"Gateway to the Future" pairs a painting of a gateway constructed from children's building blocks with an ink drawing of a personal symbol on a collaged background. The main objective of this lesson is to create a metaphoric artwork about moving from the present through a symbolic portal to the future. So, space--foreground, middle ground, and background--functions as a metaphor for the passage of time from the present to the future, with the gateway representing the transition from childhood to adulthood. Preparatory mini-lessons include graphite drawing studies of student-built gateways, paying close attention to proportion and modeling; painting studies of individual blocks; and creating thumbnail compositions. (Contains 1 online resource.)