Art students advance in technology by creating websites to display their artwork.

Art teacher Gillian Bailey has her Art 2 and 3 students create their very own website at the beginning of the year to make documenting easier.

“Once the students finish a piece of work they photograph it, documenting their work, and upload it to their website,” Bailey said.

Bailey said it is really important for students to document their work.

“Sometimes students will do a portrait and they give it to somebody or sometimes they do a piece of artwork and it gets lost or ruined,” Bailey said.

Senior Wylie Kiskaddon said it puts all his artwork in one place so he doesn’t have to sort through everything

“It’s like a gallery of all your stuff,” Kiskaddon said, “it helps to see your progress and everything you’ve done.”

Another reason art students create websites is for seniors to show colleges because they have to send in a portfolio, Bailey said.

“Now, in the digital age that’s actually just sending a URL,” Bailey said. “For the common app the art supplement is just a link to your website.”

Senior art student Sabina Addis said the websites are helpful for college applications.

“As a senior, I am applying to colleges, and having a website makes the submission to schools a lot less complicated,” Addis said.

Bailey said the portfolios have sections such as breadth and sketchbooks.

“Breadth is mediums and concepts that shows colleges you can use concepts to solve technical problems while sketchbooks show a student’s thought process and colleges love to see that,” Bailey said.

Another part of the portfolio is the art resume so everytime students are in an art show and win awards they can add those to their portfolio right away.

Students begin making the websites in art 2 so by the time students are seniors their portfolio is just there and ready, Bailey said.

“Its also nice because students can show their parents what they’ve been working on without carting their art back and forth,” Bailey said.

Addis said she loves the websites because they keep her work organized.

“I never have to go back to find things, I can just take a pictures and upload it onto my website as soon as I finish the piece,” Addis said.

Students use a couple different platforms for their websites. Some will use tumblr or flickr but the common one PHS art uses is called Carbon Made.

Bailey said it is really important to document your work and learn how to use the camera to photograph your art.

“The websites eliminate work getting lost because students can take a picture right when they’re done,” Bailey said.

Addis said it is sometimes difficult to find a good picture of your work but other then that the websites in general are very helpful. Bailey said in the professional world when you create something, you document it and put it on your website for others to see.

“For some people building a website is a daunting task, but there are a lot of templates that are free, easily accessible, and user friendly,” Bailey said.