I knew about the paintings of the Hudson River School, the nature motifs in Wagner's "Ring" cycle, and the 1958 hit "Rockin' Robin," with its well-known tribute to the avian dawn chorus, "All the little birdies on Jaybird Street love to hear the robin goin' tweet tweet tweet".
One recurring motif is school milk cartons flying through the air in slow motion.
The school has a lighthouse motif reflecting its proximity to the Galveston Bay.
This was no high school dance, though, unless the motif of hand over mouth was meant to represent teenage travails.
The first few chapters of "Obsidian Mirror" are especially good, as we watch Jake stage a daredevil prank during a dress rehearsal for a school production of "Hamlet" (note: motif of the lost father) and we see Sarah wounded and disoriented in a present she cannot comprehend.
Last week my oldest son wore an African motif at his school's International Day.
Another motif is primary school-aged journalists, who have raised a few unexpectedly hard-hitting questions for party delegates.
As a political motif in Newark's mayoral election, school security could hardly be more timely.
By the time he left school, in 1952, he had found the primary motifs of his art: falling human figures, bulls trussed for slaughter and the buffalo demon being crushed by an all-powerful divinity.
Another time, an online message board was started as a gesture of rebellion against the school's administration, as demonstrated by the communist Cuba motif that it sported.
