Features

Ah Paris – the city that has never heard of soap, deodorant, pooper-scoopers or artistic constraints. 

It’s because of the city’s rightful position as an artistic Mecca – and not because of the other three things, hopefully – that Berkeley Alternative High School art teacher Larry Stefl and his student Michiael Jamison are so jazzed about their upcoming trip to Paris. 

Stefl and Jamison are two of several local art teachers and students invited to participate in a two-week workshop and cultural exchange orchestrated by renowned painter and California College of Arts and Crafts professor Raymond Saunders. The high school students and teachers will work alongside Cité Université, Paris students taking a class taught by Saunders, who maintains studios in both Oakland and Paris. 

“We’ll have studio space, and for two weeks we’ll be working daily in the studio doing art, interacting, doing critiques, reviewing each others’ work, hanging out and, in the evenings, probably doing more informal kinds of exchanges,” says Stefl, an art and poetry teacher at BAHS for the past seven years. “A lot of it will be working independently, yet side-by-side. Michiael is going to be working with drawing, painting, different media, acrylic, charcoal and he’s going to take some unstretched canvases he can roll up.” 

Stefl said he selected Jamison, 15, for the trip because the junior-to-be is a good student, has shown a great deal of interest in art and is “able to follow directions, listen and take advantage of this opportunity. Just a very good kid.” 

In addition to studio time, Stefl hopes to make day trips to the multitude of Paris locales caught forever as the backdrops for some of the world’s great paintings. The art teacher is especially hoping to make the trek to Giverny, where Claude Monet drew the inspiration for his famed painting of water lilies. In addition, It would be criminal for art students to travel all the way to Paris and not make a trip to the city’s many museums. 

“We’re definitely going to utilize the museums,” says Stefl, who leaves with Jamison for Saunders’ class “Concept, a Visual Jazz Poem, Studo/Atelier, France as Site” on July 1. “I remember I was in Paris 17 years ago, and one of the highlights was seeing the impressionist paintings of Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin … To go see the masters firsthand, wow! As an artist, an art student, it’s so important to see the original masters.” 

In addition to seeing art and doing art Stefl and Jamison will be working with a number of artists invited to the cultural exchange by Saunders, including Oliver Jackson and “well-known unknown” artist and sculptor JoeSam, whose relief sculptures adorn Berkeley Alternative High School’s quad. 

Stefl smiles when he recalls an earlier meeting between Jamison and Jackson. When the student asked the artist what kinds of things he should bring to Paris, Jackson replied, “You don’t have to worry about bringing things, just be there and drink in the atmosphere.” 

“This could be a very exciting, life-changing opportunity for the people participating,” says Stefl. “It’ll be something the students never forget.” 

A Raymond Saunders painting is up for sale, with the intention of the profits funding the trip to France for local students and teachers. 

Those interested in obtaining the painting – which is valued at $25,000 – should contact Tamra Converse at (510) 763-6362.