Expert's Choice:
Portraits: Stella Esensten-Cicon Landscapes: Nicola Brandon
Readers' Choice
Portraits: Hadley Hillel Landscapes: Emily Mark
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Arts
How the Seattle Academy Community Supports the Artistic Process
The underlying foundation of community is developing a network where everyone is recognized for their own talent. I am fortunate enough to go to a school where everyone feels comfortable to express themselves in the fields they thrive. For my interpretation of community, I developed an idea involving a multitude of materials and skills that required me to reach out to various members in my community.
While on vacation in Lopez Island, I couldn’t help but notice hundreds of jellyfish floating in the shallow water. The transparency and movement of the jellyfish inspired me to create a sculpture. Once I developed the concept, I began preliminary sketches and started thinking about materials I could utilize. After troubleshooting, I came up with the idea to build an armature that would be draped in silk and have a lantern inside. For the tentacles, I wanted to create long beaded strands with even longer strips of ruffled and died silk. I wanted the project to be large scale and emphasis the creative process.
The most time intensive part of my process was beading the outer tentacles. I had the idea of stringing 8 separate 6 ½ ft. strands, which meant a total of 52 ft. I bought various tiny glass beads, and developed intricate patterns within each strand. Consequently, each tentacle took hours. After 2 strands broke and my hard work scattered on the floor, I needed to reach out to someone with more experience. Lucky for me my mom happens to be a well-versed jeweler. She helped me make each strand stronger. Often I forget the wisdom and experience I can find right at home.
The next step was welding the armature. Having never welded before, it was pertinent that I reached out to members in my community who knew how to do so. As it turns out, Tom Moore, who hangs up art at our school, happened to have welded all throughout college. He quickly became very invested in my idea and started coming up with creative ideas on how I could make it happen. He took me through the process, step by step, and helped me weld a stainless steel armature in our own shop at school. Fearful the silk would concave when placed over the armature, he came up with the idea to put a weather balloon inside the armature and then harden the silk with a fixative that would allow it to hold that shape. While this idea didn’t end up panning out, it was really fun to experiment with all the different possibilities.
The final step was dying and sewing the silk. My passion for this project really came out in the dying of the silk. Having previously experimented with silk dye, I took pride in dying the long strips of silk in various shades and values of pink and orange. For the body, I tried Shibori for my first time. The Shibori technique gave the silk a tie-dye like appearance with beautiful creases all throughout. The color and texture produced the transparency and illusion of movement that I was looking for. I then sewed and gathered the long tentacles to create voluptuous ruffles. With the help of my art teacher, April Ferry, I created and sewed a pattern to cover the armature and drape into the lantern.
The piece hangs in the middle of the stairwell in the center of the Arts building at my school. Everyday I watch people admiring the fixture, or someone comes up to me with a compliment. In fact, this year the fixture will be featured in a brochure for incoming students. It couldn’t be more appropriate that it hangs in the middle of our school’s community. No words can express the satisfaction of making my ideas come to life. I couldn’t have done it without reaching out to different members of my community and trying something new.
Journey to China: A Photo Gallery by Leah Weld - Part 2
Updated with 15 new photos!
I went to China for 9 days with my mom on a business trip in November. While there I visited Guilin, a small town 3 hours by plane from Shanghai. We stayed in Guilin for 4 days in a little mountain hotel that was surrounded by limestone hills. We went biking a lot and took a tour of a cave. After the cave tour we met a friendly little dog. On our last day we took a taxi to another little town and walked around there for the whole day. Then we headed to Hong Zhou, which is 2 hours away from Shanghai by train. While we were there, we visited a temple with lots of stone carvings of Buddha. Then we toured White Snake Lake in a small boat. From there we returned to Shanghai for 3 days where we explored the architecture and visited a knock-off market. On our last day we visited a beautiful garden filled with bamboo, but I was sick so after visiting the garden I went back to the hotel.These photos are from Guilin.
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Film Fails: A Review of "After Earth"
Let me say, before I start, that I love Will Smith. At least, I love “The Fresh Prince.” I love “I Am Legend.” I love “The Pursuit of Happyness.” I adore “Seven Pounds.” And at the top of this list, I love me some “Independence Day.” However, I’m not so hot on the person Will Smith has become, and if half of what his children have tweeted is something they actually tweeted, then he has failed as a father. So let me revise that statement. I loved Will Smith. His children should just be children and stay out of the spotlight. Thank god we haven’t had a movie yet where Will and Jaden Smith star alongside each other. Wait...what’s this? Such a movie exists? Yes. Unfortunately, it does. I watched “After Earth.” Wait; let me revise yet another statement. I stared at a screen that was playing “After Earth” and listened to the dialogue and followed the plot. To say I watched it might imply that this is watchable. It isn’t. My god, it isn’t.
“After Earth” is written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. M. Night Shyamalan directed his first major motion picture in 1999. It was called “The Sixth Sense” and is a wonderful movie. Since then, Shyamalan has directed seven different films. All of which, are terrible. This was his seventh and most recent movie. If I had to guess how this movie was written, I would say that the head writer had a fever dream that was a scene-for-scene replica of this movie. He woke up, thought it was genius, and wrote it down. The next morning, this writer realized he had a script due soon and nothing to give. As he frantically looked for some sort of story to tease the studio with, he found a post-it note that said “After Earth.” I’m sure you can guess what happened next.
Let’s get into the plot. 1,000 years ago, earth was abandoned. We were invaded by an alien species that is blind, deaf, and basically a strong and large spider. Oh, did I forget to mention why we were losing this war? They couldn’t see or hear, but they could smell fear. Let me repeat: THEY COULD SMELL FEAR. We left and settled on a planet that is basically planet Grand Canyon. We barely fended off this species for a long time until finally, a warrior was born. Who is this warrior? Will Smith of course. Will Smith’s character invented “ghosting,” which simply means you don’t feel fear. He singlehandedly won the war and saved humanity. However, before the war ended, the human city was invaded. Will Smith was not there, but his children, a 4-year-old Jaden Smith and an 18-year-old girl, were. The older sister tells little Jaden to hide in the furniture, because they can’t smell fear through furniture (duh!). He does and an alien bursts in and kills the sister. 4-year-old Jaden hides and survives which brings us to where our story starts.
Jaden Smith, whose name is Kitai, (yes, that is his name) is about to become a soldier at 14 years of age. His father is a war hero and is coming home from an excursion soon, so Kitai wants to impress his father. However, despite being faster and simply a better soldier than everyone else, he is rejected. He goes home empty-handed to his disappointed father. Oh, I forgot to mention, Kitai blames himself for his sister’s death. What does father Will Smith have to say about this? Does he say, “You were 4. You couldn’t have done anything” or, “It’s not your fault”? No. No, instead he blames his son for his daughter’s death. He also is cold and bitter to his son, and is just an awful father. Kitai’s mother convinces Will Smith to take him on his next trip, which is a simple cargo ship carrying one of the aliens that smells fear. Will Smith invites Kitai on the ship. Kitai accepts, and accompanies his father on the ship. During the trip, they run into a meteor storm that they have a small chance of surviving. The pilots decide to take the slim chance of waiting the storm out, since there is no other choice. That is, until Will Smith barges in and demands that they go into hyper speed. The pilots say that this will kill them, but Will Smith orders it and they obey. Hundreds of soldiers are on this ship, and it crashes. The ship has what must be at least a five mile free fall. Hundreds of soldiers die, wait no, everyone dies except of course, for Will Smith and his son. Will Smith is very injured, and the emergency beacon is far away. Kitai however, is for whatever reason, after this five mile drop, completely fine. Not even a bruise or torn space suit. Kitai sets out to find the emergency beacon with his father talking to him in his ear telling him what to do. Oh, by the way, we are about ten minutes into the movie.
We find out that they have crash landed on earth, where every species has evolved to a giant dangerous version of themselves…1000 years later. Evolution is one of the main themes in this movie, yet they chose to COMPLETELY ignore how it works. It takes a whole lot more than 1000 years for animals to grow an extra limb, let alone go from the size of a pillow to the size of a house and grow claws and spit acid. In all of this excitement, I forgot to mention how they talk in this movie. They have accents that sound vaguely Asian, but really, they just sound like they have a speech impediment. I won’t spoil the rest of the movie, but everything gets worse.
After watching “After Earth,” I wasn’t laughing. I wasn’t angry. I was just sad. In its opening weekend this movie made triple what “Pulp Fiction” did. “After Earth” is terrible, and made me lose any respect I had left for Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan. Sometimes there are bad movies that are so bad they are worth watching. It simply makes me sad to watch this. I wouldn’t wish anyone the agony of this experience. Then again, I knew what I was getting into, and in the future, I will probably watch much worse.
Journey to China: A Photo Gallery by Leah Weld
I went to China for 9 days with my mom on a business trip in November. While there I visited Guilin, a small town 3 hours by plane from Shanghai. We stayed in Guilin for 4 days in a little mountain hotel that was surrounded by limestone hills. We went biking a lot and took a tour of a cave. After the cave tour we met a friendly little dog. On our last day we took a taxi to another little town and walked around there for the whole day. Then we headed to Hong Zhou, which is 2 hours away from Shanghai by train. While we were there, we visited a temple with lots of stone carvings of Buddha. Then we toured White Snake Lake in a small boat. From there we returned to Shanghai for 3 days where we explored the architecture and visited a knock-off market. On our last day we visited a beautiful garden filled with bamboo, but I was sick so after visiting the garden I went back to the hotel. These photos are from Guilin.
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Hadley Hillel Produces Award-Winning Film: 'The Talk'
I wrote The Talk as a short scene for a course I took this summer at TheFilmSchool in Seattle. The film took 8 hours to shoot, all of which was done in the car that the main actor was driving. The film was one of my first attempts at dark comedy, which made finding the tone to be especially challenging. In making the film, I was influenced by Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude, Johnathan Dayton's Little Miss Sunshine, and Frank Oz's Death at a Funeral. The film premiered at the Austin Film Festival in Texas at the end of October and has since won the award for Best Grade 1-12 Student Film at the Mt. Hood Independent Film Festival, and the Best of Festival award at Interlochen's Future of Cinema Film Festival 2013. The Talk is also a finalist in the Fresh Takes National Youth Filmfest 2013.
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Hair!: A Preview of Seattle Academy’s Fall Musical
Get ready for a blast from the past as Seattle Academy’s production of the rock and roll musical Hair debuts on November 13. Director Mike Cimino says that he chose the musical for its “tribal mentality.” He wanted a show that had a focus on everyone, instead of just a few principal roles getting the spotlight. He could not have picked a better show for this.
Hair is a story about the 1960’s during the Vietnam War. It focuses on a “tribe” of hippies and what happens to them during a short period of time. The subject matter is sad, and can be a little scary at times, but overall the play is very funny. Although there really isn’t a story to the show, the musical often refers back to the predicament of Claude (Max Boone ‘17). Claude must decide if he should stay with his tribe, or if he should go off to fight in the war. His dilemma is summarized perfectly in the song “Where Do I Go?” when Claude asks for a sign to tell him which path he should choose. He continues to ponder his problem, and the show comes to a climax in the final song, “Let the Sunshine In.” There are other characters that play a part in the story as well, such as Berger (Gabe Stout ‘14), Jeannie (Lilia Cohen ‘14), Sheila (McKenzie Amento ‘14), and many others.
The rehearsal process for Hair has been different from other shows at SAAS. In the first few weeks, Mike was less focused on staging and more focused on educating the cast about the 1960’s era. He also took the cast through a series of exercises to get them to know each other. Before and during many of the rehearsals, the cast practiced negative space exercises by moving with a partner and filling in the empty space around them. The cast also did an exercise that involved bringing out the happiness in each cast member’s face. This process helped the cast grow close and become the tribe Mike wanted them to be. However, the 60’s weren’t all fun and games. Mike stresses that although this time period was “a moment of super optimism,” the realities of the time, including the draft and pervasive drug culture, offset the free-spirited theme. The show also contains references to religion, race, and many of the things that the era struggled to define.
Hair really makes you stop for a moment and think about life. It raises deep questions about humans and what is right and wrong. Not only that, but it is entertaining! So show your school spirit and support your classmates by coming to Hair. It promises to be a “rocking” good time!
Movie Review: 'Ed' Makes a Monkey out of Matt LeBlanc
Editor’s note: This is the first of a series Eli Bernstein’s reviews of bad movies.
It’s hard to imagine a worse movie than “Ed.” Let’s set up a background: the year is 1996, the show “Friends” is a hit. Everyone loves it. So why wouldn’t everyone love a movie with the same actors? Maybe it’s possible if there is a solid plot or good writing. Instead, we get Matt Leblanc (aka “Joey” from “Friends”) in what might be the most uncomfortably bad movie ever made.
Our story begins in the competitive, heated, and fan-filled world of minor league baseball. Seriously. Every game is packed with fans that have way too much of their lives invested in this team, the Santa Rosa Rockets. The film begins with Jack “The Deuce” Cooper (Leblanc) trying out for the minor league team. The coaches discover he is a pitching prodigy and at the same time discover that he has never in his life played baseball. Which raises one of many unanswered questions: Why was he at the tryouts in the first place?
A year later, Jack wakes up at his parent’s farm in his old bed with his dog. Oh, did you imagine the dog at the foot of the bed? No. Jack wakes up passionately cuddling with this dog as if there was a deleted scene of the previous night (thank god there isn’t). Jack goes to practice and discovers that he is in a pitching slump only during the games. Instead, he pitches wonderfully during the practices. After a lost game, the team’s owner’s son (who for no explained reason acts as the owner of the team) visits the coach after the game, giving the team’s leader a plastic bound book that simply reads “The Plan.” This book apparently was purchased at Mickey Mantle’s house auction. The coach opens the book and scoffs. He then calls Jack into his office and requests that Jack go pick up the team’s new mascot. This brings us to Act Two of the movie, which is even worse.
Jack goes and picks up his new roommate/mascot from the back of a bus. He expects a person, but gets a chimpanzee. His name: Ed. Mind you, his reaction is not one of disbelief but of annoyance. Jack treats the situation as if plenty of teams get a chimpanzee, and he was stuck with the job of watching it. This chimp, however, functions better than any monkey. He fully understands the English language, can communicate his thoughts very well through motion and grunts, and plays professional-level baseball. That’s right. Turns out he is the best baseball player ever. So he goes to the minor league team of course.
Everyone loves Ed except for Jack. Jack is angry because he is in a slump and can’t even focus on his love interest (his downstairs neighbor). His downstairs neighbor is a mother who drives a Cadillac and supports her 5-year-old daughter all on a waitress’ salary.
There are so many scenes in this movie that are illogical, terrible, and just badly-written. Thus, I will end the review with a description of one of these scenes:
When Jack finally gets home from picking Ed up, he runs into his downstairs neighbor/love interest, who, along with her five-year-old daughter is introduced to Ed. She invites Jack and Ed to dinner and Jack politely declines. After Jack walks away, the mother turns to her daughter and says, “He is one troubled guy.” The daughter responds with: “I guess. But he’s got a great butt.” How does her mother reply? Does she say, “My goodness, you are a five-year-old who is sexually objectifying our troubled upstairs neighbor. This is very bad, you have to get help.” No. Instead she exclaims, “Elizabeth!” as if to say, “You rascal!”
This movie was ranked as number 86 on IMDB’s bottom 100 movies. Ever. I would say I watched this but it would be fairer to say that I endured it. This film can be released, but “Community” can’t even get an air date. This is the world we live in. If you would like to see “Ed,” it is available on Netflix Instant.
Noise Pollution (A Poetry Reading)
Seattle Academy Presents Noise Pollution: A Poetry Reading
Lauri Conner’s 12th Grade Creative Writing Class Monday, November 4, 7:00 - 9:30 PM Orvis Theater, Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences 1100 12th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122
Creative Writing
As has become tradition at Seattle Academy, poet and educator Lauri Conner will once again host a poetry reading celebrating the work of her 12th-grade creative writing class. In Conner’s 12-week class, students read poets such as Stacey Lynn Brown and Camille T. Dungy, and attended workshops with 2013 National Book Award finalist Adrian Matejka. The 21 students will read original poetry, ranging in form and theme.
Target Audience
This event is open to the public, adults and children alike, and welcomes anyone interested in a night of poetry.
$3 for students with a valid ID
$5 for adults
My Cartooning Class at Cornish College
For as long as I can remember I have always been drawing, starting from the day my pudgy hand could hold a purple Crayola marker. It was never something that I had to do, but something I could escape into. Unlike most kids, I wouldn’t just draw a static scene, like a picture of a butterfly; my drawings always came as stories. Perhaps in real life I would be sitting there in a polyester jumper, but in my world of drawing I could be anything my heart desired. Cartooning has always been a passion of mine, but until this summer, never one that I publicly shared.
In March, my mom signed me up for a class called “Comic Studio” at Cornish College of the Arts. Though she did so without my formal permission, she reassured me that I could back out at any time. In all honesty, in the fervor of the last few months of school, the class was completely pushed out of my mind. That is until my sister, Kendall, did a little research.
“Were you aware that your teacher for that art thing you’re doing did the illustrations for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? She and Sherman Alexie won the national book award for it,” Kendall said to me as I took a bite of honey nut cheerios.
“Who?” I asked, only half listening.
“Her name is Ellen Forney, she’s teaching the class you’re taking in a week.”
The ball of half chewed cheerios fell right out of my mouth.
I had never formally shown anyone my work, let alone a nationally acclaimed artist. But it was too late to back out. Needless to say, the first day I showed up for class, I put on about thirty layers of deodorant in preparation.
The first thing we did in class was create a comic about the struggles in the life of a donut. Each member of the class came up with an idea for a comic, drew the first panel, and then passed the page to student to their right to draw the second. We kept this up until the whole comic was finished, each panel completed by a different
classmate. Ellen Forney looked through all the finished comics grinning under her spikey black hair at all the goofy stories and giving praise to all the pieces that she liked. Finally she came to the one I drew about a female donut character struggling to find clothes that fit her in a department store run by pretentious vegetables. She laughed out loud and said, “I love this one!” Like an unabashed tween in front of Justin Bieber, I stared at her in awe.
As the class continued, I found that something I had kept to myself for so long and always shrugged off as a hobby was actually a talent. It was something that people liked, that they laughed at and yelled to their friend, “Look at that one! Don’t you love that detail?” I started to have confidence in myself and my abilities. I began taking risks in the class. I found myself getting excited for our critiques; something that I previously had dreaded so much that I would hide in the back of the crowd pretending I hadn’t drawn it. The class was more than just an extraordinary learning experience; it was a cathartic moment in my life. It taught me to have confidence in my abilities and to be proud of myself. I know now that I will never stop drawing, never stop pushing myself to explore my talents and the opportunities around me. The world is an amazing place if you just put on a few extra layers of deodorant, and step outside your comfort zone.
I would highly recommend taking a class at Cornish College of the Arts. They offer courses in theater, music, dance, design, and almost any genre of art imaginable. These classes are available throughout the year, but the most intensive and frequently offered courses, like the one I took, are part of their summer program.
To find out more information on programs offered at Cornish College of the Arts visit http://www.cornish.edu/.
To find out more information about Ellen Forney visit her blog http://www.ellenforney.com/blog/ or her website http://ellenforney.com/.