Advanced Essay #1 The goods and bads

Hi, welcome to my essay. The goal I set for this was to just get it done and be at least somewhat satisfied. This is not my best work and is in fact my least favorite of my work. But, the show must go on and maybe someone will think its great. So kick back relax and enjoy the show.

It was all new to me and something I thought would never happen. I had never been on an airplane before. But my parents say I have been on one before when I was a baby going to Puerto Rico to visit my dad’s side of the family. It was something I don’t really remember because I was so young at the time. I was excited and nervous because I don’t like planes and I have a love/hate relationship with heights. But once we got in the air everything went fine and I enjoyed the flight to the Bahamas. Being in a whole new region was fun and interesting to see how everything was placed and what they did there. On the second day there, we went to the beach in the Atlantis hotel and it was very beautiful.  

As I stood on the sand in the Bahamas I could feel the warm breeze on my skin. The sand so soft and oddly not as sticky as the sand we have at ocean city or wildwood. My first beach in a place I have never been to before. The water was so clear I could actually see the bottom of the sandy floor and it had a beautiful green and blue shine to it. But, the birds there were not afraid to get close to people. Especially if they had food near them or in their hands. One time we were eating at one of the many restaurants at the beach and a seagull was hovering over my mom’s head. After my dad swiped the seagull away, my mom replied by saying ‘What? What's wrong?’. The experience at the bahamas was something I could never forget and I hope to go back soon one day. There was so much we did there that made the entire trip worth it. Even if it was ridiculously priced It was still a fun time.  

But before that there was a trip I liked up until the near end. 3 years, ago we went to Virginia for the first time as a family. We went to busch gardens, a water park and enjoyed our time at the hotel that also had a fire alarm incident. There were three places we wanted to go to busch gardens as mention, water country was also the water park I said earlier and colonial Williamsburg. The water park was not fun and was very cramped. The lines were long, we did have anywhere to drop our stuff. When we finally found out that there was more in the back we moved over. But, before we could start finally having fun it started to rain and storm hard. But, there was a sign at the start of the day that gave me the idea that it wasn’t going to be that great a day. We went to one of many fun family dinners that can’t be found sadly in philly anymore. After eating we were about to drive when my dad found out we had a flat tire and we had to call a truck to tow was to get it repaired. On the day before we left we went to Colonial Williamsburg to see what it looked like. It was the LEAST fun day we had the entire trip if you asked me while my parents would tell you they love it. It had lots of walking, the sun was high in the sky and burning with no real cover. Worst part was the end when it started to rain and we had to walk all the way to a gocart so we could get near the giftshop and leave.

That was an experience that took the fun and joy out of the second to final day of the Virgina trip. It would considered a bad experience of the trip even though I still walked away knowing the trip had so much more to offer. Sometime life gives you a good experience like the Bahamas and others they give you a little bit of a bad experience. A experience can really leave an impression on what you do or what you might not again because of your experience last time. The experience at the Bahamas was new and it was an experience That I want to do again one day. While the Virgina one gave me a good experience at the start but the ending was something that could have been better. Maybe next time will be better and I have more fun.


Advance essay #1 Friends First Rivals Later By:Keyonne Johnson

Ok! Left, right, left, right, uppercut. As I am getting ready for my very first match in the ring, I look over at the edge of the ring and began to noticed its design.  This ring is surrounded in sleek, black padding on the sides and cold, metal, medium sized chains in the middle of every square on every one of the sides. The flexible, yet compressed mat will soon have painful shades of red blood  from punches and kicks to come as well as sweat from all of the massive bodies that have spent countless hours in the ring. “Are you ready to go champ!” My coach proudly said, “you have been practicing for this for a very long time, so get up there and win this thing!” “Thanks coach, do you really think I can win this fight” I replied “ Hell yeah, he answered enthusiastically. “ Just because he has more experience than you, does not mean a thing. You worked just as hard as he did and winning this fight will show you that you have what it takes to be the best fighter in the world.” After that fiery speech he gave, my coach really got my blood boiling and I became filled with a force of adrenaline that forced me to put my heart and soul into this fight! The biggest moment of my life had finally come and  I was ready to fight in my very first MMA match, but it was not just against anyone, it was against someone I had considered to be like a brother. In a weird way, this standoff was also a confrontation against myself and my own set of skills, that up until now had not yet been tested. 

Even at this point, my confidence in myself still lagged and I still did not have enough courage to convince myself that I had worked just as hard, if not harder, than my opponent did to get to where I was at that moment. Where I am, at this point, is in this ring right in front of him. The irony was clear that I was indeed fighting myself, testing my own skills, but also fighting against my best friend and rival. When our MMA careers started, he was overwhelmingly better than me, but as time went on he started to lose more bouts than I did and I could tell that his daily involvement in  mixed martial arts was beginning to take a toll on him. But that was all in my head and I couldn’t lose sight of the fact that I have to continue to focus on what is in front of me at this moment. As we tentatively entered the ring, we stand across from each other and at first we act like we are not trying to hurt each other, because after all we have been friends since kindergarten. We try not to stare angrily at each other because we were friends long before we were enemies in the ring. The referee pulls us up to him and says, “ I want a good, clean fight, no elbows, no donkey kicks, and when I pull one of you back, you better back up or you will forfeit the match, am I clear?” Before we begin, we both shook our heads to confirm we fully understood the referees rules and then the referee says “touch gloves.” Ignoring the referees command, we instead do our little handshake that we had become accustomed to over the years of our friendship.

In this moment, we both knew that one of us would be victorious and win the match and that even when the match was over and the winner was given the belt, there would be no doubt that we would still have each other’s back no matter what the situation was outside the ring. The referee laughs then we go to our corners and the bell ring and the match starts when...

Avi Cantor Named Top 25 Player in City for Phillies Carpenter Cup Team

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Hey SLA Family, the streak of SLA Rockets making the Top 25 players in the City continues!

Avi Cantor was just named to the Phillies Carpenter Cup team for 2018!!!

It's a rough time for those with a regular grind, but if you can make it come down and support Avi and the Public League squad at Richie Ashburn Field at bottom of FDR Park.

Thurs, June 14th, 1st Pitch 9am
(That's NOT a typo, early morning game)

Get in touch if you plan on coming,
Coach

#belikeavi #rockets4life #slarocketsbaseball

Join the Cross Country Team!

Hello, runners! All students (including incoming 9th graders) interested in joining the SLA Cross Country team should contact Coach Giknis at agiknis@scienceleadership.org. Practices begin August 13, 2018!

Printmaking - Aidan McLaughlin

Technetium is a man made element with an atomic number of 43. It was discovered in a sample of molybdenum bombarded by deuterons by C. Perrier and Emilio Gino Segre in italy in 1937. Technetium isotopes are radioactive and it is the first element to be produced artificially. It is used in 20 million diagnostic nuclear medical procedures yearly. .

I got the idea for the imidry of my print from the fact that the element is artificially created by humans and it is radioactive; furthermore, hence the hand and the circle around the hand.

To make this print, I started by creating several designs that I thought best portrayed the element. Then I chose my favorite, traced it into wax paper, and pressed it into a foam rectangle plate. After that I rolled out paint and layed it smoothly on my pressed foam. To finish I placed the foam, with paint on it, under paper and rubbed it with a spoon before removing it. I repeated the rolling, placing, and rubbing several times until I came up with prints that I thought were appropriate all along making corrections to my design.

If I did this project again I would turn It in on time because there is no excuse for forgetfulness and I should have been more intent on setting reminders for myself.

My favorite part of this project was rubbing my print onto a paper in order to receive a result. I used various rubbing techniques. I enjoyed this because it was interesting seeing what worked and what didn’t.


Water Pollution

The issue I’ve chosen to focus on, as you know, is trash pollution. There are companies and individuals working towards cleaning up beaches and oceans to help keep our oceans safer. For example, there’s a documentary you can view on Netflix called A Plastic Ocean. In this Craig Leeson-directed documentary, Dr. Lindsay Porter and Ben Fogle begin the movie with finding a specific area of the ocean filled with trash and oil when they and their team were whale watching. The rest of the film goes over litter dissections, different areas of the world affected by litter, and what certain are doing or can do about it. Another example of people making a change are a group of people in Cameroon that make boats out of plastic bottles to “prompt people to think about how they consume and dispose of plastic bottles”. They needed more fishing boats, so they recycled the littered water bottles in their community and made boats to help with their issue. My opinion on how things should change is just for everybody to start small. Things always start small before they grow, so if everybody started small then we’d see a bigger change in our communities and such rather than only a few people trying to take care of a whole neighborhood’s situation.


For my agent of change, I wanted to have my household go through a habit change. I wanted my family to watch what we were buying and throwing away to reduce the amount of waste we produced. This idea might’ve worked, but at the time I didn’t think it would’ve worked well since I didn’t know how to measure the amount of trash we produced per week. My second idea was to be a local ambassador for the JUST Water company. While we were working on our second Y&TW post, I had reached out to them for information I could use. They didn’t respond until my class was halfway through our Agent of Change stage of the Y&TW project. I had contacted Bonnie Boyes, a PR representative of the company. The last email that exchanged between us was me explaining my idea to her and seeing if the company would be okay with that, but Ms. Boyes never responded. My third and final idea was to do something more like DIY with water bottles. An ironic idea I had was to form the water bottles into the shape of a trash can. With the little time I had left, since I had spent part of it giving the JUST Water company more time to respond, I went to work. It didn’t work like how it should’ve, but maybe if I had more time and different materials, it could’ve. My experience was frustrating, but throughout the process I got to learn about different people involved in the purification system which is something I’m grateful for.


During this project, I did feel overwhelmed about what I was going to do for my agent of change. Once I got an idea of what I could do, sometimes it was hard to follow through with it, so I was forced to move on to a new idea. But I was glad that I got such an opportunity to help my community in any way. I learned about the different ways that plastic was being used and affecting people around the world and primarily in the U.S. I learned that some people don’t always come through for you when you need them to, and that others do try their hardest to help you get where you need to go. I feel like I could’ve worked harder on initiating my agent of change itself, but I’m okay with what I have. For others, or myself, when it comes to helping fight against pollution, you can reach out to companies and small businesses that specialize in this type of treatment for communities like yours.


My annotated bibliography is here if you want to view it. 

Wildlife Preservation Agent of Change #3

For my final Agent of Change I actually was not able to do it because of difficulties with time and planning better than what I did. But for what I did do was head to a national wildlife center and explore their area and the animals. After that I planned to find a documentary to show to either to my stream or to my advisory. Sadly that was not able to happen but if I were to do this project again I would make sure to plan my time better and be more productive. 

Maysa Wright's Final Steps for the Element Print

The name of my element is Arsenic and the atomic number is 33.  Arsenic was mined by the early Egyptian, Greek, and Chinese civilizations. Most people believe that arsenic was discovered by Albertus Magnus in 1250. He was a German alchemist. Arsenic is poisonous and it is used to make rat poison and insecticides. I got the idea for my image because arsenic is poison and that what I used for my print. For the process of making this print first I sketched it out a couple of times. Once I found the drawling I wanted to draw I drew it on a piece of thin paper. After that I traced the drawling on the a piece of foam but backwards so it would come out the correct way on the final print. Then I rubbed the paint of the foam and printed it on a white piece of paper. When I finished printing I ripped off the the extra paper on the sides of my prints and I got two pieces of construction paper and matted two of my prints and left the last print unmatched. If I could have done this differently I would have ripped off the extract paper on the sides because you could tell the weren't clean rips if you look on the print. I found printing most interesting because I liked using the different colors for each print to see how nice you drawling was.

Printmaking

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My element is Xenon.  It is a colorless, dense, odorless noble gas found in the Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Xenon is in car headlights and other lights. Google inspired me to make a laboratory light because I thought it was pretty cool and I didn't know that Xenon are in those lights. If I were to do this project again I would pick something else to draw because even though I enjoyed doing the light I don't think I challenge myself enough, I picked something pretty simple. 

Printmaking Blog Post & final steps for the element print

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  • What is your element? Name and atomic number

My element is Ag also known as silver. The atomic number is 47.

  • Tell the reader about your element, history, function/use and so on.

  • There use to be silver mining back to 3000 B.C., in Turkey and in Greece

  • They were used at family dinners as the finest knives and forks

  • Silver forms in star explosions called supernovae, as does gold

  • According to the Silver Institute 85 percent of the silver produced worldwide came from Bolivia, Peru and Mexico between 1500 and 1800.

  • Silver was used on photographic plates in the first

  • Used in electronics and batteries

  • How did you get the idea for the imagery you chose?

Well, it took me a while to figure out the right piece on how to represent silver. As I did research on what is made of silver. I started thinking about the olympics and the different medals. 1st- gold, 2nd- silver and 3rd bronze. I then decided I will draw a medal.

  • What process did you go through to make this print?

It took me about 2-3 class periods to get the whole print completed. I went through the process of trying to perfect my drawing. Then tracing and pasting. Waiting a week later to print and mat, printing it was hard because there was barely any paint left, but I mainly had trouble with matting.

  • What would you do differently if you did this print a second time?

If I could print a second time, I would use my time wisely. Meaning if I need ideas come to you during my lunch to get extra help.

  • What part of the project did you enjoy the most? Describe the step and what you liked so much about it.

Out of the whole project the part I enjoyed the most was researching silver made objects. I got a chance to learn about things that I didn’t know before. As I was doing research I was amazed by the multiple things made out of silver.


Printmaking Project

  • What is your element? Name and atomic number- My element was phosphorus, and the atomic number was 15.

  • Tell the reader about your element, history, function/use and so on.- The hennig brand discovered phosphorus in 1669 in Hamburg, Germany, and is mostly used for incendiary devices like flares and such.

  • How did you get the idea for the imagery you chose?- Well since phosphorus is usually involved in things that are explosives and go well boom! I decided since phosphorus explosions are very deadly I would make  a skull sign to represent that and the matches since matches are usually used using phosphorus as well.

  • What process did you go through to make this print?

  • What would you do differently if you did this print a second time?

  • What part of the project did you enjoy the most? Describe the step and what you liked so much about it.- Actually designing the picture since it was interesting to learn about phosphorus and then use my creative skills to make a picture that I felt best fit it.



Printmaking Blog

This project was to basically bring creativity out of an element. My element was aluminum and the atomic number is 13. Aluminum is a chemical element that is s a silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic and ductile metal in the boron group. It was discovered in the 1800s. Aluminum is used for many different things. Such as, kitchen utensils, cans, foils, etc.

As you see in the picture I chose to make a drawing of soda spilling out of a can. This was actually my second drawing and I chose this because I wanted something that looked cool and not plain like my first. The first on was aluminum foil unwrapping but I didn’t really like the way it came out. I thought of other things that had to do with aluminum and  thought of a can. I did three drawings with a can and this was the one I liked best. The first can drawing was just a regular can and the second was a crushed up can.

The process of printmaking is very simple and easy. If you were to do this project you would have to first draw whatever you want on a paper, 4x6 if you want it to be the same size as mine. Then you would take some transfer paper and trace your drawing. After you trace you would have to trace one more time but this time it would be on like a piece of styrofoam and trace backwards. The reasoning for tracing backwards is so the print will come out the right way when you transfer it to paper. Now you would take the printing paint and roll it on the styrofoam. Last but not least, transfer it to paper. I enjoyed the exploring and drawing part of the project because I had the opportunity to learn something new but I would improve my actual drawing if I was to do this again.


Isabela Curtin Nitrogen Printmakeing

My element was Nitrogen. Nitrogens number is the number seven. Nitrogen has a rich history and many interesting facts. Nitrogen was discovered by Daniel Rutherford in 1772.  Being the fifth most abundant element in the universe, Nitrogen has many uses. Nitrogen helps create amonia, fertilizers and it’s a affordable freezing agent.

My imagery was the planet Venus. I chose this because Venus had been proven to some amount of nitrogen in its atmosphere. My process for making this was pretty simple. I paper sketch and transferred it into the plate (making sure it was reverse). After that I rolled the ink on the plate until I heard the tacky sound. Finally I put it on paper. If I could redo this, I would have put more depth into the plate. I loved  when I got to see my finished product. I just felt really proud of it.


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Antimony Print

My element is Antimony with the atomic number of 55. Antimony is a rough semi-metal, and in its metallic form, Antimony appears silvery. It is used in the electronics industry and is used in batteries. Antimony not only has been used in batteries and bullets, but is also found to be used in Egyptian mascara and eyeliner. Antimony was commonly used during Medieval times as well. It was used medicinally as a laxative pill and was said to have been in the medicine that killed Mozart.

I traced music notes floating around what is supposed to be Mozart’s grave. I decided to design my piece like this because many people lost their lives to Antimony. I drew music notes around the grave to represent one of the more famous lives it took.

After I had figured out what I wanted my design to look like, I traced it on scratch paper. I then traced it onto the foam paper and made several prints until I was satisfied with them. Finally, I matted the images.

If I were to do this project over again, I would probably change my initial design. I liked the simplicity of my image, but I would definitely make it more complex next time around. My favorite part of this assignment was researching my element. I enjoyed learning about my element. I had no idea what Antimony was, so learning about it and how far the element traced back was pretty interesting.


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Element Print(Phosphorus)-Lincoln Murray

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Phosphorus is an element on the periodic table with the atomic number of 15. Phosphorus was discovered in 1669 by a man named Hennig Brand. Two major forms of phosphorus is white phosphorus and red phosphorus. Phosphorus is extremely reactive so it can never be found as an independent element. Phosphorus has many uses in organisms. It is a common element in the body and is often the cause for the growth and repair of cells. It is also used in many survival tools like matches and flares.
The process I went through to make this print was to first research phosphorus, then draw different sketches of what I might print, then I chose an idea and built off of it, then I actually printed the idea. If I were to re-print this I would probably add something like matches or flares to show how phosphorus has many other uses that are not related to living things. My favorite part of this project was the etching. I really enjoyed transferring my idea on paper to the plate. It also looked really cool when I was done etching.

Q4 Final Projects

Throughout Quarter 4 of this Advanced Art course I slacked a lot. For me mentally I didn't have the urge to even do most of our assignments. During my studio time I worked on mostly other classes work for the first class. Then for my next class at the end of the week I started to work on the assignment. This unit had simple artistic methods if you ask me. Especially with the space illusion drawing, it came easy to me because we have done it many times before. Going into the texture and value drawing was a bit challenging because we had to basically bring our art to life. This course was really pleasurable to my sophomore year, though I did get off track a few times. I hope to once again take this course for my junior year.

Lithium

  • What is your element? Name and atomic number

My element is Lithium and the atomic number is three.

  • Tell the reader about your element, history, function/use and so on.

Lithium’s weight is the lightest solid element and the lightest metal. It conducts electricity functions and heat very well. Johann August Arfvedson is the founder of the element Lithium and found it in 1817.

  • How did you get the idea for the imagery you chose?

I got the idea from its conduction of electricity so my print was a battery.

  • What process did you go through to make this print?

I brainstormed of an idea, drew it, traced on paper which got put on a styrofoam paper. Then I put paint on the styrofoam and then pushed into it on a paper which created a print.

  • What would you do differently if you did this print a second time?

Nothing, I felt I did pretty good with everything.

  • What part of the project did you enjoy the most? Describe the step and what you liked so much about it.

I like brainstorming because it allowed me to express my creativity.


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Week 11 - LINK • Artist's statement

For week one I've created an art piece that is a ninja. This took me about 2 and a half hours to draw. I really like this one because the picture I viewed to draw this, the head was different. I wanted to be creative and draw a ninja face with the body so I looked up a picture and added a different head.
For week two, I drew multiple pieces, the assignment was line drawings. I looked up original photos from google images and lined drew them my own style and it come out really good for my first time It took me a little longer than two hours, about three. 
For week three it was a little different from usual. The assignment was called shape digital drawing, we used a website on our computers to create this. My idea of this was a beach. Most may not see it that way but it was different and colorful and I just had fun with it.
On week four, the assignment was called illusion of space. I decided to draw a box room in the ground and with the latter on the side to really bring out the illusion. This was a little difficult for me because with art like this it takes more time and you really have to add the detail to bring the drawing out. If I was to do this again I will take more time on it.
For my week 5 drawing, the assignment was named texture drawing. This one provide a lot of detail to really get the texture of an object. It was a lot hard but I tried. I looked at a plant on a picture and just focused on one of the foods to really bring it out with the shade and lines.
For week 6, this assignment was Value drawing. We practice to draw the still life of things and I was a little creative. I took a picture right in front of me on my phone and drew what I seen on the table. I added a lot of detail and shade to really show what I saw at that moment. Then I used a pastel and darkened the back to show what to focus on.
For my last week, week 7. the assignment was Elements of art drawing. Basically, we had to take everything we drew this whole semester and draw it in one picture. I thought about it and said a landscape would be the best thing to draw because it has lines, texture and provides a lot of detail. So the picture I chose was perfect because there was a lot of that in there. I didn't really like coloring it but it still was okay.  


Quarter 4 Art: Sharron Norton

In our last quarter of work, we focused on the Elements of art. The seven elements of art are line, shape, space, value, form, texture, and color. These elements are the building blocks, or ingredients, of art. When we analyze any drawing, painting, sculpture or design, we examine these component parts to see how they combine to create the overall effect of the artwork. 
In my own art practice, focusing on process is a major key component of developing work that feels good and personal. Every stroke of the pencil, every single detail reveals something new. Each move changes the whole piece and sets up a new set of challenges.