Denver Public Schools 20/21 Citywide Middle School Art Exhibition

2020-21 l oo h c S le d id M e id w y Cit Art Show

Featuring Denver Public Schools student artists, grades 6-8

The 2021 Citywide Middle School Art Exhibition is an annual event featuring artists in grades 6th through 8th, from across Denver Public Schools. Previously, this exhibition has been hosted by our long-standing community partner, the Denver Public Library. While we were unable to host an in-person show this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are proud of the work our teachers and students have produced over the past school year! This year’s show features artwork from 11 schools and 17 programs from across the district.

There are 148 pieces on view, all submitted by our visual arts teachers. In addition to the art, the artist statements are an extension of students’ inspirations, ideas, and art methods.

Collectively, the work expresses the resiliency of teachers and students during historically challenging times. This virtual show is a celebration of student art and our learning community.

The vision of Denver Public Schools Citywide Arts Events is to broaden students’ individual artistic experiences, exposing them to new and diverse perspectives. Middle School students in the Visual Arts are challenged to explore their ideas and feelings while developing technical and investigative skills in art. This year’s artwork provides a unique glimpse into students’ creative processes outside of the classroom. Much of this art was created and documented by students during remote learning. Thus, the work is truly authentic to the students who created the artwork and expressive of their voice, choice, and agency in the arts.

We are grateful for the support of the Arts and PE Department for all Citywide events.

Thank you to Alexandria Jimenez for lending us her substantial design skills in the creation of this exhibition catalogue. And finally, a big thank you to all our participating schools for taking part in this long-standing DPS tradition! We couldn’t do it without our dedicated arts teachers and students.

DCIS @ Baker .......................................................................................... 7-8 Denver Discovery School ................................................................. 9-11 Denver School of The Arts (Jim Cliff) ....................................... 12-16 Denver School of The Arts (Marty Loftus) ............................. 17-22 Florida Pitt Waller ................................................................................ 23-27 Hill Campus of Arts & Sciences ...................................................... 28-34 Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy (Ashley Fulton) ......... 35-38 Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy (Jacob Heal) ................ 39 Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy (Jessica Widder) ...... 40-43 McAuliffe International School (Morgan Cofer) ................. 44-49 McAuliffe International School (Cris Sand) .......................... 50-54 McAuliffe International School (Carrie Shiffrin) ............... 55-59 Merrill Middle School ......................................................................... 60-63 Dr. MLK Jr. Early College (Hadley Bowen) ............................... 64-66 Dr. MLK Jr. Early College (Joseph Graves) ............................... 67-70 Skinner Middle School ......................................................................... 71-75

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Bryant Webster Dual Language School ................................... 5-6

l a u D r e t s b e W t n a y r B nguage School La s r e d i V Deb

Karma C., 7th grade Tough Yet Sweet

"To survive middle school I have to be tough yet deep down inside I am still sweet!"

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Bianca H., 7th grade

Butterfly Ascending and Melted Rainbow "I chose to show butterflies that remind me of my Grandpa that has passed and the wonderful times we spent together. Especially vivid in my mind is the time spent with him in the mountains admiring a rainbow after a thunderstorm and once when I was sad seeing a butterfly in the garden and instantly feeling better remembering my Grandpa and the happy times we spent together."

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DCIS @ Susan Baker Marion Evalyn R., 7th grade Lights in Leaves

"I used several acrylic paints to make a tree. I painted this on glass. My theme is Nature."

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Joshua C., 7th grade

The Abstraction of Lies "This is an abstract expressionist piece."

Lydia N., 7th grade Vincent C., 7th grade

Night Monster

Invisible Strings

"This monster lurks for prey during the devil's hour, evil is tastier, the man here did something, his life just ended. This artwork has no deeper meaning. Maybe try to think of a meaning. No other meaning intended"

"In this art piece I tried to convey my feelings about the state of the world."

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S y e r f Jef

Margaret (Tommi) G., 8th grade Color Doesn't Define "For my process, I started tracing my hands to make hand of different colors. Then I colored my hands and wrote my statement in black. I hope my audience's understanding is that the color of someone's skin doesn't define who or what they are. I want people to look at someone and not block them out for the color of their skin or the way they look."

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Complete Isolation "This artwork consists of two polar opposite masks, one being joyful and the other upset. One stares blankly while the other sees all. I used acrylic paint, pencils, and markers on 8.5 by 11 inch sketch paper to make this artwork. The process I used to make this art was to first make a pencil sketch of the masks.

Secondly, I painted the background black. Lastly I detailed the masks with pencils and markers and highlighted with paint. I would like to convey in this piece that art can be made with a mix of tools, in this case pencils, paint, and markers. I also wish to convey the masking of one's emotions and how from an outside perspective you can never truly know if what someone appears as is true. The title of this artwork “Complete Isolation” represents the figures being completely alone behind their masks."

Mia M., 7th grade Voting Rights "For my silhouette art topic I chose voting rights. I chose images and quotes that would make my message clear to my audience. Quotes: 1. Don't lose your voice 2. My vote, my right, my fight 3. We have the freedom to vote 4. Let my people vote 5. I count. I hope that more people stand up for voting rights."

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Jahvaiy J., 7th grade

Hungry Astro

Pray to God and Blessed God Everyday

"I made an astronaut eating a slice of pizza but it was the earth. I started with a sketch, outlined it with black watercolor and went from there. I think my work will be seen as a funny yet interesting."

"For my process I first found a picture to draw and then I drew the subject and color. I made this piece to show how art makes me feel. I hope my audience understands from my piece that I want my art to tell people how art is helpful with your mind and calmness."

Jaidyn P., 7th grade

Serenity M., 7th grade Sabrina A., 8th grade

Parker T., 7th grade Fruit Still Life "I made a still life painting out of watercolor paper, and watercolor paints. I picked a piece of watercolor paper, penciled in a circle, and painted. Then I thought the circle should be an apple. Then I started putting other fruit in the background. I hope my work will be seen as peaceful, and vibrant."

Animal's Rights! Give them a Voice!

"I made a silhouette to give a voice to all the animals in the world using things like colored pencils, crayons, markers, and a sharpie. During the making of this art piece, I thought of an idea to use animals in some way as I have a love for animals. I thought of all the hurt animals in the world and decided to give them a voice in some way. I looked up some similar silhouettes and got my idea. I hope people that view my art piece appreciate animals more and try to help them in any way they can."

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Denver of the School A rts Jim Cliff

Claire R., 8th grade Person Walking Through Forest of Giant Leaves "I've always been interested by plants so I decided to draw something that incorporates plants in the prompt for monumental versus minimal."

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Preslie H., 7th grade

Hands "Hands tell stories about good and bad, so I incorporated both dull and bright into the piece."

Mushroom Forest "This piece was inspired by colors. I wanted to create something that would be very colorful and unordinary. That's why I took something normal and mixed it with colors that you wouldn't see on that object every day to create a very colorful environment."

Scout D., 7th grade 13

Upset at Sea

Distorted Blocks "My memory of building castles at night when I couldn't sleep always stays a little distorted. The floors seem closer than they were, the walls seem curved the higher they go, and yet even with the distortion it remains one of my most vivid memories."

"I wanted to make a seascape that depicted different emotions in the viewer while they looked at the artwork."

Noelle D., 8th grade

Elijah S., 8th grade

Eliana H., 7th grade

Olivia S., 8th grade

City Lights

Out Of This World

"This piece is inspired by the artist Jason Anderson and his use of color to create an abstract cityscape."

"This piece was inspired by something that you would never see. I wanted to create layers to make this world more 3D. It is something "dreamlike" that makes no sense. " 14

Raining Light "My art piece is inspired by the memories I have of trips to the zoo when I was younger, in which I specifically remember a gray and rainy sky with lanterns of all different colors hanging from the trees. I wanted to incorporate this array of colors into my work, which Copic markers and watercolors helped with, as well as an exaggerated illustration of my younger self featured in the center of this piece to really create the mood of the experience I had a long time ago."

Piper T., 8th grade 15

Thea S., 7th grade Alone

Hidden "I wanted to capture the intense and hidden sides of society. It is represented by which side this citizen chooses to glow and the side left unknown."

Elizabeth M., 8th grade 16

f o l o o h c S r e v n e D e Arts th s u t f o L y t r a M

Malena B., 6th grade

Parent Sentences

"This piece was drawn on a scratchboard. I did a graphite transfer and used cross hatching with a needle-like tool to add highlights, and to create value. I added a complex story to this simple portrait, that may not stand out until you listen to the story. This piece is of my mom, and there are different flaws in the piece representing the imperfections of parenting that conclude to highlight the greatness of parenting. The black dramatic background adds suspense, and there is clean cross hatching to represent the greatness, and messy to represent the flaws. But, if you step back and look, you can see it all form together to show a healthy, great life of a parent."

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A Goose Mess

Amber O., 6th grade

"For this art project, I was inspired by the musical artist, Lizzo. I chose a song of hers called "Juice" to make this digital piece which is about a goose who has hoarded lots of random things and trash, and has piled them up to almost make a throne. All of the items for the throne are objects Lizzo mentions in the song. I wanted to make a fun composition that was colorful, eyecatching, and brings joy to the viewers just like her music does."

2 A.M. Ring Camera "This piece was done with scratch board, a portrait of my friend Charlie. I was inspired by a photo she sent me with an Instagram filter over it distorting the image a little, so I tried to capture that through my piece. My favorite part is probably the nose because I didn’t like how it turned out at first but it turned out to be one of the best parts."

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Madison L., 8th grade

Arianna R., 8th grade

Masked "I made this piece to represent the realness of covid and how important it is to protect others and yourself."

Nico and the Niners "My artwork shows the song "Nico and the Niners" by Twenty One Pilots. "Nico and the Niners" is a dark fictional story about a guy named Clancy and his attempt to escape a walled off city called Dema controlled by nine bishops, also known as Nico and the Niners. My work portrays the image of Clancy escaping from Dema with the rebel group "Banditos" whilst being followed by Nico."

Nell C., 7th grade Never End Nightmare

Gavin B., 7th grade 19

"This piece is tied back to a game that has been involved in my life since at least 2015. The game series is called Five Nights at Freddy's, and the many games and books in the series have always interested me.

When I got the chance to show my love for the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, I took it. I could go on forever but I won't bore you with the details."

Tristan D, 6th grade Glue Shoes

"I know, I know, not the most impressive name, but glue was one of the biggest problems while making these shoes, but more on that later. I decided to make soccer shoes because I LOVE soccer. I've been playing it for as long as I can remember. It was one of the things that got me into drawing. I loved to draw soccer jerseys when I was very little, and sometimes soccer stadiums. Now, onto how I made these. I sketched the whole thing out first and after I was done sketching I started gathering supplies. Glue, paper bags, and that's basically it. I started with some plain brown bags to get the shape of the shoes.

Once I was done with the shape, I got colored bags and started cutting and gluing them on in a pattern. It took me a day or two to finish the first shoe, but there was a big problem, I was out of glue! I went around the whole house looking for glue, nothing. I asked my mom if we could go buy some glue at the store. She went to the basement for a minute and came back with a paint brush and a white container. In the bottle there was glue! She showed me how to use it by putting the paintbrush in and basically painting the shoes, but with glue, and it worked! I finished right on time, but I looked at my shoes and noticed another problem. One of the shoes was shinier than the other. The glue that my mom gave me made it look shinier, so I got the glue back and gave the first shoe a second layer of glue so they would look the same. When I took them to school the next day they were still drying off, but in the end, I like the way they turned out."

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Koi "I was required to take an Inktober prompt and turn it into a bigger piece. As I was scanning through the list of words I saw "Fish" and decided that would be a fun one to do. I originally thought about doing a pen and ink piece of Koi fish in a pond, but I later decided on a couple smaller pieces of different koi fish colors. It was hard to choose from all of them, but in the end I chose three. I found it extremely fun to work on such a small scale and the colors were entertaining to watercolor."

Sophie B., 7th grade

Brayden B., 7th grade

The Last Giggle "This project is a baby who is crawling over the city as a giant! It was made with Adobe Photoshop and I wanted to add my personal touch by also replacing the baby face with mine. I got this idea because I wanted to make something funny but also crazy! I was creating this project a couple of days after I bought Photoshop, so I had to come back to many YouTube videos for the shading, shadows, and more. Overall I'm happy with how it came out and how I learned in the process. " 21

Story of a Stickman: Animation "Story of a Stickman is a story of a person who started from the bottom and worked their way back up but not to where they wanted to be. It's a story about finding a way to be unique but happy."

Jordan S., 6th grade 22

Florida P Waller ittBonnie Roman

Nicole B., 8th grade "Soaring" (Album Cover of You) "I wanted to convey a calm feeling but also bits of fun and bright. The clouds and the sky in my artwork are meant to bring the calm feeling and the bright and random colored clouds for the fun. One thing I did well on was making the clouds. I could improve by making the colors of the sky a little lighter, to look a bit calmer."

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Damian C., 8th grade

Diana N., 7th grade

Kind

Eye-Dentity

Lindsay E., 8th grade Untitled

Rosemary S., 7th grade 24

Never Be Scared

Neveah C., 7th grade

Pizza and Coca Cola Type of Day

"I chose to recreate pizza. I created a cheese pizza with a Coca Cola. I used toilet paper and construction paper to make my entire recreated meal. I created a pizza box for the pizza to go into. I chose this meal because this is something my brothers and I love to eat on a Friday while watching a movie. I made sure that this meal looks like a meal that my brothers and I would get on a typical Friday. I made it look like a mini pizza box as a placeholder for my pizza. I made sure that this pizza looked very delicious as the viewer (you) imagined the pizza in your hands ready to eat. I made sure that there were no white spaces in my work and also made sure that the color mechanism does not overlap on the overall design. I made sure that all colors balanced out. I also made sure that the image is visually pleasing. I made sure that there wasn't too much or too little water. I made sure that the toilet paper took the form in which I was trying to mold it in. I also made sure that I let it dry in the mold so that I may further work on it.

No pieces are needed to be further worked on. The piece looks fantastic the way it is. I now know how to balance out the different colors I used. I made sure that there was an equal amount of repetition when adding colors and I also made sure that the image was visually pleasing to the audience."

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Sovanchansunny (Sunny) Has, 8th grade

Untitled

Kylie J., 8th grade Untitled (after James Van Der Zee) "Somebody would come in and say, I never take a good picture. I'd say, Why not? You've got two eyes, a nose, and a mouth like everybody else." - James Van Der Zee. This artist inspired me because of the quote I put, because it's true. It makes me feel like if someone says something bad about a photo that we all have the same thing and it doesn't matter how we take pictures."

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Elise M., 6th grade Untitled (after Felrath Hines)

Ana (Alex) H., 8th grade

Untitled (Album Cover of You) "I wanted to give a fun feeling. I wanted it to have a lot of shapes to make it look fun and bright. One thing I did well was drawing the eye. Next time I will add more to it."

Untitled (after Bisa Butler)

Michelle E., 8th grade

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"Bisa Butler's art has a really deep meaning for Black people. It’s really inspiring to look at. Not only did I learn her background and her style, I learned how passionate she is about her culture. By looking at her art, it makes me feel a bit more bright-sided: like an optimist!! I tried using that color in the skin (which compared to her it’s not that great since her art is AMAZING). I made sure to make the drawing as realistic as I can."

f o s u p m a C s e l c l n Hi rts and Scie A y v o N A aryn

Levi P., 6th grade Double Silhouette "My silhouette on the left has a sunset mountain landscape inside of it and the silhouette on the right has one of my favorite quotes by Dr. Seuss. The background is a trick Ms. Novy taught me, you color a plastic bag with markers, then wet a page and press that plastic bag to the wet page and it creates a blend of colors. This project represents me with how I love landscapes (everyone knows that by now) and how the background kind of flows, and I feel like I can go with the flow, like the background. I think that adding that kind of background adds to the project because it’s not too vibrant, but it's not too plain, and I feel that it also goes well with the colors I have in my silhouette. I learned the technique that I used for my background, and I learned how to make a silhouette."

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Mena K., 8th grade

Akila Helping to Rake the Leaves "November’s art project is a comic depicting my dog “helping” me rake leaves. The characters include my labrador Akila, and me. I went for a simple grey background and bright autumn leaves. I used Procreate for this piece because it allows me to do the large colorfill and motion blending needed for this project. My cartoon style is very angular and seamless. I used autoline and colorfill layers to achieve a ‘clean’ look.

Truthfully, I just wanted to make a funny plot that people could relate to. I thought drawing my pointless efforts at raking leaves would be a clever way to do this. By using dramatic angles and wording I intensified a seven second encounter. I learned the importance of doing art in layers, because this project took longer than I expected.

This could have been avoided if I did more layers at once."

VW Minibus "We were all sitting around a table, looking at a website for VW buses. As I was talking to my friends my dad said he thought he found the perfect one. I came over and saw that it was this bright orange bus with a surfboard on top. On the inside of the bus it had a nice blue interior with a couch and small cabinet areas. The top of the bus could expand and create a two person bed area. My sister and I were going to sleep there. The family that we were going with had already found a bus. It looked a lot different as it was dirty white with a black interior; it wasn’t as authentic as the one we had, but was the only one left for their family size. The family that we were going with has gone on many adventures with us.

Some of the main things we have done with them are going on an RV trip, The VW bus trip, and recently we rafted down the Colorado river together for a week and camped at stopping places. We had fun on all of our trips before that so we were excited to do the VW trip. Our plan was to go to California and drive along the coast for a week."

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Elizabeth H., 8th grade

Caden's Office "In this space I wanted to make an office area. I put in things like the desk and chair as well as a couch and posters. The room is supposed to have a wood and leather style, but does stray from it with some items, like the curtains. With all of the rooms I made, I tried to incorporate a wooden and leather style. I used the computer and I made it so that some of the items had shadows to try to add depth. The first digital space is supposed to have cartooning items like papers and a blank comic pane. I learned how to add shadows and reflections to pictures and how to effectively crop out the background to make items transparent."

Caden F., 8th grade Covid Masks "My subject matter was a surgical mask which is especially popular during the pandemic we’re in and I was inspired by Andy Warhol because he made an entire genre out of something as simple as a soup he enjoyed. The materials I used were calligraphy pens, colored pencils, a pencil and a ruler and I used the technique of adding dark thick lines with calligraphy pens and measuring the masks with a ruler to try and make each mask the same size. My drawing shows a popular object of today, a mask because in this time period with the pandemic, a mask is currently something everyone owns so technically it is popular.

My goal for this project was to make Andy Warhol-inspired pop art using something popular today and I believe that I did achieve this because my art does look like it was inspired by Andy Warhol and can be categorized as "pop art". Something I learned from this project was that making multiple objects the same scale is very difficult."

Natalie L., 8th grade

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"This is a sculpture that represents the crepes my mom makes for me and my family on the last day of winter break. The ones that I always make are Nutella + strawberry which is what I decided to create. The placemat is a snowflake pattern that represents the winter breaks in which my family and I eat them.

For this sculpture, I first created three log shapes out of toilet paper to act as fillers so that my crepes didn’t lay flat. Then I created flat crepe-shaped circles. This way I could construct them like you usually would in real life. After this, I rolled them up and then put the fillers in them. I used toilet paper, water, and a little bit of glue in it to adhere one part of the crepe to the other. I then used water on a paintbrush to curve in the edges and give it a smoother texture on the edges. I created sliced strawberries for the insides and the whole ones for show on the top. I painted the strawberries and the crepes and then assembled the crepes all together with hot glue. Then I mixed a glue and paint concoction for the Nutella drips. This is how I glued the strawberries to the inside. I added a drizzle with a popsicle stick to the top and then a large splotch of Nutella as well to help glue the big strawberries down and to create more fun drizzle spots. I chose to create crepes because they are one of my favorite foods and I really love winter break because winter is one of my favorite seasons. I think that my crepe is a realistic representation of an actual crepe because I also added some burn marks and crisper spots to make it look like it was actually fried in a pan. During this project, I learned that it is extremely hard to make realistic-looking strawberries because every time you try and make the paint more vibrant and lighter it turns pink."

Amelie M., 8th Winte grade r Brea k Cre pes

Geeky Gabi

Gabriela S., 7th grade

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"My Garbage Pail Kid card is supposed to represent my interests so I added characters and objects from shows that I like. What I used to create my project were watercolors and black pen for outlining. My character represents me because it expresses my interests. I think I was successful when adding detail that illustrates my character but I wish i could have added things to make it more creative and unique. What I learned when creating this drawing was how to apply watercolor in several different ways."

Addison L., 8th grade

Salamander Room "I recreated "The Salamander Room" book cover. The cover has lush, dark green leaves surrounding a clearing where the title of the book is, a vibrant orange salamander with dark dots perched half way on the clearing and the leaves. I included all of the described elements above using almost the same color palate. For this piece, I used Crayola duo tip markers, I also used pencil to lightly sketch out the design before starting the dots. This book is very memorable to me because I loved hearing it and looking at all the beautiful illustrations. I remember receiving it from my grandparents after they got back from a trip. I was in awe at the sight of the salamander and was eager to read and listen to it. I always did and still do love the outdoors and catching wildlife (and releasing it) for fun. Additionally, I loved the storyline: a little kid finds a salamander and keeps it in his room. Slowly he starts adding or taking away things from his room to accommodate for the salamander. In the end his room isn’t a room at, it is the natural world. I feel like I did a good job recreating the colors using pointillism on the cover the best I could. However, I didn’t like how the shadows on the clearing look. The colors didn’t blend the way I wanted them to, but overall I think I accurately recreated the colors. I learned how to do pointillism and the basics of pointillism. I hadn't ever heard of pointillism so it was really fun to learn and explore this new concept and technique. " 32

"For my art piece I wanted to make the expression and background to symbolize a feeling that everyone has felt gray, because they have been trapped inside quarantining from Covid. This is because when you're inside you don’t really get to go outside and feel free. During the quarantine, nature and the outside world has thrived a lot, so while we were all inside and trapped, outside was thriving. The gray color of the person's skin tone symbolizes the feeling of being trapped and bored, and the green and color of the grass and butterflies symbolizes freedom and happiness. Some materials and techniques I used were pencil and shading to add dimension to the face, and make it more realistic-looking. I used markers for the grass, flowers, bees, and butterflies because I know that marker is a really vibrant material. My artwork shows my opinions/experiences during the pandemic because it shows that this is a person going outside and really seeing the outside world for the first time in a while, showing that they have been trapped inside while the outside world has been flourishing. My intended mood for this project was a mix of sadness and happiness because the person is full of sadness, but the outside is full of happiness and freedom, and slowly the person starts to regain their happiness from being outside more instead of being trapped inside. I think I did achieve this because that’s what I see when I look at it. Something I learned from this was how to make more proportioned faces, and that oil pastels are not the best material for small and detailed artwork. "

Lucy H., 8th grade Yesterday

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London Street Book Nook "My book nook is based off of a street in London. This is because one place that I would like to go to is London. I used black paint, sand, and Elmers glue for the street. I used lollipop sticks, toothpicks, paint, tape, cardboard, and scrap muslin fabric for the bike. I also used cardboard tubes, toothpicks, plastic, lights, and cardboard for the window, door, streetlight, lamp, and sidewalk post. Finally, I used paper and tissue paper for the plants and rolled up the pink tissue paper for the roses. One technique I used to make the tires of the bike round, I made strips of cardboard wet and curved them to let them dry in a circle. The tools I used include a hot glue gun, scissors, paintbrush, and tweezers. The book nook represents me because it shows a place I want to go to and it is a street along the River Thames that has interesting and beautiful buildings that are fun to replicate. I also like to make detailed things and so I tried to add details to the book nook. I was successful in creating space and implied texture in my art because the bike, lamp post, window, sidewalk, and other parts are realistic.

This is because I used plastic for the “glass” to make it look like glass. I used sand to make the street grainy like real asphalt. I painted the sidewalk gray, but I also added some white and black dots to make it look like it has been used. I made space by creating a vanishing point and painted the cereal box to make it look like the road continued. While making this piece, I learned that you can use materials in more than one way and in other ways besides how they were intended to be used."

Olivia D., 7th grade 34

Kunsmi l Arts Aler Creati cademy ve A shley Fulton

Rayv the Ampwave Head

Haven C ., 8th

"I made this artwork for the cardboard mask project. My inspiration for this project was to create one of my characters. I think that I am most proud of the fact that I got it to go all the way around my head. I also liked that I got to paint it, and I liked how the spray paint turned out on it. I think that I would add a bit more depth to the ears, and do another coat on the chevron pattern on the forehead. The hardest part was the beginning because I was unsure of where to start, and it took me a little bit to be able to build up the shape. However, this is still my favorite piece of artwork, and I like it very much!"

grade 35

Gunnison C., 8th grade

Lego Robot "The name of this robot is ARRO v.23 or as the owners called it ARRO, which stands for advanced rumble robotics organization. Its purpose is to be a boxing robot, so it basically eliminates human boxing because of how dangerous it was to create a new thing where metal would destroy metal. The story behind ARRO v.23 is that once upon a time a robot was sent into the ring and got beat up, so then 30 years later some kids found it and rebuilt it. Then it became the newest robot on the streets. It is mostly based on one, if not the best, robot boxing movies ever made called Real Steel. I used it as inspiration for my own version. I made it look like a mixture between technology and some mythology. I used lego bricks for the whole thing. I like the legs because they're nice and big, so I can stand it up without any problems. I wouldn't change anything, but the head. I would want a better head."

Ahn N., 8th grade

Ashley C., 8th grade

Imaginary Friend Original Character

Origami Dragon

Made from the repurposed pages of an old book 36

"This project is from the Imaginary Friend Project. My concept for this project was to create an original character. My imaginary character is meant to basically take care of children. My character's name is Khoro. Khoro used to be a very gloomy guy who basically hated people and especially children.

Khoro died in his 20's and was known as an “old man” because of how gloomy he was. Khoro didn't want to die being remembered like that, so death gave Khoro another chance. But instead of going back as a human, he would become a fairy creature who protects children. Of course Khoro didn't like the idea of becoming a creature and taking care of children, but it was his only choice to live again. Khoro accepted and his memories were wiped out.

He woke up in a strange place where mythical creatures roamed the streets. The place is named Altra and it's where all good fairies live as myths.

Khoro didn't understand how the whole process of protecting children worked, but 500 years later he got used to it. Khoro dresses in all black since it's mandatory to blend in to the night sky, so children won't see him, but his hair is all white and it stands out a lot at night. Khoro has a number on his arm which basically represents what level of fairy he is. The levels go through 1,000 and 2,000. Lower than that means that the creature can't go out and protect children since they don't have much power. It usually takes years to obtain enough power to protect children since the creatures who harm the children are very powerful. Demons/shadows are creatures who rebelled against the good fairies and terrorize kids in the night. Creatures like Khoro take the form of 3 animals which are very special to the child. In this case, Khoro's current child likes wolves, tigers, and ducks. Khoro would take those forms, so the child would feel more comfortable. Creatures like Khoro have soothing voices to make children sleep while they battle the creatures who want to take the children. The demon/shadows feed on the fear and sadness of a child, so creatures like Khoro try to have the child as happy as they can to prevent the demons from growing in power. My inspiration was that I was pretty scared of the dark and scary things when I was young. I created a character I would love if I had had it when I was young. I chose to make this character because my top 3 favorite animals were a wolf, tiger, and duck. The materials I used to create this were my iPad, my apple pencil and a software named Procreate.

One aspect of my drawing I really love is his hair because I like how wavy and long I made it. One thing I would change in my artwork is probably the colors. The easy thing I found while creating this artwork is probably making the character because I make OCs (original character) all the time. One challenging thing I found about this project was creating the background story behind him because I'm pretty bad at making up good stories."

Kristal A., 8th grade 37

Khoro

Orphee A., 8th grade

Portgas D. Ace "My favorite drawing I made was for the shoe design project. Even though I don't care about shoes that much, I like the design and the concept for the project. The shoe is based off a character named Portgas D. Ace from a show called "One Piece." All the symbols are something that he either wears or something that is on his body. The fire is from his "devil fruit," which is a fruit that gives you special powers in exchange for your ability to swim. Ace gained his Fire Abilities from the one that he ate."

Anh N., 8th grade

Legends Never Die "I based my design off of a Juice Wrld album. Juice Wrld is a rapper who I listen to a lot. Earlier this year he overdosed. He was loved by many including me, so I thought I could do this design as a tribute. I used paper, colored pencils, and sharpie. I am proud of the shading that I did on the shoe. I would like to change the lettering of the "Legends Never Die." What was easy was the shading and what was hard was drawing the actual shoe.

I think i did pretty good on this project and this was by far my favorite project."

Emiliano G., 6th grade Stop Motion Animation 38

e v i t a e r C r e l l i m s n u K rts Academy A l a e N Jacob

e d a r g h t 8 , M a n a i r a A 39

Kunsmi l Arts Aler Creati cademy ve J essica Widder Mystical Drawing

Leah E., 7th

"I drew a waterfall with a little pond at the bottom.

I made it mystical because I had an idea of making my drawing so that the sky looks like it is at night with 3 shooting stars. The pond is supposed to look like the sunrise and the waterfall is supposed to look like it’s bright as day."

grade 40

Crowned "This comes from a story idea I’ve had. I wasn’t inspired by anything really, other than an old piece of art I had done a while back."

Ashley C., 8th grade

Sarah H., 7th grade

Ash and Adeen

"This drawing is about two characters that I've created. They were mostly self insert OCs, though the blonde one known as Adeen is inspired by a friend of mine, while the other known as Ash is meant to be me. They are within the horror fantasy genre and these two are my favorites due to the story I've built up between the two.

The characters have been around for about 3 years now (except Ash who has been around for 4 years)."

I Didn't Get Enough Sleep for This

Nashia V., 7th grade 41

"This piece of art took 7 hours. Probably mostly because I was watching a TV show while drawing it but anyways, it took a while and affected my sleep schedule. Hence the title. There's really not much meaning behind "I Didn't Get Enough Sleep For This." It's simply a nice drawing of my OC, Minhyuk.

But I chose it because I think it shows my best abilities since it is my latest one. "I Didn't Get Enough Sleep For This" is inspired by 1o8k_ or kota on Instagram. They are a big inspiration to me!"

Trystiana

Trystiana R., 7th grade

"I did this in my normal style (semi-realistic) and I used Digital Art to finish the whole thing. I’ve always wanted to dye my hair blue (Sally Face influence). Since I was younger, I’ve always had a thing for masks so that’s why I made that one. I’ve always wanted a cat so that’s a influence for the design as well, nothing too spectacular, I just put them in my normal clothes, backpack always lugging around art supplies and a game controller since I enjoy video games.

This isn’t my official persona but something really close because I’ve never developed one. The effects are from Picsart, and the drawing app is Ibis Paint X."

Roulo

Emily N., 7th grade

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"I drew one of my newest OCs, named “Roulo," digitally on Ibis Paint X and it took 16 hours and 15 minutes. I wanted to try to shade and try a different art style. I decided to draw this because I saw an artist on Instagram and wanted to try to put it in my art. The most difficult part was the colors and how I used them so they look good together, and coloring on top of the line art. I drew it in a chibi style. Roulo is supposed to be a jokester and a royal kind of guy and I hope I showed that in his demeanor and clothing. I’m really proud of the shading because this was the first time I’ve tried doing something like this and it turned out looking good."

Untitled Stop Motion Animation

Damien R., 7th grade Colorful "This piece of art is 9in by 12in. It is 6 different birds, all but of which are usually really colorful. The birds are a Galah Cockatoo, a Hyacinth Macaw, a Great Horned Owl, a Gouldian Finch, a Spotted Whistling Duck, and a Shoebill Stork. I made all of them out of graphite so no bird would outshine the other."

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Galilea N., 7th grade

e f f i l u l o o A h c Mternational Sc In an Cofer Morg

Campbell R., 8th grade

The Creative Mind

"For my surrealist self portrait, I chose to incorporate an emotion. The emotion that I chose is creative. I incorporated this emotion by making colorful and wacky shapes and a stroke of paint across the face. The realistic elements of my portrait are my face. The surreal elements of my portrait are the background and paint. When people look at my artwork, I hope they understand how being creative feels and how it is expressed."

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Malaya C., 8th grade Metro Caring Mural

Metro Caring Mural "Metro Caring is an organization whose ultimate goal is to provide fresh food for low-income families that might not be able to get it themselves. Metro Caring not only wants to provide food but wants to spread thoughtful messages like diversity and rising above the challenges you may face in life.

The fresh fruits and vegetables around the hands represent Metro Caring's ultimate goal of providing fresh food. The hands around the light bulb represent Metro Caring's message of rising up together and the light bulb represents thinking out of the box. Through this mural I hope to convey Metro Caring's ultimate message of spreading good health in fresh food to everyone.

Through the balance between fruits and vegetables on either side I was able to convey Metro Caring's message of balancing out the food imbalance in the Colorado community. The plain background balances out the busy foreground and further draws attention to the symbols."

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"This project is for the community of Denver Metro Caring organization. They wanted the students of McAuliffe to draw a mural of what they value most so they can put it on a shipping container. What my artwork is all about is just peace, therefore the way I combined the symbols to form a peaceful landscape. In addition, this represents Metro Caring by having a good/nice community that's clean and not destroyed. The art choices I made in my mural were making the buildings and repeating them to have a perfect balance.

In fact another thing I did was make the tree in the picture taller so that the mural didn’t look weird and the last thing I did was have a cute little waterfall with grass surrounding it to make the picture pop and to set the balance more."

Madeline M., 8th grade

"I named my isle the “Isle of Belief” because as long as I keep believing anything is possible. And also I didn’t color in the title box all the way because I think white gives it a new and modern look but also bringing in this fantasy look as well by seeing all of the islands outlined in sharpie. Madness Island really shows that, since it is its own island and madness shows that when I am mad I need to be alone. The Cherry Blossom Island shows that Asian side of me and just how nice I can be at times just like a cherry blossom. Furthermore, I added the Skiing hills to represent how much I love skiing but also the hills instead of mountains because yes I love to go fast but I like to do tricks on hills more. Also, I put in the Peace Palace because it shows how peaceful I can be, but also showing the sense of a strong community as well. Moving onto MT. Strength just really shows how strong I am mentally and physically with doing gymnastics.

Lazy Lake shows how obviously lazy I can be but also when I go down to the lake with my family it’s just a really good and happy time. The Yin-Yang islands show not onlypeace like how the peace palace does but how my balance in life really comes through, like how I balance school with gymnastics and friends and family. And finally the Juicery: this really just shows my love of juice.

Nothing other than I love juice. Any juice but of course I like some juice over others. So overall this project was really fun exploring my inner self enjoying all of the art. Idefinitely want to do this kind of thing again."

Noah Y., 8th grade 46

Isle of Belief

Jonah R., 8th grade

"The objects in my still life represent my family - my brother, mom, and dad. I chose a football to represent my brother because we play a lot of football together, and his athleticism is a big part of who he is, alongside being a huge part of my life. The plant in the center represents my mom.

Self Portrait "For my self portrait, I chose to incorporate an animal. The animal that I chose is a toad. I incorporated the toad by making it settled down on my head. The realistic elements of my portrait are me and the toad and the background.

When people look at my artwork, I hope they feel confusion and interest."

Important People Still Life

Marlowe M., 8th grade

She is a very kind, loving person and is very quiet and peaceful, which embodies the tranquility of a plant well. I chose a snowboard as my dad because we recently started learning how to snowboard together, and he has always been a very outgoing and avid person to try new things. On the football, I made marks similar in shape to lightning to give the football a flare that stands out, for how good and individual he is as what he does. The designs on the plant are for the creative and caring parts of my mom. And finally, the detail on the snowboard is intended to resemble pixels, for all the things we also do online and his work, and appear similar to the pattern on my dad’s snowboard. This art piece is drawn in a realistic format, so I can imitate the details of the real objects onto my own, and see the piece 47 come together as if it were the real objects."

e d a r g h t 8 , W h a n Han f Design o Koi Fish: Principles

Ronin K., 8th

grade Kayaks: P rinciples of Desig n 48

Nora K., 8th grade

Important People Still Life

"My 3 objects (a van, umbrella, and lemon cake) represent my friend Ella. We met in third grade and we’re good friends. We then went off to middle school and became even closer and she has become my best friend. We realized we had many interests and hobbies in common such as baking which is represented in cake. One of our best cakes we have made was a lemon cake hence the lemon on top of the cake plus we both love lemon! We both want to live life at the fullest and experience many things and one of the ways to fulfill that is to travel. We had an idea of when we are older we will buy or convert a van which is why I chose a van as one of my “objects.” My last object is an umbrella; I’ve know Ella for a long time and through many struggles we both took care of each other during those times and shelter each other from the “rain” which is what an umbrella does. I chose to go realistic on the cake and umbrella but more colorful on the van, representing our colorful future together and I did realistic mainly to make sure you could understand what the objects were."

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M Internat cAuliffe ional S c h o o l C ri s S an d

My Personal Bubble

Cate F. , 6th

grade

My artwork is an image of me standing on the clouds in the sky with a bubble being blown instead of my head. I chose to add bubbles and clouds to sort of represent the feeling of being weightless. I added smaller bubbles right beside my head to be thought bubbles, and inside of my little thought bubbles, I added math symbols, a panda, a soccer ball, and a music note because I love all of those things. Also, I added little stars to represent the thought bubbles popping as I lose interest in certain aspects and change on the inside.

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Rise Together: Mural Concept "I believe my art is important to the rise together theme. I used the hands to represent the theme of "Rise together", and to not be racist, they are interracial, meaning all races. Also, my art shows food to connect to the mission to feed those in need. When I added the world underneath, I tried to show that only we can save the world. Upon reflection, I am proud of my art because of the overall symbolism and the way it connected back to the theme."

Logan T., 6th grade

Maia K., 6th grade

Portrait/Human Figure Exploration

"In this piece, I wanted to represent people looking directly at each other, listening to them, learning about their personality, and not being forced to judge people based off of their looks."

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Mila T., 6th grade

Rise Together: Mural Concept "My art is about people joining together as one no matter what they do or how they dress or look like. I included circles in my drawing because just like a ring, this means forever and being an amazing community takes time and effort. I added LOTS of details to show a bunch of different personalities coming together and working together inside the circle. This creates a powerful community and that is what my goal is. I used a big circle to show forever.

By forever I mean a community that will last for some time. The community will get bigger and people will meet so many new people, and THAT is how communities form. I made some small little details on the inside to show personalities. In conclusion, I am so proud of my work and I hope everybody can get something out of it. I hope you see it as a symbol of rising together."

"My artwork is my favorite thing. It makes me happy in general, along with chains that go on for my life. I used multiple details and my surreal drawing to add effects on how I respond to things.

For example, the giant eyeball that I have in the background of my window is a mixture of black and brown because when I was younger a lot of items on me were changing colors. I also added in a mushroom that's red and white because I just think red and white mushrooms are very cute and always remind me of a relaxing area. A couple of other things that I added in is a window because I wanted it to look like you're looking into a surreal landscape. Also because it feels like when I'm walking a lot of people are looking in on me and checking in on what I'm doing. The last thing that I added in was pom-poms around the window because they're very soft and I love the softness of a pompom. Even though they're very hard to keep together I just love homemade pom-poms. Upon reflection, I am proud of my whole artwork because it really describes who I am as an artist and as a person."

Bella M., 6th grade Looking Glass

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Ethan C., 6th grade Watercolor Explorations

Guada lupe R ., 6th g Water color E rade xplora tio ns

Full Moon

Clayton R., 6th grade

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"My artwork is about surrealism and this represents me because I love dragons and just drawing dragons. I love animals and it just kind of shows my love for drawing. I also drew buildings on the moon to symbolize that not all surrealism is straight-faced. Just because, I drew a huge man skiing down a mountain. I drew a dragon to symbolize bravery and I think it represents drawing and detail."

Artwork Reimagined "I chose The Scream by Edvard Munch, created in 1893, for my assignment. This is my digital art piece I did based off one of my favorite cartoons. I also added a boat in the background and birds."

Anthony B., 6th grade

Dylan S., 6th grade Art Styles Explorations (Fauvism & Pop Art) 54

e f f i l u l o o A h c Mternational Sc In e Shiffrin C arri

"I chose to draw my face being pulled away as a mask because sometimes I feel as if we are all really wearing masks around each other. No one really knows what you’re going through. I chose to add flowers around myself because I feel like right now I am growing a lot with my resilience and strength when hard times come at me. I was inspired by Frida Kahlo's painting, "Girl with Death Mask." She painted herself when she was 4 to show her feelings and emotions and I wanted to do something similar to that. In conclusion, my project was successful because I could create a picture that shows myself and I think others can relate to it as well, which makes it a very universal piece."

Alene P., 7th grade Untitled

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Simone V., 7th grade

Own It "This project was designing a mural connecting to the theme “Own it” for Metro Caring. Metro Caring works with our community to meet people's immediate need for nutritious food while building a movement to address the root causes of hunger. For this project I decided to draw how people pass over hunger all the time. In my drawing you can see a little boy and another man on top with a shopping cart carrying food, as little pieces of the food drop and the boy eats. I also wrote the words “Own it” into my artwork so the words became apart of my drawing. I used color to bring your eye to certain parts of the artwork, I used proportion to make the little boy stand out more. I am proud that I put a lot of work into my piece. This project has inspired me to spread awareness through art more."

We Rise Together "My composition is a mural design for Metro Caring. It represents rising together because it shows a bunch of eyeballs rising upward, showing we have to rise together as people. The different colored eyes represent variation and shows that you must be accepting of all people. Overall this design is very important and special to me because it is very creative. I used proportion by making some eyeballs bigger than others. I drew some cute little round creatures to represent different people to represent the message of diversity. In conclusion, I really like this piece because it is one of the more crazy and disorganized of my pieces, but that is just how the world is. It is out of control, but that is what makes it beautiful."

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Eliseo R., 7th grade

Numair J, 7th grade

Dreaming

Untitled "I really wanted to emphasize the camera because that was the object that really reflected me, myself as a person. For my color in my project I didn’t care whether my sky looked real or not because it wasn’t my point of the drawing I was trying to make. In the future I feel I need to add a lot more detail because this was challenging I will admit but I do feel I did my best."

Bella B., 7th grade

"I drew my head open, having all of these little people swarming around it. I drew my head open to symbolize my ideas and how I always have my head sort of in the clouds. I drew little people too. I drew a soccer ball whizzing around my head to symbolize my athleticism and show that soccer is a lot of what I think about. I also drew people swinging on a swing set together to show I can be friendly.

A person sitting on a chair reading a book while his legs are on a treadmill to show I can be a bit lazy. I drew a man rubbing his hands together like from that meme, to show I am crafty. A person doing math on a desk with numbers and equations to show I’m smart. A person doing spelling because I am a state finalist in spelling and enjoy it. I also drew a clown and a dude on a unicycle to show my humor and wit.

They are located very close to my exposed brain because that’s what people describe me as most. I also drew a little engine on my brain, which has some gears on it, to show thought. I was inspired by what I liked and what people described me as. For example, many people who are close to me know that I am super funny, so I thought, what do people associate with humor? I thought “funny bone”, but I wasn’t drawing my elbows, so I just went for a clown."

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Small World "The story behind my art work is that me and my sister got shrunk. We were on vacation and decided to stay at rental house with a pond next to it. Our parents went to lunch to meet their friends and left us by ourselves to explore the house. We went to the attic and found an old Polaroid camera. We took a picture and a purple ray of light shot out of the camera. After a few seconds, I looked to my right and saw my sister, who was only the size of a bumblebee. So we ran downstairs and sat outside on the water lilies to wait for our parents to return."

Isabel M., 7th grade

Paige K., 7th grade

The Dog Drag "My mom, my sister, and I were on a walk just around the neighborhood. My sister was in the wagon and my mom was walking the dog and the wagon. She asked me to hold my dog for a second and I took the leash.

After she finished she forgot to take my dog back and he saw a squirrel run across the sidewalk. Like any dog, he started chasing it and pulled me along with him scraping my shoulder and legs."

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Thinking Outside the Box "For this project we had to design a mural showing Metro Caring’s idea of thinking outside the box. Metro caring is an organization trying to end hunger at its roots.

My art symbolizes thinking outside the box by using the hands breaking outside the box and throwing seeds onto the ground which are growing into wheat or food.

The hands breaking outside of the box and planting seeds shows thinking outside of the box to solve hunger at its roots. "

Brea L., 7th grade

Colin R., 7th grade Infinite Dreams

Avaya L., 7th grade The Voids

"I drew a girl falling out of a black hole with ribbon going through her back. This symbolizes me falling through a void as I found out that I was adopted. I wanted to express a kind of in confusion but that I was falling into another hole that. would be a safety net for me. I was inspired when I tried to do a family tree, then realizedit was too confusing so I made it my own in a way.

The Japanese writing in the corners means love and peace, which for me, is making peace with yourself and loving yourself. This project inspired me to no longer take what happened as a loss and instead take it as something I can take a hold of and see how lucky I am to be here alive and healthy"

"I chose to show myself in a futuristic city within my dreams. I drew my dreams to symbolize my imagination. I wanted to communicate that I love and sometimes hate my dreams. They can be frightening or gross. Sometimes my dreams can scare me and make me sad. I used websites to cut the art out.

Then I used the tools from google slides and I blended it to give it shadows and light brightness. In the future I plan to create a collage on paper. " 59

Merrill M School iddle Tim Patters

on

Oliver (Ollie) F., 6th grade Untitled

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Emma G., 7th grade Untitled

Evelyn B., 6th grade Untitled

Josiah T., 6th grade Untitled

Emma B., 7th grade Untitled 61

e d a r g h t Claire R., 8 itled Unt

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Emerson G., 6th grade

Freya W., 7th grade

Untitled

Untitled

Audrey S., 6th grade Untitled

Ava J., 7th grade 63

Untitled

g n i K r e h t u L n i t r a M . r D . Early College Jr adley Bowen H

Isabella V., 7th grade Milk

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Ariana C., 7th grade

Witch's H and

Alone 65

Ailyn M., 6th grade

Ankita S., 7th grade

Isabella V., 7th grade

Oscar M., 8th grade

Untitled

Monochromatic

Library

Pear Color

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D r .

King JMartin r. Early Luther C ollege Joseph Gr ave s

Monokuma "Create, and create what you like."

Evalen M., 6th grade

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Drelin J., 7th grade So So

Manjula R., 8th grade Turn Days

Liz Z., 8th grade Trippy

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Destiny T., 7th grade

Rohina R., 7th grade

Pieces of Me

Happy Yellow Mane

Josue B., 6th grade Stop The Bad Things

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"I like clowns. I went to my uncles house because he had a garage where he draws things and I literally grabbed most of his crayons and this thick/thin tip black marker. I made the eyes look like eggs. It makes me smile when I look at it."

Braelah C., 8th grade

Emiliana R., 6th grade The Rose "A rose was love because a lot of people right now need some love during these hard times."

The Boxer 70

"It's me against me, I will not lose!"

e l d d i M r e n n Ski Shoufer a t s i r K

Savannah H., 7th grade Friends Forever 71

l o o h Sc

e d a r g h t 7 ., M o il M dy tu Transportation S

Eli P., 7th grade H.P. Lo vecraft

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Henry B., 7th grade Space

Scarlett L., 6th grade Plague: The Masked Self Portrait

Max B., 7th grade

Gavin V., 7th grade

Vignes Dans Le Ciel

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Hero Portrait: Michael Jordan

Adrian R., 7th grade Name Tag

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Lizzy B., 7th grade Name Tag

Lily M., 7th grade Red

"This is a portrait of Taylor Swift. The portrait is done in black and white but her lips are emphasized with the color red."

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You made it!