Featured in SA Artist magazine

One of my Grade 12 students, Candice, has recently been featured in a national magazine called “The South African Artist” March/April 2012 (issue no.3).

She was interviewed in my classroom by the editor and the managing editor of the magazine, Harry Lock and Linda Hodnett.  So I was aware of the article that was written about her artwork. The article features some of her Grade 10 & 11 artworks and her end of Grade 11 exam piece which was comprised of letters and drawings.

Click here (part1), here (part two) and here (part 3) to see excerpts from this artwork. Click here to read a copy of the article in the magazine.  To my surprise one of my ex-students, Annchen Naude, was featured on Page 6 and 7 of the magazine!  

She was recently awarded first prize (R10 000) for a large charcoal drawing submitted to the KZNSA members’ exhibition.  She is presently studying Fine Arts at Rhodes University.

Bats and Bearded Dragons

Our school is not only inhabited by two legged creatures, but quite a variety of four legged ones too. A family of bats have taken up residence in a very tall palm tree in the middle of of a courtyard in quite a buzy part of our school. The palm tree is flanked by two corridors & is next to our hall, our tuck shop & the Grade 12 garden (where the girls relax during breaks during the school day). It is amazing to think that these creatures are quite content in this very active, loud environment & return every day to roost in the palm tree. Our French teacher Victoria Hathorn (who is quite an accomplished photographer) took the following photographs: 

Yesterday one of my Grade 11 students walked into the art studios with a bearded dragon. This creature was clinging on to the top of her school dress with its head tucked into her neck & seemingly very calm in the school environment. The classroom cleaner (Regina) was not so calm when she spotted the lizard & she flattened her body up against the wall & asked me if it was a crocodile! I insisted on a photo shoot - the following pics were a few of the many I took:

Neglected Children's Hospital

One of my Grade 10 art students, Julia, did an evocative photo essay of the Addington Children’s Hospital as part of an English Project - all of the images in this post are the ones she shared with me.

The image above is the main entrance/facade of the building. 

The hospital is located on Durban’s beachfront. Built in 1931 through funds raised by then Durban mayor Mary Siedle, it was closed in 1984 and now stands derelict. Nothing has been done to restore the building since - homeless people have moved in and the building is deteriorating even more.

In 2009 a fire, probably started by the homeless people for warmth further destroyed part of the building - the You Tube clip of the fire is below: 

Quite sad that hospital records are left abandoned in the rooms (above)

I was amazed to discover in Julia's set of pics an image of a room with a Durban Girls' College plaque:

 

There have been announcements in the press claiming that funds have been put aside for the restoration of this building, and there seems to be a sign on the building something is imminent, but to date nothing has been done…