Metamorphosis Drawing

Photo taken by: me/DA student

In art class at Durham Academy, me and the other students started working on a transition drawing where we would transform an object into an animal or the other way around. We started by drawing an animal (of our choice) and object (sort of our choice because we had a couple options) and then we would try to morph them into each other through 2-4 steps. This project was really fun because you would have really funny looking transitions and while drawing you could laugh and talk with friends. Me and one of my classmates finished early and she started to do things like do my hair or curl my hair which was easy because our teacher had a hair dryer. This project took about 3 classes for me and some are still shading or have been done for days. I would recommend this drawing style called metamorphosis drawings.

My Ideal World

We’ve finally arrived on Aezorz where the sky is a beautiful mix of cool colors. I see purples, pinks, blues, reds, and colors I haven’t seen. Before landing, we saw beautiful oceans of clear purple water, the purple is a reflection of part of the sky. The real color of the water is a tinted white. I also thought I saw a big red whale in the water. The other teammates claimed that I was going crazy and that there were no animals on this planet. About 13 minutes after that while still landing we found an animal. It looked like a cow but purple and had gemstones on it. I knew I wasn’t going crazy. Landing took about 15 minutes, but after we landed I walked straight to a baby “cow” that was blue and had vines on it.

I walked to a really big tree and wondered why it looked and sounded like there were people or animals in the hollowed out holes in the tree. Suddenly I saw a white animal that looked like a human but had long white hair and bumpy white skin rush past me. I started to climb the tree when I got to a hollowed out bit. I looked in and saw a little “boy” wearing white puffy shorts and a shirt that looked like a suit top. I took a picture to report it to my crew. I knocked on the tree, scared for my life, when their family came and started speaking Latin. Lucky for me I know Latin. The family asked me to come in and started telling me about the planet we were on.

Once the “sun” came up, a bunch of animals and “humans” came out and the weird sparkling dot and “string light stars” went away. My crew and I walked around taking notes on the animals. I’m about to name a bunch of animals. They all sound crazy though. One animal was a giant red whale which stayed by the shore, a bunch of cows that all varied to be different colors with different earthy things on them (like crystals, vines, flowers, etc), a giant bird that is see through and glowing all different colors, and a bunch of other animals. The little “boy” I met earlier told me that there is no such thing as genders. You are assigned a sex at birth which isn’t what you are referred to but it’s for medical reasons like medicine.

As a group of Kuswlers (the people) told us about their religions I swear I felt the ground move up and down like it was breathing and after it happened the Kuswlers said that it was Viwdiag (like a Mother Earth)  breathing. The religion was just about how they respected Viwdiag and gave her offerings every time the moon kvigash (kiv-ag-ash) turned red.

When I went to one of the restaurants I said I had nothing to trade and they gave me the food for free. The food looked like a black spiky egg cut in half with an orange soup with chunks of fruits and herbs sprinkled on it. Their food was mostly spicy and had loads of herbs on it or fruits.

Once it was night again we collected some of the weird glowy things that floated around and then went to swim and ended up finding a giant red whale that would swim us around. This is probably the best place I have ever been.

When we woke up the next morning we went to go meet the princess and queen but when we got there there was a note that said they were dropping off their son at school. The air smells amazing today. I have noticed that the days are super long and not much light but at night it’s short and a bit of light, not as much as day but I like night the best.

We have to leave soon but I want to take one more look around and say goodbye. I walk to the waterfall with the weird crystals in it, I say goodbye to the red whale, I say goodbye to the “cows”, and last I say goodbye to the “people”. I hope we come again soon.

Natural Science Museum in Raleigh Field Trip

Taken by Durham Academy teacher

Taken by Durham Academy teacher

Taken by Durham Academy teacher

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On January 27 2023 Durham Academy went on a field trip to the Natural Science Museum in Raleigh. The museum had a bunch of interesting places. One thing at this museum I really liked was the animals, they had a bunch of animals like snakes and turtles there was even an eel. One weird thing I think I will never forget was their railing on the stairs. It went from cold metal to warm metal and that was just very fascinating to me for some reason. Another thing I really liked was the escalators and not because they were fun (they were) but because it was cool to see the transition from floor to floor since each floor was completely different. The weather was really nice so lunch wasn’t as cold as expected. Since this museum had multiple floors it allowed space to hang (fake) whale bone body’s from the ceiling. There was a room full of dinosaur statues and in that room everyone was obsessing over one place where a YouTuber (Mr.Beast) sat. On the bus rides there was a lot of singing. I would really recommend going there with your friends and/or family.