Last week, Del Mar celebrated IB art students with the annual IB Art Exhibition. On Wednesday, IB artists were celebrated with appetizers and sparkling cider during the opening night.
SL (standard level) students have worked on their pieces throughout this school year, while HL (higher level) students have been creating since last school year.
Student exhibitions were displayed gallery style, complete with artist statements including descriptions, deeper meanings, and methods of individual pieces. Friends, family, and supporters came to commemorate their artists.
Anne Alston, the IB art teacher, said this night is meant to “celebrate the student’s hard work and to take a deep breath.”
IB art students explore different mediums during their time in the class, ranging from 2D, 3D and photography, while working with a variety of materials.
Alston said that this was one of the largest exhibition groups Del Mar has had, with 14 students exhibiting. She was impressed with the variety and diversity of mediums students created but noted 3D was the strongest and most prevalent this year.
Senior Keira Daley said that venturing outside of using her usual materials was her least favorite part of creating work for the exhibition.
This aspect was, “especially difficult when I’m used to using graphite. Oil pastels are difficult, the material is different to work with,” Daley said.
Nene Cruz, an exhibiting senior, had 11 works displayed that she worked on from her junior year until now. “IB forces me to try different mediums… I’m comfortable drawing people and faces. I explored realism and expressionism, but I’ve never done an oil painting,” Cruz said.
Senior Andres Rojas-Townley said his favorite parts of the exhibition were “making art in general, the finished product and part of the process.”
“In the beginning, the first 25% is going to look pretty bad. You have to get past that 25% in order to get to the part that’s kinda good,” Rojas-Townley said.
Beyond the technicality of how students create their art, there is a personal intertwinement of their lives and values within their creations.
Daley’s overarching theme was family. She said her favorite part of the process was “Exploring my family history and talking to my family members.”
Daley mentions a particular photo work of hers called “Roots and Branches, it’s all about trips to Lake Tahoe… that’s filled with memories about hikes and nature.”
Similarly, Cruz said that her exhibition reflects her “because you can see my values, about family and [how I] care about youth, like my baby cousins.”
Cruz also said that her “Colorful [works] are reflective of my personality… my exhibition goes from gloomy works to bright ones [symbolizing] my external evolution of creativity.”
Rojas-Townley said a lot of his “Self worth and ego is intertwined with my skill as an artist… If you thug it out, it turns out alright. But a project almost never turns out the way you envisioned it.”
