AP Studio Art students chose their own concentration and created a series of pieces. They submitted digital and physical portfolios to the College Board on May 6. In this series, the artists discuss the year-long endeavor and share some of their pieces.
After senior Jake Sands and Camille Locke, the next is senior Zoe Dym.
Q: What was your concentration?
A: In short, it’s why people wear makeup.
Q: Why did you choose this?
A: I was watching a makeup tutorial on YouTube, and some jerk commented “Only unconfident girls wear makeup,” and I think that’s stupid and it’s not true.
For example, one of my models had cancer and had to go through chemotherapy, and so she lost all the hair on her face. She went to classes within the hospital that taught women how to apply makeup for those who had lost their hair from the result of chemotherapy.
One of my models was (junior) Austin (Talamantes), and he believes that everyone should be able to wear makeup.
I had my models do various facial expressions so that they didn’t look “beautiful” to contradict the idea that makeup is only a tool to make people feel beautiful.
Q: How long did it take you to do your concentration?
A: I spent my entire senior year working on my concentration because I had my breadth basically all done beforehand.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced?
A: During the middle of the year, I changed my concentration. It was originally a story of this girl holding a red balloon and going through all these different places and collecting friends.
But I realized that I hate drawing settings, so I gave up after like two or three because I couldn’t stand to do it. I switched to what I have now.
Q: What media did you use?
A: Mostly acrylic.
Q: Do you have one or two pieces you are particularly proud of?
A: I liked the one I did of my friend Reina. I liked how I did it on a sheet of canvasboard and then applied that onto a cardboard background. And this made it look different than the other ones.
Q: How are you depicting the makeup?
A: Most of (the pieces) have quotes from the actual model, so that shows that they are wearing makeup or that it is about makeup.
One that I did of (senior) Elinor (Hilton) said, “People like me better with makeup.”
Q: What was your style for this?
A: I tried something new. There’s a bunch of crazy colors, and they usually went with the theme or the personality of the person (I was painting) or other colors that they usually use in their makeup, and there’s random splotches of color everywhere.
Q: Was there a message that you were trying to convey through your concentration?
A: I guess it would be don’t be a stereotyping jerk. People wear makeup for their own reasons. You don’t know their story; it’s not something that unconfident girls wear.
I’m sure a lot of girls wear it because they’re unconfident, but many other genders wear it. Girls wear it for more than just that reason. A lot of people like it because it’s fun.
—By Grace Naify
