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Inside Oxbow

Some Goodbyes, Some Hellos

07/26/18

We even had a few furry friends as guests visit! If you were not able to attend final show, you can see our Final Project gallery at the following link to view individual pieces and artist statements: (https://www.facebook.com/pg/oxbowschool/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1967408106604185)

This week, we welcomed 38 fresh faces to Oxbow, with some campers hailing from places as local as Napa and as far as Vermont. We’ve enjoyed getting to know this lively bunch as they’ve settled in. Earlier in the week, campers enthusiastically dressed up as objects from Oxbow’s ecosystem and participated in our campfire -- complete with staff-led skits about the environment and creating a community, poetry readings, and quiet reflections on their goals for camp.
Like last session, students have been rotating through the painting, digital media, printmaking, and sculpture studios in order to receive a taste of each medium before setting off on their Final Projects in the medium of their choice. This session, some fundamentals favorites included a spatial imagining of Utopia using cardboard, creating animated gifs using collages of vintage National Geographic Magazines, and dipping natural twigs in ink to whip up numerous still life studies.
There have been plenty of opportunities for creative stimulation, too, both from the staff and the camper's surroundings. During the evening Inspiration Art Fairs, campers rotated through several mini artist talks by camp faculty and staff about their own work. Furthermore, campers embarked on inspiring adventures out of Napa: field trips to view work at the Di Rosa Art Center, the Hess Collection, SFMoMA, and Pier 24 Photography Center. Some campers also got the chance to hike and swim at a local state park, and a change to experience more in-depth the landscape of Napa Valley.
This weekend, the Final Project workshops are underway, and students will get to use what they’ve learned in their first weeks of fundamentals to dive deep into an intellectual and creative passion. Stay tuned for more updates as their endeavors progress!

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The art that goes on in most high schools is usually relatively skill-based. At Oxbow, there is more emphasis on looking and seeing and more critical thinking about what you are doing, the human connection, that personal element. Through art you can begin to understand yourself better. That may be the biggest eye-opener for students. It is almost a preview of college. Get out of the mechanical factory high school education and get into something open, new, and invigorating in a small environment.

— Bill Barrett, Former Oxbow Board Member, Former Executive Director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD)

I learned to drop all previous assumptions I had about people because I had never met anyone like the other students at Oxbow. For the first time, my peers and their insightful thinking inspired me. For example, during the ‘Einstein’s Dreams’ presentations, I kept looking around the room thinking, I can’t believe all of these students are talking the way I think.

— Sara DeLong, Spring 2010

In the year leading up to Oxbow, I became obsessed with the program, I was entranced with reading testimonials and researching interdisciplinary learning styles. When I arrived at Oxbow I was never disappointed, despite my endless expectations. I will forever cherish the time I spent at Oxbow and the connections I made there. Through Oxbow I was able to hone into the ideas I was thinking about, to refine my artistic process and to see the world in a new light every day of my life. I'm not going to say that without Oxbow I wouldn't be the person I am today, but I will say that without Oxbow it would have taken me at least four years to become who I am after one Oxbow semester.

— Phoebe Dubisch, Fall 2018

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