Miguel Angel Omaña Rojas

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

After leaving the days of middle school behind you and taking your first step into high school as a freshman, the amount of electives can be overwhelming. Not only is high school the time to be thinking about what you want to do as an adult, but also the time to begin figuring out who you are as a person, how you see the world and learning what opportunities our planet has to offer. At Hayfield Secondary, many unique electives are offered, but visual arts is one of the most expansive.

Visual arts, including photography, painting, drawing, graphic design, ect., provide students with a unique way of viewing the world, granting artistic freedom and creative expression, and may be a good class type to look into freshman year. One of the many skilled visual arts teachers at Hayfield Secondary, Casey Shannon, is the main photography teacher, and offers quite a bit of insight into his class.

“I think learning how to be quote-unquote ‘creative’ is extremely important for everybody, and it has absolutely nothing to do with being an artist. I really think it’s important to separate the two, you can be creative and never make art work. And at the same time, being an artist, it’s important to be creative,” Shannon said.

Shannon’s opinion on creativity may be different from what you’ve heard before: explaining that being creative is important, but has nothing to do with certain types of skills. Visual arts classes can not only offer students a look into the creative world, but help them gain the mindset needed for the creative process, no matter the type of work. Visual arts classes will allow you to put your creativity to practice, even if you didn’t know it was there.

“When I teach the visual elements at the beginning of the year, I love that at the beginning of that project, no one knows how to take a good photo. Relatively, at the end of that, everyone knows how to take a good photo. I love that I can simplify it down to that and see students take their first good photos,” Shannon said.

Shannon touches on his favorite part of being a teacher which is that visual arts is extremely easy to learn. Being taken through the threshold for the first time opens up a bucket of never ending concepts and experiments. After being introduced to the creative world, Visual Arts allows for so much creativity and self-expression.

“So far, what we’ve been talking about is how to teach photos, but another thing I love about photography is that it touches every aspect of our lives and world- something people don’t often think about critically. For instance, I love history, and if I ever wanna teach my students about the civil war, I can make it easily photo centered,” Shannon said.

Visual arts can take you over that hump and into the creative mindset, opening up a whole interconnected world. The vastness of all types of arts is incomprehensible. Once you have a camera or brush in your hand, the whole universe is at your fingertips. In short, visual arts opens you up to an entirely new perspective that allows you to see the world in a new light. The many visual arts classes are worth looking into, just due to the sheer amount of potential students can achieve and practice to help them get more in touch with themselves and the environment around them.