Arcane

ARCANE

IOWA CITY WEST HIGH SCHOOL 2901 MELROSE AVE. IOWA CITY, IA 52246 INTROWSSPAPER.COM MAY 23, 2016

FIRED UP Page 8

CONTENTS PROFILE

MAX JOHNSON

A WITH ARTIST WHO IS OPEN

FEATURE

FIRED UP!

A TOWN HOUSE THAT PEOPLE GO TO TO PAINT AND MAKE MEMORIES

ENTERTAINMENT

WHAT ARTIST ARE YOU? A QUIZ TO SEE WHICH ARTIST YOU REALLY ARE.

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Staff List Chideraa Okeoma Alexis Samaniego Jena Shaver Jenny Vest Cover photo by Jena Shaver Design by Alexis Samaniego 2 CONTENT MAY 2016 WSSPAPER.COM

Art History

By Jena Shaver

The dictionary definition for art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Looking at this, it seems like a reasonable description of art, but what this doesn’t mention is all that art has become throughout history.

The Stone Age happened in 30,000 B.C.E.; that was almost 32,000 years ago! This is when people were still drawing on caves with ground up rocks. Mainly they drew stuff about killing animals, or hunting, or getting food...they didn’t really have cognitive thinking ability back then.

After the rocks comes the extremely recognizable drawings of ancient Egypt, mainly drawings that depict daily life and give homage to different people of royalty. They especially enjoyed the details of pharaohs, proving to later generations that, even then, they could make winged eyeliner look killer.

Soon after comes the drawings of ancient Rome and Greece. This was in about 850 B.C.E. These showed the beauty of God’s earth. The Romans and Grecians were really religious. Everything was perfectly symmetrical, beautiful, and down to earth.

Not far after something radical happened; people in Asia started to make art about something other than deity. (Crazy, I know). Something that shows that God did not create a perfect world. This was explosive and is one of the large reasons that art went in so many directions soon after that.

After a little while, (about 1,100 years) people went back to painting the good

Design Alexis Samaniego

Know more about where art really came from. old earth that God created. A large part of the middle ages in 500 C.E. was the Madonna, the famous paintings of Mother Mary and Baby Jesus. Everything in this time was dark and heavy though, as it was not an exceptionally joyous time what with the bubonic plague and scurvy all about.

After the Renaissance there was a large turning point in art called the ‘Mannerism Era’. This was a controversial form of art because it broke all the rules, creating an artifice over nature. A famous piece you might be familiar with is “the Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli. A beautiful sea and a woman being born from a huge oyster...cool.

Basically, after that we get a slue of new forms of art. The colours got brighter, the details got thinner, the distortions became heavier. Soon we had impressionism (Monet, Van Gogh), cubism (thanks, Picasso) and Dadaism, an absolutely amazing form of art that literally means nothing. It’s mostly just random stuff collaged together to create some abstract shapes that you can sit back and watch people try to figure out.

Finally, we ended on modern art, an art form some people love and others cannot stand. It all depends on if you like looking at blank canvases and imagining the art instead of having something definite painted on there, really.

There it is, the history of art in 500 words or less! Hopefully this gives a bit more insight to the world of art (or at least to the fact that people have been very bizarre all throughout history).

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Incoming Artist

By Jenny Vest When Enyo Okeoma ‘20 was only one years old she started to get into art. Okeoma is one of the many talented artists West High can look forward to having at the school. Due to Okeoma starting at such a young age the first spark of interest in art is unknown to her.

To the best of her knowledge though it was just a fun activity to do.

Once her dad showed her the human body she no longer made stick figures for people she started to draw more realistic people.

Bryson Okeoma, Enyo’s dad is very impressed with his daughter’s skills. He said, “I couldn’t be happier with how she found something that she is truly good at.”

Although she likes drawing realistic most of the time her artwork is in black and white. “I do this because I think it’s just easier than adding color to the photo,” Okeoma said.

When it comes to art Okeoma is very simple.

She does not have a favorite artist. She says art is not a passion of hers, more of a hobby.

In 2016-2017 school year Okeoma says she plans on taking a couple of the art classes at West High School. She plans on taking black and white drawing as well as exploring color.

She has not yet decided if she will join any of the art clubs or not.

Next year she will also have a big brother at school, Chideraa Okeoma ‘18. Chideraa always takes the opportunity to praise his sister for her art work. He is proud of his sister.

Chideraa would like to see his sister take more art classes at West than she is planning to. “It’s completely her choose, I may be her big brother but I can’t choose what she does. Although if I could I would get her more involved with art classes and clubs,” Chideraa said.

The future is never for sure but Okeoma doesn’t plan to do much with her art skills. She says she might draw for presidency legacy but that is all. She said that she will be open minded and if she decides she likes art enough she may do more with it in the future.

Photos by Chideraa Okeoma School year of 16-17 will be exciting as always. It will have many great artist leave the year before but more artist will come in. Enyo Okeoma is one of the talented artists that will come to West High School in the fall of 2016.

Design by Alexis Samaniego

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DESIGNED BY ALEXIS SAMANIEGO

Design by Alexis Samaniegp

By Jena Shaver

Art in obscure ways

When thinking of art, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? It might be drawing, painting, and if you want to stretch it, stuff like singing, or acting, or writing. Rarely do people see stuff like typing on a typewriter or roller skating as forms of art. Well, it turns out that some people do. Paul Smith, Tian Haisu, and Steven Spazuk do art in obscure ways, but turn out to make amazing masterpieces.

Paul Smith is known worldwide as the “Typewriter Artist.” Smith’s story spans over eight decades, seven of which he spent making his famous typewriter art.

Having a severe case of Cerebral Palsy, a disease that affected his speech, mobility, and fine motor coordination, Smith’s life really started when opportunities were limited. Growing up in a society where little attention was given to Cerebral Palsy (besides institutionalizing anyone with it), Smith had to beat the odds more often than not. Smith wasn’t allowed to have a mainstream education, which left him unable to read or write.

Smith’s interest in typewriters came about when he was 11 years old and he found a discarded typewriter in his neighbor’s yard. The typewriter became an outlet for Smith who was unable to communicate in any other way. After Smith, the way artists with disabilities create art has notably changed. What has not changed is the willpower and determination of this man, and for that, we remember the Typewriter Artist.

There aren’t many people in the world who create art using fire, but Steven Spazuk is one of them. The French-Canadian artist has perfected fumage, a technique using a flame to blacken a canvas to create a

masterpiece. Spazuk has spent 14 years perfecting the art of fumage, following on from a successful career as a painter. His website explains: ‘Spontaneity and chance are the heart and soul of his creative process. He does not censor. He does not direct. Spazuk opens himself to the experience.’

Whereas Smith wouldn’t be able to roller skate, Tian Haisu creates her art doing just that; roller skating. Haisu traded in her calligraphy pen for a pair of skates when she decided that she wanted to “reinvigorate traditional Chinese art for the next generation.” The skates were decided on after the artist was inspired by her favorite sport: ice skating.

She said: ‘My whole body is involved and I produce all kinds of ink landscapes. Such creation is full of power, speed and rhythm.”

As well as winning numerous awards for her paintings, she has now been appointed a goodwill ambassador for the Beijing Huayu Education Fund. Tian’s intention, she explained was to gives the impression that heaven and earth are filled with the artistry of her creation in a way never seen before in other exhibitions.

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Tattoos from your Zodiac Sign Aquarius

January 20-February 18 A portrait of a famous person would work for you! It’s crazy and unpredictable just like you. Just make sure you like that famous person because you’re stuck with that per-

Aries

March 21-April 19 Biomechanic is very daring. It makes the future real. Make sure it’s full of hope just like you are. It’s not very one way so you can go with the flow.

Gemini

May 21-HUne 21 Japanese style shows loyalty and strength.

You are a very strong and loyal person. It will get people to look at you and start a conversation.

Pisces

February 19-March 20 A small tattoo that is simple. Something that reminds you of something that happened in your life. It should be a big event not a silly memory. Make the memory speak

Taurus

April 20-May 20 Typography is a quote or a saying, most of the time it’s something very meaningful.

It should show something about you that makes you, you. Be aware everyone will see

Cancer

June 22-July 22 Create your own tattoo. You are the most creative of the zodiacs, use it to make people wow at your personally designed tattoo.

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DESIGNED BY ALEXIS SAMANIEGO

By Jenny Vest

Design by Alexis Samaniego

Leo

July 23-August 22 American Tattoo will tell a great story, bring your favorite light to you. People will want to know the story and it shows where you are from.

Libra

September 23-October 22 A small symbol, like a heart in a discrete part of your body. The back of your neck would be a good place. It won’t be painful and it’s simple.

Sagittarius

November 22-December 21 Surrealism will shake up your life. It takes a normal looking face and changes it. It looks strange and amazing all at the same time.

It’s perfect for you!

Virgo

August 23-September 22 Blackwork is simple and the most modest of tattoos. It is an elegant tattoo, make it small so when it’s appropriate you can cover it up.

Scorpio

October 23-November 22 Duel Tattoo with a person who means the world to you. That person can be a friend, relative or partner. It shows that person you really do care for them and then you know they care about you too. Be a little mysterious

Capricorn

December 22-January 19 Realistic tattoos look like a real life item. It’s a very practical tattoo, they are more on the classy side, just like you. It’s something you can be proud to show off knowing that it’s not something that will go out of style.

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Fired Up

A little house in Downtown Iowa converts into a place where you can express your art

By Jenny Vest and Jena Shaver

Walking up to Fired Up you may see nothing more than a house with a cute porch, but it’s so much more than that. Located in Iowa City on East Washington Street, this lowkey business stands tall and proud; well, maybe not so tall. Inside there’s a man named Michael Burt, the proud owner of the business, who casually plays violin music and has his dog do tricks.

Besides the pottery, the dog is the real main attraction. Ukie Maru, a mixture between a Border Collie and a German shepard; is a real mutt to behold. Named after Burt’s love of playing ukulele, Ukie knows how to sit, roll over, and bark his age. Most customers are delighted at the spectacle, and it can be heard many times from returning customers that they’re just there to “see the dog.”

The porch is riddled with different pots and mugs that past WSSPAPER.COM MAY 2016 FEATURE 7

It’s my place, I get to clean

Michael Burt

Photos by Jena Shaver

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DESIGNED BY ALEXIS SAMANIEGO

customers have painted, something that demonstrates all of the options one has. Walking into the pottery studio is like stepping into a different world. There’s definitely only one Fired Up in the entire world. There’s four tables with chairs all around; all differently painted by Burt himself. Then, looking over, you see the colours. More colours than you think could ever truly exist. One for each colour of the rainbow; and every single person on earth.

Turning left you see the closet filled with blank canvases; or in this case, pottery. There’s stacks of mugs, salt and pepper shakers, teapots, even miniature garden gnomes. Burt normally throws his own pottery, but lately he’s been getting them pre-made. “It makes it easier,” Burt said. He’s so busy now because he moved from California all the way to Iowa City for the cheaper living.

When you’ve grabbed your pottery of choice, you get to take a seat in the magnificently coloured chairs. There are little glasses filled with water and small, yellow sponges scattered among the paintbrushes and slides of paint.

You use these to wet down your pottery, making the paint stick better to the pot. Burt likes to give

demonstrations of how to do everything, so that the customers can have the highest quality pottery possible.

After you’re finished painting the main layer, (or in this case layers because everything you paint is advised to get three layers), you can either paint little shapes, or write words, or rummage through Burt’s massive collection of stamps. There are things such as stars, quotes, and dancing pigs.

Burt has been collecting these for as long as he can remember.

“I had them in California too, and they’re some of my favourite things to just spice up the pottery.” he said.

After you’re officially done, you bring your new found artwork up to Burt, give him your money, and he puts it on a shelf, with many other pieces of art, so that he can put it in the kiln for you. After about a week (sometimes less, sometimes more) you get a call that says you can come pick up your art, a riveting experience.

After paying and petting the dog, you walk out of the door and on to the porch as the little bell rings, and you can see the beautiful little pottery sitting all on the ledge.

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Comparing

By Jenny Vest

Many people know that art has many styles. What happens when you give two artist the same task?

Kiel McBrearty ‘19 and Noah Martinez ‘19 were asked to draw a picture with the theme of nature. They each came back with completely different things.

McBrearty describes his artwork as sketchy and jagged. “I’ve been interested in art ever since I can remember. Like I remember being two and doing it just because I knew how to,” McBrearty said. Even though he started drawing at the age of two he has never lost interest in art. He does not think he will ever lose interest in art either.

At West High he has taking at least one art class each trimester. This trimester he is in color. Art teacher Jenny Sailor said McBrearty is a great artist and has much potential to him. She wants him to keep at

it in the art world. When he finishes a piece of art he sees it as it is done now and he can move on. He is not particularly attached to his artwork.

When McBrearty is looking at artwork his favorite type to look at is heavily contrasted. Lots of black and white coloring. H.I. Giger is his favorite artist. Giger directed the Aliens movies. Giger tends to draw in black and white. His artwork is very realistic.

Most appears to Ancient Egypt art work as well.

McBrearty is striving to become a better artist. He wants to keep at it and hopefully become an artist when he is no longer in high school. One of his main goals as an artist is to get his drawings more realistic.

He hopes that the art classes at West High will help him achieve all of his goals regarding art.

His art piece that he created to be compared to another artist is very stretchy.

He is very detailed down the eyes of the three-eyed monster. It took him about five hours to finish the drawing. He considers himself a slower drawer than most. Creating a white outline of the tree brings more attention to his tree and monster.

Photos by Jenny Vest Kiel Mcbrearty ‘19 10 PROFILE MAY 2016 INTROWSSPAPER.COM

DESIGNED BY JENNY VEST

Artists Jena Shaver started to draw when she was 14 years old. She didn’t even like art until she was that age. She liked art history and one day she said, “Hey I want to draw that.” So she did. Then she realized that she likes art even though it makes her cry at times.

She really Renoir, Doali and Kahlo are a couple artists she likes. She doesn’t have art inspiration, she likes a lot of artists but has a different style than they do.

One time she made a cute picture of Winnie the Pooh and Tiger. She filled it with her favorite quotes from the old Winnie the Pooh books. The drawing is just a sketch of the two characters. It’s Shaver’s favorite because she thinks it’s really cute. It took her about 20 minutes to draw it.

Another one she really likes is the one she drew for Earth Day. She likes it because she drew jellyfish and she really likes jellyfish. It took about an hour to draw.

She sketch, paint, and activity draw. She will sit down for hours and make a black and white drawing. She can take hours at a time to draw something that looks realistic. Other times her drawings and paintings are messy.

She describes her art style maniac. Since she is bipolar a lot of the time her artwork is very happy but other times it’s dark. Sometimes

she likes to use the dark colors and mix with the light colors. The subject is what makes her happy and other times you swirl the colors on the canvas because it’s soothing to her.

The art piece that she painted took her three months. There was times that she cried and thought about throwing out her artwork. Yet she kept working on it until it was perfect to her.

She isn’t happy about her chair because the back leg is wanky. She can’t fix it because she’s done painting it and if she went back to it, it would just make things worse.

Her favorite part of the painting is the flowers.

She says that most times her flowers don’t turn out well but this time they turned out amazing.

She is proud of her art piece.

Jena Shaver ‘17

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OPINION

SORRY, CRITICISM IS GOOD

By Jenny Vest No matter what type of artist you are when your art is being presented you have to deal with criticism. Many artists never display their artwork because they don’t want to deal with the criticism.

Criticism is one of the scariest and best things in the art world. Whether it’s a painter or performer criticism is most used things. Every time a performer goes on stage when they are done with the show they go back through their show and see what they can do better on. They get others to help them see what they need to work on. Same goes for artist, when their art is in an art gallery other comment on what they can do better on and also what they did a good job on.

Criticism isn’t always bad but when it is it can be hard to handle. Most of the time when people hear the word ‘criticism’ they think of someone telling them, “You are terrible at this, you should quit now.”

Sometimes that is what criticism but more oftenthan not it’s someone telling you what you can work on for next time. And sometimes that can be harder to handle then being told you

Jenny Vest ‘18 should just give up now.

The simple outlook on ‘criticism’ is enough for people to not show what they drew, painted, wrote, or acted. People should see criticism as a way to prove you. The saying “there’s always room for improvement,” is exactly how people should see criticism. Criticism tells the person how they can better themselves on something that they love to do.

If you’re not willing to listen to what people think you need to work on, if you’re not willing to improve the art world isn’t for you. When a person acts, writes, draws, paints or sculpts it’s made up into three parts. The first part is making the art. The next part is show it off for others to see. The final part is taking what others say and applying it to your next piece of work.

In order to make art you have to handle criticism. In order to handle criticism you have to see it as a tool. Criticism is just as important as a pen for writers or a paint brush for painters. It’s a necessity in order to thrive in the art world.

Another thing many artists don’t realize is that you don’t have to make the changes that are suggested to you. Just because someone tells you to add more romance to your books doesn’t mean you have to add more romance. It’s perfectly acceptable to not do what the critics say. What the critics say is their opinion. You listen to their opinion but you get the final say in it. You get to make the decision to make the change or not.

Never say criticism is bad. It’s something most people use throughout their lives. Whether it’s with artist or a paper for school you get suggestions, or criticism, to make changes to make you better at what you are doing.

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Which artist are you?

Find out what artist you truly are.

Are you s emotional eccentric a touchy-fee

Do you enjoy distortion or standard shapes more?

Standard Shapes

Distoria

Are you assertive or more passive?

Lee Bontecou

Frida Kahlo

Are you more of a pacifist or more of a protester?

Pablo Picasso

By Jena Shaver

soft and l or and not very ely?

Design by Alexis Samaniego

Do you make rash decisions?

No

Are you more of an extrovert or introvert?

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Yes

Salvador Dali

Moody or not?

Vincent Van Gogh

PROFILE

F

Max the Artist Sarcastic, creative, funny is Max Johnson ‘16, the next big thing.

Photos by Jena Shaver

Design by Alexis Samaniego

By Jena Shaver

rom loving art when he was little to sketching morphed bodies to selling his drawings through a teacher, Max Johnson ‘16 is a character like no other.

“When I was younger I enjoyed the concept of skulls, so I would continually try and draw them. That continued until I found ‘Hey, I can draw ghosts and stuff now’”.

Johnson is a sight to behold in the hallways of West High, most noticeably referred to as “that one tall kid”. At 6’9” he is hard to miss, but not many people know that he’s also a brilliant artist, one who isn’t afraid to go after what he wants and be different well doing it.

Two of his most noted pieces in art class are called “Fufu Nasty” and “the Origin of Chicken Fries”.

“I don’t like drawing normal shaped things, because normal shaped things are boring... more than one face, that would be interesting” Johnson said.

Not only does he like to show off his artwork, but his parents also enjoy it. His mother, name, said, “I’m really proud of Max, of his talent. I’m happy he has an outlet to express himself.”

One of his art classmates, Crissy Vigil ‘17 is also very proud of Max. “He’s hilarious, but I wish he had more opportunities in the class, because the art department has zero money.” she said.

As a senior, Johnson is all revved up for the end of the school year, and more importantly, for college. He plans to go to the University !!!, where he will try to get a major in art. Before that though, he has big plans of putting his art into the art festival in downtown Iowa City.

“I think I’m most excited about being able to make art a lot instead of worrying about other stuff, like math.” Johnson said.

Let’s wish him luck.

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UPCOMING EVENTS IN DOWNTOWN

May 21

Sunflower Drop Earrings

May 28

One-on-One Bead Crohect Tutorials

May 28 June 3-5 June 3 July 1-3

Iowa Art Festival Benjamin Chait Gallery Walk Iowa City Jazz Festival

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Photo by Jena Shaver