Jordan Ingram, Helena High School Class of 2016 Valedictorian, enjoys bringing out her creative side through different types of artwork.
Student blends photography, ink and painting into her artwork
Story and Photos By Laura Brookhart
Jordan Ingram, Helena High School Class of 2016 Valedictorian, not only combined her academic studies and love of softball during high school, but she also discovered her creative side. She brought our her artistic abilities while taking AP Art classes under Sommer Fortner.
“I did not register for AP art last year because it sounded like an immense amount of work for me to juggle with my four other AP classes and softball. However, Ms. Fortner convinced me to take the class, and I loved it,” Ingram says. “I was in AP Art 2-D Design. The 2-D design class allowed me to achieve a blend of photography, ink and painting in my portfolio.”
At the end of the AP art class, Ingram submitted a portfolio consisting of 24 pieces. Twelve were “Breadth” pieces, where anything goes.
“In this section, I used a lot of photography and some other media such as painting,” Ingram says.
The other 12 were her concentration pieces.
“These pieces are meant to be cohesive and share a common theme. My concentration focused on how flowers reflect the depth of the human experience,” Ingram says.
“My creative process is not very structured,” she continues. “I try to have my camera (a Nikon D3300) with me at all times in case I see something that I really want to photograph. I love flowers and music, so a lot of my staged photos revolve around those themes.”
Ingram’s drawings usually come from her photos; those she feels are better depicted through ink.
Ingram also notes she enjoys painting things for her sister, Laine, and her friends.
“Using ink, however, allows me to not focus so much on achieving the exact colors because that’s so hard to do,” Ingram says. “Instead, I can focus on the subjects instead.”
One technique she’s come to enjoy is pointillism, although she originally thought it would take a lot longer than other techniques.
“However, I saw an online video of an artist using the technique and I fell in love with it,” Ingram explains. “It has quickly become my favorite technique, and I used it in my AP Art portfolio.”
This technique has helped her to relax, she says.
“It is also very forgiving because I work with such a small pen,” Ingram says. “One dot does not matter much in the overall picture, but at the same time, many dots help me create depth and shadows.”
Her projects are always evolving and improving.
“Every piece I work on is not my best work. There are days when I cannot even draw a stick figure, but other days I can do something magical,” Ingram says. “That is why I love art.”
