Picassos Amongst Us

Take a look at what the IB art students have been up to this year—and scroll down beneath the gallery to read about their course.

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I always thought that art was the class one would take to get away from academic work in the classroom—but clearly, I was wrong. This month, I had the chance to interview students in the IB art program, who gave me an overview of the course and shared their definitions of art. All of their answers were different than I expected.

When I asked what it takes to be an IB art student, senior Hae Jin Lee’s response was quite different from my perspective of art. “Honestly, I actually don’t have an answer to this question,” Lee said, “I only have advice, which is to turn in homework on time, listen to everything the teacher tells you, and most importantly, be creative.” The answer to this question turns out to be different for almost every AISG IB art student. When asked how to be an IB art student and what inspires him to create art, Stephen ED Zhou said, “The unlimited power given in art is what I am personally fascinated by. I enjoy creating art as I can put my thoughts into my pieces and even discover my own identity through my work.” Speaking about his time commitment for art class, Stephen explained, “It varies over time. For work in school, I would say [I spend] around an hour or two on average each day, but that would be if I don’t have much work in my other courses.”

Hye Jin Chang is a 12th-grade student who enjoys doing art at AISG, as evidenced by her enrollment in the IB course. She started art as a hobby because she was exposed to family members working in art-related fields. One of her aunts majored in fashion design and now does crafting and another is a university art professor. The more art she did, the more she wanted to learn, including the history of art and art making techniques. When I asked her about the class, Hye Jin said, “Taking IB art is all about dedication and perseverance.” She also shared some insight about how time-consuming IB art can be, admitting that it is definitely one of the classes that take most of her time. However, she added, “Art has been a way for me to express my ideas about certain themes or culture in a creative way. If someone can look at your work and gain the same message [you intended], it means you have been successful, which makes any artist proud.” Hye Jin spends approximately one to two hours every other day on her work for the class, and sometimes when there is extended studio she works for five hours straight.

Here, I have an interview from the IB art teacher where she gives a simple answer to what is art “the IB art is all about visual communication, developing the skills of communicating ideas visually and students do visual essays instead of written essays.  What art good or not that is very difficult to determine but however at the end what really matters is if you achieve intentions of communication.”

I found that IB is not just a class that one will take to get away from other academic work, rather it is a class with many challenges and they spend lots of their time working on their pieces. Well If you think you putting your imagination in worlds is hard, try putting your imagination in a painting.