New Art Class Emphasizes Business Skills
Media by Emma Tyulyayev
Lily McNulty, senior, sketches out her plan for her Art & Design Applications project, where she is tasked with decorating a door for Anatomy teachers Lisa Del Pizzo and Marissa Gress. McNulty is designing a neuro-themed door that will reflect the anatomy class’ next topic.
With a small class of 10 students, Abbey Gradle, art teacher, has launched the first semester of the new Art & Design Applications class.
Similar to a business, students receive clients and create art for others instead of completing projects for themselves.
“It’s more like if you were going to be a working artist,” Gradle said.
The class is currently working on decorating teacher’s doors, creating a design based on teachers’ requests.
This assignment has been useful for Gradle as she said students are able to experiment with art mediums, allowing her to see the experience of each student.
Being a cheer coach, Gradle is often working on designing different shirts and logos for the team, along with being asked for favors by admin to design a variety of items.
“I really wanted to teach this class because honestly, this is a lot of what I do on a regular basis,” Gradle said.
She said having this class allows her to help those who ask her for those favors and allows artistic students to gain credit for their work.
“I think that it would be really fun for kids to take the class more than once because it’s always going to be something different,” Gradle said.
Lily McNulty, senior, heard about the class from Gradle during her Photography 1 class and joined after hearing about the business aspect of the class.
“If you want to do freelance illustration stuff, you have to know how to work with clients and how to be able to have your ideas mesh well with theirs,” McNulty said.
McNulty said she started doing commissioned work outside of school freshman year, mainly working with digital art. McNulty said she finds the class useful, as she is planning on creating a career in art and studying graphic design in college.
“It’s a very easy way to get experience in more of a low pressure environment,” McNulty said.
Lisa Del Pizzo, science teacher, was approached by McNulty and her classmate about their door decorating project.
She and fellow Anatomy teacher Marissa Gress decided they wanted to have their door reflect what they teach, so they chose a brain-themed door as they are focusing on the brain in their next unit.
“We just wanted to make something that people could smile and laugh about that is anatomy related but also just kind of funny and jovial,” Del Pizzo said.
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Anvi Talyan, senior, is an editor-in-chief for the Marquette Messenger, with this being her fourth year on staff. Outside of writing, she is interested...
Emma Tyulyayev is an Illustrator for the Marquette Messenger. This is her second year on staff. After school, she enjoys driving around and going on frequent...