* This student has the rare and unique distinction of being one out of sixteen students worldwide to gain a score of 100% on his AP Studio Art Drawing portfolio in 2015.   You can see an article on his achievement.

Student Statement

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Observing the culture around me, I noticed gender roles are still very prevalent in the world. Frustrated about these roles hindering both genders and already a hobbyist cook, I wanted to break a cultural set-back by cooking and exploring the kitchen more. In this series of self-portraits, I explored point of view, perspective, and superimposition.

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I wanted to show the most fun and unique cook-looks possible ranging from taking out supplies, to prepping, to actually cooking. I experimented with many points of view to do this, including bird’s eye (#3-cupboard), worm’s eye (#7-fridge), and frame within a frame (#8-oven). Along the way I used perspective techniques like foreshortening (#12-eggs). To get these views I used a selfie stick, then superimposed objects like a spoon in place of it (#10-noodles and #12-egg), or took it out altogether then redrew a normal arm (#3-cupboard), (#7 -fridge), and (#9-pot).

Throughout this journey, my skills greatly improved. Using many new kitchen tools, I learned new art skills, like transparency with the salt grinder (#5), metals color and light effects on the orange juicer (#6) and the metal plate (#8-oven). Also, early on, the skin color (#1 -face reflection) and the face’s proportions (#2-mortar) were challenging. However as I progressed, my abilities to draw and paint a more realistic face improved. When I had more confidence in creating my face, I became more experimental, and added collage for texture (#8-oven and #10-noodle), and colour pencil with watercolour.

With these twelve compositions, not only have I explored the kitchen to my heart’s content, I also developed and learned a great deal about fine art.