Mr Gibson has been teaching for 2 years, with this being his first year teaching at AIS. Mr. Gibson's journey with art began in high school, a time when he struggled with anxiety and a sense of uncertainty about his place in the world Receiving help from guidance counselors, and rather than seeking traditional therapy, he was encouraged to buy a camera This led him to finding his voice, as well as a passion for capturing moments. With his preferred medium being photography, he tends to focus on the psychological landscape, as well as uncanniness being a primary theme Artists such as Matthew Genitempo, a photographer from Texas, and André Breton, a surrealist, inspire Gibson’s work Over the past three months at AIS, Mr. Gibson has had a great time using the dark room and getting to know the welcoming community. He urges student artists to “keep making work and always make time for practice ” and to “know it’s a long game of making ”
IntroducingMs.Tennenbaum
By Kelsey Meyerle and Kate Spirn
Q: How long have you been teaching?
A: Although Ms Tennenbaum just came to Agnes Irwin this year, she has taught for 12 years
Q: How did you first get into art?
A: Ms. Tennenbaum has always loved art, but her interest grew in elementary school because she looked up to her art teacher Then, in sophomore year of high school, she began to develop a passion for art At the time, she had been struggling, getting into trouble, and receiving bad grades in school Hoping to help steer Ms Tennenbaum back on track, her mom signed her up for art classes outside of school as her high school did not offer any. These art classes helped and provided her comfort and support. She then moved from California to New York where she was able to take art classes regularly, recognizing their value and falling in love with art.
Q: What is your preferred medium?
A: Ms Tennenbaum loves working with and trying out different mediums for her art However, she particularly loves working with colored pencils and air-dried clay. Lately, she has also loved using resin to make 3D layered collages.
Q: What inspires your art?
A: Ms Tennenbaum is inspired by geology and psychology and is very interested in viewing other artists’ work and seeing the diversity in how they approach obstacles or portray objects For this reason, although she loves both representation and abstraction, she is most interested in abstraction and the different ways artists present the same thing.
Q: What artist inspires you the most?
A: One artist that inspires Ms Tennenbaum is Ana Mendieta, who worked as a sculptor and painter in the 1970s She stands out among other inspiring artists because of her persistence with her artistic message. Mendieta created many feminists work, and received pushback at the time. However, she overcame vulnerability with her body in her work and continued to spread her message. While Mendieta’s work is very different from Ms. Tennenbaum's, Ms. Tennebaum admires Mendieta’s journey and her commitment to her message through art
Q: Do you have a message for student artists?
A: Ms. Tennenbaum responded by saying “even though the journey of making art can be private (which is great), [the Visual Performing Arts Department] always cares about seeing what students make.” Ms Tennenbaum wants to see student art and meet Agnes Irwin artists including those she does not teach She ended by saying “making [art]work always matters and always deserves to be seen ”
IntroducingMs.Tennenbaum
Q: Any final thoughts?
A: Ms Tennenbaum added that as she gets older, it is interesting to look back and see how her style is cyclical with many interests and techniques reappearing years later Additionally, she is grateful to be at Agnes Irwin, where she has a big space and is able to learn about each student individually while fostering a grounding space like her high school art classes.
Welcome, Ms. Tennenbaum, we are so grateful to have you teach at Agnes Irwin!
PHOTOGRAPHY
ZAYDA DAVIS ‘26
ZAYDA DAVIS ‘26
ZAYDA DAVIS ‘26
SPIRN ‘26
CERAMICS
BELLA LOWTHER‘26
TURKISH JERBOA
STUDIO ART
JAMES ‘26
LYLA
ZANDI GARDNER ‘26
ADDISON REED
MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATURE
OTHER
LEMON-VANILLA CUPCAKES WITH HAND PIPED BUTTERCREAM FLOWERS
SARAH KOKAS ‘28
WAKA
BY CHI CKE N WAR RIO R
The currents come forth, upon wind-worn cliffs crumbling. O, weary traveller, shiv’ring from the winter mist, is it lonely at sea ’ s edge?
ARTIST STATEMENT
In this waka, I wanted to explore the tension between old traditions and new " currents " The cliffs represent the weight of past traditions, while the currents symbolize the pull of change and possibility The winter mist forms when the currents meet the cliffs, symbolizing the collision
of past and present. The traveler, caught between these worlds, shivers not only from the uncertainty of the future but also from the anticipation of what could be I wanted this piece to highlight the complexity of the relationship between the customs of our past and the innovations of our future
LESSONS OF A SKI LIFT
BY IZZY GOLDSMITH ‘25
A winter wonderland with grit that was motivated to decorate itself by the faraway wishes of people, who look to break out of the world that’s breaking As the broken mountain looks down on us, we look up to her. So many of us, many bundled to blend in, but the brightest wearing the brightest armor. With our lack of attention to the powder beneath our feet we are carried separately to a place of wonder. The lines were broken up, leaving space for desired thought She gave us the gift of knowing where we were going, that we were safe, and the feeling that we ’ re above it all. Their problems were left in the lines After our trip, we reached the top. Happy to be forced to look out at the world now with only admiration for our seemingly broken world. Finding our clear path, our skis lead us down the slopes. Our worries were released as the mountain exhaled. She reminded us how to breathe.
ATLANTIC DOWNTOWN
I, Annemette, was born in the downtown Atlantic I longed for change or maybe even a different routine Every day began in my cave with my roommate, Aricelle I swam to work after dragging myself through the gray, drabby streets Plastic bottles littered the streets while cleaner fish rushed to pick them up before others could, but no matter how many cleaner fish there were there was still an appalling amount of plastic bottles and other landwalker trash That's what we call them here They live up above and treat us like we ’ re creatures, not worthy of livable cities and towns.
I swam through the bustling downtown filled with businessmen going to work and mothers rushing to drop their children to school Everybody felt the chemicals from above gnawing on their lungs and fogging their vision a bit but nobody complained; nobody could Everybody that has been sent up to do something or get answers has never come back When I was twelve they stopped sending them to the surface Everyone waited for them to return because in their minds although the other seventeen they sent did not return, this time they would We waited weeks for information on the bizarre substance wandering through our streets Instead of finding ways to rid the black suffocating substance, scientists oceanwide developed remedies and vaccines to combat the substance However, you only partially get used to the burn in your gills when you swim the streets
Throughout this entire ordeal, Aricelle has been there for me I have lived in downtown North Atlantic my entire life, even though most of its inhabitants have left or died due to the pollution here Arielle decided to move here with her
BY NEVAEH
SANDS '28
family as a child She's seen practically all of the ocean with her family She claims that there are stunning oceans in other parts of the sea, some filled with ice others filled with fish and creatures you could never imagine in your wildest dreams When the first barrel of “OIL” fell from the sky, she and I were there to watch it She swam as fast as she could from it, I stayed and watched as others fell, with rapid speed from above She stopped going outside as much as she used to and for our playdates after that, she would rather us stay inside and play than go out to the town. To this day she still gets anxious to leave the house.
Eventually, after pushing my way through the streets I make it to work on time It's my job to reuse plastic and other junk that the cleaner fish collect in an art and recycling facility A bunch of underutilized talent and forgotten dreams crouch over desks creating extraordinary art priced well below what they deserved When I started working at fifteen I was in their place The wage was just about three pearls for each hour you spent wasting time on a piece of silverware or jewelry that would be avoided like the plague just because of what it was made of Nobody liked human trash Due to the landwalkers' recent discovery of pearls, they started massively farming and stealing all of ours So to avoid pearl farmers being found by the landwalkers they outlawed the use of pearls as currency. Now we use shells as the new currency and the new workers get paid around twelve shells which could only buy you breakfast at Sal’s diner
I've been promoted to advanced artist since then The average wage I receive weekly is around one thousand shells weekly I walk through the
ATLANTIC DOWNTOWN
valley of dark, depressing desks towards my studio, the only place with some light There in the middle of the room stood my proudly made mold of a land walker It was an extremely defined mold of a male landwalker holding a spear, as they were most common in the area It was going to be sent to a private school to educate children about the dangers of landwalkers After walking in and resting my bag and coat down, I get to work I pour the molten mixture of different human metals into my mold, while it threatens to hurt and kill everything in its path. While I was pouring I thought about the fact that I've never actually seen a landwalker, but here I am making a statue of one of them to educate students who also have never seen one Every day my manager, a woman who was turned sour by our company and life, comes in to make sure I'm working and not wasting company time She shoots me a scowl and checks my name on the list as “ working” then walks away
When I get in my cave I lock and shut the door It's a small three-bedroom apartment with a rock facade on the outside and the interior is a riot of color and love Normally there is abundant music and the sound of power drills and sanding materials blasting throughout the apartment but not tonight I head towards the kitchen ignoring the eerie silence The white cabinets have long been replaced with things that Aricelle and I found interesting. It was my turn to wash the dishes tonight I swam over to the dishwasher and sink, noticing it was empty and smelled faintly of bleach Aricelle works from home in her studio carving driftwood into exquisite pieces of art She usually left at least a fork or spoon in the sink for me I swam over to her
studio to see what the deal was Her bedroom door was ajar when I went to knock on her studio door Her entire bedroom had been cleared out. Her walls which were once covered head to toe in collages of plants, animals, and people have been removed completely My heart was in my throat
I hurried over to the neighbors, two elderly mermaids, to see if they had seen her leave On my way over I went over what could've sparked her leaving Recently she had been acting a bit more distant but that didn’t spark any alarms I swam over to their cave and began banging on their door The husband Delmar, answered with a grimace on his face that quickly changed to worry when he realized who had been knocking his door down What's wrong dear? Do you want to come inside for some tea? no thank you sir i was just wondering if youve seen Aricelle recently? I can't find her He looked at me like I went crazy; Aricelle wasn't exactly the type to just up and leave “I haven’t seen her since yesterday honey, but I hope you find her soon ”
I thanked him and went back inside to the one place I didn't look; her studio I burst through the door of her studio to find it cleared out as well It was a guest bedroom converted into a studio It was a confined space for a studio I noticed a small note stuck to the chair next to the open window I frantically opened the note and it read “Remember how we used to sit as kids and talk about places other than this? Meet me on 108 Coral Street so I can show you Pack a bag and some shells ps Sorry for not telling you in person ” with a small smiley face next to it Waves of confusion washed over me She wasn't very specific on what to put in the bag and I didn't know how many shells to bring I sat down and thought about for a while what I should do I had finally reached a decent status at my job and I wasn't ready to let it go so easily. I was faced with the difficult task of choosing between my best friend and the life I had built up I reflected on the many times she's been there for me and Then I reflected on how much more money I could be making if I stayed at my job
ATLANTIC DOWNTOWN
I decided to go meet her on Coral Street I went to my room, grabbed my old high school bag and filled it with my essentials I filled it with around 6000 shells, a pencil, a notebook, and a small knife I had crafted I turned off all the lights in the Apartment and made sure to lock the door By the time I built up confidence to leave it was already night time
When I finally reached Coral Street I saw Aricelle sitting on a bench waiting for me. her blue hair was put up and out of her face and she had packed a rather small bag “What took you so long? " her face was filled with confusion as she asked “More importantly what is this all about? why did you just pack up and leave everything?” Then for the first time in a while, I saw a glimmer of adventure flicker across her face just like when she was a child “ Aren't you tired of living here? everything's polluted and everybody's sad She pulled a sizable map out of her bag that looked exactly like the maps that are occasionally found in chest landwalkers drop down “I've been sending letters back and forth with a friend who lives in the Caribbean Sea and she said we can go live with her.” Now it was my turn to be confused I never noticed her sending out letters or receiving any Even though I was sick of this dirty town and all the miserable people in it I couldn't just up and leave “ And just what do you plan to do with the life you left behind? What about my job and how much I've worked to get there, Aricelle?”
“Just leave it Nobody here cares enough to come and look for us Everybody has their own problems And I scored you a job already” she said with an exhilarated look I figured she had been preparing this for months Being an artist was one of the easiest jobs to score and it seemed like everybody took all the artistic jobs I had never thought about life outside of the town since I started working I had grown up being taught that my only purpose was to make money and that there was no such thing as an outer world There was never any time for pleasure and certainly never time to leave the town Everybody was chained to this town It was time for me to break my chains “ Let's do it”
