Sophie Dewire, “My Study of Life,” Patrick Henry High School

I make art because I want to know how life around me looks through my efforts and style of my kind of drawing and painting. I take pictures of things I have interacted with or are interested in and feel the absolute need to draw it because of how badly I want to see it done by myself. Life around me intrigues me and motivates me to make my works. I do my art for my own satisfaction and enjoyment and have never felt the need to do it to impress others. I try to show what matters most to me in my portfolio, which is life around me. I want people to understand how I view life and the vibrant colors are what I prefer to see. I make sure to use materials that will  truly bring out the colors that I want in my works. I make art to make myself happy and express how I view life around me. 

Avery Ewert, “Nature’s Forms,” Patrick Henry High School

I want viewers to see the cycle of nature and how it is perceived by people throughout time. In my portfolio you can see many symbols of nature as it is in reality and as it is imagined in the minds of humans. The key ideas are animals and humans, along with the personification of nature. I chose mediums I could create texture and marks with. I used lots of color or no color at all depending on how I wanted to portray that aspect of nature.  

Ethan Frank, “Immersing in Nature,” James River High School

This particular collection of work is important to me as I navigated through some emotional times in my life. I ended up spending time out in nature, hiking and taking a lot of photos of the natural gifts I stumbled upon. Nature and the earth fascinate me. This collection began with a series of photographs that I desired to enhance by experimenting with photo apps. I loved the way I could superimpose images to create a visual texture and add enhanced color. While I love photography, I had always wanted to paint. This collection is a series based on my Interlude with Nature. 

The idea, or concept that I had was to bring not only the color into the 2D surface, but I wanted it to also have a tactile feel to it. I began using various mediums, such as colored pencils and acrylic. I was not pleased with the outcomes. I then found cold wax medium! I used the cold wax with oil, which was new to me. I fell in love with the consistency of the medium as well as the organic nature of the mediums! At first I struggled with creating the textures I desires but discovered the more wax I added to the oil that more texture I could create on my surface. My goal was to produce pieces with bold, yet somewhat natural color and actual texture on the canvas. 

I am happy about the outcome. While the two photos submitted show visual texture, I feel by changing mediums and adding actual texture I discovered “new ground.” My goal from this point is to do more research and develop my painting skills. 

Travis Goad, “How The World Influences Fashion Design,” Lord Botetourt High School

In my portfolio, How the World Influences Fashion Design, I chose to showcase specific events and ideas that have happened or are happening in the world and how it can be reflected onto fashion. I want viewers to understand that fashion is not just some useless hobby that creative people do, but that it is an art form that has the power to create change and cause shifts in the world around it. For example, in my piece New Beginnings, I chose to draw a slave who has a dress that is loosely inspired by 18th century fashion and has an African pattern on it, which symbolizes her patriotism to her homeland and shows how the slave revolts in the 19th century pushed enslaved people to be themselves and escape their torment. I also put the Underground Railroad in the window seat to show accuracy for the time period shown. The key idea I want to portray through my portfolio is that fashion is a way that one can express their authentic self without becoming uncomfortable or embarrassed. I chose these specific works to include in my portfolio because they portray my best skills in drawing/painting with different media.

Clythee Herbst, “Comic Connection,” Lord Botetourt High School

My artworks connect with my life in many ways. They all show how my life is a major part of my comic making experience and how my life affects my writing. Two of my artworks deal with Diabetes. One character in a comic I'm working on came to life because of my Diabetes so I included him to represent how it has influenced my comics. My sister is a major part of my comics, so I drew my characters in place of my sister and I to show that the characters are loosely based on ourselves. In many of the pieces I drew backgrounds important to where I came up with the characters and to the characters themselves. I chose to do repeated backgrounds to represent the repeated use of needles and vials. 

Ivy Howell, “Ivy Howell,” Patrick Henry High School

I want my art to make people feel a sense of comfort and relatability. Key ideas in my art are family, comfort, and peace. Choosing materials to create art is important in my pieces because certain media enhance the ideas better than others. 

Quinn Weigel, “Brain Emesis,” Pulaski County High School

What I largely want to convey is that my pieces are not meant to be entirely pleasant or unpleasant. They are a translation of my mind in the most unfiltered fashion that I can communicate, which hopefully creates ambiguity, curiosity, and intimacy in the compositions. My largest goal is to make onlookers think and question what they are looking at, even if it is with confusion and dissatisfaction. Most of the pieces focus on suffering, eroticism, and femininity, though it is difficult for me to define what they represent. A struggle I had with this portfolio was theming. Though I utilize dissonance and variety, there is a certain point in which the entire theme is lost in a piece, and I tried to prevent that loss. I knew that this portfolio was going to be strictly watercolor, with the hopes that it would be more cohesive, and that I would refine my techniques.  Many people say that limitations promote creativity, which is why I used a medium that is considered very limited and amateur. While watercolor is often used in order to create pieces quickly, I chose to spend up to multiple weeks on certain compositions. This made creation very intensive at times, which I feel imbues an additional element to my work.