Gallery • 7 Photos

Monkey Sculpture by Liam Benzinger

Most of the talented art students at Knoch don’t get enough recognition for some pretty cool or unique projects that they create. Whether made in Mr. Kamer’s classes or made out of school, students make some impressive works. 

Along with the many other teachers that teach multiple classes here, Mr. Kamer is one of the many that teaches up to seven classes. Seven whole art classes at Knoch. 

“I have been doing art for 52 years,” he said. “I teach ceramics, drawing, art history, intro, sculpture, painting, and jewelry making.”

Senior Liam Benzinger won the category “most artistic” for the yearbook and has been in every art class but one! 

“In sculpture class, I made a mask of the face of a monkey without eyes and it has deer antlers and big teeth,” Benzinger said. My favorite thing I’ve ever made though is probably the self-portrait I made for art portfolio. (both pictured at the top) I think I did a really good job with it, and I really like the ideas I put into it.”

The sculpture and modeling class gives students the chance to be a bit more creative than in the other classes and I highly recommend taking it. Out of all the people I interviewed, everyone said the most unique art project that they made was made in sculpture class. 

“I made a banjo out of junk as a project in the class,” said junior Gavin Gallagher.

Senior Rhiley Snyder said, “I made a junk sculpture in the class. It took me about three weeks.”

“I made a green bird out of a lamp, a book cover, a Minecraft plush, and wire,” said senior Jack Iole.

Iole is in my sculpture class and it was a bit scary watching him dismember random plush animals, but the result turned out to be pretty cool.

The most popular class Mr. Kamer teaches is probably ceramics. Every student that is somewhat interested in art has taken the class. You get to use the wheel, sculpt animals, and be as original as you want. 

“The easiest art class I’ve ever taken is ceramics and it doesn’t take a lot of skill so it’s a good beginning,” said Snyder. 

“The coolest thing I made was a teapot but I painted a bunch of Winnie the Pooh characters on it,” said senior Megan Mitchell.

I personally have taken the class twice and made many things from random bowls that I’ve thrown on the wheel to clay animals.

If you were thinking of going to college for art, then I would consider taking senior art portfolio. It’s a semester where you make several projects you can put in a portfolio when applying for colleges. My favorite painting I’ve made was from that class. The assignment was to do a painting on a social issue, and I picked sexism. (pictured at the top) I painted a girl over top of various newspaper articles about the topic. 

“The pen and ink auto biography was the best thing I’ve done so far,” said Snyder. “Pen and ink is my favorite medium, plus I got to spend time drawing my dog who I miss a bunch.” 

Senior Rayna Kinney said her favorite thing she’s made in art portfolio was the pen and ink project as well, even though she did not ink it. “The project was supposed to be like something that describes you, so for myself, I drew key assets to my life like the Puerto Rican flag, three portraits of myself, one in realism and two cartoons, a remote controller, and some theater curtains,” she said. 

I am not going to go into detail on every art class Mr. Kamer teaches, but I recommend taking at least one art class next year if you aren’t graduating. They’re not too hard, and it gives you a bit of a break during the school day to make things that you enjoy and be creative. Ask any one of his students, and I’m sure they would agree.

“Art means the world to me, and a world without it isn’t worth living in,” Iole said.