Haley Hurst The first print that I created shows a school of fish, creating the shape of a wave. This design represents a diverse community, which is a positive aspect of Animas Highschool. The fish creating the wave are all different shapes and sizes, and have different characteristics, representing diversity. The wave design represents community through the contribution of each fish to the overall shape of the wave. My second print is not as symbolic, however it still represents unique characteristics at Animas. It’s more centered around individual detail, specifically in one fish, and the unique designs and appearance. I have to say that I prefer my second print of the individual fish, because of the detail and aesthetic appearance.
Olivia Gilden When we first started this project, we were asked to pick an element. Earth, fire, water, or air. I chose water because throughout my entire life it has been the element that I have felt most connected to. I have been a great swimmer since I was little and I have always been infatuated with the feeling of being under water. It’s as if everything goes away for a bit. The water plugs up your ears and it is quiet. It is an escape from the bustling, loud life that we live every day. For my print I chose to carve a turtle, two jellyfish, and two koi fish. I feel that these sea creatures exhibit peace and serenity which is something that we all need once in our lives. I hope that this prayer flag can showcase a peaceful representation of the beautiful world that we live in.
Ben Garofalo The idea behind this entire print process was to create a printed image that demonstrates an idea of positivity on a Hindu prayer flag, which has an assortment of colors associated with elements. For example blue = water and white = air. I originally chose the element of air because I wanted to use a white background for my image, but given that the image should have something to do with the element of air, I elected to create an image of a birdman, because birds have something to do with air. The actual idea that my image tries to demonstrate is sorta a punk rock, rebellious freedom vibe. The image is of a birdman dressed in a tank top and pants jumping into the air wielding a guitar, with a backdrop of crumbling infrastructure (in the form of a crumbling brick wall). If I could add more detail I’d try to design a backdrop of a crumbling city beyond the brick wall. The image would draw contrast between the energy in the character jumping with the guitar, and the depressive fall of the city in the backdrop.
Zander Albers How I made this: I came up with a design I thought looked cool, and came up with a hidden message in Chinese that meant something. Redrew it on a block, carved it out, and then printed it on a flag. My piece depicts positivity through the Chinese text, the text reads out “上帝幫助我們” on the top and “由此” on the bottom. The top one translates to “God help us” and the bottom one translates to “from this”
Porter Hilgenberg When Britt introduced this project to the class, from the beginning I knew exactly what I wanted to create. The Sacred Heart, a symbol used in Roman Catholicism that symbolizes God’s undying love for mankind and his sacrifice on the cross. I myself am not religious, but I do have a lot of hope for the next generation as well as my own. So I thought I could use the sacred heart symbol and mold it into something a little more universal. The first step I took to complete my print was to go on Pinterest and get inspired. After that, I sketched out 3 or 4 different design ideas and picked the one I liked the most! The original Scared Heart is portrayed as a heart with thorns wrapped around it and flames shooting out of the top. Emerged deep within the flames is a cross, but I decided to take that part out and add floating peace signs around the heart! Britt made us sketch our image over and over again on paper and then eventually on our linoleum block. I was really scared to start carving but once I started it was actually pretty easy. It took me forever to complete my carving because I chose to carve around my pencil lines but I am very pleased with the result. I hope that my carving inspires future and current Animas students to feel connected with each other and think outside of the box because we all contain the power to change the world. Marisa Smith The prayer flag in the Hindu culture is supposed to carry hope, compassion, peace, and strength in the wind. When creating our own prayer flags for the new school, we took into mind what it looked like to be an osprey, and the culture of excellence we wanted to create on our new campus. Creating this flag for me was difficult being a senior. What hope did I have for a school I was not going to attend anymore? I recognized that my main hope for the new school was growth. We have grown out of the two trailers we call our school, and on to a new campus that I hope will allow for students to grow their passions, education, as well as themselves as individuals. In representation of this growth, I decided to carve three flowers. One in bloom, One almost at full bloom, and a beautiful fully bloomed flower. To me the steps of blooming on this flag represent the steps and the process of growth.
Matthew Hatfield My print is about the tree of life, one branch has a bunch of dead trees on it and the other branch has a bunch of alive trees. The process was pretty complicated. At first I was going to use a devil but then i ended up doing a path way then it turned into a tree. Then the printing took forever for some reason but then i finally did it.
Col Hinds It took me a few tries to find a design I liked that conveyed positivity. I finally settled on drawing a hand with a pencil, to inspire creativity.
Cris Bonde This print is of a bird in a tree, on a sunny summer day. This bird is supposed to symbolize a blue bird which is a bird that represents overall happiness. This depicts a positive message for the school because happiness is a good thing to have in a positive community like Animas.
Joe Weigman For this print, I decided to depict the La Plata Mountains with the Colorado Flag on the horizon. This is kind of a cliche Colorado bumper sticker thing, but I thought it would look cool on a prayer flag specifically. To make sure the print would come out properly, I had to mirror the initial drawing when I carved it out on the block, so that way the “C” of the Colorado flag wouldn’t come out backward, and it would better match the photo I based the La Plata Mountains off.
Teo Van Tyn This piece of art depicts positivity because for me looking at the moon and seeing it reflect off the water is relaxing and peaceful.
Jadin Pierce My piece of art represents positivity through the depiction of wisdom. A common symbol of wisdom would be the “wise old owl”. I decided that this is the positive and hopeful thing I wanted to be represented on and through a prayer flag as we start a new beginning soon with a new school building and new decorations. The process used to make this piece was a 5 step process. We started with learning about prayer flags, their meaning and cultures to decide what art piece we wanted to do and why. After We decided what we wanted to make we sketched out on paper our ideas. We then sketched our final idea onto our block. Then carving out the “empty spaces” leaving only what we wanted to transfer onto paper. Finally taking ink rolling it over our block then transferring our designs to the flags/papers
Cash Lettieri For my block print I made an osprey. The osprey is our school mascot so it was perfect to make and print. The osprey shows positivity and symbolizes our school. The spreading of the wings is the students branching out and doing amazing things. Overall the osprey is a great mascot and shows many things.
Charlie Bridgham For this project, I did two prints. The first print was an image based on the yin yang. This depicts positivity through the balance of the yin and yang. After I was done with this design, I moved on to another. This print was based on an image of a forest floor with mushrooms. I tried to use different techniques to reinforce the organic feeling of this print. I am really happy with how it turned out because of the depth and the detail.
August Gates I made a linoleum print of a bird and printed it on a blue flag which is the prayer flag color for the sky. I think birds give a sense of freedom which is a positive feeling.
Julia Glotfelty When I think of Animas High School I think of being unique. In the fact that our school doesn't act like a normal school. There is no judgment and you can be yourself. That's why I chose to do an octopus with human legs.
Grayson Milam My image depicts positivity because the hive represents our school, and the bees represent our school body’s cooperation!!!
Sage Robbins For my piece I wanted to use symmetry to represent balance within life yet had room for little mistakes to show that life isn’t perfect.