The annual Living Art Show is back this year with new and compelling art pieces from the Renaissance to the modern era. The show is the final project for all students in the AP Art History class and is worth a total of 200 points. Mrs. DeGroff prepares her students all year for this final project, and it is a yearly success for the participants that is well-loved by many students.

    The students of the Art History class carefully decide which art piece they would like to recreate for the show (usually) months in advance. They are free to pick either from art pieces they found on their own or ones they have learned about throughout the school year. The students additionally have to prepare a poster consisting of a picture of the actual art piece and the title. They may work alone or in groups, and each group will have their own section in the room to recreate that piece of art. They are expected to create the proper background, flooring, costumes, and props. On presentation day, students will have to be in the same position as the figures in the art piece for their two hour presentation.

    Art History student Emily Muravez is recreating The Dance Studio by Edgar Degas. She is excited to present her piece because she has never had a project that is such a big significance to her. Muarez stated, “I chose The Dance Studio not only for my love of dance but because the artist of the piece is one of my favorite painters. I have copies of most of his paintings in my room, so when the opportunity came to do the Living Art Show, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.”

    The largest group for the show is the thirteen-person rendition of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Of course, such an immense group has fostered doubts about whether it will actually work or not. In response to the haters, group member Sophie Mbela seethed, “This is going to be a great piece, and for all you haters who did not believe in me, I will come in your dreams, and I will haunt you.”

    While she was calmer, Sophie Mbela explained, “We chose to do The Last Supper because Michael Wood looks like Jesus. He has a ‘Jesus essence.’ He keeps telling people he is going to condemn them to Hell, so you have got to be good to Michael Wood.” She suggested that Wood “shave his beard” for the piece, but that is highly unlikely.

    Wood himself had no comment on Wednesday, saying, “I only got two hours of sleep last night.” He is not, however, giving his group spiritual guidance as Jesus, saying, “They can go off and do their own thing.”

    Mbela thinks the show will go well, but she is disappointed that the group that was originally doing Kara Walker’s Darkytown Rebellion chose a different piece. Natalie Capasso, a member of that group, said, “I am doing the Neon Performance Art. It is going to be creepy. We are, like, all black with neon lights, and we are going to be doing creepy stuff.” This is the first Living Art Show piece where the members of the piece will be moving around.

    The showrunner, Mrs. DeGroff, has managed the event for 11 years. For its first year, 2005, the show was held in DeGroff’s classroom with the art piece presentations placed “between file cabinets and cubbies in the corner.” She admitted it was “rather lame.” The following year, the show “got to be on a much grander scale” when it was moved to the 300 quad cafeteria. Next year, they then moved to the 200 quad cafeteria at the suggestion of a Drama student. The show has remained there since due to the lighting provided by the Drama class.

    Thinking about how this year’s show will compare to past years, DeGroff explained, “I never know. I’m always very, very nervous and then it just works. We have all sorts of obstacles: we have too many people, we have people drop out, the lighting breaks, one year we had the air conditioning unit rain down on the whole parade […] At this point, I am numb to that; I know it will happen.”

    Considering the groups presenting pieces, DeGroff stated, “Sometimes, I think a piece is either not going to work or is going to be mediocre, and then they show up, and it is spectacular.” Particularly, she mentioned the rendition of Florence Owens Thompson’s The Migrant Woman from last year’s show as a surprise. Although DeGoff had doubts concerning how the student could achieve the black and white effect of the work, it turned out to be the “show stopper” and was featured in the Antelope Valley Press.

    DeGroff has similar skepticism about this year’s renditions of Beatles’ album covers. “Seniors are in charge of those pieces, and I have no leverage on them,” she explained. Still, she is hopeful the pieces will be spectacular.

    Other pieces in the show include graffiti art by the popular artist Banksy, comic book art, and postmodern sculpture. There are more modern pieces in this show than past shows because DeGroff encouraged her students to do recognizable pieces to impress the audience.

    The Living Art Show is a very popular, usually successful event that will be presented on Friday, May 27th. It is open to selected sixth period classes and to everyone else after school. Tickets will be sold at the door along with food and drinks, and many teachers offer extra credit to students for attending this special event. All of the hard work put into the show by the students and DeGroff is the reason why it is a consistently successful and popular event of the school.