Shreya Patel

It was eighth grade when I first became interested in art. My middle school art teacher saw some of my classwork and encouraged me to take part in an out of class art competition against other students in the state. I consider the piece I did then my first “real” piece of art – not that it was any good. But I call it that because it was the first time I cared about what I was making. The day Ms. Byrnes told me she was impressed with my work and wanted to see more was the day I became emotionally invested in art.

The first room I set foot in on my first day of high school was the art room. I walked in for homeroom, expecting a normal classroom, and was surprised when I saw a room covered with paintings. It was mesmerizing; never before had I been exposed to so much art. It was everywhere – from paintings of Tupac on the ceiling to giant self-portraits resting against the wall. While the quantity itself was impressive, the quality was mind blowing. From that moment on I was hooked.

I wanted to be in AP Art and now 2 years, 2 art courses, and a frightening application process later I am. And it’s nothing like I expected it to be.

My freshmen year, when I saw the art in Milo’s room, I sort of formed a conclusion, that by the time you’re in AP all the work you produce takes little effort and still turns out beautiful. Obviously I was wrong. What I didn’t realize until this year was that to reach that high caliber of art, I had to work harder than I ever had before; I had to be open to criticism, and I had to clear my mind and rethink what I knew, and allow myself to grow.

Because, despite what I thought, there is no end goal when it comes to art. There’s only room to improve.

AP Art fosters the environment young artists need to break boundaries and grow, while simultaneously improving technically. I personally attribute this to not only Milo’s incredible instruction, but also the community. In the art room we challenge, push, and most importantly support each other.

The first 2 months (especially the first 3 weeks) of AP Art were hell, to put it simply. I don’t really remember sleeping much, or doing much of anything besides art. We had new projects every 3 days (to put this into context before the class we’d take about a month or 2 to finish each piece). It was hard, it was very very hard, but I would do it again in heartbeat.

During those first couple of months of the class my quality of work increased significantly, and I found myself in a new community. As we completed and critiqued each piece I found myself growing extremely close to people I had previously barely spoken to. At first it was mainly about art, the amount of work we had, and ways we could improve; but as time passed we became more than peers, we became friends.

I’ve found that because of this class I have a place of support. Whether that’s for artist’s block, school, or my personal life. I can count on my fellow artists, my friends, to be there for me.

So far AP Art has been an incredible experience for me, and I’m excited to see what else is in store. But it won’t happen if the class is cut. AP Art has not only inspired me, and this is not the only tight knit community that’s formed due to it.  For 15 years AP Art has been a place for all types of people to come together and do what they do best – create art. It would be a shame if it were taken away.