“Playing in subconscious” is FAB Featured Artist Francene May Higman’s intriguing email address. When I went to YouTube to find her favorite singer and writer, I better understood Francene May, her email address and her visual art. At 18 and a senior at Kingston High School, she is absolutely passionate about her art. She twice met performer Emilie Autumn, a huge influence on her life, in Minnesota where Francene lived until June.
Although it was hard to leave her high school in Minnesota to live with her dad here, she said “I left chaos and tumult and came ‘home’ (she was born in Bremerton) to the calm of all the green, mountains and salt water. I just can’t believe Mt. Rainier, and I left minus-40 degrees behind.”AP Visual Arts and English are her favorite courses.
“The Kingston High counselor couldn’t get over the ridiculous amount of art credits I had,” Francene laughed. Her art is influenced by Salvador Dali, whose “work was all over the house.” Remember the melting clock of surrealist Dali? Francene’s definition of this school of art is “using dreamlike images, the subconscious, emotion. It doesn’t need to make sense, it just flows out.”
One of her iconic images is the tea cup. She remembers little-girl tea parties using her mom’s tea cups, and black tea is her favorite drink. Her flowing, textured, almost-Art Deco pen and ink drawings bring memories of the art of the 1920s. “I’ve always used self expression as therapy. Telling stories without words gets stuff out of my head.”
Ultimately, Francene wants to combine her art with her writing in children’s books. She wants to write and illustrate books about what children are going through, and she wants to make a difference. “Art gives a universal message and is positive persuasion,” she said. She hopes to go to the Northwest College of Art in Poulsbo.
Francene May had this to say about what is going on in the world: “The juniors and seniors in high school now were sitting in their first- or second-grade classrooms when the television broadcast of the Twin Towers and 9/11 events impacted us. Something really scary was happening then and now things are building up.” She plans to write a poem on being a “Child of Revolution” describing herself, her generation and what is really going on in these times. Francene finds the world’s earth-based religions a fascinating subject.
Writing this column is an incredible opportunity. Getting to listen to these young people whom their teachers have chosen to be featured here is a huge gift. The depth of experience Francene possesses and her clarity in expressing it is encouraged by her AP art teacher, James Andrews, “the best teacher I have ever had so far and who sets up for us how to go into our future in art,” Francene said. How can anyone doubt the value of the arts in our schools and in the life of our community?
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