Above: Julieanne Neal Drawing & Painting 2019  

Welcome to the Art site of Briarcrest Christian School  
                                                                                                                       Eads/Memphis TN
Jenna Fergus HS Art Teacher                                                                  

Visual art at Briarcrest is all about learning the full process of making art. Creating is taught as a three fold process: strong content, communicated through expressive and accurate composing, and careful, intentional craftsmanship. The students explore various 2-D and 3-D media. The work on the left is by Sarah Lawler. It is a painting on an original photography of her grandfather's chair that was in the attic. She won a billboard showing with her best of show win in the West Tennessee Regional Art Exhibition. 

My definition of art has developed since 1999 as I have taught art at Briarcrest Christian School. The ideas of relativism surrounding the idea of art has nagged at me. I don't believe art is merely expression or replication. It can be both or either. I believe that fine art is defined by those who set the standard for art. Art isn't as relative as the artist and viewer would like for it to be. For instance, I believe that if someone puts an object in a museum (whether the object looks like art or not) it is declared to be art by the people who put the object in the museum or gallery. In doing so, they set a standard for art, hence defining it as art. 
There are other words that set limits on what art IS. For instance, intention of the artist, inspired response of the viewer or the marriage of Truth to Beauty that impacts both artist and viewer. As a chief justice said about other visual things... "We know it when we see it." 

LEFT: Tay Hyde 3rd Year/ Drawing & Painting, Dime Store Novel

A professor once asked me if I really thought ART could be taught. He felt that skills could be taught, but that ART itself could not be taught. This challenge characterizes the way I teach and what I teach. Art, as a form of communication, can be taught, therefore, my approach is deeply founded in discipline-based art education. All the skills stem from what has been created in the past. The mode of thinking critically about beauty and art stuff is key to knowing what a person wants to communicate with a visual voice.  History, Criticism, discussions about Aesthetics and finally Production are offered from a Biblical perspective in the hopes of equipping students with all the tools necessary to say what they want to say. In other words, I hope to give students the foundation of questions to enable them to discover the verbs, skills and balance with which to communicate their ideas.


BCHS Online Portfolios 2010

BCHS Online Portfolios 2014