AP Art of the Week
Spotlight on Artist Biplove Baral
Welcome to The Elective’s digital art museum, dedicated to the incredible work of AP Arts students. This week we feature an illustration made by Biplove Baral from Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona.
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. After more than a year of life in a pandemic, AP Art students have risen to the challenge of processing and making sense of the challenges—and opportunities—that have come from this perilous time. The work they submitted in their final portfolios is explicitly of the moment. It’s often challenging and provocative, but always insightful, inspiring, and expansive.
This week we feature an illustration made by Biplove Baral from Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona.
Here’s Biplove’s statement on the work:
“The title of this work is Corporate Greed and Environmentalism. This piece was created to explore the intertwined nature between Greed and environmental issues. The components centered around the concept of “greed” were created for the school newspaper. Specifically, the theme of the newspaper that month was “follow the money,” a theme that immediately inspired me to think of greed. The second component of the piece is centered around a physical event held in February of 2020.
“While creating the promotional art for this event, I realized how deeply greed was related to the issue at Oak Flat. Oak Flat is a sacred Apache site that was set up to be destroyed through copper mining by a foreign mining conglomerate. Additionally, this piece is best understood if you learn more about this issue, and I suggest listening to the podcast, Endangered Spaces—Oak Flat, as a way to start. Ultimately, greed was at the core of this issue and this realization prompted me to think about how I could mix my two art pieces together. That is when I started creating the final piece which you see in front of you.”
And here are a few other works from Biplove’s portfolio:
Women who shatter the glass ceiling do not need to conform to society's norms. Sketched on Adobe Fresco, downloaded image and retexturized on photoshop, finalized in Illustrator.
Explore the common themes behind environmental degradation and homelessness. Everything was created on Adobe Illustrator and then retouched on Adobe Photoshop.
Explore the connection between racism and issues that undocumented students face. Hand drew different elements on Adobe draw, pen tool, and combined pieces in Illustrator.
Student statements are lightly edited for length and clarity.
