Judith Carrillos

What kinds of practice or experimentation helped you explore materials, techniques, or approaches in your work?

I used a vibrant color scheme in the other artworks in my portfolio. However, in this piece, I used a lot of grayscale and dull colors for the stone walls of the cathedral. I knew I did not just want these dull colors to be the only color scheme in my work, so I experimented with combining the most neon vibrant colors to make them go together with the dull grayscale. The stained-glass windows have the neon color patterns on them, complementing the cathedral. With the background city around it, I included the glowing neon signs for the exterior and the windows for the buildings.

What lessons, assignments, or classroom activities helped you gain new ideas or understand processes that shaped your portfolio?

During junior year, I started exploring making artworks with an architectural theme, and in my art portfolio class, we had a digital interior design project that I enjoyed because of my dedication to architecture as a career goal. My interior theme that I designed was inspired by the futuristic elements of the 1980s Miami architectural style.

How did critiques or feedback help you revise or improve your artwork?

In the summer of 2024, I had an idea in my head, but I could not exactly pinpoint how I wanted the composition to look. When I was starting the painting a few months later, I reached out to my teacher. She took a look at my thumbnail sketch, and then she did a sketch of her own to model the best ways to do the perspective, and it helped a lot in terms of my composition. Then I revised what angle to have the model posing and the ability to view more than half of the cathedral.

What advice would you share with future AP Art and Design students about practicing, experimenting, and revising?

The advice I would give to future AP Art students is to explore a new theme during the Sustained Investigation. It allows you to be open and learn how to find what you like to create within your own art making. In my experience, from the past to now, my art revolves around architecture but I combined it with fashion. It was a new concept I had never done before. The outcome of experimenting with it helped me learn how to develop new ideas for my future artworks. Also, it can be a fun experience; whether or not you find it to be a concept to further explore, it can help you reach other ways to create within your own art making.

How often did your class meet?

Our high school is on a modified block schedule, so I see my AP Drawing class three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

I teach AP Drawing as a level three visual arts elective course. It tends to be a mix of sophomore, junior, and senior students.

How did you guide students in developing and refining their inquiry statements and portfolio direction during their Sustained Investigations?

The course works mostly as an independent study, where each student is working independently on their portfolios. I have goals for each grading quarter that the students must meet, and every time they are in class, they receive a grade for working and being on task. I have a checklist posted on the Smartboard as well as rubrics for feedback. I check in with the students every class period to see what they are working on and to critique and assist as needed. I provide a variety of art mediums for the students to use and will work with them one-on-one on new techniques and materials.

How did you scaffold writing into students’ art making and thinking processes?

Students begin the year in AP Drawing by writing in their sketchbooks a reflection/brainstorming list of ideas for their inquiry. This way we are starting the students off writing and thinking and hopefully getting the art-making process started. As the year progresses, I have some writing handouts to help them get their artist statements written for the AP Art show at the end of the year as well as help them get their thoughts together for the written part of the portfolio exam.

How did you manage classroom resources and materials to support art making?

I make sure every school year to order art supplies specifically for my AP Drawing students. I keep their supplies in a separate area that the AP students can access themselves but my other beginning level courses cannot. I make sure my AP students have good, artist-quality supplies so that they can make the best quality art that they can.

In what ways does your school leadership support AP Art and Design students and the broader art program?

We are fortunate to have a working art gallery space on our school campus. Our school really pushes to use this space not only for professional artists but also as a way to display our students’ accomplishments in the visual arts. The AP students have the opportunity to be part of an end-of-year show in this gallery, where up to five pieces of their art are on display for the school and community to view. We have a big opening at the beginning of the show to honor the students, which involves a schoolwide arts festival event for the students and their families.

What makes you most proud of your school’s AP Art and Design program and its impact on your students and teacher(s)?

The products students create are exceptional and directly related to the exceptional leadership of their teacher. She empowers them to do their best and create art that speaks life.

I have connected both our high school and career center art staff with local artists, businesses, and an art gallery, Urban Arts Space, associated with/run by The Ohio State University.

What advice would you share with other school leaders about building and sustaining strong AP Art and Design programs?