May 12th was the student art show at Ida B. Wells High School. The art show included student art spanning many different mediums, including but not limited to film and digital photography, ceramics, digital art, and paintings/traditional art. The art show took place in the foyer with art displayed across all the walls along with tables for ceramics and sculpting work. Outside in the hall, there were shirts and tote bags that were screen printed by Ida B. Wells students.

The art show was open to anyone to visit, but for submissions, you had to be enrolled in one of Ida B. Wells’ art  classes. Many of the students who submitted work had a good deal of previous experience in whatever they were working on, but some tried new mediums to push their art to the next level. One such student is junior George Boutwell. Boutwell submitted a pastel piece. Before this, he never did much with pastels, and this is his first serious piece he’s done with them. “I think this year I spent a lot of time trying to get out of the mold of being scared to try new things, and I think it’s been really good for my art,” he said.

Most other pieces in the art show were similar to Boutwell’s, in the fact that the people making them are either making their first serious piece, or are still learning the craft. But unlike Boutwell’s, these other pieces come in different mediums. Junior Maddie Leboe’s ceramic piece is a great example of this. She has been working with ceramics for two years, but only hand building for one. Her piece came about when doing a project on the seven deadly sins, with the piece shown representing gluttony.

Another student showing off their rather new skills is Cody Rudisill, a junior, who submitted a digital photography piece. He has been working with photography for around five years, but what he submitted was a multishot pano of Mt. Hood. He has been stitching together photos for as long as he has had photography classes here at IBW.

Although many students submitted work they have only been doing since their tenure here at Wells, a good deal of others submitted things they have years of experience with. Two examples of this are juniors Katie Merkel and Perses Cooke. Each of them have years of experience in what they do. Merkel has been working with colored pencil work for easily over 10 years. Cooke has been working with digital art alone for around five to six years. 

The art show is a great showing of the talents that the  students at Ida B. Wells have, and what they are learning in the school’s art classes. The art show is a rather new tradition, but participants and attendees alike are happy to see its continuation. “I think it’s just awesome we get to have this and it’s becoming a tradition,” Boutwell said. “I love seeing all the cool stuff that me and my friends and everyone makes.”