“I learned a lot about existentialism and how that can be portrayed in literature. I learned that things really don”t matter as much as I think they do. I have a long life ahead of me and in the grand scheme of things, some minuscule details are irrelevant.”

Lanissa Paterson, Sahuaro’s own karate kid, decided that via her senior project, she would broaden her horizons through literature and art.

“I chose five books that I’ve heard lots about, or have wanted to read, read them, then created three art projects for each of them.”

Lanissa chose the novels The Stranger by Albert Camus, a French philosophical novel, Misery by Stephen King, a horror novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, an allegorical novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, a German absurdist novel, and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, a semi-autobiographical novel. Other than Misery, every book was published before 1964.

“The Stranger and The Metamorphosis were my favorites to read, and Misery was my favorite to create. Overall it took me about 35 hours.”