do color theory second semester. We do artwork based on one color, which is monochromatic, so I have artwork of my dog that I painted. A lot of them are my pets. In 3-D, I would make sculptures, and I would paint those. I’d do a lot when I was younger before arthritis I’d do a lot of murals and I’d paint on big walls so I’m working on a mural in my yard right now where I’m painting like an island scene so I could pretend I’m like on vacation so I’m painting stucco which is difficult with a paint brush, I can’t spray it or volver it and so it’s kind of a handful.”
Crystal then asks,“ Have you been to any art shows? If so, what have you won?”
Ms. Brown says, “Every year we take part in between four to six art shows. So every year, we compete in the District Art Show against all of the other art high schools in our district. Then we do the Buena Park City Hall Art Show. We also do the Congressional Art Show. Last year, we won first place, and we had a student, Jasmine Mercado Cruz, who won, and they hung her artwork in Washington, D.C. on the walls, which was impressive. We are also involved in two Congressional Art Shows this year, and depending on sometimes we’ll do the Orange County fairgrounds or Laguna, but it’s in the summer, so it’s more difficult, so we don’t usually do that. We also have several students in the Ryman Arts at Cal State Fullerton, who apply to take college art classes over at Cal State Fullerton, and I’m proud. We have three students who are currently in that program, taking four hour-long classes on Saturdays there so that’s impressive, not many schools are doing that. We applied for the Orange County Arts in the newspaper for the OC Register. We also do artist of the week with the OC Register when those come up. We have many articles with the Orange County Register for the varsity arts, and we’ve had three artists of the week. I think that’s about it.”
After interviewing the teachers, we were able to dive deeper into the art program and get more specifics about what it is that they do in the art classes and the accomplishments that they’ve had throughout the years. Thank You, Coyotes!
