AP 2-D ART AND DESIGN
Height: 13.5", Width: 17.5" | Material(s): Soap, water, carving knife | Process(es): Carved soap blocks presenting the evolution of the word "soap" from Europe to Asia. | Digital Tool(s) used: google translate | Curatorial Note: This piece does a beautiful job of showing rather than telling—reminding us that, despite differences in language and culture, we share essential human experiences. The use of soap engraved with the word in various languages is both inventive and powerful, presenting a sophisticated reflection on connection, identity, and common ground.
STUDENT STATEMENT
Does your art connect to or take inspiration from any past or present art styles, techniques, or traditions? If yes, how?
My art takes inspiration from written and oral languages, as well Jesse Krimes’s art works made with soap.
What steps did you take to begin this artwork, and how did you develop it as you worked?
I researched the movement of the words for soap and how languages created loan words as the concept moved along trade routes. I took old soap and carved the translations onto them, before washing with some to show the decay of oral traditions.
What kinds of practice or experimentation helped you explore materials, techniques, or approaches in your work?
I experimented with using soap as a medium. It was much softer to carve than other materials, but it also breaks easily. I also incorporated soap’s ability to wash away details on its surface.
What lessons, assignments, or classroom activities helped you gain new ideas or understand processes that shaped your portfolio?
Exploring the art of Jesse Krimes, who used soap to print images, exposed me to more ways soap can be used in art beyond just as a material to carve on. Learning about art books also inspired me to use cassettes and mediums of recordkeeping in my portfolio.
How did you revise or make changes to your work as your ideas developed?
The soap bars were very fragile and often broke during transport between school and home. However, the way they fractured resembled crumbling stone, which I wanted to incorporate to express the idea of cultural change and erosion over time.
In what ways did your materials and processes guide the development of this artwork?
I was lucky and was given a box of extra soap by my teacher. This helped me settle on the idea of a more 3-D piece that used the soap bars instead of just trying to depict soap with 2-D mediums.
How did critiques or feedback help you revise or improve your artwork?
My teacher encouraged me to use up as much soap as I wanted while experimenting, which helped me better understand how to carve into it and, in the end, use 11 separate bars instead of just one. My teacher also recommended using suds and the cleaning process soap is used in to connect to my thesis.
In what ways did your classmates support you during the creative process?
My classmates supported my decisions and motivated me by reviewing the progress I made whenever I finished carving a bar.
What advice would you share with future AP Art and Design students about practicing, experimenting, and revising?
Your teachers are great resources. They can offer great advice, introduce you to new mediums and processes, and recommend you artists to research to improve your works.
Height: 1.5'', Width: 2.3'', Depth: 0.25'' | Material(s): Soap | Process(es): “Soap” carved in Lao as part of the evolution of the word from Germanic to Aboriginal | Digital Tool(s) used: google translate
My works explore the evolution of cultures through their linguistic interactions.
TEACHER STATEMENT
Rachel Sydlowski
K–12 Visual Arts Department Chair & Visual Arts Teacher
Eastchester High School
How often did your class meet?
The class meets daily, Monday through Friday, for 45 minutes.
Is AP Art and Design taught at your school as a separate course, or is it combined with other art classes? Please describe the structure of your AP Art and Design Course.
Our AP Art and Design course is structured as a capstone program within our school’s visual arts sequence. All three AP Art and Design assessments are taught within one section. Students begin with Studio Art in 9th grade and then complete two semesters of a specialized course in 10th grade, selecting from Digital Media & Graphic Design, Metals and Jewelry Design, Darkroom Photography, or Drawing and Painting. In 11th grade, all potential AP candidates enroll in Advanced Art to further develop skills and portfolio readiness. By senior year, students select an AP Art and Design assessment and engage in sustained, independent investigations supported through critique, experimentation, and portfolio development.
How did you guide students in developing and refining their inquiry statements and portfolio direction during their Sustained Investigations?
To launch Sustained Investigations, I ask students to take on the role of curator. They assemble 15 to 20 artworks or objects that fit together under a conceptual or formal framework. Half must come from established museums or galleries, while the other half can be drawn from anywhere—social media, cultural references, or even everyday objects. Students then write a curatorial statement, which becomes the foundation for their own investigations. This assignment gives me a clear sense of what drives them, and it allows students to place themselves within the lineage of artists and traditions they’ve chosen. For David, this process clarified his fascination with history, language, power, and cultural identity. His sustained investigation directly stemmed from this curatorial work, eventually culminating in a series of objects, prints, and conceptual work. His soap pieces exemplify how a student can shift from research and curatorial framing into artwork that seamlessly integrates—and expands upon—the exhibition they initially envisioned.
How did you help students strengthen technical skills and apply design knowledge (elements and principles) while also developing creative problem-solving habits?
In my classroom, experimentation happens through continual “what-ifs.” David embraced this process by testing different ways of representing linguistic change: burning texts, washing texts, mapping webs of language, and ultimately carving bars of soap. That choice of medium—fragile, dissolving, and universally recognizable—perfectly captured the impermanence he was investigating. His willingness to refine ideas across multiple mediums until he found one that embodied his inquiry is exactly how practice and revision become inseparable from experimentation.
How did you use critiques and peer interaction to support growth in both Sustained Investigations and preparation for Selected Works?
Our critique culture emphasizes open dialogue and questioning. When David presented his soap pieces, peers responded strongly to both the material’s fragility and its familiarity as an everyday object. Their observations about the bars’ dissolving and as tools of erasure helped David see how materially aligned his work was with his investigation of linguistic loss. Faculty critiques reinforced this reading, sharpening his resolve to push the piece as a central work in his portfolio. The discussions around David’s experimental work highlighted how dialogue can clarify meaning and strengthen impact.
How did you manage classroom resources and materials to support art making?
I make all classroom resources available and stress the importance of planning, especially for process-based mediums that require time and preparation. At the height of making, the classroom is often buzzing with activity. Students aren’t working in unison but are instead pursuing the mediums and processes most relevant to their individual inquiries. David exemplified this spirit. His portfolio moved fluidly across objects and processes—from burning and washing texts to carving soap—yet the work carried a consistent voice. Even as he explored wildly different materials and approaches, his style and conceptual clarity gave the portfolio cohesion. Providing access to a wide range of materials allowed him to experiment broadly while developing a practice that felt distinctly his own.
In what ways did you integrate digital tools or technology into students’ creative processes?
Artists work across mediums, so I make sure students build a baseline of digital skills alongside their analog work. I emphasize the confluence between the two: a drawing might become a digital collage, which then becomes a stencil for a cyanotype or a screenprint. This back-and-forth teaches students to see technology not as separate from art making, but rather as another tool for experimentation and problem-solving. David had that fluency in his own practice. For his soap series, he used digital translation tools to trace the evolution of the word “soap” across cultures and languages, which then informed the hand-carved inscriptions on each bar. His work demonstrates how digital resources can deepen conceptual inquiry and lead to outcomes that are materially grounded yet conceptually expansive.
What did you learn from working with your students, and how did you connect their learning to real-world opportunities or creative careers?
One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching AP Art and Design is the way ideas emerge through collaboration and chance. David’s soap series is a great example. I had recently completed an installation that required dozens of hotel-sized soaps, and when we were brainstorming his project, the material sparked a conversation. I gave him a box to experiment with, and he transformed those small bars into a sculptural investigation of language, power, and cultural loss. What struck me was how David took an everyday object—almost disposable in its familiarity—and used it to communicate something profound about fragility and erasure. His ability to connect concept and material reminded me that students often see possibilities we don’t anticipate. Although David is now pursuing studies in the sciences, the habits of mind he developed through AP Art and Design continue to serve him. The process of investigating complex problems, testing unexpected solutions, and refining ideas through experimentation is as essential in scientific research as it is in the studio. Helping students recognize how their creative practice applies beyond the classroom—whether in the arts, in the sciences, or in other fields—is one of the most meaningful ways I connect their learning to future opportunities.
What advice would you offer to other AP Art and Design teachers?
My advice to AP Art and Design teachers is to encourage students to let go of convention and focus on work that feels urgent and authentic to them. Staying connected to what is happening in art and in the world provides a rich foundation for guiding inquiry. When students feel empowered to take risks, respond to contemporary culture, and explore deeply personal ideas, their portfolios reflect not only technical strength but also a genuine artistic voice.
David Jiao
