Cover art by Caitlyn Smitheram
WELCOME TO THE AVATAR!
The Avatar is a monthly publication filled with student works and projects all centered around art & literary works, set on showcasing the creative talents of our school. From painting, to writing, to performances, the Avatar is here to display the young artists of our generation in order to promote their growth.
the theme for this month´s avatar is... BOO!
AHHHHHH
Article by Jazmyn Scott
The winner of the $10 Starbucks gift card for this month´s edition is Caitlyn Smitheram! Caitlyn has been an amazing contributor of artwork to the Avatar and we are so grateful for all of their wonderful submissions. For the first time, they submitted an animated sketch that everyone can check out in the music/video submission section.
The Avatar is looking for more submissions! Every month you can submit up to 5 pieces and all of them will be put into a drawing for the chance to win a $10 Starbucks gift card. If you have any literary pieces, artworks, photographs, or cool videos and music that you'd like to share, send them to avatar@apps.limashawnee.com for them to be featured in next month's edition.
ARTICLES
THE GREAT ART DEBATE by Ethan Truesdale
Do you consider AI created art to be art?
by Ethan Truesdale
77% yes 23% no
With a pull taken with last month's avatar article, 77% of people sided with the idea that artworks generated by an A.I. program should be seen as art, while 23% of the people who voted said it should not be.
Below are some anonymous comments from the survey taken, 4 being for the idea that A.I. generated artworks are art, and 1 saying that it is not.
"While I do believe it is art, it should not be in human art shows. Maybe make A.I. art shows if you want to compete with it."
"A.I. is the artist not the person who tells the Ai to make it they are basically asking for a commission"
"A.I art in my eyes is art. It gives artists a challenge to compete with the A.I and others to make different pieces of artwork. Also, why should we really get mad about A.I making art and just doing what we're doing?"
"Since AI can create, it is art. There are no rules of art, no laws or regulations deciding what is art and what isn’t. Art is fluid and art is creation."
"AI created art is not art. Art is created by individuals and each artwork has meaning to the creator, but AI is artificial, so the artwork created by it has no meaning to it."
I appreciate all of the votes in the poll and the thoughts of students in the school. Now, pictured to the right is the portrait of Edmond de Belamy, the first A.I. generated portrait, made in 2018 by an art collective named "Obvious."
The Ethics of NFts
Pictured to the left is an image gathered in order to make an NFT. The image depicts the burning of original Frida Kahlo artwork entitled "Fantasmones Siniestros" (or Sinister Ghosts). Burned by an businessman by the name of Martin Mobarak. He wanted to burn this original artwork so it could only be sold as NFT that he is selling.
NFT is an acronym for Non-Fungible Token, the purpose of buying NFTs is to show partial ownership of an image by giving a link to the image to the buyer and allowing the buyer to resell the link for a profit.
Featured Artist: Halloween Style
By Logan King
It’s Halloween, and what a better time to bring attention to the art of painting! For many, walking into a classical art gallery and looking at some random portrait of some random dude who isn’t alive anymore may be the last thing they’d want to do (and honestly, I’d agree). But the medium has been around for thousands of years, and out of all that time there's bound to be at least one painting that piques the interest of even the most dedicated art haters out there. So, in the spirit of spooky season, I wanted to showcase a series of paintings created in the later years of an artist named Francisco Goya.
Francisco Goya was a Spanish painter who lived from 1746 - 1828 and is considered by many to be one of the most important and influential Spanish painters at the time. His early works included a lot of portrait paintings and commissions, but towards the end of his life he began to work more secretly. In the early 1790’s, Goya unfortunately began to suffer from an undiagnosed illness that left him deaf, which combined with the dread of old age and a fear of madness resulted in a series of paintings created towards the end of his life called the Black Paintings.
The paintings, which were painted on the walls of Goya’s house rather than a canvas, were thought to be an outlet for Goya to express his frustration with the political and religious climate of the time. Nonetheless, every single one in the series radiates an overwhelming feeling of uneasiness. They’re dark, both in the sense that they imply negative real world issues and feature gloomy imagery, and in the sense that they literally use dark colors. When people are featured, they often lack key features that would identify them as human, such as distorted faces, completely black eyes, widened mouths, or freakishly long limbs.
One piece in particular, Saturn Devouring His Son (painted sometime between 1819 and 1823), features the titan Saturn from Roman mythology, well, devouring his son. The titan is freakishly large, bending over to fit into the frame of the painting. His skin is blotchy and off colored, yellowish brown in some parts and a greenish gray in others. These features make him look vaguely human while at the same time seem monstrous, which his actions further show. His hands clench a limp body tightly, presumably his former son, fingers piercing into his flesh with glossy, scarlet blood leaking through the holes. The son is dismembered, missing everything above his shoulders as well as his right arm, as the titan’s mouth is wide open, as if to wail, or take another bite. The painting itself lacks detail and feels blurry to look at, giving it the appearance of an unpleasant dream. Overall, it can be described as nothing short of nightmarish.
So this Halloween, consider making an addition to your list of disgusting awful things to keep you up at night. If you find that scary stories, gorey movies, or haunted houses/mazes/cornfields/etc just aren’t doing it for you this year, just try looking at the painting pictured, and really try to imagine what it would be like to be eaten slowly, bit by bit, by an angry giant freak. And while you’re at it, feel free to look at some of Goya’s other Black Paintings; each are unnerving in their own unique way. Happy Halloween, and thanks for reading!
Activism vs Art
By Alex Karapondo
Is it okay to destroy famous, uncontroversial works of art? Most people would say no, that destroying them is not going to do anything, and it is not going to fix your problem. Instead, it is just being distrustful and creating more problems.
Well, most of us would say that, but not recent environmental activists, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland.
On Friday, October 14, Phoebe Plummer threw tomato soup at “Sunflowers” a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. Alongside her, Anna Holland glued herself to the wall of the museum to gain people’s attention.
Their motive was to stop the overconsumption of fossil fuels and oil, shouting ‘Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?’ They wanted to gain public attention and get people to talk about the issue of fossil fuels.
But was the way to do that by creating public dissent and disrespecting someone else's work? I think not. What is your opinion? Is this okay?
This is not just one incident either. On May 26, 2022, a man disguised as an old woman threw a pie at the Mona Lisa on display in the Louvre.
The man was not identified at the time, but we know he was a climate activist, again, trying to get people’s attention.
So the question remains if it is okay to destroy artwork to promote your cause. You can vote in the Google Form if you think it is OK or not.
10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Poe
by : Hannah Long
We all know Edgar Allan Poe from his famous poem Tell Tale Heart or his short story The Cask of Amontillado. Poe was a romanticism writer and is known for his mysterious and oddly spooky stories and poems. But there are a lot more interesting facts about the mysterious writer.
1. Poe was the first person to use the term short story
2. Poe married his first cousin Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe who was 13 when he was 27.
3. Poe was a champion swimmer and held a local record for swimming seven miles against the current up the James River in Richmond, Virginia.
4. Poe dropped out of the University of Virginia and then published his first book at the age of 18.
5. Poe lived a poor life and was never able to get rid of his money troubles and was ridden with poverty pretty much his entire life.
6. When Virginia, Poe’s wife, died he became heartbroken and wrote a lot about dead women and just death in general.
7. The causes of Poe’s death were unknown, and seemed to be mysterious just like the deaths in his stories.
8. Poe had many rivalries with fellow writers that came out after him and his obituary was written by one of them.
9. The Baltimore Ravens are named after Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven”
10. The modern detective story genre was invented by Poe.
FAMOUS OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS
By Alex Karapondo
Featured Artist of the Month
Pablo Picasso born October 25th
Picasso was a painter and sculptor. Picasso’s art is recognizable for its sharp edges, simplistic design, and distinction from other works of his time., But these qualities were achieved only when he decided to refuse traditional artistic devices inherited from his studies. He admired and studied drawings made by children stating: "When I was their age I could draw like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them." Thus, Picasso has now become the synonym for intellectual independence, originality, and success. Picasso's The Old Guitarist (painting to the left)
Camera Club
By Jazmyn Scott
This year a couple of high school students started a Camera Club at Elmwood. Every Monday and Friday Jazmyn Scott and Tyler Wicks goes to Elmwood right after school where they teach twenty students in the 1st and 2nd grades how to take pictures and use a camera properly. Mrs. Heather Davis-Kohli is the educator who started this club and purchased 10 cameras for the students to use. She emailed Jazmyn asking her if she would be willing to help with this club after seeing her cover photography for the high school student handbook and Jazmyn picked her friend and fellow advanced photography classmate, Tyler, to help come up with ideas and to teach these kids the principles of photography. Mrs. Davis-Kohli says that ¨Camera Club has been great for the students. Jazmyn and Tyler have taught the students many ways to take pictures and to appreciate their surroundings. I am very lucky to have these two find time in their schedules to come to Elmwood.¨ Throughout the past few weeks, they have done many fun activities focusing on principles such as lines, color, and texture, as well as freeze frame photography, macro, and micro photography. The kids have truly enjoyed it. According to Cozy Miller, ¨I like Camera Club because I get to learn different ways to take pictures and the Highschoolers are really nice.¨ Jazmyn and Tyler are both so grateful to have an opportunity to share their love of photography with these students.
Avatar's Blast from the Past
by Dex Hooker
I chose this artwork because like the perspective of it, I also like the mystery of it. You can’t see who or what is taking the picture, you just see the camera and the mirrors.
And from the sparkling skies
A drop of rain did fall
A storm was brewing
Yet to come in all its fury
Then it was Its presence so revealed
A lance of light
So painfully bright
Soon quickly followed
By a furious vibrancy of the sky
The clouds far above
Darkened with sorrow; grayed with woe
Let loose their tears
Like angels dying with grief
Come to flood the Earth
Turning graves to mud
And mud to graves indeed
Call for Submissions
Never Such Innocence: What does war mean to you? 2022-2023 Enter with songs, artworks, poetry, and writing.
Earth X: Protectors of the Planet. Deadline April 22 2023 Enter with 2-D or 3-D artworks
Celebrating Art: Deadline December 1 2022 Enter with any art that can have a digital image
STUDENT SUBMISSIONS (Written Work)
The Story of a Fallen Heart
By Kaleighna Schaub
Sometimes I look up into the sky and wonder why fall is one of the most majestic times of the year. Well I'll tell you why, it's the trees of brown peeling bark and the singing of the golden falling leaves. It's a glorious thing to see when a golden leaf falls from the aging tree or the pile of fallen hearts in a colorful mess (referring to leaves in a pile). When I was younger I would remember jumping into leaves and falling asleep for hours on end for no reason, but now remembering it is actually kinda sad. I've been stuck inside from lack of energy and I hope to find a fallen heart just like mine. But when I look out the window and see those dancing and singing hearts on the trees it reminds me of a happy childhood I received and lost long ago. My most favorite part of it all tho is Halloween and the wonders of shoving face full of candy in my mouth or seeing people enjoy themselves over treats of joy.
Nostalgia
By Hannah Wheeler
Nostalgia
A funny word with a witty meaning
but really it gives a significant meaning
past to present has come but to look back to the past we all long
yearning for that child-like innocence we still wonder why the time has shifted
its hourglass has shifted now the sand falls in the children's years
moving forward from childhood to adulthood
we still look back and wonder too our selves
could we go back? or still, grow up
now now we must break from childhood but still, this feeling is powerful
STUDENT SUBMISSIONS (Artwork)
Student Submissions (Music/Video)
By An Anonymous Source Entitled "Ethics"
By Ethan Truesdale
By Andrew Castellanos
By Caitlyn Smitheram
Student Artist/Creator Market
Pet Portraits by Kenidee
Hello! My name is Kenidee and I am opening up commissions for animal portraits drawn digitally or traditionally. My email is morgak25@apps.limashawnee.com if you are interested in commissioning me to create an artwork of your animal. I can create an artwork for you in a variety of mediums such as oil paints, digital art, pencil drawings, acrylic paint. I could also do a sketch of your furry friend which for a lower price than the others listed.
2022/23 AVATAR STAFF
Jazmyn Scott - President
Ethan Truesdale - Vice President
Mr. Krawetzke - Avatar Advisor
Contributing Members
Dex Hooker, Alex Karapondo, Hannah Long, Kenidee Morgan, Caitlyn Smitheram, Andrew Castellanos, Logan King
Featuring Creative Works By
Mason Reed, Noah Sims, Lujane Taja, Kaleighna Schaub, Hannah Wheeler, Thomas Cover, Rayven Ricks, Colby Currier, Antoine Sheers
Artist Market Contributors
Kenidee Morgan, Thomas Cover
Email your creative writings, poetry, artwork, videos, songs, etc. to avatar@apps.limashawnee.com for consideration in next month's publication!
Credits:
Created with an image by jakkapan - "Beautiful autumn fantasy - maple tree in fall season and full moon with star. Retro style with vintage color tone. Halloween and Thanksgiving in night skies background concept."