• Prom
• Graduation
• College in Fall 2011

That's amore
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine
That's amore
Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella

When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazool
That's amore
When you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet
You're in love
When you walk down in a dream but you know you're not
Dreaming signore
Scuzza me, but you see, back in old Napoli
That's amore"

In three vehicles their were 3 strike forces, armed and waiting for Clarice Staring as she sped around the corner in her Mustang.  Along with the three vehicles , was a battered undercover van and a car of two SWAT teams behind it. The undercover van was disguised as Marcell's Crab House truck. Starling opened the door of her mustang and snatched the equipment bag out of her trunk before heading to the Undercover Van. Her small fatigue complimented her fast paced walk. When she arrived at the van a DC officer dressed in uniform was wait in the van. "Women are always late." he said.

As I stood at the top of the last flight of stairs, I stared into the darkness below me. The only light I could see was the moonlights’ reflection from my doors’ windowpane. I closed my eyes and slowly walked down every step until I reached the bottom. I began to open my eyes prepared for anything to come my way, but nothing was there. While I walked past the front door on my way to the kitchen, I felt a sharp chill come across my chest and arms. The cool air moved to the bottom of my bare feet, and then I knew it … the front door was recently opened. While walking I noticed the faint smell of marijuana the closer I came to the kitchen door, I knew someone was in the house now. I walked quietly in front of the kitchen door and noticed that it was slightly opened and the light was on. This was the moment I was waiting for; this was the moment of truth. The instant I pulled the handle to open the door, the light turned off. I took approximately three steps back to find the nearest lamp and when I did, I immediately twisted the handle. As soon as the light turned on I saw him, a black masked figure standing in the kitchen door way. He stared at me, I stared at him, as I looked down I noticed one of the several kitchen knives we owned in his left hand. The only part of his body I could see was his eyes, and the only expression I saw on in his eyes was genuine evil.  As he walked towards me I took steps back and the only thought that carried through my mind was that I may be telling the story tonight’s events on an episode of “I Survived”.

Pinky: 6 cm

Ring Finger: 7.5 cm

Middle Finger: 8 cm

Pointer Finger: 9.3 cm

Thumb: 5.5 cm

After making the measurements of my fingers, I had to cut the bar of the umbrella that contained the bendable spring. The bendable spring would enable me to bend my fingers at free will without the need to worry about stiffness in movements. Cutting the metal was the most difficult cutting I’d ever done. 

On the glove used in Spy Kids 2, there were circular pieces of material placed at the tip of the finger that allowed the user to move the metal lining by moving their fingers. In order to replicate this idea, I precisely cut ten 1 cm diameter circles out of cardboard. I used cardboard because it’s material is created in layers so it would be thick enough to look like an exact representation of the glove used in Spy Kids 2.  After cutting the circles, I painted them an “off grey” color so they won’t over shadow the basic design.

While creating the glove, I was given a project in my digital video class to create a commercial advertising a product of our choice. I wanted to advertise my glove and using motion/visual effects replicate the use of the glove in Spy Kids 2. The commercial will be posted within a day because it’s currently being edited.  The glove took two-three weeks to finish so once I completed it, I moved on to another project. 

The next project I designed was the second project of my high school career where I used modeling clay to represent my art. For this specific project I wanted to sculpt a model of an Infiti FX. I wanted to create an Infiniti FX because it’s one of my favorite cars and the design is different from most current SUV models. Before sculpting my car, I had to allow my modeling clay to soften. This process had taken three-four days because the size of the modeling clay. I started softening the clay by filling a clothes bin with warm water, at least five gallons. After filling the bin up with water, I sat two 13’’ blocks of modeling clay into the water.

After four or five days the clay was soft enough for me to mold. I started by creating the basic shape of the Infiniti FX. After allowing the clay to harden a bit, I used a sewing pin to add small features to the car as in the roundness of the bumper, and curves to the door. The next week, I deciding to make the tires. I created the tires by rolling modeling clay into a ball in my palm. Once the clay was shaped in a sphere, I slowly flattened the sphere so it can resemble more of a tire. Once I had a basic shape, I used my finger to create the depth of the tire. Once I’d finished creating five tires using the same method, I used the wheel of an actual toy car to create the ridges of the tire wheel. With the left over clay from the wheels, I made two rear view mirrors. The rear view mirrors had to be proportional to the SUV, so I had to make at least several different models before sticking the final model to the SUV. After creating the wheels and mirror, I used two sewing pins to stick the wheels to the side of the SUV. I did this for two reasons: One, they were almost guaranteed to stay on the SUV without any problems and two, the pin allowed the wheels to turn as if they were real. After sticking the wheels and mirror on the SUV, it was time to paint. Since the modeling clay was still soft after leaving it in warm water for so long, I had to wait at least a week for the clay to harden completely. After the clay hardened, I painted it after school in my art studio. 

By:DaVonte Martin, Camille Morton , Edward Abbott , Amirah Burkett , and Patricia Parker

• Walking up right
  
  
• Thumbs
  
  
• Ability to grasp with all five fingers
  
  
• Similar skull structure
  
  
• Round Ears

• Ingham, Richard. "Early humans had sex with chimps ." News in Science (2006): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2010. <http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1641443.htm>.
• Ape, . "Apes." How Stuff Works. How Stuff Works, 16 May 2008. Web. 12 Nov 2010. <http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/ape-info.htm>.
• Marks, Jonathan. "What It Really Means To Be 99% Chimpanzee ."Department of Anthropology (1999): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2010. <http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/interests/aaa/marksaaa99.htm>
• MacAandrew, Alec. "Human Chromosome 2 is a fusion of two ancestral chromosomes ." Department of Anthropology n. pag. Web. 11 Nov 2010. <http://www.evolutionpages.com/chromosome_2.htm>.
• Rodriguez, Monica. "Ask a Geneticist." Tech Museum:Stanford School of Medicine (2007): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2010. <http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=229>.
• Pbs, Science. "Evolution Frequently Asked Questions." PBS Science (2010): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/faq/cat03.html>.

When I was younger art used to be apart of my everyday life. I used to have a wild imagination of characters and future worlds so I constantly sketched them while in school or in the car with my mom. My earliest drawings were sketches cartoon movie posters ie: Space Jam , Toy Story , and The Lion King. I always began drawing by just looking at the picture and draw whatever I can. I didn’t notice until years later that my drawings were pretty advanced compared to a lot of kids I knew around my age at the time.

 I tried to farther my art skills in 3^rd grade when I signed up for sculpting classes at the Free Library in Germantown. When I was younger Play-Doh used to be my most enjoying activity. I enjoyed making people and cars specifically out of play-Doh , so I think taking the sculpting class at the library was something that I had a passion for. After a year in sculpting class my passion for art wasn’t the same as before. I some how stopped sketching and drawing suddenly and I didn’t notice that I’d stop drawing until my 9^th grade art class at Science Leadership Academy when we had to sketch a portion of our hallway. 

When I was sketching the hallway my passion for art began to grow rapidly because I was reminiscing about the times when I was younger and all I wanted to do was draw in class. As much as I love art now , I was never a fan of painting. Painting in my opinion is one of the hardest methods to perform in art because it all depends on the brush strokes. I think if the brush strokes aren’t precise then it can ruin the entire drawing. So in any of my art I would never paint or color it , I’d normally just leave it and outline specific details with a dark pencil. 

My favorite material to use in art is modeling clay. Most of my drawings in my younger years were characters that I’d created and being able to sculpt them allows the characters to come to life. I’ve never specifically used a tool in art besides a pencil and my hands, but between the two my favorite tool to use in art are my hands. I can honestly use my hands to do just about anything from painting if I have to, to making precision lines on a sculpture, and adding distinct details to my art. In my 12^th grade year at Science Leadership Academy , this is my second year having an art class since 9^th grade so I was excited to see what has changed over the span of 2 years. Our first project was to create a poster advertising the collection of bottle caps. The bottle caps collected will be recycled because if they aren’t , they’ll possibly end up in rivers and/or oceans which can harm the environment of sea orchids. Since the theme of this specific project was partly recycling, I immediately thought “Go Green” or Saving the p trees. So I decided to cut green construction paper and align it at the bottom of my poster to have the appearance of grass. I followed the grass with a large sun flower rising from the grass with a bottle cap replacing the Anther of the sunflower. I sort of used figurative language in this aspect or figurative art because bee’s take the nectar from the Anther and recycle it to another flower. So instead of recycling the nectar, they can recycle a bottle cap. I created a sun to add more vibrant colors to my poster and the sun was made of orange and yellow bottle caps. I made the sun out of bottle caps because the Sun’s Solar Energy is often recycled and converted to power electrons. So recycling the bottle caps is a symbol of the Sun’s recycling solar energy.  Previously said I chose the colors orange and yellow because they made the poster more vibrant. When constructing a piece of art I always think about the color of the paper or background because I want everything to blend together neatly. 

My favorite colors to use together are burnt orange , brown , and a neutral orange color. For our next project we had to create virtually anything out of recycled material or something that represents the method of recycling. My idea for this project was to sculpt a large sized tree surrounded by the city of Philadelphia, which will be made out of boxes and Styrofoam.  The city is going to be placed in front of the tree and in back of the tree I’m going to create the Franklin Institute. There is no specific reason why I’m going to create the Franklin Institute but it’s only because I wanted to involve our school in my project some how and the shape of the Franklin Institute is easily recognized. I’m then going to wrap a vine around the tree and it’ll connect to the city. This will symbolize that going green can power the city , and to make this more notable I was thinking of placing small light bulbs and batteries inside of the buildings so they can illuminate. 

I’m very excited that art is apart of my school life again twice a week because it allows me to be creative outside of the technology, which is the basis of our school learning.

My Bottle Cap Poster: Recycle Your Caps!

Trying to sculpt the centerpiece which is my tree. The modeling clay was so thick that I had to cut through it with a steak knife. 

The several buildings.The last two are painted cardboard boxes.The first one hasn't been painted yet.

Painting one of the several buildings out of recycled milk boxes.

The photo below is a picture of the vine I made out of clay. I used the classic rolling method until the clay grew longer and resembled a straw. Then I painted it with dark green Crayola paint. As said before the tree that will be sculpted will be wrapped with a vine made of modeling clay. The green vine will look as if it's powering the city which signifies going green.The clay was still soft while taking this picture so I can wrap it around the try I was sculpting. 

Sketch of final product. This is what my final will resemble with the Franklin Institute in the back , a tree in the middle, and the city of Philadelphia surrounding the sculptures. The image above was photoshopped. 

Trial and Error:

Originally I wanted make my tree by wrapping clay around a shampoo bottle and stick tree branches around them. However after a day or so the clay which was hardened broke apart. So that's when I decided to make the tree from 100% modeling clay.Below is a picture of the shampoo bottle after the clay has fallen apart. They white particles on the bottle are pieces of clay that were stuck. 

Before using the recycled cardboard boxes I wanted to use bottles as the buildings.But later I realized how dull it looked because the buildings in Philadelphia are all different, sousing bottles was out of the picture.