When senior Jakub Rogoz first took Art 1 101 as an elective freshman year, he knew that he would continue his high school art education all the way through AP Studio Art, the highest level art course a student at Elk Grove can take, his senior year.
“Our school has one of the best art programs and best equipped art rooms in the district,” Rogoz said, who is now one of 15 students in AP Studio Art.
With two rooms devoted to art at their disposal and eight courses to choose from, many students feel that art program at Elk Grove has allowed them thrive as artists.
“My experience has been an amazing one,” Art Portfolio student senior Nehal Patel said. “Actually, that would be an understatement. I’ve grown so much as an artist. I’ve learned all the skills I’ve wanted to learn before, and I’m constantly learning more.”
AP Studio Art student senior Haley Gorski attributes her success to the teachers that she has had throughout the years.
“[Cindy] Pacyk and [Jennifer] Aguilar do a really great job at giving us feedback and making us all into better artists,” Gorski said. “Because of them, I have decided I wanted to continue my education with art by majoring in it through college.”
AP Studio Art student Andrew Morley is also grateful to Pacyk and Aguilar for teaching him how to properly showcase his work.
“Our teachers know how to present our work so well and we have good supplies in that huge supply closet,” Morley said. “For the Daily Herald Art Contest and all the other different contests, EG seems to win a lot.”
For instance, artwork from Elk Grove students have been on the cover of the Arts Unlimited, a district-wide magazine that features submissions in artwork, poetry and prose in any genre, style or theme, the past two years. The art program also does generally well in the Daily Herald Community Art & Writing Contest, where three students placed last year.
However, the contests are only the icing for some students who consider the real reward to be the growth they experience during their time in the program.
“The art program has given me a lot,” Patel said. “It helped me discover my own style. It encouraged me to try harder on the pieces I struggled with at the beginning because I used new materials I’ve never used before. It’s a challenge and a joy at the same time and personally I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The most difficult challenge for most students is the AP Studio Art curriculum where they are required to complete either 24 pieces for the 2-D track or 16 pieces for the 3-D track by the end of the year.
“It is pretty demanding, but it also depends on your work ethic,” Gorski said. “If you miss deadlines, it’ll be harder but if you time things out then the class isn’t as difficult.”
Some students even embrace the demands and consider it a testament to the amount of growth they have experienced as an artist.
“I went from making five mediocre pieces per semester to now making college-ready pieces,” Morley said. “Now, I feel like I’m finally in the mode of making art weekly, turning it in and doing my best work.”
While students like Gorski and Morley are grateful for the AP Studio Art opportunity, many students still wish that the AP Art History class was still offered.
“For students like me, who want to continue their career in the art field, it is crucial to take an Art History class,” Rogoz said. “The benefit of being able to take it in high school would be that it would possibly fill up the art history credit for college and we wouldn’t have to pay so much money as compared to taking it in college.”
However, low enrollment numbers in recent years have caused the art history classes to be cut out of the courses offered. Still, Rogoz is grateful for what the program has offered him.
“But then again, I cannot complain too much because some people are not as fortunate and do not have the advantage of having free materials and high leveled education,” he said.
By: Julianne Micoleta