The Warrior•ArtsOctober 9, 200918

by Taylor Janney ‘10

Synesthesia, the popular Sherwood band, frequently plays at the Coffeehouse.

photo by Ben Durham ‘10

Astounding Aspiring Artist: Alexandra Lamancusa

by Lexi Evans ‘10 Alexandra Lamancusa loves birds. In fact, she loves birds so much she devotes almost all her free time painting them. “I’ve liked birds since sixth grade when I did a report on owls and then I just went all out with it.” says Lamancusa. “There are so many different kinds of birds and each one has its own expression. You can have really ugly birds, really pretty birds, re-ally graceful birds, really clumsy birds; they are like people.” Her paintings range from birds of prey to the exotic birds of the jungle to even ordinary ducks. “I think ducks are pretty awe-some because they’re these weir-do birds who think they are all important walking around, their heads always high up. They’re al-ways thinking they are the tough guy when they really are just this small fuzzy weirdo looking crea-ture,” Lamancusa explains. Lamancusa started paint-ing when she took her first art classes in middle school, starting with tempra paints but eventu-ally moving on to acrylics as her preferred medium. She has never taken formal art classes outside of school, which is surprising considering how well she paints. Art teacher Angel Praisner recalls first meeting Lamancusa as an incoming freshman. “ She made an appointment with [me and fel-low art teacher Lisa Ryan] to let me know that she was interested in being in something more than just Foundations as a ninth grade student. We don’t normally en-courage that but we let her come in. She brought in a few drawing and her sketches really backed up [the decision to move her into a more advanced art class],” says Praisner. “I like finishing pieces, be-cause then you can look and go, ‘Look, I made this.’ It looks re-ally bad in the beginning, I don’t like the beginning. But I do like thinking of the ideas, too. Some-times it’s just as much fun to think of something and then not do it,” she says. Lamancusa keeps a journal with her that she doodles her ideas in so she can keep track of her ideas and her progress as an artist. For Lamancusa, inspiration strikes everywhere. She is influ-enced by her family history, the birds she loves and her thoughts. “Some of [my pieces] I base off of different themes and such, like the decay of the Native-Ameri-can society. My dad is really into studying crows and their symbol-ism in Native American history. My mom is a craft person.” Like most artists, there is meaning behind Lamancusa’s pieces. Her bird paintings are more than just mere pictures for passer-bys to look at. “I want peo-ple to see the emotions that ani-mals have,” Lamancusa explains.

Oakdale’s Coffeehouse Has Both Old and New Sounds

Junior’s Paintings Fly above the Rest

“I want them to see a relationship with the animals themselves, I want them to feel like the bird al-most. Or at least understand what the bird means. Or sometimes, I just want [people] to like it. Be-cause just sometimes I just want to [paint], so it’s like ‘why not’. I just want them to see the happi-ness and stuff.” Lamancusa loves to spread the joy that art has brought her. She is very generous with her paintings, and has even given some away to admirers of her work. She encourages other art-ists to always improve their work and believes that as long as their art has meaning, it’s something worth pursuing. This year Lamancusa is in Studio 3 preparing her portfolio

for AP Studio next year. “She has just complete natural ability. Not to say she can’t be taught other things, it’s just her innate ability. Her understanding of the color theory and how colors react with each other are outstanding and they have been since ninth grade,” Praisner says. Last year some of her pieces were selected and showcased for competitions in the past, all winning recogni-tion and awards. Despite her success Laman-cusa doesn’t let her skill get to her head. “I don’t think it matters as much as to how good you are [at art],” she says, “I just think that if someone [does] something not as technically artistic but [with] the same amount of meaning—that is what is good to me.”

From top to bottom: Lamancusa’s Native American inspired piece The Raven and The Moccasin; Toy Mice; and Lamancusa finsihing another painting, one of Greater African Flamingos.

photos by Angel Praisner

Ask just about anyone who Sherwood’s most recently suc-cessful and popular band was, and they will say Sky Solo. Since many of the members graduated last spring, students expected not to see them around for a while. However, Sky Solo is back, along with several other bands, when they will all be performing in the first of the year’s Coffeehouses.

Over the past few years, Oakdale Emory United Method-ist Church’s teen Coffeehouses have promoted a fun, safe en-vironment for students of local high schools to hang out one night a month. High school bands sign up to play, while their fellow peers gather to listen to the music and socialize. The first Coffee-house of the school year will be held October 24, featuring Sky Solo, as well as Ham, Synesthe-sia, and many more up and com-ing bands.

“I’m certainly excited to play for the ‘new Sherwood genera-tion,’ because I feel that over the course of the last few years, Cof-feehouse has become an almost traditional, if not expected aspect of the Sherwood social scene,” says Ryan Clarke (’09) of Sky Solo. “It’s going to be disconcert-ing to see some of the more regu-lar bands absent from the line-up, but I am greatly looking forward to hearing what new sounds Cof-feehouse has in store for this up-coming school year.”

Reunion seems to be a com-mon theme for this first Coffee-house, as Synesthesia will also play at the event. While Andrew Bezila (’09) was able to return to the band, fellow band mate Max Ozenberger (’09) will not be able to attend and play at the Coffee-house.

“We were all so excited when

we found out that we would be able to play another gig with An-drew,” says junior Wyatt Shapiro, another member of Synesthesia.

Despite the absence of mem-bers, from the upcoming perfor-mance, both Sky Solo and Synes-thesia seem to have been drawn even closer together due to the separation.

“In a way our absence dur-ing the school day has brought us closer as a band. When practice rolls around each week, it’s like seeing my family again rather than simply some of my best friends from school whom I also passed in the hall yesterday,” says Clarke. “We are working more efficiently together and having more productive sessions.”

Synesthesia has noticed a similar reaction as well. While the rest of the members are still at Sherwood, Bezila attends Mont-gomery College, making it easy for the band to rehearse together. Ozenberger attends the Univer-sity of Maryland at College Park, causing him to miss out on re-hearsals and performances.

“It’s always upsetting to not be able to play with our band in its entirety, but that doesn’t stop us from making music and per-forming together,” says Shapiro.

While all the members of Ham still attend Sherwood, they too are looking forward to the first Coffeehouse.

“We’re really looking for-ward to playing as the only all-senior band at Sherwood, as well as performing new originals and bringing even wilder stage pres-ence,” says senior Hays Dowdy.

Fans can see these bands play at the first Coffeehouse for free, as well as enjoy other bands in the line-up including No Time For Brainstorming, Artificians, 8 Af-ter 9, Captain Caramel’s Teamo Supremo and New Agenda.

The Warrior•ArtsOctober 9, 2009 19

Highly regarded as one of the greatest musical innovators of 20th century, Les Paul made numerous contributions to elec-

by Marcus Lee ‘10

Remembering Les Paul tronic music over his long life and career. In conjunction with Gibson Guitar Corporation, Paul helped design one of the most influen-tial guitars over the past 50 years, the Gibson Les Paul. Originally produced with a gold top, the Les

Paul guitar has seen hundreds of different colors, models and de-signs. This guitar has been the favorite of many artists such as Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley and Slash. “Without him, the electric guitar would not be the same,”

says senior Ron Pendleton who has studied and worked with elec-tronic music throughout his four years at Sherwood. “It sounds vague but it is true.” In addition to guitar-model-ing, Paul made fundamental con-tributions to sound recording and

effects. One technique credited to Paul is overdubbing, or sound on sound recording, in which a per-son can take multiple recorded parts and play them simultane-ously on the final recording.

1915-Lester William Polfuss is born on June 9 in Waukesha, WI

1927-Les Paul re-cieves his firstguitar, a Sears Roebuck Troubadour

1941-Les Paul creates the design for the first solid body electric guitar, made out of a 4 by 4 board with an Epiphone neck. He calls it “the Klunker.” It is rejected by Gibson.

1948- Les Paul releases the album “New Sound,” which contains extensive use of overdubbing

1946- Les Paul begins his experimentation with overdubbing, echo, delay and other recording effects

1952- After being initally rejected, Gibson releases the first Les Paul model: a solid body electric guitar called the “Gold Top”

1964- Les Paul retires from performing, but not from creating new electronic devices

1983- Recieves the Trustees Award from the Recording Academy

1988- He is inducted into the Hall of Fame with moniker, “Architect of Rock’n’ Roll”

1997- He is awarded a techni-cal Grammy by the Recording Academy

2005- He is inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame

2009- On August 13, Paul passed away from complications from severe pneumonia in White Plains, NY

19751945 20051915