7th Grade Art Wheel Embossments-1st Quarter

I've been missing you guys from 1st quarter and wishing I could see all of you before we leave for winter break to wish you a Happy Holiday. So if you see this, drop on by tomorrow for a hug. This was the last assignment for the 1st quarter 7th graders. They designed a printing plate using cardboard, string, wires and anything else they found around the room that might work under the printing press without ripping the paper. Then they printed an embossment and had a choice with color media. They could bring in watercolor, pastel or colored pencil. It was a fun assignment for them because they really enjoyed working the printing press. Above we have Smruthi Maganti, Jihee Lee, Matthew Chou, and JuEun Lee. And the close up below belongs to Deborah Gordillo. Rock on little ones! I'm hearing great things about you from Ms. Improta.

Moonbabies - Students Art

Just getting around to posting my Ceramic I classes Moonbaby (little clay dolls that are made in Zambia for children to play with by their mothers) assignment, their first project of the year. They were given a lump of clay and told to pull, pinch and manipulate the clay into an abstract human form. What they were not allowed to do was to attach any pieces or parts. So this is actually a pretty challenging 1st assignment. I just didn't tell them that at the time :) They all did an awesome job with the project and here are a few of my favorites. Above we have seniors Erin Unson and Eugene Kim, and below are seniors Jessca Lee, Jennifer Su and Julie Jung.

And last but not least senior Janet Hurtado did the very cool design below. They all finished the pieces off with an oxide staining technique.

7th Grade Pattern-Line-Texture-Color

My 2nd quarter 7th grade wheel class has just finished up their wonderful line/texture pieces and I wanted to show them off. Even though this new group has been a lot tougher to manage there is a lot of artistic talent in their midst. The top pix is a group shot of all 30 pieces, and the one below is a close-up of one of my new favorite students, Karen Malacon. She totally got what I wanted in this assignment. She always gets what I want! :)

The one directly above belongs to a young man who on the first day of class told me in no uncertain terms that he would never be able to do any of the art assignments, that he was a terrible artist. I think not! Just look at the cool piece Turath Liebenau came up with. It was one of my favorites of the bunch. Another favorite was done by Jada Gonzales below. A great job by all the kids. Now if I could just get them to stop talking so much, to actually listen to what I tell them without me having to repeat things 10 times, and to not run and poke each other constantly, we'd really be in business. :)

Janice Tsao - Alum - Class of 2008

Janice, who went all the way through 4 years of drawing and painting classes with me, recently came by for a visit. After a year at UC Davis, she has decided that she wants to transfer to Cal Arts in Valencia where she'd like to major in animation. So I asked to see her portfolio and these are a few of the pieces she brought in that I felt where exceptional. She has been attending an Arts Academy here in Cerritos called Vision 21.`It has an excellent program with many of it's teachers graduates of Art Center in Pasadena. So these are a couple of works that she created there under their watch. Above is an incredibly detailed pen and ink drawing with several close ups to follow. You 7th graders pay attention to her use of line and texture. Just like our last assignment.

These next two works were from a life drawing class she attends there with actual live models. Very impressive

And above is an acrylic piece that she did of a live concert she attended, and below is a mixed media work that is very powerful. Terrific job Janice. I'm so proud of you. And good luck at Cal Arts. They have an amazing program there.

Rebecca Chen - Alum - Class of 2003

Rebecca was by far one of my most unforgettable students and produced so many thought provoking pieces for me in the 6 years that I worked with her here at Whitney. She was instrumental in refurbishing the custodian's work room into our current Art Lounge (see side label Art Lounge) where she not only laid the flooring, but did numerous collages on the cabinets and doors. Plus many of her works are on display in the lounge including this extraordinary piece. She took at least 5 of my various art courses that I offer here and was given a very generous art scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute. The last time I heard from her she was traversing across country between 2 different restaurants working as a sous chef in both. I put this piece up because my current beginning 3-d students will be building a paper mache structure to house a quilt in that they are currently working on. And I really like the one that Rebecca built here for her amazing embroidered piece. Sorry the close up is a bit blurry!

Congrats Danielle on Coach's Award!

Attended my daughter Danielle's golf banquet last week where she picked up the much coveted Coach's Award. Here she is (right side end) with her team mates at the Yorba Linda Country Club where they hold the banquet each year. This is her second year on the Esperanza High School's Junior Varsity team. Congratulations on another great season Dan. I LOVE YOU! And you are look FABULOUS!

Wanted to get a shot of both my children while they were both dressed up for our annual Xmas picture. They clean up real nice LOL My son Zach, who also played golf for Esperanza won the Coach's Award when he was there from the same coach that gave Danie hers. So we are keeping it all in the family. So very proud of both of you!!!

So from our home to yours, my children and I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Holiday season. (Great job on the lights Zach) :)

Kristin La Flamme - Fiber Artist

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Gotta spend a little more money cuz I just recently discovered Kristin's multi-media fiber works that are absolutely fabulous. Love how she is combining quilting with knit/crochet, beading, embroidery, text and so much more, then mounting it all on linen. You can view her work at http://www.kristinlaflamme.com/. She graciously agreed to let me to post some of her work because I wanted to share it with all my 3-d art students, especially Audrey, Ashley, Breeana, Anne, Ashlee, Marisela, Alma, Christie, Olivia, Angeline, Jullian, and Trisha. I know you 12 would appreciate her work the most. Love you guys!
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So all my art students, I ask you again, which one will I purchase?

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For EXTRA CREDIT on a pink piece of paper cut in the shape of a house, put your name and period on the front, and on the back side tell me which piece is being shipped to me from Hawaii where Kristin lives. #1, #2, #3, or #4 ?

#4

Margie Fish- Fiber Artist

Decisions, decisions, decisions! Which one to buy? Which one can't I live without? On my excellent adventure last weekend with my son Zach, I found the most comprehensive fiber store in Old Town San Diego called the Shepherdess, and inside a plethora of art, books, fibers, and beads to buy. But what really captured my attention were the felted vessels of Margie Fish. I just knew I had to own one of her works. These were the 3 I had to choose from, each one more unique then the next. Which one??

Well, I finally made my decision this morning after looking at her pix numerous times. The price range is from $200 to $250. So for EXTRA CREDIT for all my classes, on a piece of green paper cut into the shape of a vessel, put your name and period on the front, and on the back side guess which one I picked (the blue, the orange-brown or the green with pine needles around the top. Let's see how well you know what I like. If you guess correctly you get 3 extra credit points, if wrong only 1. Good Luck!

An Excellent Adventure

Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, with my daughter gone to the mountains with her boyfriend's family, I asked my son if he'd like to take a trip. I told him to pick where ever he'd like to go (within reason LOL), and with Plant Science being his major at Cal Poly Pomona, he thought it would be fun to visit all the gardens at Balboa Park in San Diego. So off we went on the Friday after Thanksgiving. And what a beautiful day to travel, brisk but sunny. And of course I had to fit in at least one fiber store on the way down. My son is such a patient boy with his mommy. :) So we stopped in Solana Beach to visit Trios Gallery (crafts store) and Knitting by the Beach. We also hit an orchid farm right outside Carlsbad Beach off the 5 freeway. Beautiful plants but way overpriced! Above is the root structure of an incredibly old tree in Balboa Park. I asked Zach to crawl inside so you could appreciate the scale of this old beauty.

For lunch we ate down on the water at Seaport Village in downtown San Diego. After getting a bit lost and having to stop and ask for directions we finally made our way to Balboa Park. The park was bigger than any park I've ever experienced and crowded, making parking a bit of a challenge. But it was so worth the struggle. The 1200 acre park was placed in reserve in 1835 and has 15 major museums, as well as many specialty gardens, plus a dog park. This man was playing the most beautiful instrument with the most unusual noises coming from it. In fact there were magicians and entertainment where ever you looked.

Here is their rose garden but honestly, I think the rose garden at Cal Poly is even better that Balboa's. The cactus garden was extensive but in dire need of some maintenance. I couldn't resist crawling into this cacti trunk below.

So many of the cacti are really old and so large. I was really impressed with the structure of this old beauty below.

Another garden that we visited was the Japanese Garden. But you had to pay to get in and it really wasn't worth the money. The Japanese garden at CSULB is so much better.

The Botanical Garden Lath House below was a favorite. Extremely impressive in size and scope of species.

Loved the way this plant was wrapping it's roots around it's neighbor in the pix below.

My favorite plants in the Botanical Garden area were the orchids. They had so many varieties, with so many of the plants in bloom.

Outside the Modern Museum were these fabulous mosaic sculptures that I knew my mosaics teacher Katherine would love.

Below is an interior shot of Ontario Orchids in Vista. We visited here on our way back home. Prices were so much more reasonable here and I bought Zach a very cool wall mounted orchid. We also were able to stop at a fabulous fiber store in Old Town San Diego called the Shepherdess. What a treat that was for me. I was able to pick up a couple of new books for inspiration. Thank you Zach for waiting in the car for a good 45 minutes while I browsed.

This was the view from our hotel window. We were able to get a room on the 8th floor in one of the two Marriott Towers in the downtown seaport Gaslight District. We overlooked the Coronado Bridge and the shipping lane. Zach drove us over the bridge so we could see the infamous Del Coronado Hotel. Would love to stay there one of these days. Below was a chef building a gingerbread house inside the lobby of our hotel. All in all, Zach and I had a really excellent adventure. Let's do it again next year son. I Love You So Much!!

Creative Framing Solutions - Student Art

Wanted to show off my 3rd year drawing/painting kids 1st Quarter Finals. They were to choose from either their color pointillism or prismacolor metamorphosis to frame up in a creative way that visually flowed without taking attention away from their original art work. So above we have junior Jason Kwon's piece and below is senior Jullian Kho's work. I think both the kids came up with wonderfully creative solutions.

7th Grade Art Wheel - Value Scales

My new crop of 7th graders are starting off with a BANG! Every quarter we rotate them, so this is my 2nd batch. They are a talkative bunch, and I don't quite have them where I want them, but I'm slowly but surely getting them there. I'm finding out that there is a lot of talent in this group, so I'm very excited to see what I can get out of them. This was their 1st assignment, to do a simple 5 step value scale. These were the most creative ones that I'm featuring. The best one of the bunch (top) was done by Kyung Yi, and the ones below were created by Adora Islam, Anna Lee, Sharon Oh, Brandon Pu and once again Kyung Yi.

Felt Pouches - Student Art

Just finished 1st Quarter Finals and these were the pieces that my Beginning 3-d kids created for their class final. They had to use their newly acquired sewing and embroidery skills to make these adorable felt pouches. Plus they also learned some beading skills as well. The photo above displays all their pieces which are now on display in the front office

Above and below are close ups of senior Ashlee Chang's pouch, both the front and back sides. Ashlee always goes above and beyond the minimum requirements and comes up with phenomenal designs as well as using amazing craftsmanship to put them together with. She takes her work home with her every night and she also works on her pieces all thru the day to be able to do what she does. Notice also the Polymer beads she made to go onto the draw string ends.

Above we see a close up of senior Hannah Park's pouch, and below is Senior Anne Guu's. Look at the incredible mount of beading that both girls put into their work. Extremely time consuming.

Want to wish everyone out there a Happy Turkey Day, and to tell you all that I am so very thankful to be teaching art at Whitney High. I'm a very lucky woman! And a BIG thank you to all my art students who work so hard to make me happy. Love you guys so much!

Jordon Joyce - 2008 Alum

Jordon, whom I have worked with since the 7th grade in several of my art classes, recently came by for a visit to let me know he has changed his major to art and that he's thinking about becoming an art teacher. What a nice surprise! He is currently taking art classes at Cerritos College and this terrific clay piece that he sculpted just came out of the glaze firing. It was so fun and expressive that I just had to take a pix.

Mosaic Class at the Muck

Just wanted to show off a couple of skulls getting finished off in my mosaics class. Here is Sue grouting hers, and below is a completely finished work. The Muckenthaler in Fullerton offers up many wonderful day, evening and summer art classes, and I highly recommend Katherine England's classes. She is one of the most fabulous artist/instructors that I've ever worked with. See side bar to view some of her work.

Burnishing Whistles - Ceramics I

There are so many things that I love about teaching here at Whitney, and here is an example of one of my favorite things. How good the students are to each other, how supportive and respectful they are with one another. Here senior Christopher Lu is letting senior Nicholas Fernando know how good his burnished whistle is looking. Chris didn't know I took this shot by the way, I had to be really sneaky :) Extra Credit for 7th graders and Beginning 2-D Art only: on a yellow piece of paper cut into the shape of a banana put your name and period on front side and on back tell me what your favorite food is. You never know, I might bring it in as a treat one day.

Santa Barbara Coastline

This last weekend I traveled up to Santa Barbara, Ojai and Santa Maria in search of fiber and crafts stores, but made the mistake of thinking they would all be open on Sunday (Saturday no problem) Lesson learned, should have called first. Oh well, found several that made the trip worth while. :) Betty's Yarns in Santa Maria on Broadway and Battles as well as a wonderful quilt store in Old Town Orcutt, think it was called the Old Town Quilt Store on Clark St. In Ojai, so many wonderful shops on their main drag in the Arcade area. Primavera being a favorite, as well as Artful Living and Human Arts. Did I buy anything? Of course :) But the best part of the trip was the gorgeous weather on Sunday coming home and the fabulous views of the coast.

Extra Credit for my Beginning 2-d class only: on a blue piece of paper cut into the shape of a teardrop, write down your greatest fear involving the new drawing unit we are starting.

Tissue & Paper Collage Portfolios - Student Art

Every couple of years I change up the design idea for my 2-d beginner portfolios. This sun motif idea originated 2 years ago when alumni Regina Teng and Kenji Tan both deviated from their rubric and came up with this idea. And it worked out so well last year that I repeated it again this year (look at sidebar under Portfolios and you will see the ones done last year). The students build 2 separate collages on 18" by 24" paper consisting mostly of tissue paper but I also require them to find one other special paper that contains a visually textual element to throw in the mix. So senior Sonya Liu has cut out many special papers that she found in magazines and is now collaging her tissue over top in the piece above. In the work below senior Meliza Panganiban has finished her second collage and is ready for part 2 of the design process.

The pieces above and below (senior Brian Choi and junior Suzanne Kang) are showing how the kids overlap the 2 collages and begin cutting out their sun motif designs. They cut thru both papers at the same time so that the pieces match exactly when they are alternated and glued back together to form the portfolio's outer covers.

The rest are the finished works. After collages are cut up the students are given 2 pieces of cardboard that they glue the pieces down to, alternating the two different collages as they go. The gorgeous piece above belongs to senior Sonya Liu, you saw her begin her paper collage in the first pix. And below is Brian Choi's finished portfolio.

Junior Michael Jo did the striking piece above and below is a close up of junior Kevin Aquilo's portfolio. I love the richness of his design and the photos he incorporated under the tissue.

Above is junior Paul Kim's piece in which he achieved a very high contrast between the 2 collages (exactly what I was hoping for, but very difficult to do), and below is senior Alma Gudino's very complex design.

And last but not least is senior Betty Tong's beautiful work. Great job all of you!

Farewell to my 1st Quarter 7th Graders

Just wanted to say good-bye to my sweet babies. Gonna miss you guys so much!!!! You were a wonderful group to start off this 7th grade wheel experiment with. I've never had a group of students work so hard for me with such joy and enthusiasm. You've set the bar really high for the other 3 groups that will be following you this year. Thank you for all your hard work and the amount of energy and effort you put into my class. I hope to see all of you at least one more year in another art class before you graduate. Love you all! And be good for your other teachers, make me proud!!! And don't forget to bring your parents in Open House Nite so I can meet them. The date is April 22. See ya then!

These are some of the kids working on their felt soap project. Way too much fun! To my new 7th graders in 2nd quarter for extra credit tonight: put your name and period on a piece of brown paper and then write down on the other side of the paper what your favorite thing about going to Whitney is. Where do you get brown paper? Be creative! Think kitchen.

2 Point Box Constructions - Student Art

Just wanted to show off a few of my 2nd year 2-d students 2 point box constructions. Besides the construction they also had to build in a border treatment and bring in a bit of color into the graphite work. The top piece belongs to senior Anne Guu, and the one underneath belongs to senior Esther Lee.

Senior Brandon Liao did the piece above and senior Mary Lou Bunn did the fun piece below.

Sewing and Embrodiery Basics - Student Art

My Beginning 3-d students have been working their butts off learning how to sew and embroider so that we can move on to more challenging assignments like quiltmaking. These are their very sweet preliminary studies that actually turned out quite extraordinary. From top to bottom, left to right are seniors Ashlee Chang, Sherri Singh, Anne Guu, and Jenn Dai.

And after they finished the flat pieces they learned how to make a simple pillow. I offered extra credit if they embellished the front with more embroidery. So these belong to Ashlee Chang, senior Marisela Herrarte, junior Hillary Chan, and Anne Guu.

Moonstone Mounted Sculptures - Student Art

When I first started this project with my 2nd year clay students they were all sculpting some type of moon as subject matter, thus the title 'Moonstones". But over the years it has evolved into any form so long as it has an expressive face attached and lots of surface design. In the second half of the assignment, after their pieces are bisqued fired, we sawdust fire them and then rub them with pigments. And lastly, they mount them for display. So sawing, sanding, staining, drilling and wood burning come into play in the finished mounted works.


The expressive piece above belongs to senior Steven Ebalobor and is a bit of a self-portrait. He's showing how's he's feeling about missing his girlfriend who went away to college. I think he has done a wonderful job expressing his sadness and pain. The bead/tear drops raining down from the cloud are a clever design element. The piece below belongs to senior Ekta Doshi, and I love all the colored pigments she has combined in the staining of the clays surface.



The piece above and below belongs to senior Wayne Chen and his subject is an hour glass which he very cleverly mounted using two posts instead of the one.

And this last shot is a close up of the wood burning that Steven did on his wood. All 3 kids did an exceptional job in a very short amount of time!

One More Happy 21st Birthday to my Son

Took our boy out Friday Nite for his 21st birthday to the Yard House in Brea for our first alcoholic beverage together. Who would have thought his drink of choice was to be a Pomegranate Margarita. I'm thinking this wasn't his first drink after all LOL. Did he get carded you want to know? Yes he did. :) Then came back home to do the birthday cake, candles, and presents. And then off he went with his friends to a comedy club in Downtown Fullerton where I'm sure some more drinking was going on. Happy Birthday Baby!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU and I'm so PROUD of the man you are turning out to be.

Free Form Crochet Workshop

Always wanted to learn free form crochet (learned free form knitting several years ago with Valentine Devine) and last night at the Yarn Lady in Lake Forest I was able to do just that with artist/teacher Wendy Seigel.

They had at least 3 different classes going on in one evening with lots of fiber enthusiasts, plus one adorable 3 month old. They are open almost every evening with different groups meeting for spinning, knitting, feltmaking, dyeing, and other fiber related classes. I was also impressed with the quantity and quality of their yarn selection.

Wendy brought some beautiful samples with her to show and I ended up buying the middle wristlet from her. The top piece is the one she taught me with and was gracious enough to let me keep to teach my students with, and the bottom piece is the one I worked out. Both of these are unfinished and I can't wait to get back to mine and finish it up. I loved having no pattern to follow and Wendy taught me so many new tricks and turns. A really enjoyable evening. Can't wait to go back for another class and some more yarn shopping. :)

A close up of Wendy's finished piece.

View from the Laguna Hotel

On Halloween night after dropping my daughter and her boyfriend off at the Irvine Spectrum, I headed down to Laguna Beach to have dinner with my cousin at the coziest little Italian bistro in the Village. Afterwards, to kill time till I had to pick the kids up we headed to the Laguna Hotel for a cup of hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream on top. Yummy! And this was our view of the coastline. What a beautiful night it was. Got to wear my amazing new cashmere needle felted scarf to keep me warm. One of my many new purchases at the Artistic License Craft Faire at Estanzia Park in Costa Mesa that I attended 2 weekends ago. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow.

Happy 21st Birthday Zachary

Hi sweetheart, just want to wish you a very Happy day. Wish you could be home with us, but we will see you on the weekend to celebrate and have a drink together! LOL :)

One Last Farewell to Halloween

Just wanted to show off my own children and their pumpkins they carved for Halloween. Danielle did the cat and Zach was able to capture a likeness to our dog Bogie. Unfortunately, we didn't even have one trick-o-treater to see them this year. So Sad! But the good part was there was a lot of leftover chocolate candy bars :).


Here are my babies on their way to the Duck's game last Friday night. I think the Duck's might have won that night.

Self-Portrait Collage Finals - Student Art

Well, we are already headed into the end of 1st quarter. I can't believe it went by so quickly! Most of my classes have some type of performance based final that is worth 25% of their grade for the quarter, a few like ceramics have a written final. The piece above, done by senior Esther Lee last year in Beginning 2-d Art, was so beautifully done, with so much sensitivity that I needed to show it off so the kids this year could see what I'm expecting. Not only are these pieces mini self-portraits, but the students are also required to bring in all the elements and principles of art into their works. So line, shape color, texture, balance, emphasis, movement, etc., there are 14 all together (a lot of hoops for them to jump through). So the assignment really showcases everything they've learned about design and craftsmanship over the past 8 weeks. Last year, senior Amanda Lui did the powerful piece below. Both girls are pursuing the arts in college.

Happy Halloween from the Art Room at Whitney High

These are a few of my sweet 7th graders I keep talking about as well as my 9th grade Art Tech for their class. Lorenzo Gutierrez, Katy Uchiyama, Clarisa Marie Bloemhof, and Larisa Lagade. And down below dressed as hippies with their handmade Tye-Dye T-shirts are Lizzy Kruger, Melina Castorillo, and Yasmeen Pardo.

Many of our students go all out for Halloween and a lot make their own costumes as well. So I just had to snap a few pix this morning to share. Above are seniors Ashlee Chang, Anne Guu, and Ekta Doshi. And below are juniors Kevin Aquilo and Paul Kim. Happy Halloween to all!!!!!

Color Pointalism - Student Art

My 3rd year drawing/painting students just finished up a unit in color pointillism (drawing only with dots of color much as Seurat did in Sunday in the Park). What I love the most about working with my kids at Whitney are their highly developed critical thinking skills and us always encouraging them to think outside the box. First of all I require them to come up with an original idea to work with and then give them a minimum set of goals to each within the piece. But I really encourage them to bring a twist to their work, to come up with a new idea within the medium that no one has seen here at Whitney. So I've had kids lay watercolor down first and do their pointillism over that , but senior Jullian Kho wanted to know if it would be OK to watercolor over top the water based felt tip markers we use. I told it it would probably bleed out her work, but I also encouraged her to give it a try and see what happens. We both really liked the look so off she went on the piece above.
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Junior Jason Kwon choose to work in the traditional manner in his gorgeous landscape while senior Hannah Park watercolored over her image but controlled it so it wouldn't bleed out her work. Great solutions all of you. Below is a close up of Jason and Hannah's pieces. These pieces are extremely time consuming and require a lot of patience which you can see my students have in abundance!

7th Grade Art Wheel - Wire Pendants with Patterned Stamped Tissue

The most difficult assignment this year for my sweet 7th graders has been the wire pendant project. They were asked to bring in an interesting rock, shell or charm, and then I showed them how to use pliers and wire cutters to capture the object within the wire so that it looked aesthetically pleasing and well crafted. They were also allowed to embellish with other things like smaller beads, charms and stones. It was rough going at times, but eventually all 30 of them were able to finish a pendant that we then strung onto ribbon or a chain they had brought in from home. The pieces actually turned out quite well considering how much they struggled with this small motor skills task. The piece above belongs to Smruthie Maganti and is one of the more sophisticated ones. I'm finding out that Smruthie is an amazing designer and craftswoman and I'm hoping she will come back and take more art classes with me. Hint, Hint! :)

You are also seeing glimpses of their collaged boxes that I posted last week along with another unit we did in conjunction with this one, Stamped Patterns on Tissue Paper. I taught them some surface design with carved rubber erasers, and 7 different patterns that they could stamp out. After practicing all 7, they chose a color tissue that would work visually with their boxes and stamped out their favorite patterns. This tissue was then used to line the boxes with and to provide a beautiful tease before you see the pendant underneath. The 3 pendants above were done by Evelyn Aldana, Paul Dean Versteeg III, and Lizzy Krueger, and the box and tissue below was done by Katy Uchiyama.

Karisma Dev did the box, tissue and pendant above, and Eduardo Jacinto and Matthew Bautista did the pieces below.

And these last two were done by Ju Eun Lee and Deborah Gordillo. Fantastic job class!

Tye-Dye Unit - Student Art

A really fun unit for my beginning 3-d students, to reinforce the color theory unit that we studied, was tye-dye using cold water Rit Fabric Dyes (I added salt and vinegar as mordants to each dye-bath to help absorb and set colors). I show them traditional tye-dye from the late 60's and early 70's and then some more modern techniques as well. And then the kids came up with new ideas I've never seen before. It's a learning experience for me too!

We start off the trials on white paper towels (pictured above) and then we go next to squares of bleached white muslin cloth (100% cotton, below). Also this year because my 7th graders were running 3 days ahead of schedule I let them try out some paper towel samples as well (pictured directly above).

The cloth pieces above will be used at a later date for the front and back panels of an appliquilt assignment the beginning 3-d kids will be tackling (below).

Then both groups had time for some extra credit dyeing where they brought in 100% cotton t-shirts and really enjoyed themselves (below). We ended up with many striking pieces from both groups!

Rockits and High Lites at Java Joe's this Friday Nite

If you want to come out this Friday nite and enjoy some great live music from the 50's, 60's and a bit from the 70's, my good friends The Rockits and The High Lites, will be performing at Java Joe's in Yorba Linda from 8:00 to 11:00. There is usually a dinner buffet being served out front for around $5 to $8 if you want to eat there. Also a Domino's Pizza next door, and one of my favorite restaurants, The Wild Artichoke, if you really want to splurge before the show is a few doors down. It's such a fun evening with dancing and the braver audience members getting up to sing with the band. This is bass guitarist Jim singing with a few of the more gutsy gals from the crowd. Come join us!

Breeana Johng - Student Art

Breeana, who should have been in my 3rd year Advanced 3-d class this year, but couldn't fit me into her schedule, just finished designing and making this cute doggy backpack for her pup. She also designs and sews her own clothing. She is a remarkable young woman and just wanted to show her off :)

Below are a couple of polymer beads she just finished. Too cute! EXTRA CREDIT - on a piece of green paper trimmed in brown, cut into the shape of a young sapling tree, put your name, period and answer this question, what artist are you most inspired by and why? Hand this to me when you walk in my door tomorrow. :)

7th Grade Art Wheel - Collaged Jewelry Boxes

A Great Big Thank You to all the Whitney High Staff and the owner of Discoveries Gallery in Tustin who helped me to collect over 120 jewelry boxes that my 7th graders could collage on top of. After a color theory unit my students were asked to pick only one color scheme to work within and to find beautiful papers to collage onto the boxes. This top one was a group effort for one of the teachers who gave me many of her old boxes. After a few of the boys finished theirs I asked them to start on this one as a favor to me, and then I finished it up. So thank you to 7th graders Edurado Jacinto, Paul Dean Versteeg III, and Jun Son for your help! These boxes were made to house wire necklace pendants that the students made a couple weeks ago. I will post those at a later date. And as part of a package design unit the students were taught 7 different pattern/textures that they had to stamp onto tissue paper. That paper was then used to wrap around their pendants in the interior of the box for a more complete look (as shown below).

One of my very favorite boxes was made by Smruthi Maganti (above), and then two others that I felt were terrific as well belong to Deborah Gordillo and Ju Eun Lee (below).

And look at these gorgeous ones created by Athena Mao, Edurado Jacinto (above) and Karisma Dev (below) A wonderful job by all!

Sunset in Laguna Beach

Last Friday night got to travel with my musical friends down to south Laguna Beach just before it turns into San Juan Capistrano, and this was the sunset that awaited us. Couldn't have asked for anything more beautiful.

Intermediate 2-d Art Quarter Final - Student Art

My second year drawing/painting students have just finished learning 1 & 2 point perspective and now they will be going on location around the school (either inside or outside) to draw what they see building-wise in 1 or 2 point. Then they will be required to alter reality within the foundation's structure. This top piece done last year by alum Mindy Cho was done from the bench outside Senora Barry's room looking into the food court area. You can see the actual building in the mid left corner as well as one of our picnic benches but everything else she pretty much altered. A fabulous piece Mindy! And down below is alum Amanda Garcia's piece from last year. Her viewpoint was from our V.P.'s office by the flamingo planter looking toward Senora Barry's room. Your attention to detail was amazing Amanda, and both girls had beautiful shading styles and craftsmanship. Mindy's piece was in 2-point and Amanda's work was 1-point.

Ashley Morris - Student Art

Junior Ashley Morris (4th year 3-d art) just finished up her second project of the quarter. This is a child's hat that she created from raffia strips (20 pieces thick) that she braided into a 30 foot long rope, then she coiled it onto itself and stitched the edges together. For embellishment she added the gross grain ribbon and a few of her own polymer buttons. Adorable!

"The Great Shakeout" Statewide Earthquake Drill at Whitney High

How could I resist photographing these sweet faces as I held my students captive under the art tables during our earthquake drill. These faces belong to my 3rd period beginning 2-d class and as you can see they had to squish themselves up like sardines to all fit under the tables. But they were so cooperative, it couldn't have gone better. Thanks guys!

Career Day at Whitney

Couldn't resist featuring senior Pankti Patel and her very cool , creative skirt that she threw together last night for Career Day today. She wants to go into the fashion world so to show her future career she cut out photos from fashion magazines and attached them over top an existing sun dress. I felt it was such a clever idea that took some serious time and thought so I gave her extra credit for her efforts. Way to go Pankti! It's EXTRA CREDIT time again students. On a piece of pink paper cut into the shape of a heart edged in purple write your name, period and tell me what is an odd fact about you or an unusual talent that you possess.

Beginning of Year Throwing Demonstration

A couple times a year I get to sit down at the potter's wheel and throw a few pots to demonstrate an assignment or extra credit opportunity. So this year for my beginning clay kids I produced these two pots with a little added slip trail embellishment. Always forget how much I love to throw. Don't know why I don't do it more often. If the glaze turns out decent you might see them again in their finished state.

The Remakable Katherine England - Pro Mosaic Artist

In preparation for the Annual Fullerton Spring Garden Tour this year in which Katherine's amazing home and garden will be featured, let me show off her newest garden creation in it's step by step construction. Looks like she's staring here by sawing into some type of soft Styrofoam, and then below, stacking and gluing these pieces to form the foundation of her piece. Then she's taking a rasp to the whole thing to further enhance the form.



(Above) Next comes the sticking on of the flexible netting to hold the concrete slurry that's being slathered on by one of her very good looking helpers. :) (below)



And then we have Katherine gluing down the glass shards. Notice how gorgeous she looks no matter that it's probably over a 100 degrees inside her garage studio. And look at that glorious mane of hair that woman has!

Looks like another friend helping her to grout her piece.

And then the finished green man. Knowing Katherine she probably whipped this piece out in less that a week or so. She's that talented and when she starts something she bulldozes through it till it's done. You are incredible Katherine! You inspire me everyday.

Ashley Morris - Student Artist

It only took her 2 years but she finally got this beauty done. Ashley, now a junior, started this piece for me 2 years ago for her final assignment in my Advanced 3-d art class. It was a new assignment and I totally misjudged how many days it would take to complete, so many of the kids didn't finish. So all last year I bugged Ashley to finish it on her own at home but she was just too busy with school and sports, so now that I have her back this year for 4th year 3-d art I made her finish it for her first assignment of the year, and it was totally worth the wait! Below is a close up. They were required to begin on a wood base and use at least 4 different media and build a bas relief work. Ashley used nails, paint, tissue collage, wire, glass shards, and Styrofoam. I have been working with Ashley since she was in 7th grade and she is an incredibly talented designer and craftswoman!!!!

1 Point Box Constructions - Student Art

These are a couple of the pieces turned in recently by my Intermediate 2-d class. The minimum requirement was to build a 1 point box construction that has at last 3 boxes in it, and then to shade it in with a wide range of values using only one light source. The top one done by senior Ashlee Chang was my favorite because I felt she really pushed herself the hardest and came up with a highly creative design. The bottom two were also outstanding works, also showing a good deal of creativity and effort. They were done by seniors Marisela Herrarte and Anne Guu.

Polymer Beads And Buttons - Student Art

Just finished a color theory unit in my Beginning 3-d class using Polymer Clay. Gave the kids the 3 primary colors plus a black and white for tinting and shading and off they went to make all the colors and combinations of the color wheel. Then took them through another unit where I taught them different bead and button techniques that can be achieved with the clay. And these were the results. My students always love this unit, and we make use of the beads and buttons in other assignments as embellishments.

Janet Hurtado - This one's for you!

It's little Prince Bogie, fresh out of the shower where he accidently jumped in last night to see what was going on in there with my daughter Danielle. Boy, did he get a very wet surprise. :) Janet, my Ceramics student, has been hoping for more Bogie pix. Hope you like this one! EXTRA CREDIT On a piece of purple paper cut into the shape of a star, edged in green trim put your name, period and answer these questions: What are you like in a group setting, and how do you think you affect group dynamics?

Color Theory - Student Art

This years Beginning 2-d students are coming in with very high skill levels in place (drawing, painting and designing). These are just a sampling of the many wonderful pieces that were turned in recently. Even though we are an academic magnet in our school district, these kids are coming to me with exceptional right brain critical thinking skills, making my job a joy! What is a shame is that many of these kids waited til their senior year to take my class, and now I will not be able to work with them again at a higher level. Oh well, at least they are discovering that they have art in their souls! This top piece was done by senior Alan Tsim.

The above three works were done by seniors Jeremy Chung, Nandini Kannan, and Sonya Liu.

And these last four were created by seniors Edna Wong, Brian Choi, Sarah Lee, and Pankti Patel. And this was just their first assignment, can you image what they are going to do with the rest of the year's assignments. I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oops, One More

Just had to show off one more piece that came in late. It was definitely worth the wait. Done by Clarisa Marie Bloemhof, it easily became one of my favorites. Love the bold tribal feel it has.

7th Grade Linear Textural Designs with Watercolor

I am so pleased with the way these sweet little designs turned out. I gave my 7th graders a lesson on linear textures as well as watercolor washes for backgrounds, and away they went to create these beauties. No pencil sketches were allowed on top of the watercolor backgrounds; they had to freehand these in felt tip markers, so their craftsmanship skills were really put to the test. Above you can see pieces from the entire class.

This one done by Sergio Garcia was one of my favorites. He really understood what I wanted.



Both Yasmeen Pardo's watercolor and textural lines really captured my attention.



And Eduardo Jacinto's piece really popped!



Loved the sensitive stylings of Smruthi Maganti.



And Katy Uchiyama's piece was gorgeous, such precision and a beautiful wash.



Michelle Chung interpreted the assignment as lines and shapes and created this wonderful piece.


As did Paul Dean Versteeg III who managed to also create an atmospheric feeling with his background wash.



Another creative interpretation by Athena Mao. Very cool piece Athena!

Value Studies/Right Brain Drawing Review - Student Art

My 3rd year drawing students just completed these combination value study/realism drawing reviews using the right brain skills they have in place learned in 1st and 2nd year 2-d art. I gave each student a kernel of popcorn and they were instructed to enlarge it to at least 3" by 3", to draw it as realistically as possible and then to shade it in and include a cast shadow. In the top piece done 3 years ago by alum Rebecca Chung (probably the most talented art student I've ever worked with in the 30 years I've been teaching here) her kernel is morphing into a cobra ready to strike along with some other dark and frightening imagery. The bottom 3 were done this year by seniors Hannah Chang and Jullian Kho, and junior Jason Kwon.

Handmade Knitting Needles w/ PolymerClay Knobs & Hand Dyed Yarns - Student Art

These colorful yarns and whimsical knitting needles were just finished yesterday by my Intermediate 3-d students, all 6 of them :) They hand dyed the wool yarns (Lamb's Pride Worsted) with food colors (Wilton's Icing Colors). I had asked them to achieve a variegated yarn in color as well as value. At the same time they each sawed off 2 dowel sticks to 12 inches long each, sanded and waxed the sticks (shoe polish from the grocery store) then made fun little polymer clay knobs for the tops. I especially love the hot dog and hamburger done by senior Christi Connors. The lady bugs were done by senior Alma Gudino, piggies by senior Trisha Shah, bear and shark by senior Jullian Kho, space ship and moon by junior Angeline Tran, and stripped & beaded balls by junior Olivia Hill. And the best part is that today we started our knitting unit with these yarns and needles. How good is that? God, I love my job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1-Point Box Constuctions - Student Art

My Intermediate 2-d students are currently working on these 1-point box constructions. These two are from last school year and were done by alum Regina Teng and Amanda Garcia. Both pieces are highly creative and beautifully crafted. Regina and Amanda, if either of you are following my blog, I miss you guys and hope all is going well at college.

Color Theory/Tempera - Student Art

Last school year I posted these four remarkable color theory assignments done by my Beginning 2-d art students. Since my new 2-d kids are working on the same assignment I wanted them to see these as well as the two other posts below, also done in tempera (if interested in names on the four pieces above, please see side panel and click on color theory)

I've honestly forgotten who did these three gorgeous prelims in tempera for our realistic unit last year so I'm gonna take a guess here. The top two I believe belong to seniors this year, Brandon Liao and Esther Lee, and the one below belongs to alum Krystal Rodriguez. I forgot to write it down, so I apologize for my guesses. It's a bitch getting old! For 1 point of EXTRA CREDIT on a piece of green paper put your name, period and answer this question:What would someone close to you describe as your best and worst traits?

My Summer Art Projects

Every summer when I'm not teaching I love to try out new assignment ideas as well as finish off projects that I've started and never finished (way too many to count), and to prep new fibers for my Beginning 3-d class. Then at the beginning of the new school year I like to hang them all on the board and share them with my new and returning students so they can actually see that I am a working artist and craftswoman. So this is my 2009 collection :) The brown and plastic bags are filled with hand dyed raw wool fibers from Capistrano Fiber Arts and above each bag I've spun and plied up all the color ways that Lori Lawson dyed for me so my Beginning 3-d students can see what the finished yarn looks like. I take these students through a hand spinning unit in the spring. Instead of using a spinning wheel or drop spindle I teach them on a hooked coat hanger end. Works Great!


In the lower mid section here I've finished up a couple sawdust fired clay masks by adding some bead embellishments. Can't even begin to remember how many years those masks have been sitting in my studio. I do a mask a year when I demo them to my Beginning 3-d kids.

The pillow above was started in a crazy wonderful workshop with Valentine Devine many years ago and I just finally got back to it. The workshop was a free form knitting extravaganza with a bit of crochet embellishment. I love how this piece turned out with the bas relief front face.

These last two pillows were crocheted from the hand dyed, hand spun yarns that I made as the samples for the 3-d kids to choose from that were in those bags in the first pix. This first one was made from the 2008 yarn samples and the one below was crocheted from the 2009 samples. I gave the one below to one of my favorite people, Suzanne in our college center. She has helped me so very much over the years and was especially good to me last school year when she set up the art work for the senior awards banquet nite when I wasn't able to. Thank you again Suzanne! The backing fabric for both these pillows was hand dyed by nationally known quilt artist Ricky Tims, so the back sides are just as vibrant as the fronts.

USS Midway - San Diego

Over Labor Day weekend my friend and I drove down to Encinitas and San Diego. We stayed with her parents in the hills of downtown San Diego and her dad, who was a Korean War Veteran, was also serving as a docent on the aircraft carrier the USS Midway where he was able to give us a personal tour. These are some of the pix I shot along the way. I was completely overwhelmed by the scale of the ship and the personnel that it would take to operate this beast. Above is a shot from the flight deck overlooking the bay and the Coronado Bridge that takes you to Coronado Island and the infamous Del Coronado Hotel. And below is a huge sculpture of the famous photo from the 1945 cover of Life Magazine of the sailor coming home from war.

The interior of the carrier was humongous and had a variety of planes and interactive activities. Many of the planes in this area where from WWII, and still had their pilots names written under the windows and the pilots pictures posted next to the planes. It made the experience more personal and realistic.

Back up on the flight deck were many more aircraft. These were more modern planes, bombers, and helicopters from the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars. It was possible to go into the interiors of many of these planes. Very cool but very hot inside. That weekend had record breaking heat going on in San Diego.

Really wanted to go inside the tower area but we ran out of time. But it sure was nice to get away.

7th Grade Charcoal Cones

My sweet little 7th graders continue to work their hearts out for me. I introduced them to charcoal and turning a 2-D triangle into a 3-D cone form. By the end of the assignment many of their faces were covered in charcoal. It's such a messy medium, but I think they really enjoyed it. From top to bottom: Grace Han, Matthew Chou, and Rachel Zhang. Once again Matthew told me he had nothing better to do the night before we turned these in so he was able to fill up the whole paper. I love that! EXTRA CREDIT On a piece of purple paper with your name and period attached, write down what makes you nervous.

Intermediate & Advanced 2-D Art Value Scales- Student Art

Been focusing so much on my 7th graders lately, so now I'd like to show off what my 2nd and 3rd year drawing students are starting off with. They too had to do value scales as a drawing review, but unlike my 7th graders who only had to achieve 5 values of grey, my 2nd year had to get 8 to 10 and my 3rd year had to come up with 13 (which is really hard to do). This top piece was done by 3rd year junior Jason Kwon who has the most beautifully sensitive drawing skills, and the 2 below where done by 2nd year seniors Anne Guu and Kate Lee. I love how Anne brought a little color work into hers and I'm thrilled to have Kate back in the fold. She hasn't been able to fit me into her schedule since she was a 7th grader. Welcome Back Woman! :)

Graphite Spheres - 7th Grade Art Wheel

Just loving my sweet new 7th graders and how hard they are working for me. These three spheres were a one day assignment but many of the kids took them home to spend a little extra time perfecting them. The one above done by Matthew Chou blew me out of the water because he went so far above and beyond what I asked them to do. He simply said he was bored :) Lucky me! The one below was done by Smruthi Maganti and she has given it such a nice rounded feeling plus she has a lovely shading style as well.

And this last one was done by Grace Han, who has also achieved a wonderful 3-D feel. For one EXTRA CREDIT point how would you describe yourself in one word only. Please use a blue piece of paper to put your answer on along with your name and period.

Bored Children and a Farewell to Summer

My son and his friends are so bored right now because most of their group has gone back to college, and they don't have to be back till next week. And they have just run out of things to do and money to do them with, so last night they broke out the Monopoly game and probably laughed more and had the most fun that they've had all summer. They even let my daughter Dani play and they were there for hours. It was so cool to watch them go back to this game after so many years and still enjoy it so much! Good-bye summer. Hello school, homework and studying :)

Value Scales - 7th Grade Art Wheel

We are experimenting this school year with a 7th grade wheel rotation that includes an art component. So every 8 weeks I get a new crop of 7th graders to teach art fundamentals to. I am loving my first group of kids. They are a little scared and a lot excited to be doing art and I'm really enjoying their enthusiasm and energy. Their first assignment was to create a 5 step value scale in graphite. The one above was done by Eduardo Jacinto, and the one beneath was made by Karisma Dev.


These next two were done by Sergio Garcia and Clarisa Marie Bloemnof. I am so impressed with these kids, and I feel so lucky to be working with such talent! Can you imagine what they will be producing with me by 4th level art in their senior year!!!!

Lump Boxes - Student Art

Have a few more posts to go from my students from last year and then I'm bringing up the new art students that started last week. These are some fun little boxes from last year that start from a solid block of clay. The outside shaping is done by throwing the lump on the board from various directions, and the insides are carved out and then some type of lid closure is usually attached on the inside lip so lid won't slide off. The kids were also required to put some outside surface decoration on the piece. Some chose to embellish their pieces like this fabulous one done by senior Cynthia Tsai.


This sweet box was done by senior Estelle Hong. Look at her attention to detail, not only in the surface decoration but in the glazing as well!


Juniors Steven Ebalobor and Jarvie Elpedes came up with some very cool solutions.

These three were also noteworthy, done by seniors Jessica Song, Jessica Su and Eaning Woo. What I especially love with all these pieces is that no two are alike!

I especially liked this middle one done by junior Crystal Valino, and senior Rikaya Obilo made the adorable one on the left. I'm sorry to say I can't remember who did the one on the right, but I think the shaping on the outside is very cool with the angle and it still manages to stand up.

Suzanne Singing her Heart Out!

Suzanne and Mary, from our library college center, along with their husbands Mike and Gary, joined me in Yorba Linda last Friday night at Java Joe's to listen and sing along with my favorite live band The Rockits and the High Lites. Suzanne was even brave enough to get up and sing along with bass guitarist Jim. The place was packed and we had so much fun singing and dancing! Attention all art students: here is your second opportunity to collect those extra credit points on Monday when you walk in my door. Just read the post below this one and follow the directions with just one change, find a piece of brown paper to do it on (can be any size). Be creative where you find the brown paper at, think outside the box :) You should probably be able to find it in your kitchen.

Art Students Grades 7 -12 Take Advantage of this Extra Credit Opportunity

After looking at these beginning of the year assignment examples please put your name, the name of your class, and the period of your class on a small piece of paper and hand it to me as you walk in my door tomorrow. That will be your only opportunity to get these 3 extra credit points. Enjoy the pictures.

Beginning 3-D art- Beads and Buttons out of Polymer Clay


Intermediate and Advanced 3-D Art - Handmade Knitting Needles, Hand dyed Yarns, Hand Dyed and Handspun Yarns, Felted Bags, Handknit Scarfs



Ceramics I - Moonbabies (Abstracted Figure Sculptures)


Ceramics II - Decorative Mounted Sculptures

Intermediate & Advanced 2-D Art - Value Studies

Beginning 2-D Art - Color Theory

Advanced 2-D Art - Color Pointillism

Mosaic Faces

This is a piece just finished by Gail from Katherine England's mosaics class of her daughter Jessica. And I understand that her daughter drew the flowers that her mom put into the piece. I really like the black and white checker border that frames the work. Really makes it pop!

Solar Pillows - Student Art

These solar printed pillows were the final assignment for my Beginning 3-d class and they always turn out so well. Plus the solar printing is always fun for the kids to watch as their images develop. I order chemically treated cotton fabric from a place in Washington state called Blueprints on Fabric (http://www.blueprintsonfabric.com/) These pillows showcase the student's design, sewing and embellishment skills that they have picked up throughout the year. The top four belong to from left to right, top to bottom: senior Shahnaz Khandoker, junior Jessica Lee, and seniors Emily Choh and Jenny Ham.


This is one of my all time favorite solar pillows done by the very talented senior Ivy Hu.


And this outstanding piece was done by 8th grade perfectionist :) Lilith Huang.


And lastly this pillow was done by one of the sweetest 7th grade boys I've ever worked with, Aman Patel, who also proved to be a very talented designer. Hopefully, you'll be coming back to me Aman in your junior or senior year!

2007 Alum Irene Ky

Irene got in touch after running across my blog recently. Said she got inspired to pull out all her art stuff and start creating again. I love that! Her boyfriend wants her to knit him a beanie. Good Luck with that Irene, send pix when done.

Bogey's New Collar

For years I've been trying to get my daughter interested in the fiber arts, knitting, spinning, etc. but with no luck until just recently when she saw some alien creatures featured in my Vogue knitting magazine. All of a sudden she wants to know if I have any extra yarn anywhere (of course I do!) and where my crochet hooks are. I found her on youtube teaching herself how to crochet, and was thrilled. With a little help from me and the computer she is off and running, and has been crocheting day and night. Here is her first creation for our naughty pup Bogey. As you can see I wasn't able to photo him without him moving his head so sorry it's a bit blurry, but it really shows off Danielle's handwork.

Breeana Johng - Student Art

Just wanted to get your attention Breeana :) cuz i know you follow my blog. Hey, come back and see me. Left a message for you on your home phone. I've figured out a way to get you into the Adv. 3-d class any period that will fit your schedule, so if interested come on by the classroom

Katherine England - Professional Mosaic Artist

Just wanted to update you on some of Katherine's latest pieces. But first I want to show you one of her earliest works and one of my favorites since the first day I walked into her studio (above) She never got around to grouting this whimsical guy, and in the end I think she felt it didn't need it because she had fitted the mosaic pieces so tightly together on the old silver platter. Below are a few of her recent works. She has been teaching face making workshops and these are a couple of samples that she whipped up. I believe both girls are likenesses of her two daughters.

If you look closely you can see fused glass pieces that she makes and incorporates amongst the other glass shards. I also really admire how she solves her borders on both works. She's my hero!


A close up of the one above.

Summer Garden 2009

Just a couple random shots of my summer garden. June is always gorgeous with the agapanthus (spell check couldn't find the correct spelling so I hope I'm close enough) blooming in their purples and whites, and then my begonias really filled in nicely there at the edge of the planters.


One of my favorite blossoms is this variegated canna which blooms from yellow orange into red oranges depending on how old the blossom is.


Another favorite but not as vibrant this year as I would have liked are my hydrangeas. But I 'm just happy they even bloomed, cuz last year I hardly had any blossoms at all. I know I need to fertilize more but I'm oh so lazy about that. Every now and then I'll throw out some bat guano. Alum Billy Sevedge turned me on to it and it really greens up the leaves and promotes blooms.


This is a great shot of how the baby tears moss grew around my piggy and stepping stone. Unfortunately, with the lack of water and too much sun this summer that moss is almost all dormant right now. But supposedly we are in for lots of rain this year so I'm hoping it will all come back.


And this amazing bloom belongs to a succulent I got for Xmas from a good friend of mine. After I took this shot it sent up 2 more blooms just like this one. Isn't nature cool!

Laguna Beach Art Festivals 2009

Every summer since my 20 year old son Zach could walk, I've been taking him to Laguna Beach to see the art work at the 3 art festivals. Our favorite has always been the Main festival where the art is juried in and is of very high caliber. The Main (pictured above) is also where the Pageant of the Masters is performed in the evenings. Below is a shot of the interior of the Main where they currently have a live art display being added to everyday in the middle there.


This costume display really intrigued us. It was made from all recycled plastics. And there was a photo next to the display showing actual people wearing these outfits.


But our very favorite part of the Main is the student art work sent in from all the Orange County School Districts from grades kindergarten thru senior high. The fractured portrait below was done by a senior and won first place in it's division.



The other two festivals are the Sawdust (above) and the Art-A-Fair (below). The Sawdust is my daughter Dani's favorite, and over the last couple of years we have run into April Strong, a Whitney alum, who is the balloon lady there every summer. She always makes us balloon bracelets that we wear around the fair grounds. Congrats go out to her younger sister Rachel, also a Whitney alum and one of my all time favorite students, who just recently got married this year.

Busy Week

Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I traveled with my friend up to San Luis Obispo for a gallery showing of her work, and one of my favorite stops was here in Morro Bay to grab a quick lunch, and to shop the downtown stores. There were several nice galleries, one in downtown and the others along the waterfront, all with local artist's works. We also stopped in Los Olivos on the way up the coast. What a cool place that is, a real throw back to rural America. Many great wine tasting stores along with a couple decent galleries. Definitely a worthwhile stop. But my favorite part of the trip was Thursday nite in downtown San Luis. It's a farmers market with many great food vendors plus hundreds of people shopping, eatting and partying. A real interesting mix of college students, young families and an older crowd. There were a couple of live bands playing, so we danced in the streets. So much fun! Below is the view of the town of Morro Bay from the big rock.


Then on Saturday night, my favorite band, the Rockits, with one of the High Lites from Vegas, performed at a neighborhood block party. So much good food and lots of great music.


There is Jimmy on Caroline's guitar that she redid for him. Everyone is loving what you did on that guitar Caroline! And Dan is blowing beautiful music on his sax.


Looks like Ritchie and Jim are having an argument but they are really singing to each other. Pat is in the background on the keyboard.


And here is Dan's girlfriend Sue, and her pup dancing to the music. Sue and her dog work with children to help them overcome psychological problems. She takes the dog everywhere she goes. He's almost human! And so well behaved, unlike my naughty dog Bogie.

Steffi Wong - Student Art

This was senior Steffi Wong's final assignment of the year in my 3rd year drawing/painting class. The assignment was to pick a piece of music and create a 2-d piece of art that works with the song. The students usually love this assignment because it allows them a lot of freedom to create art and listen to their favorite music at the same time. Steffi chose a lovely piece of music and when I listened to it her work of art flowed so beautifully with it. The students were allowed to select whatever media they felt worked best with the song, so Steffi chose watercolor, tissue paper collage and pen and ink. Below is a close up so you can see the wonderful texture she was able to achieve in her work. She worked this piece out on a full size piece of watercolor paper in less then 10 days time, not an easy task. These kids work their butts off for me. And I hope you all know how much I appreciate your hard work! Fantastic way to go out Steffi. You made teaching such a pleasure!

Caroline Ma's Gifts to her Classmates - Student Art

These sweet little polymer clay pins (using Laurie Mika's mixed media mosaic techniques) were made by senior Caroline Ma as going away presents for her fellow classmates, plus one for Mama Agrums :) I'm pretty sure she gave all the seniors theirs at Graduation but the rest are with me to be given out the first week of school, so Breeana, Emmerline, Jhoanna and Audrey, stop on by. Really like how she mounted them on paper that she watercolored. Great presentation Caroline, and I love how no two are the same.

Regina Teng - Student Art

On the last day of school when senior Regina Teng was whizzing by to pick up her portfolio, tool box and semester final, I couldn't resist taking a picture of her in her slashed up shirt. What a great new assignment this could be for my 3-d students! :) I'll miss you Regina, you know you were one of my favs for many years. Thank you for all the unique pieces you created and slaved over for me. You have some of the strong critical thinking skills I've ever seen in a student. They are gonna take you far. Love you

Julia Meng - Student Art

This was senior Julia Meng's very last piece before graduation. She only had about 5 days of school left to do them in, and the canvas' where huge. The other students and I really enjoyed watching her develop these so quickly. What a talented young woman!!!

Sand Castle Competition - Oregon

My mosaic buddy KK sent me these pix of sand castles from the Oregon coast, and I thought they were amazing. My 3-D and ceramic students, check them out!

Functional Art at it's Best

As promised in my recent post, here's my friend Jimmy playing his new and improved blues bass guitar at Java Joe's last night, the artwork on it designed and executed by alum Caroline Ma. Wish you could have been there Caroline! Jim got so many wonderful compliments on your work. I was so pleased for you :) Hopefully you will get some calls for more commissions.


And here is Jim and High Lite's lead singer Ritchie doing a number together. Their next performance will be 2 weeks from now on Friday August 21, again at Java Joe's in Yorba Linda from 8 to 11.

Finally Finishing up my Garden Sphere

Finally, after 10 long months I'm gluing on my last piece of glass to my sphere. That was a couple of weeks ago.


Here I am last nite finally grouting the damn thing after driving everyone crazy in the class trying to decide which color grout I should use. Sorry I was such a pain in the ass!


I ended up choosing the grape grout which looks kind of black in these pictures.


And here's my good buddy KK who helped me every step of the grouting way wearing this really funky crown that she found laying around the studio. KK you are the queen of my heart. Thank you for your patience and kindness.


Here are several views of the finished sphere.

Can't decide which side I like the most.

The only bummer with finishing this up is that I'm gonna have to figure out what to make next. So many ideas. So many decisions. What to do? KK, HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Caroline Ma - Alumni Art

After seeing Caroline's mosaic box on my blog, my friend Jim, bass player from the Rockits band, commissioned Caroline to go completely crazy on his favorite blues bass guitar. He wanted her to redesign the front, back and the case as well. He gave her free reign to do whatever she felt would look good, and here are several views of the finished piece.


He will be playing on this guitar this Friday Nite from 8:00 to 11:00 at Java Joe's here in Yorba Linda with his band the Rockits along with their sister group the High Lites, located on Yorba Linda Blvd and Yorba Ranch Road. So come out to listen to a lot of great music from the 50's and 60's and see Carloine's work up close.

I love how Caroline used newspaper collage around the edges on both front and back sides, along with the polymer mosaic work.









Needless to say after viewing her work, Jim was thrilled with the finished guitar and gave her a sizable chunk of change for her work. Way to go Caroline!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so proud of you.

Rikaya Obilo- Student Art

One of my favorite things is figuring out ways to display art in my home. I love how Rikaya's metal kite looks on top of this journal. Hey there woman! Just wanted you to know I'm thinking about you and I miss you! Hopefully you can come visit me this month before you head back to school.

Tuesday Nite Mosaics Class Update

So excited, this Tuesday nite I'm going to be grouting my sphere, FINALLY! It's only taken me 10 months to glue the glass down. I'll be the very last person from the original class to finish. The pix above was my very first mosaic done in Katherine's class from last summer, but I forgot to post it. I was inspired by Katherine's whimsical trees that she did in glass that edge the doorway to her studio at the Muck where she teaches out of. Katherine has everyone start with an old silver tray base for their first piece.

Both of these trays where done recently by two of her beginners. Aren't they fabulous!


And this last piece was done by one of her advanced students who lives out San Bernadino way and drives all the way in to Fullerton to take her class. What a great piece! So hopefully real soon I'll be able to post my finished garden sphere.

Summer Update at the Agrums

Here's our dog Bogey's favorite new hangout, curled up in my son Zach's stuffed snake under his bed. Looks like I woke him up when I took the pix.


Dani is still celebrating her 15th birthday with a trip to the Orange County Fair and a sleep over with her pals. What a long nite that was!


And the girls still play dress up and have mock battles around the house with their light savers.


And Wednesday's still continue to be our beach days this summer down at Newport. The water is so warm right now because we've had so many days of warm temps. Here are Dani and her boyfriend Tyler, and my son Zach (in the beard) with his two best friends, Sean and Kyle. We continue to be on water rationing here in Yorba Linda and everyone's grass is beginning to turn brittle and brown. I'm barley able to keep all my potted plants alive. Fortunately the weatherman is predicting a year filled with rainfall, so I've got my fingers crossed.

Jimmy on Bass Guitar

In a recent post I showed off my musical friends the Rockits and the Hi Lites, and Jim, the bass guitarist, background singer, and my best buddy, took exception to the photo I put in of him. Oops! So to make him a happy camper again, here's to you Jimmy, some pictures that I've taken and some that you've sent to me. Hope you like these!!! :) The top pix I took last night as the band was performing at a local coffee shop here in Yorba Linda called Java Joes. Check out Jim's very cool suede shoes.


This next shot that Jim sent to me was taken last year when Jim was spiking his hair. I understand this shot is getting Jim a lot of feedback on his face book, especially from the ladies. Even one from as far away as Sweden. Work it Jimmy!


This pix was taken recently when the band performed at a venue called the Marketplace in Long Beach. Looks like Jim is taking a break and enjoying the cooling beach breeze. Love those shades!


This is a pix of the entire band performing last night including a sweet and brave young girl that Jim coaxed into coming up on stage to sing along with them. She made the evening by not only singing with the band but getting down on the floor and dancing in the front row with the ladies.


And I saved the best for last. Here's Jimmy giving Richie a big smooch at the end of the evening when they where pulling down the equipment to call it a night. So much fun! The band will perform again August 7th, 21st and Sept 4th, all Friday nights from 8:00 to 11:00. Java Joes is located on the corner of Yorba Linda Blvd and Yorba Ranch Road. Come out and join us. They serve wine and beer in the evenings.

Rachel Rilloraza - Student Art

Last week, maybe longer, I posted a picture of Rachel spinning yarn on the spinning wheel. Well I've finally got the finished product to show off. Above is her handspun yarns and the beginnings of her baby sweater. The hand dyed roving came from Lori Lawson at Capistrano Fiber Arts. And the shot below is Rachel's finished piece. Notice how she alternated the darker yarn throughout the body of the piece and along the cuffs.


Below is a close up of the Fimo buttons she made and baked to go with the colors in the sweater. I'm so proud of you Rachel, this is such a beautiful sweater. Miss you woman!

Self-Portraits - Student Art

I promised I'd post these second year drawing/painting student's self-portraits about a week ago, but as usual, my busy summer schedule is getting in the way of blogging. So anyways, here they are, and I think you will find they were worth the wait. This was their 4th quarter final, and it had to be a self-portrait done in any 2-d media they were most comfortable in. It also had to be done by either looking in a mirror, or from a recent photograph, and show an identifiable expressive quality. The one above and the close up below belong to senior Caroline Ma. This was a photo that was taken of her at senior retreat. She began with watercolor, then brought in some collage and finished up by free motion stitching over top. She may also have brought in some pen and ink work. It is a phenomenal piece, and one of Caroline's strongest works of the year. I went crazy over it when she brought it in for grading then went as fast as I could to the principal's office to show it off.


This next one belongs to senior Shabina Toorawa and was done from a photo of she and her boyfriend Brandon. She executed it in charcoal and I feel it was also one of Shabina's strongest works this year. Love the expressive quality that she was able to capture in her face. Really sensitive, gorgeous work Shabina!


Next we have senior Regina Teng. She is a very creative, outside the box thinker and I always look forward to seeing how she will interpret my assignments. Regina choose acrylics to work with but then I think I remember she switched to tempera. She worked from a really expressive photo that she manipulated on the computer so she could alter the colors. She mounted the piece on cardboard and brought in some loose paint and collage work on the left. And then she cut interesting shapes around the outside edges. Very unique Regina!


Really love this next one of senior Peraya Siriwong. Such a strong visual statement. She also worked from a recent photo and in charcoal. This piece was so captivating that as physics teacher Mr. Z strolled by my room, he took a peek inside and spotted it on my wall and had to come in for a closer look. He liked it so much that he bought it from Peraya that same day. It's so cool to see how art pulls people in and moves them.


This lovely piece was done by senior Mindy Cho and I'm pretty sure she looked in a mirror to work. She began with watercolor then brought in some text with pen and ink as well as some collage work in the hair. Fantastic expressive quality Mindy, and I'm especially impressed with your watercolor work.


This next one was done by junior Jullian Kuo who is one of my up and coming stars for next school year. She worked from a photo and painted herself n acrylics. A very competent piece!


Here is another work that Mr. Z really responded to done by senior Amanda Garcia. She worked in pen and ink and came up with a highly original design. A really bold, expressive piece.


And last we have my other rising superstar for next school year, junior Hannah Park. This piece is so sensitive, so very lovely, and was done from a recent photo in watercolor, and believe it or not, paper towel collage. Yes, paper towel that you wipe your hands on in the kitchen. Hannah is such a clever girl!

Las Brisas and The Ritz Carlton

A couple weeks ago my good friends treated me to drinks at the famed restaurant Las Brisas in Laguna Beach where we sat and watched the sun go down. These two shots were of the Laguna coastline in both directions. What a spectacular view!



Afterwards as we were headed home north along Pacific Coast Highway we made another pit stop at the gorgeous resort, The Ritz Carlton for music and dancing. It's located between Laguna Beach and Corona Del Mar. I had to stop and take a picture of these two flower displays. They were both so breathtaking in their artistic arrangements. Couldn't decide which one I liked the best. Needless to say we had a wonderful evening in such a lavish setting! Isn't summer grand? :)

The Rockits and the Highlites

This is the first summer that I haven't been pouring myself into my art in the evenings. Instead I've been spending a lot of time with my big new Italian family, The Rockits and the Highlites. The Rockits are a band that's been playing together since the 80's and they play a lot of 50's and 60's music plus a few tunes from the 70's, and The Highlites are a singing group from Vegas that in the last couple of years hooked up with the Rockits for many of their performances. Both groups do solo performances as well as working together, and their music is both lively and soulful, and so much fun to dance to. They perform at a lot of coffee houses in the evenings as well as weddings, block parties, retirements and so forth. And I try to attend as many of these events as I can, including their rehearsals, as pictured above.


These next two posts were shot last weekend at the Phoenix Club in Anaheim for a birthday party where both the Rockits and The Highlites played together. Lots and lots of dancing. Yes, I'm burning hundreds of calories :)



The next 5 posts were shot on Fourth of July in Laguna Niguel for a block party. On saxophone is my good buddy Dan, a retired school principle, who hosts all the practice sessions and provides food and drink for everyone. It's so much fun when they are practicing because all the neighbors stop by with their children to listen to the music. The kids really respond to the music from the 50's.


Next we have bass guitarist extraordinaire Jimmy from Jersey, the head honcho in Human Resources for Taco Bell in their Santa Margarita office, and one of the nicest men I've ever met. Jim has been heading up bands since he was in high school, and is one of the background singers for the band. Jim also has a keen eye for the Fine Arts, and is quite the craftsman himself. He is a close follower of my blog and has commissioned Caroline Ma (one of my senior art stars) to collage one of his bass guitars and it's case. She's almost done and I'll be posting the results soon.


Then we have Patrick on keyboard. When we get really lucky he'll pull out his accordion and play any song you ask him to. The other night he played Moon River for me (one of my all time favorites) Pat is also an amazing artist. He hand letters signs professionally and also plays in a cowboy band when he's not playing with the Rockits. Pat told me the other night that he's been playing since he was 7 years old, and when he was on tour in Vietnam, he entertained the troops with any piano he could find.


Next we have Bobby on drums. I think his wife Michelle told me that Bobby plays for 4 different bands a week. He's got a crazy schedule. He is also one of the lead singers for the band.


And here is Tony, the lead guitarist, as well as the lead singer who is a pure joy to listen to as he makes his guitar sing. So yeah, the Rockits have pretty much adopted me into their fold and have brought so much beautiful music into my life. Now I'm trying to talk my two kids into coming with me to hear them play. Not sure that's ever gonna happen but wish me luck!

Happy Birthday Baby

My girl's 15th birthday started at 8 this morning when Dani's boyfriend Tyler surprised and woke her up with a beautiful bouquet of roses and a glazed doughnut, he even brought one for me, what a nice boy! Then I drove the two of them to Disneyland where Tyler treated her to a day I'm sure she'll remember for a long time. She just texted me as I'm posting this and they are watching fireworks right now. Tyler's mom is in charge of pick up tonight at 11. Glad I got the morning drop off duty!

We let her open her presents yesterday cuz it was the only time everyone was at home at the same time. Our dog Bogie was a big help with the tissue paper.

And here she is modeling her new bag and scarf. What a cutie pie! I'm so proud of the young woman you are growing into Danielle. You are smart and funny, creative and self-motivated with an unfailing commitment to doing the right thing. And your heart is so big, you show compassion, empathy and friendship to everyone you know. Happy Birthday my beautiful daughter and friend. Now would you please go pick up your room? LOL

Clay Masks - Student Art

Every year in my Beginning 3-d art course I like to let the kids try out clay so that they might enjoy it and sign up for my Ceramics class I teach. Just found out last week that 42 students have signed up for next school year but unfortunately I only have enough room for 32 bodies. So the counselors are going to have to make a few cuts. Sorry guys there is always another year. So these are the first attempts at clay for many of my beginning students and I feel they did a tremendous job. Starting with the middle mask then working upward and clockwise we have junior Alma Gudino, 7th grader Andrew Veenstra, senior Ariel Improta, 7th grader Aman Patel, and seniors Emily Choh, Jenny Ham, and Connie Pae

A close up of the detailed workmanship that Andrew put into his piece.


These four masks are from years past. I use them as good examples to show my students what I'm after. The one in the bottom right corner is a demo. piece that I made a few years ago. One of my favorite things about teaching art is that I oftentimes get to make a piece of art as I'm showing the kids how to do an assignment. Masks are especially fun and easy for me to whip up.

Self-Portraits - Student Art

Here is senior Michelle Bui looking at herself in the glass door and drawing her portrait in charcoal as a preliminary exercise before she begins her "real" self-portrait. This is the final assignment for 4th quarter in my Intermediate 2-d drawing class. Michelle nailed herself right off the bat in this prelim that I allow only one day to complete. Then she chose a recent photo of herself and worked out her actual piece that she turned in for her final grade. The students are allowed to either work from a mirror or recent photo. This year it was about half/half. They are also allowed to choose whatever 2-d media they'd like to work in for their final piece. Michelle ended up choosing pastel for hers. Hopefully my next post will show off some of the finished self-portraits.

Julia Meng - Student Art

I have featured senior Julia Meng's work many times this past school year. This was her second to last piece that she did as a commission for 1986 Alum and lawyer Edward Ho (ex Art Club president). He commissioned the piece at Open House when he found out that another piece of hers 'Three Headed Phoenix" was already sold. So they spoke a few times and exchanged ideas and this was the final result, a sensitive, gorgeous piece. Julia used many different media in this work including spray paint, wood burning, collage, pen and ink, text, glass shards and acrylic paint. She is truly a genius and heads off to Princeton this fall to join her brother Eric there. And Julia, thank you for including me in your Valedictorian speech, and talking about how the arts have impacted so many of our students at Whitney. You made me cry and touched my heart with your words. I will miss your sweetness and your brilliance. I adored working with you over the years. Both you and your brother where such exceptional students. Thank you for all the effort you put into all four of the classes you took with me.

Nature Themed Planters - Student Art

First off I really have to apologize for not posting like i should everyday. I've just been so distracted this summer and only getting to the computer a couple times a week. But I still have a lot of photos to post from the end of the 2009 school year. So please be patient with me :) I use these clay planters as final assignments every year for my Ceramics I class. They build and glaze them and then we plant them on the day of the 4th quarter final. I purchase at least two plants and soil for each student planter and then give them a brief lesson on how not to kill their plants. This year they were able to choose from marigolds, sweet williams, impatiens, lobeila, and petunias. These first two planters were made by juniors Ekta Doshi and Lihan Woo.

These next three were created by senior Jessica Song, junior Wayne Chen and senior Cynthia Tsai (who I'm missing like crazy, love you woman!)

And these last three were done by senior Estelle Hong, and juniors Steven Ebalobor and Crystal Valino. Great looking planters, hope all the plants are thriving. Keep them watered you guys! the weather is heating up!!

Professional Quilt Artiist - Ricky Tims

One of my all-time favorite quilts that I've purchased is this one by international quilt artist Ricky Tims. It hangs in my home right in the entrance hall so that when you walk in the front door it's one of the first pieces of art that you see. Love the vibrant colors that he hand dyes into his cloth and check out the close up of his free motion quilting stitches. He is truly remarkable in my eyes. I've taken two classes with him over the years and he is so much fun. He is completely self taught and teaches innovative approaches to curves and fabric selections. He also sings to his students as he demonstrates. If you ever get a chance to take one of his workshops I highly recommend them.

Rebecca Chung - Watercolor - Student Art

I'm pretty sure I haven't posted this piece but summertime, not working, and not posting everyday is really fogging up my brain LOL. So if I have please bare with me one more time. This piece was painted in watercolor 2 years ago by one of my all time super star art students Rebecca Chung. If you've been following my blog you have already seen a couple of her amazingly executed drawings. Look under the headings of 3/4 and Frontal Views and Graphite and Value Studies. Anyways, the assignment was to paint in watercolor a floral piece that is so enlarged that it goes off the end of the paper. The students were given half a piece of quality paper. Rebecca asked for a whole sheet and proceeded to do this crazy and remarkable piece. She also brought in pen and ink when the watercolor had dried. Below is a close up. What I've always loved about Rebecca's work is that she takes the minimum requirements and then runs with them and comes up with a completely unique way of dealing with the assignment.

Coil Trivets - Student Art

Forgot to get these posted earlier in the year. This is a fun assignment for the clay kids as we move into coil pots. I use this as an intro assignment so the students get used to rolling coils. All the coils, slab shapes and balls are inlayed into a rolled out slab frame. From left to right are seniors Frank Chang, Jessica Song and Jessica Su.

Missing My Students

It's only been a week since school has been out but already I'm missing my students. So just wanted to say hi to all you young artists who follow my blog, and hope your summer is going well. I've been catching up on all my chores that I always put off till summer break, going to the gym every morning, finally getting to all the doc appts. I've been putting off, and had our first beach Wed at 32nd street in Newport this week. Next Wed I'll be between 56 and 57th streets in Newport. Please join us if you can. I think Whitney and Ariel are coming down. Should be lots of fun. Pack a lunch. Above is senior Rachel Rilloraza spinning yarn for the baby sweater she knitted earlier in the year. This is the second summer that Rachel took the wheel home with her. I hope you are spinning up some beautiful fiber Rachel. Missing you.

Preliminary Metals Unit - Student Art

In yesterdays post I mentioned that we did several preliminary exercises while learning how to work and age the copper metal. All the prelims were done on a 2-d format but sophomore Breeana Johng, who is always thinking, turned one of her prelims into a very clever ring. So guess what, next year everyone makes a preliminary ring :) Thanks Breeana for your inspirational work! I love picking up and incorporating new ideas from the kids.

Mixed Media Mosaic Tile Boxes - Katherine England

I was supposed to post these boxes that were done by my mosaic teacher, Katherine England, when I posted my student's finished boxes but somehow they got left out. But these were the original boxes that I spied in her classroom that lead me to teach the assignment to my students. Katherine had taken a class by mosaic artist Laurie Mika, and the box above was the one she created in that workshop. It really caught my eye along with the other two below, and I just knew my kids would love the challenge. I know I mentioned Laurie's book before, "Mixed Media Mosaics", but just wanted to share it again if you missed it in the previous post a couple weeks ago.

Metal Aged Books - Student Art

This fabulous piece was made by Rikaya Obilo, in a copper metal aging unit in my 2nd year 3-D class as our last assignment of the year, and these next shots are of the finished works after many trails with preliminary pieces. The students learned how to age and patina the metal by torch, acid etching, deckling, liver of sulfur, ammonia, and sawdust and vinegar. It got really smelly in my room for a couple of days there. :) They also learned to make openings in the metal and pull back shutters for windows, work with mica, set eyelets, burn a pink ball at the end of a copper wire, and make their own jump rings, plus a few other things they figured out on their own. It was an incredible experience for them and I think they really enjoyed it. I love how Rikaya thought outside the box and instead of keeping to the traditional format of a book she turned her book into a kite that opened. They were required to put at least 3 special papers inside their book and Rikaya collaged her own pieces instead of using the available specialty papers. It really is a spectacular piece, and then to top it off she gave it to me as her graduation thank you gift. I was flabbergasted and delighted. Can't wait to frame it and hang it in my home. Thank you Rikaya!

This gorgeous book belongs to now graduated senior Joanna Han. I love how she stamped the metal and instead of putting it into the acid etch she just let it be. What a great look. Plus I love how the colorful papers hang outside the format edge. Such a pretty piece Joanna.

These next 4 were created by from left to right, top to bottom, junior Audrey Pulido, senior Julie Kim, 8th grader Emmerline Kim, and sophomore Breeana Johng. Each is so unique and wonderful. Great work ladies!

And of course no post is complete without a piece by senior Caroline Ma :) designer, craftswoman extraordinaire. I love how Caroline pulled back her shutters so they go past the format edge and that she chose to weave the opening with wire, and then to dangle a few goodies at the bottom. Lovely Caroline.

And last but not least is 8th grader and one of my next superstars, 8th grader Jhoanna Coronel. She etched her text into the metal surface and pulled back some great shutters, and then added some textural papers on the inside, for a striking piece.

Happy Graduation 2009 Seniors

So tonight 's the night you noobs. I'm so excited to watch you all walk across the stage. But at the same time I'm sad that you are leaving. It's going to be heartbreaking tonight saying our good-byes and for some of you, this is it, the very last time I'll ever see you again. So I want to wish all of you the very best in life and love with tons of joy and happiness. I sincerely hope that all of you are able to follow your dreams and end up in jobs you love rather than trying to please your parents and becoming something that they want for you. Hopefully that's not too many of you this year. To my art majors, I'm so very proud of all of you, for nailing those art schools you wanted, and for doing so many gorgeous pieces for me this year. It was an absolute pleasure writing your recommendations, you guys made it easy by being who you are. To my non-art majors, thank you for working as hard as you did for me to keep up with the art majors. I know I pushed you hard and expected so much from you. But just look at what you produced and accomplished in such a short time. And you were so scared to take my class, weren't you. See I'm not as scary as you thought I'd be :) Maybe just a little. So many of you dropped by before and after grad practice with gifts and letters from your hearts. Thank you all so very much for all your loving messages and notes. You know I save all those, right? Many of you gave me your favorite art pieces that you made this year, your generosity has really touched my heart, and know that your work will be displayed in my home, and the art lounge at school for all to see and for me to teach with in future years. Above is a pix of me with one of my favorite seniors this year, Rikaya Obilo.