by AMANDA WINTERS

Sequim Gazette

Watch out, Sequim; Martha Rudersdorf’s 16 AP art students are staging an Art Attack on June 9.

The art show encompasses a year of 2-D art, mostly painting and drawings, and shows how much the students’ talents have developed, Rudersdorf said.

“It’s pretty incredible, actually,” she said.

Students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, not only created the art for the show but also designed their own posters to advertise the event on the Sequim High School campus.

Sitting around an arrangement of tables on June 2, the students and Rudersdorf passed the posters to the left so everyone had a chance to look at everyone else’s work. After a year of working together, many of the students were able to recognize the work of their classmates, pointing out how one particular student draws noses in a signature way and another is known for drawing anime-style animals.

The posters ranged from colorful, bright and whimsical to minimalist, abstract and haunting. The completed posters were given back to the students to place around the high school.

Showcasing their talent

Paintings and drawings by the students were printed on photo paper and pasted to bright card stock to be sold as greeting cards at the event. Birds, oranges, people, flowers and abstract objects overlaid upon each other are among the many designs featured on the cards.

Rudersdorf packed a box full of the cards, which will sell for $1.25.

The art show also will feature work by the high school’s standard art class, the ceramics program, the floral class, and other arts and crafts classes. There also will be live music and snacks.

At the event, student Mikayla Adams will draw caricatures of attendees while other students do character drawings or work on their final art projects.

Final projects in progress

Rudersdorf said she told the students that their final art project should be something they are passionate about.

For Jesh Anthony, it was music. Anthony said he found a record player for sale at the Goodwill in Port Angeles and a book of records in a box on the side of the road. He brought both to class June 2 and began to disassemble the record player.

“I’m going to explode it vertically,” he said, explaining that he would put it back together with every piece as a different layer.

Amber Tuttle decided to paint a semicircular cast with the outside dark to reflect the bad, abusive past she came from and the inside bright and colorful to reflect the happiness she has today despite all she’s been through.

A large, rainbow-colored painting of cupcakes is Patrick Carpenter’s project. Carpenter took Rudersdorf’s class last year as well.

“Earlier in the year she (Rudersdorf) brings cupcakes and we work on values,” he said.

He was hungry when thinking of what to do as a final project and he remembered how pleased he was with his cupcake art earlier in the year so he decided to do it again but bigger, he said.

“I think cupcakes are a lot of fun,” he said. “The colors complement the silliness of painting large cupcakes.”

Alexa Asselin’s reason for making a deer out of clay as her final project is much simpler.

“I thought it’d be cool to make big antlers,” she said.

Art Attack begins at 6 p.m. Thurday, June 9, at the Sequim High School library.

Reach Amanda Winters at awinters@sequimgazette.com.