In our "Art Is..." elective class this past year, we were talking about endangered species on Twin Peaks, the spot in San Francisco where our school is located. It was part of a bigger study with Andi Wong and Marcus Shelby about the natural history of San Francisco and using art to explore and express it.
One of my classmates, Jared, wrote an original piece of music called "Blue Monarch." Another classmate, Addie, wrote a poem about the Mission Blue butterfly, an endangered species of San Francisco. Some of my friends and I had the idea to make a stop motion animation based on the song and the poem.
We asked the whole class to help us make origami butterflies. Using an app on my ipod, we animated these butterflies and made them fly. We were thinking about the poem and ways to express Addie's words and the song using visual images.
The soundtrack was recorded live at the Red Poppy Art House. Three classmates volunteered to recite the poem. Marcus Shelby and Jared played the music to accompany the poetry.
It was first screened at the North Star Project showcase at Rooftop School. It was also selected for the Media Arts category at the SFUSD Youth Arts Festival. The screening was at the main library of the SF Public Library. They also had it on display on a little screen in the gallery at the exhibit.
In June 2012, the Golden Gate Bridge was having it's 75th Anniversary. I decided to celebrate by walking across the bridge. The weather was very windy but sunny and not that cold. My friend Logan and I walked together. This is a video I created with stop motion pictures as I walked across the bridge.
The next day, I read some poetry about the bridge. Two poems were by Joseph Strauss, who was the engineer of the bridge. When the bridge was finished, he wrote the poems to honor it. As I read it, it wrote down words that were powerful to me, and then I used them in a poem of my own.
Here is the video I made:
Here are the poems by Strauss:
The Mighty Task is Done
Written upon completion of the building of the Bridge in May 1937
At last the mighty task is done;
Resplendent in the western sun
The Bridge looms mountain high;
Its titan piers grip ocean floor,
Its great steel arms link shore with shore,
Its towers pierce the sky.
On its broad decks in rightful pride,
The world in swift parade shall ride,
Throughout all time to be;
Beneath, fleet ships from every port,
Vast landlocked bay, historic fort,
And dwarfing all--the sea.
To north, the Redwood Empire's gates;
'To south, a happy playground waits,
in Rapturous appeal;
Here nature, free since time began,
Yields to the restless moods of man,
Accepts his bonds of steel.
Launched midst a thousand hopes and fears,
Damned by a thousand hostile sneers,
Yet ne'er its course was stayed,
But ask of those who met the foe
Who stood alone when faith was low,
Ask them the price they paid.
Ask of the steel, each strut and wire,
Ask of the searching, purging fire,
That marked their natal hour;
Ask of the mind, the hand, the heart,
Ask of each single, stalwart part,
What gave it force and power.
An Honored cause and nobly fought
And that which they so bravely wrought,
Now glorifies their deed,
No selfish urge shall stain its life,
Nor envy, greed, intrigue, nor strife,
Nor false, ignoble creed.
High overhead its lights shall gleam,
Far, far below life's restless stream,
Unceasingly shall flow;
For this was spun its lithe fine form,
To fear not war, nor time, nor storm,
For Fate had meant it so.
The Golden Gate Bridge
Written upon completion of the Bridge sometime in 1937
I am the thing that men denied,
The right to be, the urge to live;
And I am that which men defied,
Yet I ask naught for what I give.
My arms are flung across the deep,
Into the clouds my towers soar,
And where the waters never sleep,
I guard the California shore.
Above the fogs of scorn and doubt,
Triumphant gleams my web of steel;
Still shall I ride the wild storms out,
And still the thrill of conquest feel.
The passing world may never know
The epic of my grim travail;
It matters not, nor friend or foe –
My place to serve and none to fail.
My being cradled in despair,
Now grown so wondrous fair and strong,
And glorified beyond compare,
Rebukes the error and the wrong.
Vast shafts of steel, wave-battered pier,
And all the splendor meant to be;
Wind-swept and free, these, year on year,
Shall chant my hymm of Victory!
I was at my grandmother's house at Lake Tahoe this past week with my cousins. We made a nature video. My mom showed us a video with stop motion animation using stones by an artist named Jan Svenkmajer. We were completely surrounded by nature in the mountains and we thought that it would be great to make a video that shows that nature can do amazing things.
We collected sticks, pinecones, pine needles, leaves and rocks from outside my grandmother's house. We showed each other what we gathered and then we brainstormed ideas about what we could do with those pieces of nature in a stop motion video. Then, we teamed up with two people working together to make short animations using the objects we collected. While the others were waiting for their turn, we wrote poems about nature. Then we took the short clips and put them in iMovie. We recorded our poems and added it to our animations. We then added some music and titles. Here is what we made:
