Student by design

High schoolers invent their own style in Studio Arts course

Senior Breuklyn Opp’s first major sewing project last year was also her first prom dress.

She’s repeating the experience this year, designing a dress in the Charles City High School art studio with prominent metal accents across the top, skirt and back. It’s a challenge in more ways than one, Opp, sitting next to friend and senior Megan Roethler, said.

“We all hate planning. I think we can all agree that nobody plans stuff,” Opp said, partially joking. Roethler wholly agrees.

That doesn’t really worry instructor Brian Bohlen, who hosts Studio Art periods throughout the school day in his classroom. For the juniors and mostly seniors in the course, it’s the experimentation, not efficiency, that matters most.

“Our job as art teachers is to push them in that direction and keep challenging them as artists, to not continue to do stuff that’s safe for them,” Bohlen said. “Push them towards something they don’t think they can do, or they don’t think they’re good enough to do, and build on their skills.”

The course, only available to students who meet art instruction requires, gives students a chance to chart their own study with Bohlen, who supervises their progress. None of the students have the same projects, deadlines or even a required amount of pieces to finish –– the projects are just too different to standardize, Bohlen said.

“Obviously somebody working in ceramics is going to make things quicker than somebody making a really elaborate painting,” he said. “I don’t worry as much about how many projects my kids get done, as much as how hard they’re working everyday.”

Senior Morgan Bilharz now focuses exclusively on ceramics, working behind the pottery wheel or planning more projects in a school studio covered with past students’ painted signatures on the walls. She’s been given a lofty challenge for the end-of-year student art show.

“(Bohlen) told me at the beginning of the year that he wants me to have my own section with at least 30 good pots in there,” Bilharz said. “I have to get on that grind and start making some more.”

By nature, pottery is not a short process. Those pots, bottles and bowls may take up to a few weeks to dry out between the shaping and the final glazing, and there’s no guarantee she’ll always be happy with the end result.

“I might make 20, but only ten of those are ones I want to put in the art show,” she said.

Roethler, focused on perfecting drawing and charcoal techniques, executed an abstract portrait in about 45 minutes on Wednesday. But she’s also done a series of horror-filmed themed portraits where the detailing has taken anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

“Realism is pretty important to me,” Roethler said. “I practice that a lot, taking a picture and trying to draw it exactly out to improve my skills. It’s really paid off, especially with proportions.”

Each student project comes with a new set of challenges, said Bohlen. After teaching art for 16 years, he’s still working through new barriers each trimester with young artists.

“Every year something new comes along or a kid does something new I’ve never had another kid do,” Bohlen said. “Some of the stuff they want to do, maybe I’ve never done either.”

With 19 different art courses for CCHS students to choose from, they also develop a range of specialities, dabbling and overlapping in different types of media to build their styles. Opp has experience in painting, jewelry-making, welding, sculpture and now design to round out her interests. As well as designing the prom dress with triangular chain mail features, she’s thinking about building a sculptural body form to display the dress. Most of her paintings are finished in two or three days. Her prom dress has a definite deadline: April 16. After that, Opp hopes to display it in the school show at the Charles City Arts Center.

“Usually I don’t have to worry too much about deadlines. It’ll be a new experience,” Opp said.

The April art show will feature student examples from throughout the year, and gives them a chance to present work in a professional facility, Bohlen said.

“Gathering the best things, it’s a tremendous amount of work. It’s no different than a band or vocal concert,” Bohlen said. “I think for a high school art show, we have an amazing show. I don’t know any high school around that gets the facility we get to display our artwork and leave it up for three weeks. It’s nice, we get a lot of community support, we love having lots of people go through on that night.”

Until then, students like Bilharz will keep working, and occasionally messing up, for the sake of a new, creative experiment.

“I used to get really frustrated, really mad. I worked so hard to get it the shape that I wanted, and then it comes out of the kiln and I hate it,” Bilharz recalled, smiling. “I’ve learned to just let go a little bit and realize that things are going to go the way they do sometimes, and it’s not always going to be perfect. I can always remake it.”

By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com