The Visual Arts
Visual Art
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This is a full-year elective. Students will further explore drawing, painting, and other 2-D media. Assignments are designed to help students continue to develop technical skills and increase their understanding of principles of design. Students will study different artists of their choosing and explore their artistic styles. Areas of study will include the human figure, color, abstract design, landscape, and perspective. Students will further develop their own ideas and learn to work more independently. Class critiques and discussions are important in this course.
3-D Art is a full year course. Students will explore working in three dimensions by making sculptures and reliefs. Various media will be used including wood, plaster, wire, paper, mixed media and found objects. Various artists from history will be researched. Students will participate in class discussions and critiques.
Advanced Placement Studio Arts
The AP studio art portfolios are designed for students who are seriously interested in the practical experience of art. The class is not based on a written examination, instead students submit portfolios of their work or evaluation by the AP staff at the end of the year. The AP studio art class is for motivated students with prior training in art and involves serious commitment.
Moving Images
In Moving Images I, the students have acquired a basic knowledge of the main elements of video film productions: script writing, storyboarding, shooting, editing, and sound editing. In Moving Images II, students will deepen their knowledge of each phase of production. They will acquire an understanding of the elements of visualization, sound, performance, and writing. They will analyze chosen excerpts from movies, paying attention to story, lighting, framing, camera movements, actor performance, cuts and transitions, sound effects, and music, and endeavor to duplicate the overall effect achieved in those particular excerpts. Emphasis will be placed on utilizing the technology of digital video as a tool for creative expression. Students will learn advanced techniques of editing, and will be introduced to additional computer tools--a composition and animation program as well as a vector based titling and illustration program. All year, the emphasis will be on short projects which integrate technical skills and aesthetic concepts. The students will be encouraged to apply the skills they learn in this class to other disciplines that could benefit from a video presentation.
Photography
The course will introduce students to the technical and aesthetic aspects of photography. Students will learn how to compose a photograph in camera, process their own film and make photographic prints. The principles of light and how light travels will be taught first through the construction and use of a Pinhole Camera, the first type of photographic camera.
New Mexico Arts I & II
This course exposes students to the fundamentals of the traditional Northern New Mexican art form of retablo and box making. Traditional design techniques are employed including the fine art of gesso coverings and traditional paints and designs that reflect individual students design within a centuries old New Mexican art form. Students create retablos and boxes of their own as a result of this class.
New Mexico Arts III & IV
In this course students will use their knowledge of design and techniques to create New Mexican style art that focuses on creativity and self expression. The students are encouraged to be innovative in their approach to traditional arts. Each student will design and build a piece of New Mexican furniture as well as utilize other media learned in previous years. This class will make retablos that will be displayed in an end of year art show. Students will further their wood carving techniques and will have an opportunity to make traditional charcoal castings in silver.