The Superintendent’s Gallery launched in the Spring of 2021, builds on the long history of exhibitions of student artwork at the Greenwood Administration Building. This community space honors this legacy of student artistic voice and the legacy of leadership in BCPS. The Superintendent’s Gallery features rotating exhibitions of student artwork accompanied by a virtual gallery. The virtual gallery features written and video artist statements from students and can be found on the Office of Visual Arts Website.
The on-site exhibition features 21 juried student artworks from 16 schools in the East Zone of the district while this virtual exhibition includes over 120 artworks from 38 schools. This is the first physical student art exhibition in the Superintendent’s Gallery of the 2021 school year and will be followed in this space by Central and West Zone schools in January and March, respectively. The artworks in this exhibition were completed by students since the start of the 2021-22 school year and reflects their creativity, opportunities for personal expression, motivations, and eagerness to get into the studio to start making artwork with their peers. The power of art continues to carry us through challenging times, and we are so happy and proud of our students engaging with the creative process to create their masterpieces.
Paisley Mulligan
When I made my sandwich, I learned to make recognizable food. I learned to plan and sketch my food first. I also learned to overlap to make the food look stacked. The story we read was about a girl who was different. Her friends learned different is good.
David Liu
David Liu is an artist in the 11th grade who attends Ridge Ruxton School. David enjoys drawing symbols and shapes on large pieces of paper with pen or permanent marker. His compositions are often layered with movement and texture. He likes to reference the shape page on his communication device as he works. This year, David is in an independent art studio class in addition to his scheduled art period. During the independent class, he has started to experiment with painting on large sheets of paper. He titled this painting, “David’s Painting.” He started out drawing shapes and a machine or minecart. David then asked to work with watercolors using his communication device and proceeded to carefully select and apply colors filling the entire page. He always works until the whole page is filled. David also enjoys drawing in his sketchbook daily. I have enjoyed watching David grow as an artist. He is always open to try out new materials in class, but has his own media and subject matter preferences while working on independent work. I always look forward to what he’ll draw or paint next. David is a driven, persistent, and engaged artist with a lot to share with the world through his artwork.
Monique Rivera
My artwork series are halves of faces with different backgrounds. My subject matter were the faces and I wanted them to stand out the most. The title of my work is “Half of a Whole”. The principles of design I incorporated were contrast, pattern, and repetition. I used watercolor for the patterns in the background, acrylic paint for the square, and the half of the faces. I used jelly plates to print both, on top of the watercolor.
A family member of mine owns an artwork of a face that’s drawn with a singular line. That artwork inspired me to make this. My artwork expresses more of a difference in background for each person and how they can still come together and relate through the little things. I wanted the viewers to really think about what the artwork is and what it could mean. I feel like you could interpret my pieces in any way.
My goal as an artist is to create pieces that can make you question what it could mean and pull the audience's interest. I feel like I did that in some way with this assignment. While creating these pieces, I learned that I need lots of patience and perseverance when creating artwork in the future. I had multiple attempts at these pieces because I was not happy with how the faces came out, and I was close to giving up. The final pieces are what I had envisioned since the beginning, I am very satisfied with the way they came out. Making abstract artwork like this really pushed me out of my comfort zone and I will definitely create more pieces like this in the future.
Cassidy Davis
In this photo I wanted to create an eye-catching scene that captured emotion. The focus on him sitting on the bench at night achieves that. The darker colors of the night and the otherwise empty setting create a lonely, empty feeling. The linear perspective created by the bench, roof, and sidewalk makes your eyes follow the same direction as his. Is he looking at the red vending machine or is there something out of the frame that the viewer can’t see?
Olivia Oxenrider
I chose my sunset color monoprint to become my circle of control because I liked the diagonal lines that ran through the shape. Inside of my circle of control you can see black and blue raindrops that represent being tired. The spirals represent being dizzy because I like to spin in chairs a lot. The white zig zag line shows how I get headaches when I sleep sometimes.
Outside of the circle you can see the white spiral which is representing when I feel nauseous. The orange zig zag shows excitement for looking forward to fun events.
Ava Mueller
This drawing is the result of a group curated still-life. This work shows flowers in a vase, a Chinese food takeout box, and a toy truck. The object I selected for this still life was the vase. I picked this item because I enjoyed the unique shape of it, as well as the potential of what could go in it. I used principles of drawing from life, including shape, proportion, and shading. This piece is graphite on paper. I also used a blending stick to smooth out the shadows. To create this work, I went through several drafts, including a single-line contour sketch, gesture drawings, and a blocking-in sketch. My goal for this piece was to demonstrate my technical drawing skills to the best of my ability. Overall, I am happy with the way this still life turned out. I am most pleased with the flowers and the vase. I was able to reach most of my goals with this piece, and I was also able to learn some new sketching and drafting techniques, which I will utilize in the future.
Thomas Maddalone
In this piece, I created a colored pencil drawing of a key with ribbons wrapped around it that uses different values to create different textures and shadows within the drawing to create depth. Within the image, the different objects depicted would be a key with two red ribbons that are wrapped around the key almost confining it to its space.
In order to create the piece, I used different techniques and materials. The tools I used were different colored pencils in order to create a sense of depth and tones, I used an eraser guard to gain perfect lines to make to the image sharper, and finally I used a key to help me gain a sense of light and angles to help me determine what I wanted to capture in my image. Some different techniques I used were combining different colors to create different values, so it wasn’t just one solid color in a certain space. Another technique I used was pushing the pencils very hard to make sure the image was fully opaque, so nothing from the background was showing through the image.
The image is organized with different art elements and design principles. First, I used different values and colors to show different views and make the image look more 3D. Also, I used movement to carry the eye around the image and towards the center of the key.
I created this image as an internal “self-portrait” of my conscience. The key represents me, being able to unlock any door to my future that I deem necessary. The future is a scary thing to comprehend, especially for an individual, like myself, how has it all planned out and if it doesn’t go to plan, you feel vulnerable. You feel as though there is no escape from the mess-ups but this entirely inaccurate. Even though opening new doors to new situations can make you feel vulnerable, it is also the most bliss thing a person can experience because of all the opportunities that are now open to you. The ribbons around the key are there to represent the constraints on my life that I have to break free from so I can live to my full potential. The key is the reminder that I am everything that I say I can be and become, no matter what. I am strong enough to work hard and break through the hard times and words people used to put me down.
This piece is to show anyone that they can do whatever they put their mind to; that if you work hard enough, you can unlock any door that is locked in front of you. Life is hard, but nothing can stop a motivated individual.
Claire Kim
Every day in Korea the streets sell goods, whether it be drinks or souvenirs. The mask is a gift from my mother's friend, so it's a piece of decor that's been in my house for my whole life. It's something that keeps me connected to my heritage, even though it's a simple souvenir. I sketched out the layout and went with the flow. So all my choices were made after I made a brushstroke. Constantly deciding which way to paint. And the outcome was a piece that speaks to me. It was all about the freedom of painting.
Julia Del Rosario
The ideal background for my artwork is my interests/favorites in life, like Van Gogh’s famous artworks (very beautiful with the use of application of color), plants, and fish. I drew myself poking at a bubble as I admire the fish in the water leading toward the windows of Van Gogh’s painting with some plants to ease the mood. The materials I used were oil pastels, pencil, eraser, and charcoal.
Brianna Zheng
The idea of my artwork was to show my identity through “glimpses” of color and material. The black and white sections of my artwork represent what a person can outwardly see about me. They can see only surface-level things about me and aren’t able to see the true, “colorful” me. The color sections represent my personality and my true identity. Only certain, smaller parts of it can be seen because my identity is something very intrinsic to me and, as a result, I sometimes withhold my true opinions and personality to others out of fear of being disliked. I used oil pastels, acrylic paint, watercolors, markers, and ribbon. I used black acrylic paint to represent how my surface-level identity is flat and doesn’t have much depth to it. I used a large brush to create the large, harsh shadows and used a toothbrush to create more texture. Then, I used different materials like oil pastels, acrylic paint, and markers on the colorful sections, to show how my identity is faceted and has many different sides to it. I made sure each section was colorful and contrasted the black and white.
Nicholas Little
My artwork is based off the kawaii Japanese style of artwork. The name of my artwork is “Oddball.” I named my artwork this because I drew a lot of odd things. I used pastel colors because pastel color schemes are my favorite. I love my artwork because it taught me what art style I like. I hope, when viewers look at my art, they feel happy and calm.
Yaneli Lopez
I created this piece as my homework for figure class of my online junior year. The goal was to draw a figure in a dramatic pose and lighting. I used my younger brother for the homework since the idea was to choose someone at home because of the quarantine. In my opinion had what I was searching to study in my piece. I chose white charcoal as my medium to test my ability with the medium. I wanted to see how I used an unknown technique being drawing in white to my advantage. I started off by lightly sketching the figure and began to add detail, from there I began to add the background and returned to the figure for finishing touches. I decided to choose my brother because I feel that He is one of the most misunderstood of the three of us siblings in our family. He’s already going through the biggest changes of the adolescent years, and I can already see how much he’s changing. Unfortunately, its lately gotten him into trouble with our parents. I have a close and healthy relationship with him, so I know him well. This brings me to my intention. I want the viewers to see that through the hard exterior my brother has put on these recent years which is shown by his body’s structure (he exercised often through quarantine) is just for show. On the inside he is still that emotional little boy who would run to me whenever he felt the need to let his tears out. And right now, He seems to be the most neglected of attention from the family.
Sophie Harrington
This is a drawing of my photography teacher in our school’s darkroom done with colored pencil. While working on photograms one class, I glanced over at my teacher and noticed the way the light was creeping around her figure and realized it would make for a good drawing. This work of mine represents my passion for photography, and my intent was to capture the stillness and comfort I feel when working in the darkroom.
Fatoumata Coulibaly
Imagine each flower as one of my family members. Since my family comes in all shapes and sizes, I made each flower unique, colorful, and different. I have a large family; so large I could not draw all the flowers. So, I just drew a couple of flowers. The green vines represent our connection as a family. I used “The colors of family” to color the flowers. I decided to color my hand brown because it acts as the soil of our family. Our blackness is what we grow from. The huge flower on the top right is like the sun, that God has blessed our family with. The grasses are reaching up high as though lifting my hands higher, they represent the people who helped and supported me throughout my life. The curvy marks on my fingers are the marks of my life experiences. Some I probably don’t even remember. I came from Africa and since gold there is exotic, I made sure to add jewelry. I kept my nails white because it is the color of marriage, mourning, peace, and purity. The things that are most important to my family. The red and white flowers represent how thankful I am for clean and nutritious food. The rainbow flower at the top is me.
Brooke Herman
This portrait shows the emotion of having no emotion. Something might be going through one’s mind to make them not want to showcase how or what they are feeling, thus creating a feeling of nothing at all. I used bright colors to convey my emotions below because using the resources I used (bright, neon highlighters) I added pop of color to the once dull feeling. I learned many things during the process of this art project. With the use of shadows and colors, I created even more expression to the emotion I was trying to convey. I also learned to use my time wisely as I was making this, and to use my creativity as best as I could. Overall, I loved using my imagination making this project and to express a feeling I didn’t know one could have.
Riley Darchicourt
In this drawing I communicated exaggerated sadness. The markings in this portrait convey the idea of sadness by showing the shadows in the mouth, eyes, and forehead. The use of color in my portrait conveys the exaggeration of sadness because when you think of sadness you think of the color blue. The use of blue in glasses and the wrinkles on my forehead in the portrait shows you that I am sad. I learned how to use different lines in order to show shadows and facial features.
Jordan Wise
My name is Jordan. I like to draw. I have been drawing since I was 7 years old. I am now 11, so that’s 5 years!
I like to draw because it is fun. I like to draw when I am bored. I like to draw self-portraits because I am not so good at drawing bodies and hands. When I draw, I use Crayola. I have a puppy and 2 bunnies.
Thank you for viewing this exhibition and we hope you have enjoyed the artwork. Please visit our art gallery website for more virtual exhibitions and information about Visual Arts programs in Baltimore County Public Schools.
For any questions about this exhibition or any other, please contact the BCPS Office of Visual Arts at 443-809-4030.