Spotlight on Artist Amanda Roessler

Welcome to The Elective’s digital art museum, dedicated to the incredible work of AP Arts students. Each week we highlight a work or series created in one of the AP Arts concentrations—AP 2-D Art and Design, 3-D Art and Design, and AP Drawing (the AP Program also offers Art History and Music Theory)—as well as a statement from the artist (and, occasionally, their teacher).

From the first cave paintings to contemporary breakthroughs in virtually reality, art, in all its forms, has been a crucial way for people to process, make sense of, comment on, and grapple with the world around them. In 2020, there is a lot to process and grapple with—and AP Art students have risen to the challenge. The work many of them submitted in their final portfolios is explicitly of the moment, from commentary on the covid-19 pandemic to the celebration of people of color to the nature of heroism in perilous times.

The work is often challenging and provocative but always insightful, inspiring, and expansive.

This week we feature textiles made by Amanda Roessler from Brookfield Academy in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Here’s Amanda’s statement on the work:

“My sustained investigation includes a collection of fashion pieces that utilize found materials and investigate the balance between athleticism and femininity in women's fashion. The colors and shapes of varying sporting equipment inspired each of the final designs and the style for each outfit.

Growing up as an avid artist and female student-athlete, I often found myself struggling to navigate the social expectations for women in fashion. Through my collection, I hope to demonstrate the versatility and complexity of women. Each outfit is inspired by the idea that a woman is more than the sport she plays or the clothes that she wears. I also want to demonstrate the versatility in recycling of common plastic pollutants in everyday products. To accomplish this, I often utilized found objects or sporting equipment itself and focused on the use of color, line, and geometric shapes in my designs.

And here’s Amanda speaking more about her art and process:

Here are a few more pieces from Amanda’s portfolio:

Student statements are lightly edited for clarity.