Visual & Media Arts Spring Show 

Video Premiere

Welcome to Our 2020-21 Visual & Media Arts Showcase!

The thread that runs through our work this year is the act of storytelling. We have all become the authors of our own time in isolation. Stories of loneliness, longing, perseverance, and fortitude. 

The qualities that embody a good visual storyteller include authenticity, the ability to set aside the plan and improvise, observational acumen and that often scary place of vulnerability when we put our story out there to share.

Painter Kerry James Marshall says, “[The] stories in my paintings are connected to larger stories. They offer a way to both find common ground and to learn about other people. Ultimately stories unite us.”

Stories teach us empathy. They can inspire and move us to use our voice. They offer a way to both find that common ground and to speak our truth. From Seattle’s own Vivid Matter Collective who created the BLM mural on Capitol Hill, to countless artist-activists around the world, art is the medium that has amplified that truth. 

In this year's Visual & Media Arts Show you will get to see and experience stories created by students in grades 6-12, in mediums ranging from pencil to sound - from film to homemade clay. Please enjoy our welcome film and then spend some time in our virtual galleries. Be as moved and impressed as we are to be able to engage in and be a part of such a creative, inspiring community of learners and risk takers. Artist activists all!

Gratitude goes to the many community members, families and artists who support this work and help these students shine. 

Lily Hotchkiss

Visual Arts Department Chair/Teaching Artist

Comments & Celebrations can be sent to lhotchkiss@seattleacademy.org and will in turn be shared.

2020-2021 Visual Art Galleries

Advanced Visual Arts Portfolios

This course is for seniors who have been very successful in previous art classes and are interested in the pursuit of knowledge and achievement in the area of visual arts. It is a challenging course to help students reach a higher level of individual expression and skill. The main goal of this class is to build a cohesive portfolio that spans mediums and themes. This year we explored and experimented with drawing from life, acrylic painting studies and techniques in self-portraiture, art defined by light, themed work based on “spooky” October, the Pandemic, the election, politics, and protests, and many individually inspired projects in between. We kept busy creating! 

Students expanded their knowledge of art history and contemporary art trends in a critical and collaborative environment with their peers. Each week they turned in an artist inspiration with a link to the artist's website, examples of their work, and a short blurb about why that artist or piece is inspiring to them using the language of art and design principles. They learned how to be critical thinkers and artists in a remote at-home setting. Each student has an online portfolio to share from their four years at SAAS. - Amanda Amsel 

Each student created an art portfolio from the past four years and an artist’s statement of their work. Normally we have each senior hang their work on their own “senior wall”. In lieu of that, here are their portfolios, presented to you online for your viewing pleasure.

Advanced Photography Portfolios

In Advanced Photography students work with photographic media to develop their own artistic style as they develop their photographic portfolio. This year’s Seattle Academy photography students have worked in a variety of genres including portraiture, still life, documentary, travel and conceptual photography. They have experimented with a wide variety of cameras and techniques including digital image capture, color and black and white film, scanning, medium format cameras, alternative processes and a combination of mixed media to create their artistic images. Students refined their critical thinking skills as they learned to read the photographic image and create photographs that explore their own personal visions. - Rebekah Rocha

Photography

Combining modern technologies with traditional photographic theory, in photography classes students used digital cameras, film cameras or mobile phones to capture and create color and black & white photographs documenting their own personal viewpoint. Through introductory assignments, students learned basic manual camera operations, exposure techniques, elements of composition and design, color theory, portrait techniques as well as how to visualize an idea through the camera lens. Classes consist of presentations, demonstrations, self-guided photo shoots at home and group critiques where students share and discuss their work and their inspirations. As they worked on refining their photography shooting and editing skills, students looked at the history of photography and how photographs have played a roll in our understanding of the world around us.  - Rebekah Rocha

Filmmaking

While teaching classical filmmaking principles, concerns, and techniques, the Seattle Academy film program also exposes students to more experimental, art-based approaches to working with media, encouraging students to question the audio/visual "rules" and assumptions built into the media they consume every day.  Students are encouraged to consider breaking with convention in the way they construct their films, resulting in a wide variety of approaches to media content and media language. The films of this year's Film students are indicative of the varied approaches students across all grades and levels of film production take in working to get their individual visions across to audiences. -Cheryll Hidalgo

Middle School Visual & Media Arts

This year in Middle School Visual Art, we asked our students jump into our unique art classrooms and to create art in a whole new way. We connected across nature, objects in our homes, paints made from every substance imaginable, and the digital divide. Visual storytelling, thinking outside of the box has pushed us through the pandemic. In 6th and 7th grade the visual arts focus on learning to love creating. This year’s Visual offerings are not your conventional art class examples, but rather a reimagining of how we connect, interpret, and process. All of our students are embracing a new way of making and charging forward without inhibition. 

This year in 6th and 7th Grade Visual Art, our mission was to create confidence and knowledge through exploring a wide variety of mediums. The courses encouraged students to develop their creativity and personal voice through focusing on fundamental skills and art experimentation. 

The Class of 2025 has truly taken up the charge of leading the way artistically into the 21st century. The entire 8th grade Visual Arts curriculum was redesigned from a traditional fine arts approach to an introduction of digital mediums and programming. Building on the students’ knowledge of the Principles and Elements of Art, our 8th graders centered on digital art production including digital still-image making and video/animation production. Students had a great deal of freedom in exploring several media making applications such as Procreate and i-StopMotion and focusing on what captured their individual interest. More than just learning how to use these tools, the Visual 8 curriculum also emphasizes how to adapt to the ever-changing world of technology as critical thinkers and creative problem solvers.

At the start of each class we booted up our iPads at home, connected our iPencils and got to work. Yes, sometimes technology did not want to play nice, we had trouble with apps, low battery iPads etc, but each day we learned and played.

To the class of 2025, you are resilient, curious and adaptive, thank you for making art with me this year!-Annalise Olson