by Jennifer Champeau
Hudson High has many talented and dedicated students in the visual art programs. I am highlighting three skilled students that show a true passion for art.
Senior Monica Anderson is currently taking Honors Art IV and an independent study in Interior Design Architecture. She will be taking Pottery second semester and has taken Photography, Architecture and Interior Design, Digital Imaging and Design, Visual Art Through Technology, and Art I over her years at HHS.
What do you love about art?
I love that I can solve challenges through my art. When I try a new technique, I work to figure out the best way to get the result I want, and to produce the image I hope to create. With my interior design, I love the creative ways I can use space and color to change the feeling and function of the rooms.
How have you grown as an artist?
I have grown a whole lot as an artist. When I started taking art classes, it was because I needed another elective in eighth grade. I had no idea what I was doing, and I just worked to get a good grade in my class. Over the years I have found that I really enjoy the effects my art can have on people. I have learned all sorts of techniques and new ways to create images, from photography to painting and digital renderings. It’s just been really fun for me to figure out what I can do by taking a large variety of different classes.
What is your favorite project, and why?
My favorite thing I’ve done would have to be my chair project. In Art IV, we have an assignment to take a chair that Ms. Yates had set up in the room and represent it somehow, whether it was drawing, painting, pastels, collage, etc. Basically we could use any medium. My favorite part of this project was the exploration of the chair we did before, doing short gesture drawings of the chair, as well as teaching myself a new painting technique to get my final project.
Are you interested in majoring in art in college?
I want to go to college for interior design/ interior architecture. That means that I would be designing floor plans for homes, stores, office buildings, and so many other places. I would be doing the things like furniture and choosing paint colors, etc., but also designing the spaces that I am putting all the furniture in.
Kelsey Sullivan is an eighth grader who is currently in Art I. She is an aspiring art student who completed a great project involving her cousin.
What is your favorite thing about art?
I like making things and coming up with new ideas and making them happen.
Who is in the painting you made?
This is a picture of me and my cousin Kiley. She was recently diagnosed with cancer. But, she got better and went into remission.
Junior Ali Collins is currently enrolled in Art III. She has taken Art I, Art II and a VHS Art History course over her years at HHS.
Is the art program at Hudson High really structured, or do you have freedom?
It’s structured, and it’s not. You get the basic rubric of a project, but you can really go off of what you want to do. You have the freedom of expression, and it’s really nice.
What projects are you working on?
I am working on a frog project, a frog tessellation project. A lot of the kids did more of a pattern thing with the frog tessellation. I did more of a pattern through time; the frog was just an egg, and then it became a big frog.
Are you planning on majoring in art in college?
I’m debating about going into marketing because it’s really art related: the visual side of it. I’ve taken marketing here, and it was really fun.
“{Art is}a nice way to relax and take my mind off things. I feel a sense of accomplishment whenever I am successful in my art. I take each project as a challenge to show others my vision, and it can get really frustrating at times for me, and can take quite a few failed attempts before I get the result I want.” ~ Monica Anderson.