(1).png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
San Domenico School
As those of you who have been reading my blog know, I have been making a Tableau / Nativity quilt for my old school, San Domenico School, in San Anselmo, California. While visiting Mom in neighboring San Rafael, I went to visit and had a wonderful time. The first order of the day was to make a rubbing of the plaque on the rock by the flag pole that has the dates and places of the schools founded by the Dominican sisters in California, beginning in Monterey in 1850, then Benicia, San Rafael (home of Dominican University and the old convent building), and finally San Domenico in 1965 (when the school outgrew the availableAs those of you have been reading my blog know, I am making a quilt as a gift for my old school, San Domenico space in San Rafael).
Here, Mom and I are in front of the stone and plaque (which was a lot smaller than I remembered!)
Sister Gervaise was Lower School principal (K-8) when I began there in 1969. She later became principal of the Upper School (9-12), then Head of School, and is now Head of School emerita. I don’t think she has visibly aged a day in 35 years! Still as youthful in spirit as ever. I also got to meet her assistant Beth, who has been awesomely helpful in sending me scripts and programs for Tableau, as well as old uniforms to cut up and include in the quilt.
Beth took this picture of me doing a rubbing of the plaque. Instead of doing the plaque as it is made, I put all the dates and place names on a line to use in the border of the quilt (now…to get time to work on the quilt…sigh!). For those into technical info, I used gold Shiva painstiks on the dark blue batik “solid” that I am using for the night sky…maybe by the time I finish with the California photo posts late this week or next I’ll have a significantly updated photo of the quilt.
Sister Gervaise and Beth gave us a tour of the new gymnasium and performing arts center…WOW! We were lucky there was a Middle School art program exhibit in the lobby of the latter, and here are some photos.
One of my favorites is this little dragon / gremlin guy, by a seventh grade boy (!!! It was all girls in my day, but boys are now admitted through 8th grade).
I loved the prints done by the 7th grade, as well, including this one:
(PS–to respect their privacy, I’m not including the names of the young artists.)
A high school student made this centaur out of windfall branches and twigs, and a dried spray provided by a teacher (for the tail). Because it was against a window, it was hard to photograph and get a good shot of what you are seeing but it is FANTASTIC! It stands nearly as tall as I am….5’6″!
The students had also created altarpieces for Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican celebration of All Soul’s Day (November 1), in ceramics. The display was fantastic. Each piece was a small work of art, but the grouped impact is really something.
I also got a kick out of this picture, again part of the Dia de los Muertos corner, with the horse and rider, compelte with skeletons:
Inside the blow-your-mind quality auditorium, some students had done a riff on Andy Goldsworthy with leaves (google his name and you’ll get a ton of references and images), creating a swirl and sworl of gingko leaves along one wall
:
Goldsworthy does some really cool things with leaves and dandelions (click on the words for links).
Wish they’d had an art program like that when I was in 7th and 8th grades. Heck, I’d go audit classes NOW if I lived there! Congrats to all involved, but especially the students and their teacher!
May 16th, 2006 at 8:18 am
What fun to see all that artwork. Just lovely!
May 16th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Love the gingko leaf installation! Looks like a great school. It really seems like high school kids these days do so much more interesting art than we did at that age.
May 18th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
i’ll join you in auditing…in my all girl catholic school there wasn’t even an art program! poor me…