Mrs. Sanderson is a Visual Arts teacher and the Media Arts teacher here at DCHS. She is someone who has lived in multiple states across America and has had some very interesting and unique jobs due to her passion for art. 

     Mrs. Sanderson started the first-ever media art class for our high school and believes that it will be extremely beneficial for the students here. This is why I asked her, “What inspired you to start a media arts class?”. “I worked as a graphic artist for over two decades and I know how relevant and useful these skills were for students when entering the professional world. I also know that, in the art world, computer skills are in demand.”

    For someone to create a class to teach graphic art, you must also have a background in media arts yourself, and Mrs. Sanderson is no exception to that rule. She stated, “In New York City, the digital revolution was happening. I was working at a photography studio that switched from analog to digital. I was at the right place at the right time and I got to learn the early photoshop programs. I worked as a digital retoucher and digital editor for print and web images. I also worked for Fox Kids as an artist in Los Angeles.”

It’s a little bit confusing to think of what a media arts class consists of if you have no graphic art experience yourself. Media Arts is such a broad category that could consist of editing, confusing programs, tablets, and even animation. Mrs. Sanderson clears the air by saying, “I teach students graphic art skills, digital editing, retouching, product design, graphic layout, and how to use the adobe creative suite program. Such as adobe photoshop.”

If you know Mrs. Sanderson, you know that she consistently preaches the need for more education in graphic art because of the employment being in such high demand. With how many teenagers possess a love for art, it seems like the perfect opportunity to share how in demand the world truly is for artists. Mrs. Sanderson states, “You could work for a company or freelance. You could do digital art for ad agencies, print companies, publishing, web design, tv graphics, posters, animation, and billboards. The skills are also used in law enforcement, medical, business, and many other industries.” 

Like most other high school classes, there are many assignments, however, in Media Arts, the projects allow for creativity with a generous amount of freedom. When asked what she thinks is the most fun Mrs. Sanderson says “I think from student feedback, their favorite is to choose a real picture of a thing/person and rebuild it in photoshop layers as a graphic. Students love being able to choose their own images. The second part of the project is to take that graphic and use it in a poster to sell a product. 

At the end of the class, Mrs. Sanderson asked her students what they might like to learn about in a possible Media Arts II. While some said they were interested in learning more in-depth Photoshop skills, others wanted to learn about some other Adobe products. When asked for her plans for the class later Mrs. Sanderson said “Media arts I only scratch the surface of adobe photoshop. In Media arts II, I would like to introduce Adobe Illustrator and Adobe IN-design.” 

Regardless of whether there ends up being a Media Arts II class or not, Media Arts will definitely not disappoint those interested in all forms of art, design, or even just computers.