When students hear that their teachers will not grade them on their artistic abilities, they sigh in relief.  But for a particular group of students at EHS, they know that their artistic abilities will either make or break their grade.

AP Art students at EHS put in extremely hard work to put everything they have on the table.

Kelly Spinka teaches the AP art class at EHS.  She has taught regular art classes for 20 years and the AP class for 5 years. “I wanted to be the art teacher I never had,” Spinka said. “And I’ve enjoyed inspiring young artists.”

All of the students in Ms. Spinka’s class have participated in art classes at EHS all four years.  They started off as young artists in middle school and gained an interest through hard work.

Even though AP art sounds like much fun, the work load is just like any other AP class.  “I expect a very high work ethic and time management skills,” Ms. Spinka said. “I grade them as a college student and they need to be able to critique others and their work.”

Along with the work they do throughout the year, they also have to complete four summer projects.

“Over the summer we had six project prompts and we had to complete four of the prompts before the first day of school,” senior Meridan Markowitz said. “We got to choose from prompts that included portraits that show emotion and a piece of artwork that featured fruit. Each project took about 24 hours to complete.”

On the first day of school, the students are expected to have their projects ready for critique from their peers.

The projects that are assigned over the summer are not the end of it, however.  The students are assigned a project weekly.  They complete the projects throughout the week, bring them in for critique, go home to revise, and turn them in for a final grade the next day.

“I spend at least two hours after school working on my projects up until they are due,” senior Kristy Shady said. “This class can be really hard to juggle with other classes.”

Even though the students struggle at times to keep up with all of the work, they find the class beneficial to their futures.

“I plan on going to University of Illinois in Champaign,” Markowitz said. “Even though I love my artwork, I will not be majoring in art.”

Markowitz plans on majoring in engineering and minoring in art.  She believes that keeping the art classes in her curriculum will benefit her as an engineer.

Shady, on the other hand, will keep art solely as a hobby. “I plan on going to Boston University but I will not be going into a career with art unless it was a side job,” Shady said.

The AP art students will have their artwork on display in the glass case by the auditorium.