Student Highlight: Shannon Weideman

Shannon Weideman
Blog Interview

1. Age: 16
2. Year of School: Junior
3. Favorite color: Red and the complimentary colors blue and orange
4. Favorite classes in school: AP Art and English
5. Which ART classes have you taken at Conant/ outside of Conant?  I’ve taken foundations of art, painting I, drawing I, and am currently taking AP art. Outside of school I’ve attended a few summer clubs over at Mount Wachusett and have done pottery at Rooted in Clay.
6. What materials/mediums do you like working with most? Why? I like painting more than I do drawing but I end up drawing more than I paint. My favorite mediums are acrylic paint, charcoal and pencil. For me these materials are the easiest to use in large pieces, but can also get precise detail.
7. Describe your favorite art project and what you enjoyed about it: My favorite art project was one of my AP works; the self portrait of me in 3 different mirrors with a side profile of my face. I think I enjoyed this work because I also hated it. It was such a pain to draw and get the dimensions right but once it was done I had the most relieved feeling in the world. I see now in the portrait the amount of effort that I put into it and because I accomplished it, it is my favorite.
8. What art material/ technique is the most intimidating to you? I think oil pastel or soft pastel is the most intimidating. Oil pastel is basically a form of a crayon whereas soft pastel resembles chalk. They sound easy to use but I just don’t have much experience with them and I think they negatively affect my art work.
9. What have you always wanted to try but never have and why? I’ve always wanted to try to paint a mural. Not on a regular canvas, but on the side of a building or some really large structure! I could just imagine the size of the painting. So large that I would need a conveyor belt to paint all the sections!
10. If you could only draw/paint one object for the rest of your life, what would it be? Animals! I’d choose animals because there are so many in the world and they all differ from one another and I would never get bored!
11. Is anyone in your family artistic? How? The majority of my family I would say is artistic. My mom never took an art class in high school (being more musical than artistic) but yet if asked to draw something she could definitely draw it. My dad’s intrinsic ability with color and placement made him a great landscape designer and I thank him for the artistic layout of our house. My great grandmother made a living off sewing clothes and necessities for other people. She was amazing and I could not believe some of the things she came up with off the top of her head!
12. Where did your interest in art come from? I’m not sure exactly. When I was young I loved crafts, scrap booking and putting ideas together. I liked the idea that something that I made myself was more special than anything I could buy store bought. But I felt that artistically I always wanted to advance myself further, and every Christmas I’d ask for art supplies and demo CDs and anything that would teach me something new. As I became older my simple hobby changed to the reality of the AP portfolio, to show my work and use it towards college.
13. I want to give a huge thanks to Mrs. Mitchmeyer. You’re a wonderful teacher, thank you for all your insights, motivation, and of course for interviewing me and showing my art work on your blog!