New Publication Provides Artists’ Platform

There is a new “cat” in Campolindo’s student publications alley.

Cat-A-List, also known as the “Campo Cat”, is a budding art and literature journal created in the 2016 academic school year by freshman April Lindblad. The journal uses an online platform to accept submissions and compiles them for publication at the end of the semester. Unlike the yearbook, Cat-A-List is an entirely online platform that accepts qualifying submissions from aspiring artists in the student population.

The project began when Lindblad discovered that some of her peers had under appreciated artistic talents. She had the idea for a literary publication while in grade 8 and decided to launch it in high school, where she believed it would be most utilized. “I like writing and drawing, and I know other people do to. [I thought] it would be really fun to look at other’s work as well,” said Lindblad.

Cat-A-List‘s staff includes freshmen Annabeth Chow, Alix Maeder, Gyamfiah Boateng, Tracy Si and Daniel Cho. The publication’s photography director is sophomore Kaitlyn Cressy. Lindblad’s older brother Mark assists with website management. After their initial launch they plan to use school bulletins and word of mouth to encourage students to submit work.

“I think that art in all forms is a very cool thing and it is nice to be creating this platform that is specific to art. La Puma is news and that’s really great, but I think having a platform just for art will be good because there are a lot of artists and photographers in the Campolindo community,” said freshman Annabeth Chow. Chow manages graphic design formatting and helps with layout on the project.

Lindblad felt that an independent platform would allow for wider content like creative writing, photography and pictorial works that may not meet the specific guidelines for journalism or yearbook features.

The Cat-A-List club meets in Ryan Boyd’s classroom several times a month to review submissions and discuss how to balance the content. “We are trying to get more writing submissions because there is a lot of photography and art right now and we want to have a balance,” said Lindblad.

Part of the challenge, according to Chow, is that people may be self conscious about their writing and do not feel ready to share their work. Lindblad said that she remedies this issue by corresponding “with a couple of people working on individual parts of it.”

The first 30 submissions will be entered into a raffle for 1 of 3 signed copies the comic The Sandman: Overture. The graphic novel series was created by Neil Gaiman, with illustrative talent J. H. Williams, for the 25th anniversary of the first comic in the Sandman series. “I chose it because it has elements of both art and story,” said Lindblad.

She intends the graphic novel as inspiration for student submissions. Lindblad, an avid reader, said that she often thinks of story ideas while reading other author’s works.

The Campo Review is another literary publication currently in existence at Campolindo. Its creator, junior Alexandra Reinecke, is also its current editor-in-chief. Like Cat-A-List, it features literary elements.

Lindblad spoke with The Campo Review‘s adviser Sarah Morgan about possible collaboration and heard that the other platform would be limited to writing submissions. “I talked to their adviser, but at the time they were only accepting literary stuff. I wanted to do art too, so I started my own,” said Lindblad. “Also I’m hoping in the future to embed video files or audio files so people can submit animations, movies, or recordings that they did.”

Reinecke said that both platforms are fairly similar, which means that they are drawing on the same pool of students for submissions. “I think it will be good for us to have some competition,” said Reinecke. She is looking forward to seeing what Cat-A-List creates.

Another difference is demographic. “Theirs is primarily their grade submitting, but I’m trying to stretch across all the grades,” said Lindblad.

Both publications are currently separate, but are open to combining their efforts in the future. “It would definitely need to be a discussion with the other club members. I don’t see why not, if the general goal is the same,” said Chow. “We’d definetely be interested in working with them.”

“I know there is a small community who produce art and writing at Campo so we’re drawing on a smaller number of submissions. I think it would be a stronger publication if we could combine the 2 together,” said Reinecke.

Another possibility is for the 2 to feature different genres. “In terms of differentiating, I’d say if Cat-A-List wanted to focus more on art and photography, I think that would really differentiate them because although we do feature art, what we focus on most is writing, poetry and short stories,” said Reinecke.

Cat-A-List intends to release its first biannual publication around finals week. “We’re really focused on getting our first issue out there so we can show the school ‘this is what we do’,” said Chow. “This journal will be a little small, since we are just starting but we’re hoping that next year it will become a much bigger thing so people can display their talent.”