Reminiscing on IB Art.

Thumbing through the pages of my IB Art journal.

When I was in high school, I got to take part in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, which we all just called the “IB program” in our small, northern-Idaho school. The fifteen to twenty IB Diploma candidates in our graduating class only had a few options for a track of study; I chose the art track.

IB Art Journal: Experimentations with stencils and splatter paint. I apparently made an ugly mess of the paint on the right-hand page.

I loved my art classes in high school, and my IB Art classes were no different. Every month, I made a new art project that was either based off of a prompt, or free to be whatever I chose. I just had to make a new project every month and take plenty of notes on my inspirations, my ideas, and my reflections when I finished them.

At the beginning of my senior year of high school, I had a lot of artsy hopes I wanted to try to fulfill.

I went back to my parents’ house for this past holiday season and found my IB Art journal: I sat and looked through the pages of all the little paint experiments, the contextual analyses of various famous paintings, the color swatches, the notes,… I realized how much I missed getting to be that creative that consistently.

In the IB program, I had 3–5 hours of class time each week to make something that I felt like I could pour my heart into. Some projects were a lot less meaningful or exciting than others, but they were all mine, and I can remember the person I was and what I was thinking when I wrote each page in that art journal. The need to come up with new ideas- and the freedom to try new things and ask questions- helped me grow in my skills and creativity more than I ever thought possible.

I had several pages dedicated to how different applications of paint might look. I still think these might be the prettiest pages of the whole journal.

As we begin this new semester and this new year, I want to try to be creative on my own time again: I want to improve my drawing skills, paint new pictures, learn how to make more mixed media pieces, try my hand at new videography skills, and so much more. I love that I still have this art journal, and that I get to go back and read about my favorite projects from years ago and the things I was able to learn from them. I want to begin to keep a new book of all my ideas and sketches and things I want to learn from here on out.

I miss getting what was basically open art time as an assignment and a block in my schedule, but now, I guess that means that I need to make it a priority that I plan for myself. I may not get to take my two-year IB art course again, but I can open that old empty sketchbook that’s been gathering dust and begin again. Who knows what crafts will become of such an adventure? Who knows how I might grow as an artist? We’ll have to wait and see.