Portfolio Art class has been a part of Flint Hill’s coursework for decades. It is a class for students who have already completed two art credits and are seeking to build an entirely self led portfolio. Each student has free reign over their mediums, materials, and pieces. This year, there are seven students in the class including myself. I spoke to some of my classmates to get insight on what they have planned for the year, as well as all the work they have done over the summer.
These past few months, we were each required to complete 10-15 pieces of work. Some students decided to create pieces with an overarching theme, senior Sofia Kazembe being one such student. Kazembe did a mixture of acrylic paintings on wood panels and photography with the theme of adolescence in mind. Kazembe’s pieces used both herself, her family, and her friends as subjects to further encapsulate her theme. Kazembe shared a few words, saying, “I wanted to use my little brother Antonio and cousin Mia as subjects because they remind me a lot of my relationship with my older cousins.” This year in Portofolio Art, she plans to continue exploring her theme of adolescence using her familiar mediums of photography and painting. Senior Lauren Pao also focused on a central theme, making 10 acrylic portraits on equally sized wood panels of her family in varying color palettes. “I chose each of my color palettes to capture my family’s personality,” said Pao. Pao also attended Flint Hill’s joint program with Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Lacoste and separately attended SCAD’s pre-college program in Savannah. Going into quarter one, Pao plans to redo some of her pieces from the summer now that she has honed her technique. She also plans to complete one more portrait giving a greater focus to using art as a form of relief.
Like Pao, other students like seniors Gipson Brown and Lily Forster attended multiple pre-college programs over the summer. Forster also went to SCAD Lacoste in addition to Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD) summer program with Brown. Both brought in multiple pieces from their time at RISD, including multiple anatomy studies and self portraits. On top of RISD, Brown also attended Parsons New York pre-college program where she explored fashion, photography, and painting in a more self-led format. Forster also created oil pastel drawings of her local pub over the summer, drawing on her exploration of composition that she did at RISD. Moving into the school year, Brown plans to continue to draw on a theme she worked with over the summer, “Fabrics of my Story.” Forster plans to continue working with oil pastel, but also wants to branch out into photography during the school year.
Portfolio Art class is an opportunity for creative expression that is not easily found elsewhere. As we head into the school year, we each study artists who embody our visions and goals. It gives insight into the varying techniques, mediums, and surfaces that we can use, and reminds us not to be afraid of making something new. We routinely have critiques as a class, where each student can provide insight into their work and in turn, receive feedback from both Upper School Art teacher Nikki Brugnoli and our peers. As the school year progresses, there will be multiple updates on Portfolio Art’s progress which will culminate in the art show in spring.
