Final Project Family Portrait

This week has been dedicated to getting the Final Project ball rolling. One half of this endeavor involved conducting A LOT OF RESEARCH and then thinking and mind-mapping and MORE RESEARCH and more thinking, and then writing. The other half involved sketching and consulting and testing materials, and more sketching and more consulting, and maybe stretching a canvas or building a room or ordering paper or strapping on a camera. At the heart of it all is a topic, a question, or a theme that drives the critical inquiry and creative practice. Each student's Final Project is born from and revolves around this...well, let's call it a nugget. So this week's blog post is extra special: we asked each member of OS29 to describe their Final Project "nugget" in one word, and then every advisory group took a family portrait. What you see here is a combo word/photo portrait of the entire class. Special, right?

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WEST A: PSYCHOLOGY / DESIRE / PROCESS / HUMANITY / PERCEPTION / RITUAL

Amanda, Tumani, Valerie, Willa, Slade, Karen

WEST B: SACRIFICE / ALIENATE / PERCEPTION / EMOTION

Zeke, Justin, Ser, Izaiah

WEST C: SPACES / LIFE / LUMINOUS / ELEPHANTS / CONSCIOUSNESS / IDENTITY

Isabel G., Isabel A., McKenzie, Lucie, Katie, Margeaux

WEST D: COLOR / DARK / STORIES / CONFORMITY / HAPPINESS / SUPPRESSION

Maya, Piper, Maddy B., Jennifer, Tara, Dani

EAST A: IDEAVIRUS / CONNECTION / INITIATION / MEMORY / SUPERPOSITION

Alex, JJ, Nigel, Emmett, Sam

EAST C: CONTROL / EQUALITY / BIRTH / MEMORY / INSOMNIA / INTERNET

Annalise, Annie, Veronica, Akea, Courtney, Grace

EAST D: WONDERLAND / AMERICANDREAM / PERCEPTION / BIPOLAR / REALITY / INDIVIDUALISM

Darien, Maddie G., Taylor, Elsa, Jessica, Shannon

Head in the Trees, Toes in the Ocean

Oops! We forgot to post last week. So sorry. But we have a pretty good excuse...we were here:

Final Project officially began on November 1st, and then after a week of intense brainstorming and proposal writing, the whole school went for a day-long hike in Pt. Reyes. It was crisp and clear on the coast, a perfect day for a walk in the woods. We navigated the Arched Rock trail to the beach, and ate lunch in the sand. For some, it was a first meeting with the Pacific Ocean. What a treat! Photos courtesy of Isabel A. (above) and Nigel (below).

Collaboration

This week OS29 bid farewell to their second visiting artist, Dan Havel. Dan hails from Houston, Texas, where he teaches art at St. John's School and works as a partner in the artist collaborative Havel Ruck Projects. Throughout Dan's Oxbow residency, students explored structure, architecture, and interactions between space and place. Using basic supplies--maps, blueprints, foam core, and other architectural model-making materials--each student created a small artwork. The individual works were then installed in a common space, and elements were added--paint, tape, string--to visually weave the pieces together. Through an extended process of collaborative revision, the installation was added to and subtracted from, each student making modifications to support the cohesive whole. The entire Oxbow community celebrated and admired the final installation at OS29's first official 'gallery opening' -- oooohs and ahhhhs abounded as guests sipped on sparkling cider and munched on popcorn. Thank you, Dan, for leading OS29 through such an exciting collaborative project!

JJ surveys the revision process

Grace adds finishing touches

Installation detail

OS29 in front of the final installation