Oakland School for the Arts’ theme for the 2023 to 2024 academic year has been Metamorphosis. Together this year, we have explored themes of transformation, evolution, growth, and the natural generative process that is inherent in all aspects of life, creativity, academics, and the arts. As with the Metamorphosis process, our work this year was divided into four main phases: Generate, Expand, Transform, and Blossom.

OSA’s Metamorphosis brand was designed by Hana Walker Pettigrew, an 11th grade student in our Visual Arts Pathway, out of a school-wide call for designs. Hana’s design is compelling, inventive, and speaks to the process of growth and transformation that our school-wide theme embodies. Hana has shared that she has always been confident in her art and “the OSA community has nurtured it by providing the opportunity to learn about the many different styles of art and how we can use art to tell stories and express ourselves.”

When Hana was asked what Metamorphosis meant to her and how she interpreted it in her design, she shared, “When sketching out my design, I didn’t want to do the traditional caterpillar to butterfly and I wanted there to be some kind of movement in this altogether static image. My interpretation of Metamorphosis was ‘growth and change,’ so I represented that in my design by starting with a small and reserved flower bud sprouting from nurturing hands that then grew into a lively blossom.” Hana’s design has been broadly used this year including in billboard advertisements and apparel.

 

 

Organized vaguely clockwise starting in the top middle: 18 months; 5th grade (at “My First Art Show”); 6th grade VA art show; 7th grade VA art show (last before pandemic); 8th grade (digital self portrait); 10th grade (acrylic);10th grade (thumbprint portrait); 11th grade.