Art Exhibit Demonstrates Impressive Work of Blue Mountain’s Advanced Studio Art Classes

Enrollment in Advanced Studio Art at Blue Mountain Middle School has spiked this year to 73 eighth graders — a record number. The course, taught by Paul Gioacchini and Logan Krause, allows students to earn high school credit while teaching them advanced techniques, some that even combine art and technology.

Those lessons were on display Tuesday night in the school’s Upper Commons for the program’s annual Advanced Studio Art Show, which was held the same evening as the winter orchestra concert.

“I think it’s really cool that we got to do this,” eighth grader Michael Wenz said. “We’re very fortunate that we have the school and we have the resources that allow us to do this. Everybody has a chance to see what we are doing.”

For the event, the students had numerous paintings and drawings on exhibit, but the focal point of the evening were the interactive pieces of art they created. Students either appropriated a famous painting to change the message, illustrated and animated a famous fairy tale, or designed a musical instrument. For example, Wenz painted a guitar with actual strings that played music.

The interactive features in the students’ artwork varied, but they came to life by wiring the art to a Makey Makey circuit board, connecting that to their Chromebooks, and providing instructions through code written into Scratch, a block-based visual programming platform.

“My project is a painting of Marilyn Monroe with different colors, but the twist is that they all look really creepy,” eighth grader Cadence Roldan said. “If you tap pieces of the painting, they start to play music.”

That creativity was on display throughout the Upper Commons, and students had an opportunity during the Art Show to show family and friends how their creations worked. That led to some nerves but also plenty of eager anticipation.

“It’s very exciting,” Roldan said. “My mom is an art teacher, so she’s super excited about this. My family is always really interested in my art.”

The project helps bring to a conclusion the popular course, which wraps at the end of the first semester. It exemplifies how Advanced Studio Art sends students to high school having worked with charcoal, graphite, pencil, oil pastels, watercolors, acrylics and more, while also exploring how technology can be used to amplify artwork.

They’re learning both traditional techniques but also infusing that technology aspect,” Mr. Gioacchini said. “This show is the manifestation of all of their hard work. This is the chance to showcase all of the different things they have learned.”