AP Art of the Week

Spotlight on Artist Jasmine Harrick

Welcome to The Elective’s digital art museum, dedicated to the incredible work of AP Arts students. This week we feature a drawing made by Jasmine Harrick from Shorecrest High School in Shoreline, Washington.

Elective Staff

  • January 10, 2022

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 a drawing made by Jasmine Harrick from Shorecrest High School in Shoreline, Washington.

Illustration resembling stained glass depicting two young women harvesting stars

Here’s Jasmine’s statement on the work:

“My portfolio focused on dreams and the influence of spirituality in my life.

“I started by depicting my dreams and the dreams of others. This piece is based on one of my own dreams featuring star harvesters in the night sky. My teacher, Ms. King, suggested that we look at different art styles to inform the piece we were working on, so I decided I wanted to draw inspiration from gothic architecture and fairy tale illustrations. As I looked at different images from fairy tales, I found my favorites were all by an artist named Kay Nielsen. I attempted to emulate his use of stylized shape, long lines, patterns, and isolated colors.

“This led me to change the feeling of the scene (my dream was very closed-in and dark, almost claustrophobic, whereas the painting is light and elongated), although the squishy stars maintained their look. I chose to paint the star harvesters in warmer tones so they would stand out against the cool tones present in the rest of the piece. At one point, I decided I really liked the figures but didn’t like the background, so I cut out the figures, painted a new background, and pasted the figures on it. Since my drawing style in this piece is so flat, the physical layering adds a dimension I feel improves my piece.”

Two process drawings of the stained-glass-like illustration

Here’s Jasmine's teacher Laura King on Jasmine's work:

“From the beginning, Jasmine Harrick committed to being true to her artistic intention within her Sustained Investigation. She began with a focus on personal fears. When she found that it was undermining the joy and respite that creating art brought her, she switched to a more positive idea. Her new topic was dreams, which morphed into imagination, magic, and her personal connections to them. Jasmine’s process of creating each artwork laid the groundwork for the questions and ideas she wanted to explore, which set up the basis of her next piece.

“She began with a focus on personal fears. When she found that it was undermining the joy and respite that creating art brought her, she switched to a more positive idea.

“I was impressed with Jasmine’s fearless and creative approach to problem-solving. She often hit roadblocks, but after exploring other artists’ work, getting feedback, and then experimenting on her own, she would find a solution. This often meant working countless hours on one piece, then partially or entirely scrapping it, only to recreate a stronger piece that better met Jasmine’s vision.

“Our AP art class is designed to build a community of artists. While students independently determine their artistic focus, there are some structures in place to encourage students to have a broad and deep engagement in their artistic processes. This includes exploration of artistic inspirations and other artists, research, self-reflection, phased development of their artworks, and critiques. Working with students in this new AP art format has been exciting. You see them transform from art students into young artists.”

And here are a few other works from Jasmine’s portfolio:

Painting of a young woman, in black and white, looking at a window of color and abstract shapes

Empty space is left as the magical and perceptive part of me, represented by color and abstract shape, leaves my mind. A soul on vacation.

Illustration of a person with a beam of light connected to a lightbulb, on black, at the center surrounded by doors in muted and rusty colors

Lightbulbs sucking out light, blocking a view of the doors leading out. Too much technology. Things that look great in the dark can be ugly in light.

Painting of a tree with circles in various colors in an abstract frame

Creating the feeling of a memory. The still magic of dusk. Beginning my friendship with the fairies. Built a frame and attached canvas

Illustration of a young woman with red hair, eyes closed, holding a dagger on a blue flowing background

What happens to our power when we are under too much external pressure to control it? Pressure and lack of sleep have inhibited my ability to be perceptive. She is also tired but in the process of releasing emotion.

Illustration of a black and white figure standing alone, on the right, with a series of neon-light-like abstract shapes on the left

Alone in a concrete desert, I glimpse a world of color, light, and people I long to meet but never will. Characters are alien/snazzy to show contrast between worlds.

Student and teacher statements are lightly edited for length and clarity.

AP Art of the Week Tag Culture Tag

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