Episode 20: When I was in high school, I was always fascinated with the fine art department

I was a music geek, so I had enough art credits to get me through the year, but I was always in awe of the artwork that came out of that second floor art room.

I would walk down the hallways and look at all of the drawings and paintings that were enclosed in the large glass case on the second floor

A middle school museum that was filled with fantastic work by students I would never meet

The glass case took up the entire corner of the second floor hallway, just one staircase above my second home, the music hall - a story for another day.

On good days, the work of art created by amazingly talented middle-schoolers would be illuminated by the sun through the only skylight in the high school, and on my favourite days, the days where it poured rain, the artwork would be somewhat distorted by the reflecting raindrops into something new - away from there original form.

Every month, this corner glass museum would change - artwork swapped out for the new

Categories of design would be changed from pencil crayon designs to frozen statues in time

I never got tired of this little spot of heaven during a time that wasn’t so great.

I remember one day I came around the corner to see that this glass case had been swapped for the most beautiful watercolour paintings that I had ever seen

Soft lavender bled into deep navy blue - the cream paper becoming the perfect canvas for the inner thoughts and feelings of high schoolers through one swift swipe of liquid gold

The colours merged into one another in the vainest way

Pastels swirled and danced

Walking slowly along the glass case, imagining the fine hair of a damp paintbrush creating a solid direction with one stroke,  while the coloured paint created a larger story

Lines redrawn on a whim, and ripples and roots created through rich plums and mauve

Starry nights made soft with baby blue and emerald green

Flower gardens made wild through the stroke of a fuschia stream

These coloured masterpieces eager to skip into another palette

Avoiding restraining lines to create their own memories

Drying fast, layered casts of yellow and orange