Teens, Inspired is an annual arts competition and exhibition for high school students hosted by the North Carolina Museum of Art that is organized, juried, and curated by teens and for teens. The NCMA requests submissions of poems, 2-D and 3-D works of art, and video art. Students must use a work of art from the Museum’s collection to inspire their own poem or artwork, as opposed to copying a particular piece.

Below are a few of our early entries into this year's contest including the students work (left), the museum piece (right) and excerpts from the student's artist statement.

​It's always interesting to see what a student takes away from a particular piece and how they use it as inspiration to create something entirely new.

Calvin~
​ I really enjoyed the vibrant colors of "Love Is the Drug" by Richard Mosse so I decided to paint a pine tree. I used the colors of the mountains. I layered water color paint in the background across the acrylic paint. Then while it was drying, I dabbed my finger in the background for an extra texture. I also took a big layer of blue paint in the back to at the small amount of blue in the picture. 

Brook~
​My teens inspired project is inspired by "Suzy's sun (for Tyler)". The picture inspired me because I loved the mini features they used and that it was art you could actually touch. I also attempted to make a project similar to it because I usually stick to things like drawing or occasionally painting, so it was out of my comfort zone.  I decided to name my project “The way it works”. I named it this because it is half urban half rural. And it shows the city dumping its trash into the wild life’s area. So it could also inspire people to not pollute the area they in and to be careful when the see the art work I have created. 

Jared~
I was inspired by Caroline Vaughan to create a black and white photograph that appears to be physically manipulated to give a rough, old appearance. My photograph was printed on canvas by painting a layer of clear paint on it then laying my image (printed on printer paper) on the canvas.

Zebulin~
I chose visage d'homme as my art piece to be inspired by,it median is red terracotta. I was inspired because i used to love to do paper art or make pictures with it when i was younger in like elementary school in art class we did a lot of stuff with paper.

Deceptively simple in its objective, create a work of art that emphasizes an element of art. We're talking the basics here; line, texture, space, shape, form, value, color.

Of course many works of art demonstrate more than one element but the point here is to make it apparent which element the artists was emphasizing.

​After that, anything goes as far as media or scope of the project. here are some of the finished pieces. Are the emphasized elements obvious? 

Most of our units are based on how artists think and work so it shouldn't be too surprising to see a unit on observation.  Artist observe all the time to learn, to react and to capture images for their work. 

For this unit, we explore several different ways artists observe including still life, scientific illustration and urban sketching. We also worked with a few different media including pastels and watercolors. For the final project, the students could choose any media they wanted. All I asked was that the piece be created from observation... that is to say, actually looking at the thing you are making art about.

It tuns out not everyone enjoys creating observational art. I think this fact was captured beautify in the story of the painting above. What follows is an excerpt from Sadie's blog, the artist who created the piece.. 

"I did may more layers and touched up somethings and when I thought I was done i stepped back and realized i really hated it. Sure it was the project and I could turn it in, but it was painfully boring, it had nothing interesting about it. I started to talk to my classmates about how I didn't like the project because there is nothing interesting to observe here and it  takes talent and not creativity. The events to follow were an unexpected turn of events but in my opinion made the piece.

I grabbed a paintbrush and dipped it into the red watercolor and mixed it with lots of water to dull the bright red down. What started out as just a little blush turned into black and red running down her face. I liked the way it turned out but then I wanted to name it. The classmate wanted to paint a giraffe for her project but since there wasn't a giraffe in the classroom she couldn't do it. In the painting it looked like she was sad while painting so I named it "I just want to paint a giraffe""

nWe're kicking off the year with the straight forward, yet challenging unit. The learning objective is theory is simple, execute a work of art that emphasizes a traditional element of art.. you know the type, line, shape, form, value, etc... The tricky part is deciding which element to feature and how to go about presenting that element without over emphasizing a secondary element.  

meanwhile, we started the year by introducing journaling. Each student received a book which they will be able to alter throughout the year. Many students are using their journals to experiment with different ideas for their Emphasis project. Some are even creating their final piece inside their journal books. Here's a look at some of the works in progress...

We hung the beginner art class first art show in the display case today. I say we are off to an outstanding start!  Pieces include This Is Flat, Origami, Rocky and Graphic Design to name a few. The display case is right across from the from office so stop by and check it out!