Senioritis: the infamous affliction to stay motivated seniors feel in their last semester of high school. Seniors Sadie Long and Chloe Resnick, however, have used the end of senior year to reflect on their growth through one shared interest: artwork.
Resnick and Long opened their senior show, “Roots and Reflections: A Surreal Look at Beginnings,“ Wednesday, April 10, in the Eastern Star Gallery. The gallery included photography and interactive self-portraits, where students changed the anatomy of the piece by placing magnets on it.
Long said their exhibit is a reflection on their artistic growth throughout high school, culminating in their senior year.
“We were both reflecting on growing up and girlhood and adolescence and change and everything that comes with that,” Long said. “My work specifically reflects a lot upon identity and how that has changed as I’ve grown up and how becoming an adult can be sort of melancholy.”
The pair found commonalities in their work, including the theme of nature and flowers representing their progress. Resnick said she was heavily inspired by natural symbols in Greek mythology.
“Strangely, one of my biggest inspirations was the idea of dandelions and blowing your wishes true with the seeds of dandelions — or the petals of them — and a few of my pieces speak to that,” Resnick said. “One of my pieces was inspired by Persephone, and some symbols in one of my paintings come from her story.”
Long and Reskick started planning their exhibit in January; however, they have been developing the themes of their artwork for years. Arts teacher Hannah Kremin said she has worked alongside Long and Resnick throughout most of their high school experience, and the seniors have used their time this year to reflect on the development of their artistic styles.
“I think what’s exciting about being a senior in advanced art class, you’ve spent so much time building skill, developing your voice and trying to figure out what you want to say with your work,” Kremin said. “You kind of think about your younger self and what initially motivated you to create.”
Second-semester juniors and first-semester seniors take college guidance classes once every rotation and frequently discuss the college application process logistically and emotionally. Long said the integration of the college process in the Archer curriculum helped her be introspective about her high school experience as an artist.
“I was also thinking the college process forces self-reflection as well, with writing personal statements and essays,” Long said. “I actually wrote about photography and specifically self-portraiture a lot — and how that tip helped me come to the end goal to build self-confidence.”
While organizing their exhibit, Resnick and Long said the process was bittersweet. Resnick said being a senior has allowed her to ponder her time at Archer coming to a close.
“I feel like this is a time for reflection, and it’s really hard to not go through senior year and not to think about the previous years and your childhood and everything coming to a close,” Resnick said. “Most of our work in the past few years has been about that because it’s one of the biggest things happening.”
