Tuesday, September 05, 2006

(17) October 5,1972 "Artistic Medium" to grow in

1972: First Class Stamp $0.08 cents
MS. Magazine debuts
Eleven Israeli Athletes killed at the Munich Olympic Games
First "Cell" phone call made in New York
Watergate Break In
Michelangelo "Pieta" attacked with a sledgehammer
"Cabaret" "Godfather" "Jonathon Livingston Seagull" in theaters
"I am Woman" by Helen Reddy
This was my first high school year, and I was luckily accepted to the Skyline Career Development Magnet High School in the fine arts department. I spent four hours a day in intensive art training in what was considered the "cream of the crop" public high school in Dallas at the time, and the rest in the regular high school classes. Since this school included students from all over the district, I had the unusual experience of being a regular high school "misfit" with a slew of others of my own kind. I would liken it more to a junior college environment than I would high school. Continued participation in the program relied heavily on high grades and test scores to continue, as there were few slots and many applications. So there we all were, a motley assortment of artistic types in all imaginable flavors of youthful rebellion. Being a lesbian or "different" here was not the stigma it would have been in other schools. And the time honored tradition of Texas jocks running the school socially did not apply here, the intellectuals actually did. This is where I got my first taste and appreciation for many artistic mediums and forms. My first year I learned to weld, sculpt in clay and plasticene, paint in several mediums, weave, and cut gem stones. It was an educational experience I didn't fully appreciate at the time of course, as it was the only high school experience I knew. Youth can be, indeed, wasted on the young, and I am certainly grateful mine was spent in this environment.

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