By J1 Reporter Clara Roth

From helping pottery students make chip bowls to helping students do semester-long self portraits, Mrs. Ashley Bauer has dedicated countless hours to the improvement of her students not only in art but also in life.

One of her largest projects in the five art courses she will teach this year are the senior projects for Art IV. This art class is a year-long course and these students have dedicated four years to Marian art. They are now doing a project where they have to develop their whole project by themselves.

The opportunities are endless with this project. They can do a full pencil drawing to a mixed media project. Senior Cassie Palmer has been developing a mixed media project with painting, drawing, and a collage. She has also included her journaling on the project to express her love and passion for writing.

Photo of Cassie Palmer from @cheeserpalmer

Bauer has been helping her and her other students, develop their projects. Palmer said “Mrs. Bauer has helped me narrow down my focus and stay sane,” Palmer said. All the Art IV students have to do research about their projects before they start.

“The inspiration behind my project was Leonardo Da Vinci’s study of the human body. DaVinci performed dissections on multiple cadavers and took very intricate notes on what he found.  I chose to study the heart and use my journaling as a way to tie how my heart and physical body reacts to the way my thoughts act,” Palmer said.

Palmer and all the other students have worked very hard to develop a project that represent themselves. Mrs. Bauer has helped these students develop and organize their own project.