Skyline High School has an abundance of interesting and creativity-driven classes to offer, but, for the students that really want to make progress and put their energy into their artistic endeavors, there are two specific advanced classes that may be the perfect fit, and two students that have gone the full route; beginner, intermediate and advanced.
Sophomore Ty Cox is in his second year of his Ceramics journey. He said, “I just like being able to express myself through art, it’s very fun to be able to work with your hands and stuff.” Cox’s favorite things to make are tea bowls and vases. He strongly advocated for AP Ceramics, saying, “In AP, you have 100% freedom to do anything.” He also said, “It should be a really easy and fun class.”
Despite this, Cox says that students might have to come after school sometimes to work on their art in order to succeed. He wants to pursue a career in art, but doesn’t know the specifics yet. His creative future looks bright. He said, “I feel like I’ve grown a lot, especially this year. [I have more] consistent aesthetics and just better craftsmanship in general now.” The ceramics students are very close, according to Cox: “There’s also a really good community of people there. Most of my friends are there after school.” Skyline’s ceramics program can entail pursuing a cool new form of art, meeting new people, and being a way to kill time.
Skyline’s painting classes are a much more engaging and time-consuming endeavor in comparison to ceramics—however, it can be just as fun and rewarding. Sara Snow, a Senior currently taking Advanced Painting, is surprisingly a bit of a beginner. “I actually just started painting this last summer, but I’ve been drawing and doing a lot of art for a very long time, so painting came kind of quick,” Snow said. The prior art classes she had taken with Lisa Darling, who teaches drawing and painting, were quite helpful as well. She said, “I think it’s really fun and it’s a great way to express myself. Before Junior year, the first time that I did art, I didn’t really put meaning behind it, and then this year, putting meaning to it just improved my art and made me learn how to storytell with it.”
Snow has also grown a lot throughout her artistic academic journey, and she has Darling to thank for it. She stated, “From just putting meaning behind the pieces it’s been such a hard push and it’s just made me improve a lot. I would not be the artist I am today without this class for sure.” Advanced painting definitely isn’t for everyone. It takes a lot of grit and eagerness to learn and progress. “Honestly, it’s a surprising amount of work. If you really try with this class, you’ve gotta be committed for sure. Mrs. Darling calls it ‘being a professional painter.’ You’re pretending to be a professional artist and it’s very true. It’s been a lot of work and I’ve spent a lot of time on it.” When asked if she had any advice for anyone who may be interested in signing up, she said, “Honestly, stick with it, because it’s gonna be very hard and you’re gonna be really burnt out, but just stick with it. Even if sometimes you don’t like it, you will improve so much.”
