These strange objects are for drawing. This is the Visual Arts Center of Montgomery County, located at Albert Einstein high school. It's a studio for dedicated art students.
We don't know how Einstein got associated with the school that is known for it's visual and performing arts programs, but there you have it. Maybe he could dance or act and we didn't know it.
The Visual Arts Center is a small school within a school. It's entry by application, holding about 85 students from the entire county, grades 9-12.
It's rigorous and time consuming. Its students frequently go on to art and design colleges. They get a solid foundation, and then they are launched into their own personal pursuits.
There's a nifty video about it here. It's a little long; start at the 45 second mark and quit when you get the idea. It's got much better pictures than these.
We visited the Visual Art Center in November. Z got very excited. She talked to a student and to the teachers, she saw everyone's work in progress. The funky space felt to her like it should be her space too.
So in December she brought in her portfolio and was interviewed.
It was one of those times when several years of seemingly unconnected activities all came together. It was good that she had illustrated for Stone Soup, that she had been a summer art camp counselor, that she spent so much of her free time cartooning and studying cartoons -- turns out they display excellent composition sense.
It was especially good that her art teacher had emphasized "observational art" -- drawing real life, objects in space, with value, depth and perspective. That was a huge requirement.
Thanks to her good grades, good writing skills, and a glowing recommendation from her art teacher (again, thank you to the art teacher!), she was accepted on the spot! Woo!
So how do we do this dance? How does she go to two high schools at the same time, or does she transfer to Einstein? She has a lot to think about. I'm glad to not be working, because I may be the taxi that takes her to art school in the morning.
We will start the new year in the counseling office, trying to create a schedule that will work.