Art imitates life in students' projects

"They all had a different vision of how the water was part of our lives," art teacher Christine Thomas said. "The kids decided that we would be living in the water, and the sea creatures would be living on the earth."

The students reinvented beach volleyball with hovercraft shoes, Thomas said; they also added fast-food outlets to the landscape, and redesigned the city's controversial lifeguard towers.

The kids' 3-D pieces also had common themes.

"I'm up to my eyeballs in hovercrafts," Thomas said. "The kids all brought in these crazy things, which they glued, taped and strapped into futuristic space vehicles."

In keeping with the school's push toward ecological awareness, the students used items formerly thought of as trash in creating their devices: egg cartons, popsicle sticks and kid's meal toys became hot commodities.

"They realized that all of their garbage was funky art," Thomas said.

"Fast Forward Laguna" runs through June 3, and is curated by Victoria Kogan Murphy.

For more information on the school, call (949) 494-7339.