Wyoming Arts Council

Youth Art Month: Cheyenne’s East High AP Art Class


It’s Youth Art Month, so we figured it was a perfect time to catch up with a few of Wyoming’s student artists. As it turns out, they are extremely busy. East High’s second annual AP art show will be hanging at the Cheyenne Civic Center May 8th, with a reception on May 11 from 5 to 7 PM. The juniors mat and present 9 works, while the seniors show 24 pieces!

Getting prepped and ready for an art show is quite the process, even for an experienced artist. That’s why we asked each of these art students what the experience has been like so far. What have they learned? What are they trying to express? How are they coping with the deadline? Here’s what they had to say.

Samantha Whitley: “Right now we’re really trying to focus on getting all the pieces done so that we actually have something to present. The experience is very valuable. In the future, when we want to put on a show for ourselves, like in college when we’re putting on a gallery, we can use what we learn now, like make sure the venue is big enough, and music… how all those factors play in. Those are all things we can incorporate in the future.”

Oliva Gustafson: “To get stuff done on time. It’s really stressful!”

Nathan Castellanos: “It’s been a little stressful, but I think I’ll be OK. I think it’s going to be really fun. The location is really nice. It’s got a lot of windows so that should allow for a lot light, a lot of that cool stuff. So I’ve just been thinking about how I can put all my pieces up in such a way that makes it visually interesting.”

Olivia Bingham: “Really kind of stressful, but fun. It’s the fun kind of stress. So it’s a lot of moving parts that’s really nice to try and like see put together. It’s satisfying I suppose. We’ve got a little bit more than a month right now. That’s not a lot of time to get 162 pieces of artwork all ready and put together. “

Natalie Schoephlin: “My overall theme is LGBT, so this is like, we’re all like human, we’re all skeleton on the inside, so it doesn’t matter who you love. Everybody is the same. It doesn’t matter who you’re dating. My personal self, I’m gay, so I don’t like how people treat other homosexuals. So people see my art and think, O, it’s not that bad. We’re not aliens.”

Kaitlyn Soske: “Having so many things done and picking the best one. You’re kind of like, oh I like this one, but I like the other one… You go back and forth a lot.”

Jay Corbin: “It’s been fun. I really don’t get stressed over it, so I just draw and draw. I’ve definitely learned how to scrunch up my time and make sure that I can get a piece done in about 2-3 weeks. And if it’s after 2-3 weeks then you know it’s going to be dang spanking good.”

Jacob Perez: “I have learned that I need to be faster. So ya know…that’s cool. Usually it takes me a while to actually think of an idea and put it on paper. Then ideas just keep on coming to me as I’m working on it.”

Courtney Fernandez “I did it last year too because I’m a second year art student, so it’s not as hard for me as it is probably for [my classmates]. It’s a little hectic at first because you have to get all of your pieces show worthy. You have to get them ready to go and you have to hang them all and take them all down, and it’s so much fun actually.”

Rebecca Singh: “Something that I like to think about is that, as an artist, you have the power to impact what people think. You are the first impression with your piece. You can create a mood, and that’s something I like to think about when I’m making my artwork. I like to know that I can change the way people think. I’m a big band geek, and when people think about band they think, “Oh, that’s cool I guess.” But I can make it something more beautiful, from my personal perspective and how I feel about it. And other people can see that with artwork.”

Courtney Anderton: “Honestly I just push the thought of the big show away so it doesn’t impact my art and the way that I produce my art. So I just kind of try not to think about it so that it doesn’t harm the look of my artwork. I just don’t stress too much about the end result and think more about what I’m doing rather than what I want it to look like. I guess I just kind of push away the worries and stresses about what’s going wrong and focus more on what’s going right. “

Macey Stewart “It’s been kind of stressful lately. We have twelve pieces to cram into less than twelve months, so we have to get that all ready. You have to push yourself to do the best you can. I actually hope to be in art education. I want to go to either UW or start out at LCCC, and then go throughout the art program there. I had an elementary art school teacher who inspired me to just be better and to do art; to be creative and make my mind think. And that’s what I want other people to do.


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