"Siren" - Student Art

The center piece was begun at the end of the last school year when senior Hannah Chung was in my Advanced 3rd year 3-D art class. It was a new mixed media assignment that I was trying out for the first time with the kids. They were required to bring together at least 4 or more mediums onto a piece of plywood. Hannah finished the center one over the summer as well as getting started on the side panels and then this year in my Special Studies class she finished up the entire work. It's one of my favorite pieces that she's produced for me in the 4 years I've been working with her.

Liberated Quiltmaking - Student Art

Several years ago I took the most wonderful workshop with nationally known quilt artist Gwen Marston and learned how to make an art quilt without any patterns and to just work spontaneously and go for it from my recycled fabric stash. It was so much fun that I teach quilt making this way to my 2nd year 3-D students. First I teach them to sew on a sewing machine then we move right into this assignment. The top piece was done by 8th grader Emmerline Kim, and the piece below was created by senior Caroline Ma who is headed off to art school in the fall. It's an exceptional design and was made with hand dyed fabric produced by world renown quilt artist Ricky Tims, along with other misc. fabrics.

Close up view of Caroline's gorgeous quilt. This shot really shows off her free motion quilting. Free Motion is when you drop the feed dogs on your machine so you can draw like an artist would with your thread. Very difficult to do but Caroline really wanted to learn. Usually I don't teach this technique until the kids come back for a third year in the 3-D class. But I made an exception because Caroline was so persuasive :)

Negative Space Plant - Student Art

Midway through the drawing unit that I put my Beginning 2-D art students through, I break things up with this fun but challenging assignment. First the students create a new, exciting format other than a simple geometric shape. In this case, junior Anne Gu chose a zebra. Then the students use their new right brain drawing skills to draw a plant in negative space within the format. The last step is to brush india ink into all parts of both plant and format. The whole process involves a lot of critical thinking as well as drawing and painting skills, so they are learning about good design as well.

This extremely creative piece was produced by junior Shabnaz Khandoker.

Instead of filling her format with a plant, junior Marisela Herrarte chose to go outside and draw a tree. Makes for a very strong and powerful visual.

Another beauty done by junior Amanda Lui.

This gorgeous plant was done by senior Jane Park.

Janitor Closet into Art Lounge

Several years ago when our school was remodeled, my principal Patricia Hager, asked if I would like to turn the old janitor closet into a storage area for art supplies. Honestly, I was not really sure because the space was pretty scary; spider webs, mold and mildew, dead rats and live cockroaches. But Patti can be pretty persuasive and I took on the task LOL. It took myself, as well as my T.A.s and detention students a half a year to scrub down the space then repaint it. But it was totally worth it. Once cleaned up there were endless possibilities for display, storage and creativity. This is the view looking into the interior from the doorway. The shower curtains hide storage for our fiber arts students. The far back brick wall was decorated and painted by 2nd year 2-D art student Alum, Luini Tan. She came back two years ago to assist me with kilns and prep work for my art classes and while here also managed to paint the fabric from her Auntie's quilt onto the brick walls. Everything in the art lounge was student made or decorated. The only thing I added was a bright red couch for the students to chill on. I hope you enjoy the next few shots of the lounge and our students art works.

One of my favorite pieces in the lounge was done by 2003 Alum Angela Su Molina. She created a whole series of these chairs, each one different, and then sold them to several of our teachers and staff at our annual Open House sale.

Door leading into the lounge painted and collaged by 1st year 2-D art student Alum Heidi Cho, clever girl! Heidi should just be finishing up at Rhode Island School of Design.

Another view of the lounge. The panel farthest away was painted by 3rd year 2-D Art Alum Ly Nguyen (who I think is an Art Center grad by now). Middle panel done by 4th year 2-D Art Alum Mark Bayaua, and panel closest was painted by both Mark Bayaua and his good buddy 2nd year 2-D Alum RayAnne DeCampo (who I know just got married this last year- congrats RayAnne!)

The old formica counter top was turned into a mosaic work of art in 2003 when Alum Angela Su along with boyfriend, Andrew Molina came back during their winter break from college to further beautify the space. If I'm remembering correctly 2004 Alum Melissa Wong did the mirror edging around the mosaic, and Alum Angela Feng did the large female ceramic bust and left it to me as her graduation thank you.

A huge paper mache' heart that 2003 Alum Rebecca Chen made in 4th year 3-D art hangs above the doorway of the lounge. And on both sides of heart on the side panels, 3rd year 2-D Alum Laura Rameriz, painted fun geometric shapes. Laura has since come back to volunteer her expertise in painting with oils to my 2-D art students every Friday at lunch this past quarter.

Rebecca collaged all 4 cabinet doors with abstract faces, then handpainted ceramic knobs to match the faces for the drawers above each face.

Back corner view. Even the flooring was laid by a student. Rebecca Chen did it when she was was my art T.A. The large oil cityscape was created for my family by dear friend, artist and teacher Rick Harsh of Huntington Beach, Ca.

Glass Artisit Katherine England - Mosaic Horse

I've really been inspired by my mosaic teacher, Katherine England, who teaches a variety of art classes to children and adults at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. This is one of her lastest works and belongs to a series of other pieces that revolve around Shakespeare's works.

Inspiring

A close-up view of Katherine's horse. Notice how she is mixing mosaic with fused glass , and text that she has soldered under glass. My Intermedaite 3-D art students will be learning all 3 of these techniques in 4th quarter and will be incorporating them into one final piece. Thanks Katherine for your inspiration and guidiance!

More of Katherine England's Mosaic Work

I love how Katherine mixes fused glass images, like these houses, with her mosaic work. Sorry my shot is so out of focus.


















Close-up of Katherine's mirror

Time to Create

A view of the inside of Katherine's mosaic classroom. A visual treat for the eyes.

Garden Sculptures

Katherine's current class are working on garden sculptures. I didn't allow myself to participate because I haven't finished my last project yet. One piece at a time! These next 3 posts are pieces that are in progress. I'm so jealous.

Garden Sculptures

Garden Sculptures

Upcycled Silver Platter

Mosaic done inside an old silver platter. This is usually what Katerine has her beginners start with.

Close Up

Close-up of Katherine's mirror frame

More Progress Made

Every Tuesday nite I drive to the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton for a mosaic class with glass artist Katherine England (http://www.katherineengland.com/). Even though everyone else in the class has already finished their sphere I'm still plugging away at mine. She had us make the sphere around a rubber bouncy ball, the kind you get in the grocery store. We mixed up a concrete slurry and put two layers around the ball. This was my first time working with concrete and I loved it, so much fun! Below are a few views of my unfinished sphere. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of this year. :)

Update on Garden Sphere

I like how this teardrop worked out but not the blue/purple area so i'll be ripping that part off and re-doing it. It feels too orderly and controlled.

Mosaic Garden Sphere

Mosaic Frame - Beginning 3-D Art Students

This is the first time I've done mosaics with my beginning crafts students and they are loving it. Here is 7th grader Andrew Veenstra finishing up his piece by painting the sides with acrylics. Background students are 7th grader Yoon So and 8th grader Jenny Kouch who are grouting their pieces.

Mosaic Frame in Progress

A close-up of senior Shabina Toorawa's frame in progress. I'm excited about her unique design. So different than the others. I love that!

Mosaic Frames

These beauties are a few of the finished mosaics from my Beginning 3-D art students. Starting from upper left top row: 7th grader Andrew Veenstra, 8th grader Lilith Huang. Bottom row left: 7th grader Aman Patel, and 12th grader Ivy Hu.

Clay Artist Alum - Bill Sevedge

Class of 1985 alum, Bill Sevedge, recently came by for a visit before our Xmas break and ended up with his hands in the clay bucket :) He stayed long enough to make several goreous pieces along with building this beautiful blogsite for me and then teaching me how to use it (http://www.edgegraphix.net/) I want to showcase this piece because I wanted my current students to see a creative solution to a major oops during the firing process. But also to see how to mix other media with their finished clay pieces which is an assignment that is coming up for them next month. During the glaze firing a crack opened up in the upper left corner where the seams came together. There is no repair that could fix this without being noticeable. In the next post you will see Bill's final result and his solution to this dilemma.

Alumni Bill Sevedge

Here is the finished mixed media piece. The large crack in the seam line forced Bill to come up with a plan to cover it up. His creative soloution was to bring in black suede and thin tan suede strips along with glass bead embellishments. Stunning!

Slab Wraps - Student/Teacher Work

Here are a few more examples of the Slab Wraps done by my beginning clay students. The one in the middle is my demo. piece for the assignment. From left to right: senior Milly Shah, me, and senior Nahel Kapadia.

Slab Wraps - Student Work

Here they are! My beginner's gorgeous, textured pots. My son Zach turned me on to this technique after he learned it from his Ceramics teacher Mr. Henry, at Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda. From left to right are (all seniors): Frank Chang, Keith Gaxiola, and Estelle Hong.

Ceramics I Class

Had way too much fun the last couple of days with my clay students. The assignment is called Slab Wrap and the students had to thump and drag their highly textured clay slab on the cement outside my room. This process stretches the clay out and exaggerates the textural elements that they've embedded. Then they wrap this piece onto itself to create a cylinder vase form. The finished results are truly amazing and the students are able to make the entire pot in just one class period. You will see the finishe pieces in the next post.

Fiesta Ornament Duo

This summer I was inspired by an article on paper quilts in Quilting Arts or Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine (can't remember which one) which featured the work of Chicago artist, Judy Coates Perez. When I visited her site http://www.judyperez.blogspot.com/ I saw these delightful fiesta ornaments. They were actually featured in the 2008 gift issue of Quilting Arts. So anyways I tried making a couple of these handpainted ornaments this summer thinking they'd be a great new assignmnet for my 3rd year 3-D students. But instead of doing them as individual ornaments I wanted to mount them side by side with copper mesh under them before I hand appliqued them to the quilted batting as I had seen Judy do in her site. I love teaching units that incoprpoate at least 2 to 3 different media. In these we would be using metal, textile paints, pearle cotton threads and fabric. Well, I never finished my sample, but hopefully I will soon cuz I'm really enjoying how it's working out. The saddest part of all is that I didn't get any 3rd year kids back this year because the ones who wanted the class couldn't fit it into their schedules. Oh well, there is always next year!

Color Blending Workshop

I was invited 2 Saturdays ago to a Southcoast Weavers and Spinners handspinning workshop at Lori Lawson's home in San Juan Capistrano. Janel Laidman was the featured artist/teacher, and she was terrific. She is the master of the Spindilicity website and the author of "The Eclectic Sole". Learned so much about spinning handdyed/handpainted rovings in several different techniques. These are some of my finished products.

Falling Leaves

This is a quilt top that is currently in progress, actually for about the last 4 years, hee hee. It is all hand appliqued with some areas in reverse applique. So no machine stitching at all. Probably why it's taking me so dang long to finish it. One of these days! :)

Mosaic Frame - Student Work

My Beginning 3-D art students are currently finishing up this mosaic assignment. This frame was made by senior Hannah Chung last year and I purchased it from her at Open House and gave it to my daughter for Xmas.

Hand Felted Bags

A little better visual of the two demo bags. The handmade beads on the bag on the right were a gift from Holland, Michigan mixed media artist Kelli Perkins (http://www.kelliperkins.blogspot.com/) after purchasing two of her art quilts. I sure lucked out. The remainder are going onto my demo. bag that I'm currently working on.

Felt Bags -Student/Teacher Work

These felt bags are examples of the assignment that my 2nd year 3-D art students are working on right now. The one on the left was made by senior Hannah Chung when I had her in the 9th grade, and the two on the right were made by me as demo. pieces. A close up will be in the next post. The students made their felt from scratch, from hand dyed wool rovings that came from Joanna Gleason's flock of Corriedale and Bond sheep in Lyons, Colorado (http://www.gfwsheep.com/) Then they needle felted additional design elements on top and embellished with beads. They were also required to line the insides with a fabric that would flow visually with the outside colors. And lastly they had to make a closure. These are very functional bags.

Mixed Media - Student Work

This piece was recently created by senior Julia Meng, one of the most gifted young students I've ever worked with. She is exceptional in both the creative arts and in her academic pursuits. In fact, I'm sure she is up for one of our Valedictorian spots this year. Julia is a 4th year art student with me and I've been working with her since the 7th grade. In this piece she combined many materials. She began watercoloring and tissue collaging on a piece of plywood, she further embellished with india ink, glass shards and wood carving. I'm thrilled with the final result! It's a stunning work. I believe she calls it Three Headed Phoenix.

3/4 View Watercolor - Student Work

This sensitive, gorgeous piece was done of senior Peraya Khaonuonsri by senior Michelle Bui. This is also Michelle's 2nd year with me and she is a pleasure to work with everyday. I will be featuring many more of her works over the next couple of months.

3/4 View Watercolor - Student Work

This is the first post of many that have been done by my art students here at Whitney High School. This is a 3/4 view watercolor of junior Hannah Park done by one of my top art students this year, senior Mindy Cho. She is headed off to art school in the fall. This is Mindy's 2nd year with me, and she has created many exceptional pieces this and last year.

Baby Sweater Set #1

The first of 3 sweaters I made last year from a pattern that came from Cottage Creations. The yarn is from Capistrano Fiber Arts (http://www.paintspinknit.blogspot.com/) and was handdyed. It knits up like a dream. One of my fourth year 3-D art students, Rachel Rilloraza, is currently handspinning roving from CFA and is knitting up this same pattern. I'll post her progress in a couple of days.

Knitted Baby Sweater #3

Of all my baby sweaters this one is my favorite because I was able to build it from all my leftover handdyed, handspun yarns. I think my daughter Danie has dibs on it. Sorry Zach!

Knitted Baby Garments

Finished this set 2 years ago and they are my favorites. I handspun this handpainted roving (done by Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts www.paintspinknit.blogspot.com) into a two-ply yarn then made up the pattern as I knit.