Art Update: WIP (Work In Progress)

This is the back of a piece currently in progress called "Alliance Kitchen", named after the Alliance High School.

The short story...
one of my original tasks was to help appoint the kitchen/lunchroom. I bought these metallic stained plastic silverware that the students could use at lunch time. Well they put them in the dishwasher and promptly melted them into odd twisty shapes. I saved them for 2 years, thinking to myself, "these could end up being part of an art project someday, somehow."

And this is one of the results.



The LONG story...

The Alliance High School was started 3 years ago, as an alternative to the local public high school. There is only one high school in our town. For elementary and middle school grades, there were multiple options: the public school, the private christian school, the fine arts charter school, and the web academy.

At the time there was a demand for educational alternatives (there still is), and so, the Alliance HS was formed, with students being officially listed as "home schoolers" but meeting together daily during normal school hours 7:50am - 3pm. We were fortunate in that many of the parents who were interested were also teachers themselves, and so with their help and the help of volunteer parent proctors, we were able to provide and excellent alternative. We used acreddited curriculum, and each student was enrolled in a transcripting/diploma program to make sure they were on track as well as participating in the regional ESD/state testing programs.
Unfortunately, by its 3rd year in existence, several of our families moved out of, or across the state. At this point it became apparent that our ability to provide an excellent education was hampered. And we didn't want to go on just for the sake of going on. We wanted more than was available. If we couldn't provide it, why go on? So my daughter spent her junior year at the local public school and because she had gotten so many credits while at the Alliance, she was now able to fulfill her graduation requirements by the end of her junior year.