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"My artwork is a mounted ant head with runes around it. The runes on the outside of the board say carpenter ant in old futhark, and the rune on its forehead means earth mother, which goes with the mother nature theme. The subject of my artwork is mother nature. The name of my work is Mother Roberta. The scale is most obvious in my work because it is a giant ant head. My artwork is paper mâché, metal, cardboard, and paint. Norse mythology inspired my work, and it stands for mother nature. My goal as an artist is become better at working with varied materials. Making this artwork helped me to reach my goal because I had never worked with paper mâché before making this artwork and it turned out very well. Something I learned that paper mâché glue smells disgusting, but this will influence my future pieces because now I know what to expect if I were to use this media again in the future." — J. Smythia, Grade 11

"My artwork is a trophy head of a mystical pixie. The Pixie head has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a green and orange hat with metal fairy wings. There’s a lot of patterns and the face is symmetrical. I used papier-mâché to make the head in to cover the cardboard backing. I used acrylic paint to paint the face, the hair, the backing, and the hat. I used metal wire and bent them into shapes of fairy wings and attached them to the sides of the head. I was inspired to do this artwork because my father has been teaching me about my Celtic background and surprisingly, I’ve learned a lot about pixies and fairies. The emotions I tried to show in this artwork was nostalgia by using earth tones and making the backing a more unique shape. My main goal and challenge was getting the fairy’s head a normal human-like shape and also being able to successfully use papier-mâché for the first time. During the process of making this project I learn how to work with cardboard, acrylic paint, and wires along with the papier-mâché. My artwork came out a lot better than expected." — Brianna B., Grade 11

"My artwork is a glittering blue dragonfly. The dragonfly’s head is tacked up on a plaque to resemble a strange trophy head. His wings are hanging behind him. I titled my piece “Glizzy the Glittering Dragonfly”. Color and texture are the most prominent features on Glizzy. Her beaded wire wings and vivid blue sparkling eyes catch your attention first. I used paper mache to make Glizzy’s head, carboard and paper machete to make the plaque, wire and beads to make her wings, rhinestones and clay to make her eyes, and acrylic paint to add color and facial details. I used plyers to make and decorate her wings, and I used hot glue to fix the rhinestones to her eyes. Paper mache was the longest process in Glizzy’s construction, and the smelliest. My art teacher inspired my artwork with the idea of using insects to do this project. I immediately thought of making a dragonfly because I wanted to make wings, and I’m fond of how glittery dragonfly’s wings are. My artwork reminds me of summers in the sun, running after dragonflies in big fields with my brothers. It’s tranquil and joyful. My goals were to make a successful paper mache head, since it’s my least favorite media. I feel that my piece was successful in the execution and craftsmanship, but the paint portion of Glizzy was a challenge that I didn’t tackle as well as I had in making her. I learned that you won’t like every part of your sculpture, there will be parts you love and parts that irk you. I loved Glizzy’s eyes and wings but hated her paint. The piece is exactly how I pictured it in my head; the proportions, colors, and textures are perfect. This piece will influence my future pieces because it gives great examples of what I should work on and what I can use in other pieces that I’m good at." — Annabella K., Grade 11

"My trophy head sculpture depicts the head of a frilled lizard with its mouth open mounted on a plaque, like taxidermy. The title of the piece is Agamania; “agama” is the family of lizard that the frilled lizard is a part of. The elements of art most prominent are color, texture and form, as there are bright warm colors used with a sponge texture. The sculpture takes up a great deal of space, and the protruding cardboard frills of the lizard contribute to its form. The principles of art most obvious are emphasis and balance, as the piece has bright, eye-catching hues and is symmetrical in shape. The sculpture is made from papier mache, cardboard, tin foil, Gesso, acrylic paint, and polymer clay. I crafted the base first using cardboard and a layer of newspaper then made a papier mache neck and head. I cut the shape of the frills out of cardboard and added cardboard spikes at the top. I scrunched up tin foils coils to make the appearance of the frill creases and carved eyes and teeth with an X-Acto knife out of polymer clay. I painted the sculpture with acrylics. The reason I chose a frilled lizard is because I thought when enlarging it, it would appear to be the dinosaur Dilophosaurus. While the sculpture may be frightening at first glance, there is a goofy and playful feel as if the lizard is cracking himself up with a joke he just told. As the last project of the school year, I wanted to make it as special as possible. It met my expectations, and I was very happy that it evoked emotions in people. I wanted a big and bright piece that would draw attention and I believe I succeeded at that. I learned throughout the project to be patient and put in my best effort and craftmanship, and I think that will make my pieces down the road more successful. I also learned that accidentally baking clay teeth 100 degrees hotter than I was supposed to worked out in my favor."— Isabel K., Grade 11

"Litoria Caerulea is the scientific name given to the White Tree Frog, which is the subject matter of my piece. The artwork is a trophy head of said animal but with the scale of the head enlarged. The trophy head is mounted on a lily pad, and the frog has its mouth agape with its bright pink tongue protruding out into the observer’s view. The frog is a natural turquoise and blue with its huge golden eyes. This frog has a coat of glossy finish to add the illusion of the frog being moist. The goal of this project was to help us students as artists to be comfortable in our ability to make our projects proportionate even if we were to make the subject matter much bigger than its original size. With the piece as an artist, I wanted to create an exaggerated but also realistic whit tree frog while keeping all its traits true to the animal. Overall, I believe this artwork was successful in the fact that it is grabs one’s attention in its silliness and ability to brighten up a space while still being true to the actual animal." — Tanner N., Grade 12