CHS Blog

Art is personal. It showcases skills and communicates an idea. Students will never be asked to display a test, but an art project will always be on display for others to see. This can be daunting for some, even students in Honors Art. To eliminate the paralyzing fear of imperfection, students are encouraged to adopt the mindset of process over product.

On the first day of class, I showed the students a photo of an artwork and asked them what they thought of it. Most students' initial reactions were what I expected them to be– not impressed. After I shared the story behind the artwork the students' opinions changed. The lesson was: Not everything you create in your lifetime will be wall-worthy, but that doesn’t mean the time you spent creating those things was meaningless. Students were excited to handle the original artwork, a Pablo Picasso, during our time with the traveling collection of Christian Thomas Lee.

Students often assume that they need to be a talented artist to enroll in Honors Art. While Honors Art does require some foundational skills, students have quickly learned that engagement is the key to success, not innate talent.

The Honors Art curriculum encourages students to build on and combine foundational skills learned in their introductory courses. Students are given significant creative freedom and are asked to wrestle with thought-provoking prompts. This year’s students are being asked questions like “How can I visually communicate parts of my identity?” and “If Jesus were here today who might he be hanging out with and what might he be doing?”. These are difficult questions to answer on a canvas, but CHS students do one thing exceptionally well in my classes: encourage.

I like to believe “all together now” is a phrase that captures the spirit of the art room. Brainstorming, praising, suggesting, and questioning are ongoing during class. Students are challenged to critique (and receive critique) each other's projects in a kind and respectful manner– a skill every adult needs in the working world. During our first critique of the year (an altered self-portrait) I heard a few variations of my favorite phrase: “This turned out better than I thought it would” and “This was not as scary as I thought it would be”, enforcing my belief that by adopting the mindset of process over product, the product will ultimately be more successful because of the work it took to get there.

Honors Art students will display their work in a special exhibit at this year’s K-12 art show. It is my hope that the intentionality of each student’s work will be evident to the public. Everything done in the art room is for the glory of God and is a reflection of our innate desire to create, given by and inspired by God’s love for creation.
 

Mrs. Olivia Olson is the upper school art teacher at CHS. She earned her BFA in Studio Art from Asbury University. She has been teaching at CHS since 2020 and is a CHS alum. Her favorite part of her position is the privilege of getting to know and witnessing growth in her students throughout their entire middle and high school careers.