Art at Los Medanos College

Instead of just sitting in a classroom and looking at slides in the dark, the Los Medanos College "Introduction to the Visual Arts" (Art 5) Honors class visited the Lafayette Hillside Memorial as part of a lesson on iconography, monuments and political art.  They talked about individual pieces of the monument, the monument as a whole, its purpose, and what they saw and felt. They also got an unplanned surprise when one of the original founders of the memorial, Lynn MacMichael, happened by. She spoke about the problems with acceptance when it was first installed, and the continuing issues with vandalism. She also explained a few of the symbols we missed and even told a few funny stories. Being Honors students, they even  climbed up to the top of the hill for a better view. They were also thrilled to get a little extra credit, because that's just the way they are. Sounds good, doesn't it? Find out more about the Honors Program here .

Xavier Travis, working to match the type and image size on a print piece. It's all part of an exercise in his Adobe InDesign class (that's Art 50 for the numerically oriented.) When he's matched it perfectly he'll go on and design his own masterful piece using the same information, but making it 13.76 times more interesting.