Every year AP art students gather in the Scrounge to display their portfolios. Their presentations range from paintings and drawings to glass blowing and sculptures, and their creative processes are as varied as their media.

Margaret Bick, whose display featured colorful portraits, said that she looks for a “cool subject” for inspiration and then paints from there. Nick Sander, a glassblower, imitated objects he saw in people’s homes; his masterpiece was a pair of glass fish. “People love glass fish,” he explained. Sammie Jacobs’ photography was intended to “capture [the subject’s] casual side”; she used natural light and let the subjects pose however they wished.

Two artists in particular caught my attention. The first was Jacklyn Munck, whose three-dimensional work stood out from across the room. Though her masterpiece was a mobile made from lightbulbs, string, and a tree branch, the piece of hers that I liked the best was a mask made from old newspaper, with newspaper mushrooms “growing” on one side. Her work incorporated what she called upcycling, or taking things most people consider trash and turning it into art. All the lightbulbs in the mobile had broken filaments.

The second artist to catch my attention was Paul Kokes, a glassblower, whose table of smaller pieces was overshadowed by a model of his grandfather’s house, an intricate and truly impressive creation. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into [when I started],” explained Kokes. Comprised of hundreds of glass rods melted together into a framework, the sculpture is titled, “Don’t Throw Stones”.

While the work of these artists in particular caught my eye, that is not to trivialize any of the artists’ work on display. There was not a single piece there that was not a product of enormous amounts of time, effort, talent, and skill. New Trier is lucky to have this many talented artists now among its alumni.