Cover art by Leon Schumm
Welcome to the first edition of Avatar for the 2023-24 School Year!
The Avatar is a monthly publication filled with student works and projects all centered around art & literary works, set on showcasing the creative talents of our school. From painting, to writing, to performances, the Avatar is here to display the young artists of our generation in order to promote their growth.
Articles by Avatar Staff
Origins of Halloween: Did you know?
By Noah Sims
Halloween was originally a holiday that the ancient Celtic people celebrated. The festival was called Samhain and it marked the end of the year and the beginning of winter. It was believed that on October 31st, the ghosts of the dead would return to the earth. To commemorate the event, Druids, or Celtic priests, would light large bonfires where the people would burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
This celebration was combined with two other festivals after the Roman Empire conquered the majority of Celtic territory. It then became a religious holiday that honored saints, and so it was called All Saint’s Day. The night before, October 31st, was later called All-Hallows Eve, which is where the modern name Halloween comes from.
Halloween in early America was very popular in the South, but not in the North because of the Protestant population. It only spread to the rest of the country when many Irish immigrants arrived from the Irish Potato Famine. In the late 1800s, Halloween became more of a community celebration instead of ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. Trick-or-Treating became a common practice, so the holiday became geared more towards children. This eventually led to the modern interpretation of Halloween.
What are you doing for Halloween this year? Maybe bring back the old Celtic traditions and start a fire! (Or maybe not…)
Purrfect use of A.I. in Advertising
By Kenidee Morgan
The Vienna Tourist Board in Austria came up with the idea of using artificial intelligence to turn famous artworks into cats. They took the idea from the internet’s love for cat images and memes. The board recreated the famous artwork, The Kiss by Gustav Kimt and replaced the couple with cats cuddling instead. They hope that with the cat campaign it’ll attract more people, however, people are criticizing the idea. People are angered by art-generating AI programs, claiming it can be plagiarism and threatens artists. The Vienna Tourist board, in contrary, embraces the AI as an educational and silly tool. Should they have used AI to replicate artworks to advertise to the people?
October's Featured Artist
October is for Bacon: Francis Bacon!
By Leon Schumm
Francis Bacon was a contemporary artist born October 28, 1909 in Dublin Ireland. He spent most of his life moving back and forth between Ireland and England. His father claimed to be descended from the philosopher Francis Bacon’s family, which is where the artist got his name. Bacon was a rather feminine child and even in his youth took joy in fashion and makeup, finding a joy in dressing up. Though he was eventually kicked out of his house for those habits, and moved to London using an allowance from his mother. Bacon’s first proper job was selling women's clothing in Soho, London. He was later fired over a disagreement with his boss. After that he went into interior design, while doing his paintings on the side.
In 1933, his painting Crucifixion gained public attention. The painting was inspired by the work of Picasso in The Three Dancers, but his painting was not well received by the public. After that, Bacon abandoned his artistic career for a while. Later he claimed that his career was so far delayed due to his struggle to find a subject that kept his attention. In 1944 he was beginning to regain his confidence and began to develop his own artistic style. Bacon liked to see his works in series, so he painted a good amount of triptychs and diptychs.
Bacon took a lot of inspiration from Picasso in his artwork. In 1944, with the painting Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, he started his habit of using his paintings as a way to show the human condition. His paintings focused on people and tend to have unsettling imagery. Bacon tended to paint crucifixions, popes, self-portraits, and portraits of friends in a unique and abstract ways.
Despite his rather bleak and pessimistic paintings, for a good amount of his life, Bacon was a rather charismatic and loud man. Though he became more recluse after the suicide of his lover George Dyer. After that death, he painted The Black Triptychs. Though he tried to avoid giving most of his work a story, he did admit that those paintings told the story of Dyer’s death and Bacon’s feelings surrounding it. After Dyer’s death, death and the passage of time became a prominent theme in his art. A good amount of his paintings featured Dyer in them, until Bacon’s own death in Aprill of 1992.
A large of Bacon’s works are unfortunately destroyed due to a combination of factors. Bacon admitted to having a hard time stopping work on a painting, so the canvas’s simply had too much paint on them to last. His paintings have been re-emerging though and have sold for prices as high as $142.4 million.
"How To" Halloween Doodles
By Carrie Briggs
Want to know how to do some spooky Halloween-themed doodles? These tutorials should help you! Use these as inspiration for your art, and have fun with it! There is no one way to be creative, so go wild! I made my drawings digitally, they work with any medium. If you work with a pencil, draw light so you can erase mistakes!
Halloween Themed Poetry
By Chloe Angel
Halloween themed poetry is poetry that adds a chilling twist to what you´re reading. Many people do enjoy this theme of poetry because they love how suspenseful it can be. A list of poets that write such writings include: Mary Karr, Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Willis, Michael Collier, and the list goes on.
In this article I will show 5 different Halloween themed writings, in honor of the season.
Welcome to Shawnee!
By Carrie Briggs
Shawnee has just recently gained two new music teachers, Ms. Bolton and Mr. Collins. Mr. Collins is the assistant band director, and Ms. Bolton is the choir director.
Mr. Collins plays the tuba mainly and typically prefers low brass, but he loves teaching and playing them all. He thought he would be some kind of digital professional until his junior year of high school when he got passionate about tuba and band and decided to go into music education. He has taught as a TK-K1 (Transitional kindergarten, similar to pre-K, basically it’s just age difference) at one school, 5-12 band at one school, teaching all music classes (even choir) at one school. At the last school, he was in charge of a musical and pep band. Now, he’s teaching here. He prefers 5-12 band over everything else he’s done. His favorite song is Scenes from an Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel because “Billy Joel is one of the artists I call a master at storytelling through music.” He says the hardest part of his job is “the more you accomplish, the more you realize you don’t know nearly as much as you thought you did” and he says the hardest thing about that is staying positive throughout the hard parts. He says they don’t look back at how far they’ve come. He says both the hardest part and the most fun part he says, is being his best for the kids at all times. He thinks that, no matter what it is, you have to remember how far you’ve come. He also says the work environment is so welcoming and fun for both the students and the staff. When I asked about what he would say to kids wanting to join the band, he said to jump in with both feet and you will love it. Mr. Collins also likes playing video games and playing D&D with his friends.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Trivia Game
Test your knowledge for a chance to win a free ticket to SHS Drama’s performance of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
If you are able to answer all of the questions correctly your name will be put into a drawing to win a free ticket. This contest is open to SHS students only. Winners will be announced on Halloween. Good luck!
Welcome to Shawnee!
By Carrie Briggs
The second new teacher is Ms. Bolton. She sings in a soprano range and plays the trumpet, as well as some percussion. She graduated from ONU in 2023. She decided to go into music because “I was the kid who “lived” in the band and choir rooms. I enjoyed doing all of the extracurricular activities associated with both and then eventually started giving piano lessons to kids of all ages. Once I started teaching piano lessons, I found a real love for teaching, especially music.” Her favorite part of teaching is connecting with her students through the music. She also says she loves the “lightbulb moment” when everything clicks for the student. When asked about her favorite song she said that this was the hardest question, but she loves ragtime piano music. Last year, Ms. Bolton student taught at Shawnee. She said, “Since I already formed great working relationships with my students and they already have a sense of trust in me, I wasn’t as nervous when it came to preparing for the school year since I already knew that I had a great group of students that I would be working with.” She looks forward to directing ensembles and musicals. In her free time, she likes to spend time with her family and dogs, having movie nights, camping, and shopping trips with good food! Growing up, she was in competition dance for 11 years, tap and jazz being her favorites. She also did cheerleading along with band and choir, “so I was a super busy kid.” “I would say to get your hands on as many things as possible! ... The more you are involved the more you are learning! By doing all sorts of activities we are more well-rounded and have more experience in our field!”
From my interviews, it’s clear that both of them are passionate about music and excited to teach. So, as Ms. Bolton said, “No matter what language you speak, where you’re from, or how old you are, everyone is impacted by music!” that means you should “jump in with both feet” (as Mr. Collins put it) to music and any other form of art!
Famous October Birthdays
By Sanna Khandakani
Do you share a birthday with a famous artist or writer? See the list below to find out.
October 1 - Katsushika Hokusai (Artist)
October 4 - Anne Rice (Writer)
October 5 - Maya Lin (Artist)
October 8 - Faith Ringgold (Artist)
October 8 - Frank Herbert (Writer)
October 14 - EE Cumming (Writer)
October 16 - Rembrandt (Artist)
October 16 - Oscar Wilde (Writer)
October 19 - Peter Max (Artist)
October 22 - Robert Rouschenberg (Artist)
October 25 - Pablo Picasso (Artist)
October 28 - Francis Bacon (Artist)
October 29 - Bob Ross (Artist)
October 31 - Johannes Vermeer (painting shown)
2023/24 Avatar Staff
Mr. Krawetzke - Avatar Advisor
Carrie Briggs
Leon Schumm
Caitlyn Smitheram
Chloe Angel
Sanaa Khandakani
Seven Lane
Kenidee Morgan
Noah Sims