The District 117 art programs showed off the skills they have been teaching throughout the first semester at the art show at Lakes. The exhibit is still up in the Lakes entrance and made its debut on Dec. 1, 2021. The display featured pieces entirely student-made from Antioch Community High School, Lakes Community High School, Antioch Upper Grade School, Grasslake Grade School and others from the area. Art piece mediums ranged from photography, ceramic, acrylic and even wood.
ACHS senior Sam Bradley, who has been in the art show since sixth grade, made her final D117 art show debut this year.
“My art piece this year was a girl staring into the mirror sewing her mouth shut,” Bradley said. “It was connected to an enneagram project.”
While Bradley’s piece was one from a side project, most entries in the art show are beginning pieces from sustained investigations.
“A sustained investigation is basically the general foundation of what you’re working off of or a theme for 15 pieces,” Bradley said. “My sustained investigation is about how love differs as age goes on.”
The D117 art show includes more than just the high schoolers; middle school teachers from the area submit the most excelled and advanced pieces from their classes.
“It’s really cool to have it all mixed in,” Bradley said. “Some of them are almost high school level.”
Students from every grade at ACHS had representation in the art show. Sophomore Nora Lubkeman submitted the most recent piece that she painted.
“It was a mouse hanging from a wire trying to catch a piece of cheese,” Lubkeman said.
Lubkeman enjoyed the show due to the diversity of pieces and mediums.
“There were many different pieces of art in many different styles,” Lubkeman said. “My favorite piece was one of a girl playing with her hair.”
The AP art program at ACHS is a particularly special group that few students join. The current combined AP class, with AP Drawing, AP Studio Art 3D and AP Studio Art 2D Design, consists of eight students that chose to advance their skills beyond the intro classes.
“I like the fact that we’re our own little community, especially in the AP art class, because everyone can kind of just vibe together on a personal level or an artist level,” Bradley said. “We all take it seriously, rather than when I was in Intro to Art; there were more kids who were there just for the credits.”
Junior Kelsey Aviles said her art class is working on a project that encourages self-reflection and students thinking about what they are creating.
“We have to draw something that inspires us when we’re in art class,” Aviles said. “I’m drawing a brain with body parts around it with a heartbeat.”
The ACHS art community goes above and beyond within their program to inspire passion and encourage questions students might not have otherwise thought. The most recent activity within the classroom was using a printing press to create t-shirts. Every week involves a new medium students can express themselves with and allows for events such as the D117 Art Show to be as big of a hit as it was. The show is set up at the main entrance of Lakes Community High School and will remain there until winter break begins.
