ALTER EGO

This week we'd like to introduce you to all the students of OS30. Each dorm suite was tasked with creating a unique group portrait, and it appears that some alter egos came out of hiding for this special occasion... Enjoy!

WESTA: Chloe, Leanne, Maya, Hannah, Olivia, Perry, Kafe

WEST B: Michael, Trace, Will, Roger, Brem, Elijah

WEST C: Zoe, Mittie, Rose, Phoebe, Katie, Chiara, Maddie

WEST D: Isabella, Sarah, Katie, Lydia, Annabelle, Maiele, MeiMei

EAST A: Daniel, Gabe, Zen, Eliot, Iggy

EAST C: Amanda, Jaxon, Valentina, Olivia, Riley, Libby, Mia

EAST D: Madie, Lena, Hannah, Dejah, Maeve, Anela, Julia

Top Secret Peek into Project X

The past few weeks, OS30 has been busy with Project X - the first longterm and self directed project in the Oxbow semester. "Project X"is, in fact, a codename for a project holding a very special place in Oxbow's mythology that is unquestionably the turning point of each semester. We can't tell you many details (you'll just have to attend for the full scoop!), but the basic idea is that students are given a very basic prompt that is meant to jumpstart a unique mode of inquiry. At this point, students determine the content of their pieces, their media, and are responsible for developing robust research and work ethics to advance their art.

There's been a break out of diverse projects including aspects such as paraffin wax preserved plants, plaster and latex casts and molds, painted clay on canvas, a documentary or two, and even a sculpture repurposing a Project X from OS29.

We've combed the studios to get great shots for you! We hope you enjoy this sneak peek into one of Oxbow's most definitive (and secretive!) projects.

Anela

Gabe

Isabella

Libby

Maeve

Phoebe at work

 installation shot from inside Phoebe's piece

Zoe

and a gratuitous shot of a gorgeous Spring corner on campus:

SPRING AHEAD: An Outdoor Report

It's Spring again on the Oxbow campus, so we thought this week we'd give you a taste of what's been happening outside the studio walls...

A couple weeks ago, 15 strapping young Oxbow students shoveled ten yards of compost onto the school's biggest garden. In case you're new to the world of compost, that's about 10,000 pounds of dirt--no small feat. The plot, sometimes affectionately referred to as "The Annex," "The Colony," or "The Back 40," is a piece of land owned by our neighbor a little bit down Third Street. We've been very lucky to be able to use this land, as it's more than doubled our campus growing space. Our neighbor's mother grew up there, and tells vivid stories of how her mother (an  Italian immigrant) cultivated enough food on the plot to feed their family of 10. When we first started gardening there, the family gave us a small bag of magic beans--magic because they are a true heirloom, grown and saved from beans our neighbor's grandmother carried with her from Italy (in the 1920's? 1930's?). We've been having some trouble getting the garden up and running over the last couple years, mostly because the soil needs a lot of work. So we've been chipping away, one row at a time, applying compost and amendments in too-small doses and seeing too-small yields. Gone are those days! We are about to see this garden take off...





Our giant load of organic compost was generously donated by the Napa Recycling and Waste Services, who make compost from Napa household food waste, and it's going to make things so much better for our garden. Next week we'll turn the compost in, shape the rows, and start seedlings in the greenhouse. With a space this big producing food at it's full potential, we'll be able to make a significantly larger contribution to the Oxbow dining program. And of course we plan to plant a whole row of the magic family heirloom beans. 

The rest of the Oxbow gardens are already in full Spring swing, with veggies planted by OS29 ready for harvest. Check out this prize-winning cauliflower:

In other exciting outdoor news, our new batch of Ox-Chix have started laying. With the days getting longer and our girls pigging out on kitchen scraps and bugs, we'll soon be getting about two dozen eggs a day. Our flock is quite stylish, with six different breeds laying eggs in a lovely range of colors: greens, blues, rusty browns, even ecru. We had to build an addition to the "coop condo" to accommodate the busy layers!

Oxbow students rotate through Ox-Chix duty on a weekly basis, and are responsible for making sure that the chix have food and water. The kids on chix duty also bring the hens special scraps from the kitchen, and collect the eggs, which go directly to the dining hall and are served for breakfast the very next day. Aren't these just the prettiest eggs you've ever seen?







And finally, last Friday we took a Spring walkabout on the Marin coast. It was a spectacularly warm, clear day, and a great time was had by all. What a treat to spend the day off campus, outdoors, TOGETHER. Happy Spring!

IN THE LANDSCAPE WITH THE LANDSCAPE

Reed talks to the class

This week marked the end of OS30's first Visiting Artist Residency with Reed Anderson. Our post today is a collaboration, written by Amanda and Lena:

AMANDA: Through this ten-day visiting artist residency, our class of 46 students got to know Reed Anderson: a spunky, table-dancing, multi-media artist from New York who’s main work is a combination of printmaking and stenciling (check out Reed's work here). We started out our first class by working with how handshakes and human interaction plays into art and visual movement. We created a collaborative “class handshake” involving everyone, that we were then required to perform each and every class as a group. This also tied into a movement exercise that took place outside in groups of two, where we paired up to practice how movement is fluid and creates different sensory experiences:

Mia and Maeve try out a movement exercise

Lena works on her stencil

AMANDA: The next class involved creating a piece that “created itself,” using paper as a tool to make an art piece through folding, cutting, and spray painting.


LENA: “I am not teaching art, I’m teaching life.” Reed Anderson told me this while I was ready to throw out a piece of art I had been working on because of a deep internal hatred I had obtained for it. He made me continue with the piece as though I hated it and wanted to hate it even more. In the end I liked the piece and learned that, like life, I can’t just stop doing it because I don’t like it right now.

Gabe presents his work

Chloe's finished piece

Iggy, Brem, and Trace admire their collaborative work

AMANDA: We continued in the next assignment by creating a still life within our environment utilizing found materials, which we then drew from one perspective and took a photograph from another. Our final art assignment was to document a habitual movement that we do in our everyday lives. For our last class session we collaborated on a sculpture, drawing, and painting project which involved the classroom furniture, butcher paper, and a garage door to ultimately display it. Anderson's unique teaching style never failed to engage and incite curiosity for assignments. 

LENA: Through this intensive 10-day residency I learned a lot about the process of creating art from itself and from materials surrounding us in the world we are forced to survive in. Anderson gave us a range of experiences in class, from exercises that inspire to making handshakes for no apparent artistic reason; everything we did had an overall purpose. Each piece of each class with Anderson came together to leave a mark on my ever-growing young mind that I will not forget in my future of art, Oxbow and the world beyond.