general Cleaning out some pictures: Sandi’s windows

I scanned a bunch of pictures before my scanner stopped working (I love my scanner but I’m considering buying a new one if I can’t get this one to work!), and they’ve been sitting on my desktop for months waiting for me to write this post.

Which I believe I promised you a while ago during a period of nostalgic introspection and perhaps mentions of high school.

When I was in eleventh and twelfth grade, I was in a G&T class. The class did activities and things, but the main overarching plan was a year-long independent study project, and a district-wide presentation of projects in the spring. Some people came up with really wonderful projects. I didn’t: in eleventh grade I made a quilt, and in twelfth grade I wrote a book about medieval life.

To give you an idea of the scope of these projects, in eleventh grade Nicole took up weaving, and in twelfth grade she did a really nice photography project involving setting up a darkroom (using my father’s equipment from the ’70s) in the bomb shelter in her basement. In eleventh grade Ben Colayco made an animated movie; in twelfth grade he painted a mosaic picture on twelve canvases using twelve different artistic styles. These are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

My favorite, though, was Sandi Greig’s project in twelfth grade. She made stained glass windows depicting scenes from Shakespeare and had them installed in the school at the entrance by the library.

They’re wonderful, and I choose to believe that they are still there. These pictures were taken in June of 1991, when I was saying goodbye to this school.

This is Sandi (left), along with her best friend Wendi Rabiner, at Project Graduation. Wendi’s last name is Heinzelman now, and she has a PhD in computer engineering. I think her thesis was about wireless data. It’s easy to Google people you went to high school with if they turned out to be academics.

Sandi-&-Wendi-At-Project-Graduation

The paper behind them was where we were all meant to sign and leave messages for our future selves. I can pick out notes from Scott Neubeck and Tyler Smith on there, but few others. Tyler was Nicole’s boyfriend senior year. He had a lot of cars.
This is the entranceway by the library, framed by the windows.

Shakespeare-Windows

Here’s a closeup of the left side. Top to bottom: Hamlet (two swords, poisoned cup), Romeo and Juliet (my favorite window; this is just gorgeous), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania and Bottom).

Sandi Windows1

Here’s a closeup of the right side. I hate that this isn’t in focus, but this was of course before digital cameras, and what did we know. At least I had my good Ricoh SLR by then.

Sandi Windows2

Top to bottom: Macbeth (the witches), The Taming of the Shrew (Petruchio and Kate) and The Tempest (Prospero).

I loved this project. She read the plays, she picked iconic scenes (or, in the case of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, she designed general images of the plays), she learned to do stained glass (and her presentations about how it was done were great too), and she got the school to install the results.

I wish it had been me.