Savanna Open House

Everyone welcome to attend! Come see the amazing work this year's second years have done!

Horn Island

Horn Island, 11/8

 After setting up our tents in the blustering wind last night, we found ourselves on Horn Island, a small, remote island off the coast of Biloxi, Mississippi.  Our lovely teachers let us sleep in this morning, so we woke up at nine and began the day.  Our project for the day was lighthearted to say the least.  It involved making sand sculptures of animals that were native to the island with a partner, then drawing topography lines on them to denote the changes in elevation.  It's safe to say that the lack of sunscreen plus the 80 degree weather resulted in some pretty bad sunburns for a lot of us, but  I think just about everyone would say it was well worth it! The day concluded with a breathtaking sunset, and a classic savanna bonfire.

Day 16 -Final Day New Orleans

We were all expecting to go to the Crosby Arboretum, instead there happened to be a change of plans. The Arboretum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Therefore we visited the New Orleans City Park, consisting of a sculpture garden and museum.

When we arrived at the sculpture garden all the students walked around and looked at the various art work and started to do sketches without even being assigned too. 

This made the professors proud! After visiting the sculpture garden we went into the museum and were given time to do one page consisting of multiple sketches of our favorite art work with in the museum. Later on that day we walk around the City Park and did a few rapid sketching exercises of some of the various trees around the park. 

November 5th, 2012 -- New Orleans, Louisiana

Historical Bonding with New Orleans

Brought to You in Part by Taylor Goetzinger and Allison Walk

After two free days to start our stay in New Orleans, we picked class back up on Monday morning and headed to Jackson Square. This is an Italian Renaissance style plaza plopped on the edge of the French Quarters and cozied right up to the river's edge. After a brief historical lecture, we were given about 20 minutes to sketch details of the Square, and were then on our way to Piazza D' Italia.

Free sketching in Jackson Square

 Piazza D' Italia is a post modernist plaza that attempted to connect downtown New Orleans with the busy hub of the French Quarters. Although the intentions were good, the connection failed and it now stands decaying and desolate in a lonely, dark corner of downtown. After more free sketching here, we power-walked to St. Louis Cemetery on the top part of the French Quarters.

Piazza D' Italia

 This particular cemetery was one of three that were established. Due to the water table of the city the cemetery is built above ground with crypts and wall vaults to prevent the bodies from emerging from their tombs. Most tombs held numerous sets of bodies which were cremated and the bones were pushed to the back to make more room and to conserve space, and this is where the term "wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole" came from. And in one such tomb 2400 sets bones were held inside.

St. Louis Cemetery

Among the many plots in the cemetery, there are a few famous figures that have staked their claim. The first is the voodoo priestess, Marie Laudeav, and her tomb is decorated with offerings from faithful followers. Another is Homer Plessy who is the known from the infamous trial of Plessy vs. Ferguson. And an empty tomb awaits the famous actor Nicolas Cage who has become quite interested in the world of voodoo.

Crypt of voodoo priestess Marie Laudeav

Empty crypt of Nicolas Cage

 After spending the majority of the morning and early afternoon taking notes and drawing, we were given a street assignment to draw a plan/elevation of the building facades and the street layout. The rest of the day was ours to use to complete this detailed drawing.

Finished plan/elevation drawing of Beinville Street.

Although the day was filled to the brim with notes and sketches, the weather was beautiful and our new found knowledge of the city only strengthened our love for it.

A free day in New Orleans, Nov 4th

For our first official day in New Orleans, we were all pleased to know that we in fact had the day off.  For many people this meant the glorious-ness of sleeping in.  However, Julie and Michael told us about a famous catholic church two blocks away.  A group of 18 people decided to venture out in the morning (seeing as it was a Sunday) and experience the soul music of this religious establishment.

The inside of the church along with the choir.

Once church got out, we were greeted with a wonderful downpour that nobody had accounted for.  This led to a very soggy walk back to the hotel.  By the time we had reached the courtyard with the pool everybody was already soaked.  So what would it hurt to jump in, am I right?

Hannah, Lauren, Cormac, and Tim enjoy the rainy walk back to the hotel.

Everybody in!

After that, most retreated to their rooms in order to dry off.  Many of us did laundry down the block and did some independent sketches. Others walked down through the French Quarter and did some shopping.  A few people even got their fortunes read.  Overall a pretty quiet day, but we all need those sometimes.

This is Amy and Chris signing off.

Day 13: Itchin' to get to New Orleans!

A short but eventful van ride from Homochito brought us to the Evergreen Plantation in Edgard, Louisiana. Turns out they don't grow Evergreens... they are the most intact sugar cane plantation in the south. The plantation is two thousand two hundred acres. We began with a tour of the house and its history, including the 1832 renovation by Pierre C. Becnel. The house is now owned by Matilda Grey and is used as a summer home but preserved for educational purposes and touring.

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 Allée of Live Oaks leading into the Evergreen Plantation.

 The backyard of the Evergreen Sugar Cane Plantation Creole cottage.

 Ascending the stairs to the entrance of the cottage.

Ian descending the interior steps to the above ground basement.

Touring one of twenty two original slave quarters.

 There is a double row of slave houses at the Evergreen Plantation. Each housed two families, and were built with white washed cypress. At the height of its wealth the plantation had a total of one hundred and three slaves... but today the plantation is home to around one hundred and three million mosquitos.

After the plantation we made the home stretch to New Orleans where we enjoyed a free evening before our official free day!

The Human Statue street performer on Bourbon Street. 

Excellent view of Bourbon Street from a balcony!

Morgan Harty and Sara Davids

P.S. Dreams do come true in New Orleans!

Homochito National Forest | Day Number 12

We started the day off by Julie leading us on a plant walk around our campsite looking for trees that are important for us to know. After walking through the woods we sat down to draw a Pinus taeda (Loblolly Pine,) which was more of a challenge than some of us anticipated. Once we completed our drawings and received some helpful critiques, it was time for lunch.


Julie Stevens identifying a tree for us

After a quick lunch we loaded up the vans and took a short ride to the Melrose Plantation in Natchez, Mississippi. This is home to a mansion built on 80 acres of property that was lived in by slave owners. This mansion was built in 1845 and still stands today. While on the plantation we sat down to do a drawing excercise of a Quercus virginiana (Live Oak.)


Michael Martin reviewing our drawings

Student work of the Quercus virginiana

After Michael reviewed our drawings, we were assigned to do a water color of something we found interesting around the plantation.


Molly's water color

Once we all completed our paintings, we were surprised with a free meal at Pig Out Inn, a barbeque restaurant in Mississippi. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the idea of great food, for free! When all the food was eaten is was time to head back to the campsite and get ready for the next day and the trip to New Orleans, LA.

Chad Easter, Eric Cook



A narrative

The day was Halloween. It  began in a rather average manner and slowly escaladed to become more and more eerie. The 5 bulky Iowa state vans careened around the corner. I woke up as my head smacked against the window as Julie abruptly halted van number one. It was a rather shabby parking situation in attempting to avoid parking over any dead bodies … and then it occurred to me, we were in a grave yard. I stepped out of the van, blinking in the searing sunlight, overwhelmed by a draft of hot, muggy air. It was a bit of a relief from the dank quarters of the body odor infested vans. Graves both old and new stretched to the farthest horizon, as far as my eye could see. Our stay at the cemetery was brief, however impacting. The sense of the gravestones was nostalgic and proud, giving us our first taste of the south. And what better place to be on Hallows Eve!

 Our next venture led us to our campsite at Homochito. You could say that putting up our tents was a fun time; that is, if you’re definition of a fun time is trying to hammer stakes into solid rocky ground right beside the road. After setting up tents, the real fun began. Costume upon costume of creativity appeared out of the woodwork…literally. Under the tight confines of our suitcases, some managed to pack their costumes, while others made theirs up the day of after a quick trip to Walmart and a thrift store. Julie fooled us all with her raven costume by buying black angel wings. She threw us all for a loop when she cut them in half to make wing-like gloves. So creative! It’s like she works at the College of Design or something.

Other creatures of the night that we saw on this eve were: