Rachel Rilloraza - Student Art

Senior Rachel Rilloraza has been taking art classes from me since she was a 7th grader. She is currently in 2 of my classes and did this piece at the beginning of the school year. Because she is in a 4th year special studies crafts class with me she gets to create her own assignments. I had bought this wonderful new metal product that can be manipulated and embossed and thought she might be interested in sculpting with it, so this was her end result. What I especially appreciate about Rachel is that she goes the extra mile to frame out many of her pieces.

A close up of her mask. Sorry it's a little blurry.

Metal/Canvas Journals - Student Work

Inspired by felt artist Gail Perrone (http://www.catfishstudiofelt.com/) I tried this new project with my Intermediate 3-D students. Earlier in the blog I posted Gail's work along with my students work as they were getting going on this. These are a group shot of a few of the finished pieces. The kids told me this was one of their favorite assignments all year. Wish I would have had the time to make one with them. From top to bottom, left to right: junior Audrey Pulido, 8th graders Joanna Coronell and Emmerline Kim, and senior Rikaya Obilo. Really amazing work ladies.

One of my favorites was senior Rikaya Obilo's journal. She even attached a book marker and a built-in closure. Love her color scheme and her use of embellishments and text.

A close-up of sophomore Breeana Johng's journal that she has turned into a scrapbook of her year in cheerleading with her friends. Such beautiful work!

Both back and front side of junior Audrey Pulido's journal. She put in so much extra time into her piece, and it really shows!

Senior Caroline Ma's amazing journal. She is such a talented designer and craftswoman.

The first page of Caroline's book

Bogey Agrums - A Work in Progress

Meet our new boy, Bogey. He's a stray that my husband picked up at the golf course. Lucky us! He's a mix of a lot of really naughty puppies, and he's chewing us out of house and home. We even had a dog whisperer come in to try to train him, but the situation looks pretty hopeless. The trainer used the word "Bah" a lot to try to convice Bogey to behave. Doesn't work so well when we use it. Here he is in his new winter parka snuggled up for a evening with his new family. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to scooch him over cuz he's in my spot on the couch. Bah Bogey, bad dog! He never learns.

Pen and Ink Washes - Student Art

These sweet pieces were done earlier in the year by my 2nd year drawing and painting students. Their assignment was to draw a shell in modified contour with a sharpened dowel dipped in ink. So no pencil drawings first, just jumping right in with pen and ink. The kids were scared to death. If they made a mistake there was no taking it back, so this was a good stretch for them. After their drawing was dry they were to use at last 3 values of ink washes and brush in the shaded areas. Then after piece was done they learned how to make a professional mat to frame piece out in. Those were the minimum requirements. What I love about teaching here is that many of my students like to go beyond the minimum and shake things up a bit. Thus the watercolor, collaging, and untraditional matting. From top to bottom, senior Amanda Garcia (rumor has it that Amanda recently heard from Rhode Island School of Design and was told she was one of their top candidates to get in for next year - congrats Amanda!), junior Hannah Park, and seniors Caroline Ma and Mindy Cho. Beautiful work ladies.

Framed Appliquilts - Student Art

So thrilled to finally show off my beginner's finished appliquilts in their paper mache' frames. The kids built their frames from scratch and then paper mached over their cardboard foundations. After a coat of primer they paper collaged then embellished them and put labels and hanging devices on the backside. Look at how beautifully their frames compliment their quilts. From top to bottom, left to right are junior Alma Gudino, 7th grader Andrew Veenstra, seniors Jenny Ham, Emily Choh, Ariel Improta (yes, our drama teacher's daughter), Connie Pae, Ivy Hu and Shabina Toorawa.


















A close-up of the pieces so you can see all the handstitching and embellishments. And these are just my beginners! What a lucky woman I am to teach these kids!

Ivy Hu - Student Art

This marvelous piece should have been posted with the other wire sculptures from my Beginning 3-D class but somehow was left behind. Ran across it the other day and really wanted it seen. Ivy made it much larger than the others then double mounted it for a very dimensional effect. On the back piece of board she drew graceful linear leaf shapes to compliment the dragonfly. Fantastic job Ivy!

Rescued Orchid

My son Zach, a plant science major at Cal Poly Pomona loves to rescue dying plants and bring them back to life. This one came from Home Depot and was on it's last leg when he brought it home and now it's thriving in our shade garden. This one has been in bloom for the past 4 weeks and is still going strong. Atta Boy Zach!

Serenity Garden

On the shady side of our home is a patio garden that my husband has termed the "Serenity Garden". He likes to go out there and read and watch all the the neighborhood activities. I like to sit out there on weekend mornings and eat my breakfast, read, and spy on our neighbors too. It's a really peaceful spot. Right now this garden is getting ready to burst into flower. The camellias are beginning to flower and so are my son's orchid collection.

My Mother's Orchid Plant from our La Mirada Home

This was one of my mother's favorite plants when I was a kid growing up. My step father Webb planted it into the side of our palm tree and there it grew for many years. When mom moved to Yorba Linda to be close to our growing family it traveled with her there, and then made several more trips with her as I had to move her from independent living to assisted care to 24/7 care as her Alzheimer's disease worsened. She passed away last March 3 and wouldn't you know that her orchid's blooms began opening on that very day a year after she passed. I feel her presence around me all the time, especially in my garden. When I was a teenager I worked at Ann's Flowers in Buena Park and learned to make old lady corsages so my mom would always ask me to make her and my Aunt Elena an Easter Sunday corsage with these blooms. Now this plant sits quietly in our "Serenity Garden" and comes to life once a year with these lovely flowers. I remember when I was ten years old and she brought this orchid back from a trip to Hawaii in her suitcase hoping not to get caught. That was before those x-ray scanning machines :) Thank you mommy for instilling the love of gardening into me and my children.

Katherine England - Artist Extrodinaire

It's really fun for me to share with you one of my all time favorite people, glass artist Katherine England, my mosaic teacher. I have featured her work and those of her students in her art studio at the Muckenthaler in Fullerton in my blog, but recently I was lucky enough to be able to visit her at her home in a wonderful older Fullerton area neighborhood where the homes are at least 100 years old. She allowed me free access to both the interior and exterior of her house, so I hope you enjoy what I was able to experience firsthand. From top to bottom are: an embellished 3-d self-portrait of Katherine, a side shot of the exterior of her lavender colored home, a close up of one of the two magical gates her husband built with a glass inset, an interior view of the attic space she and her husband blew out to make to cubbie holes to serve as additional bedrooms for their family of six, a sculpted metal sheep her husband created that sits on top of her roof in the backyard, a life size plastic figure sitting in her garage studio space made out of clear packing tape, a group shot of her families hands molded in plaster them embellished with each persons favorite things and a close up of one of her sons hands, one of many handmade quilts she made that are displayed throughout the house, and lastly some recent silver/copper/hand fused jewelry pieces that came out of her kiln from a class she taught last week.

Self-Portrait Collages - Student Art

A very cool assignment that my beginning 2-D kids do as they are learning about design and color theory are these self-portrait collages. This year I had some of the most thought provoking, insightful ones ever done. The top one was done by 8th grader Kevin Tang and is titled "Lost in Disturbia", and the bottom one was done by junior Amanda Lui, and she calls it "Tomorrow Never Comes". They are a little blurry because I had to photogragh them under glass frames.

Jamie Fingal - Professional Artist

Recently I discovered there is a major art quilter living close by in the city of Orange. Oh boy! So off I went to visit Jamie in her studio. She was so gracious, giving me a tour of her studio and showing me her art quilts. She is the author of "Embellished Mini Quilts", a book that I've looked at many times at my local bookstore. It was so much fun to meet her and see her work in person. I've always admired her playful, whimsical style and I adore her use of color. What was really cool to see were her new works (heavy metal inspired quilted embellished aprons) and her amazing sketchbooks, they were so detailed and contained beautiful photos of her work and crazy wonderful drawings of her ideas as she develops them. She was such an inspiration. Thank you Jamie for sharing with me a slice of your world. The second photo is a mini quilt that I purchased from her.

Hand Dyed/Hand Spun Knitwear - Student Art

What's really wonderful about being a teacher is when one of your students loves a project so much that it becomes a part of their lives. Take senior Rachel Rilloraza for example. I've been her art and craft instructor for the past six years here at Whitney and when we did the hand spinning unit in Beginning 3-D art she took to it like a duck to water. In the Intermediate class she was introduced to working on an actual spinning wheel (in first year they use a hanger hook to spin with) and enjoyed it so much that I allowed her to keep one of my extra wheels at her home over the summer so she could spin to her hearts content. She is now in the fourth level 3-D class and these are some of her current projects. She also orders her fibers from Capo Fiber Arts. In the first photo she has spun two different colorways and is knitting a baby sweater with my favorite no seams pattern, and in the second photo are baby socks she spun and knit at the beginning of the year. She is almost done now with the sweater so look for it to be posted in a couple more weeks.

More Hand dyed/Hand spun Knitwear

I'm re-posting these two photos for my craft beginners to see more hand dyed, handspun yarns being used in a project. The hat and booties were my own design and the sweater was from a pattern I use all the time that's super easy to knit up. It's a no seams sweater. Love that! All the fiber came from Lori Lawson at Capo Fiber Arts. Both the hat set and the sweater were knit from the samples that I spun up two years ago for my beginners. It was fun trying to get them to all come together in a pleasing way, and for the sweater to look somewhat symmetrical.

Knit & Crochet - Hand dyed/Handspun Yarns

I'm posting these pieces that I made for my Beginning 3-D art students to see. We are moving into a fiber arts unit where they will be learning to spin and dye their own yarns. Just wanted them to see some examples of finished work using these handmade yarns. In the baby hat, I spun the yarn (undyed blue faced Leister purchased from the dizzyewe.com) then dyed it with food coloring in the microwave. The yarns in the crocheted pillow top came from hand dyed roving that I get every year for this unit from my friend Lori Lawson (Capistrano Fiber Arts- see side bar). I spin up samples for the kids in all the different colorways that I purchase from her so they can see what the finished yarn looks like, and when the unit is over I like to make them into something special. I used a granny square pattern that I got from Lori to do the pillow. The sweater was done in beautiful, expensive fibers from Japan from a company called Noro. They are a silk/wool blend and look very much like handspun, hand dyed fibers. I made the sweater in a workshop that I took with Suzanne Bond, one of the most prolific knitters I've ever met, at Cozy Cottage Fabrics in Brea.

Watercolor Collage - Student Art

These two beauties were done in two different classes but have some similiarities. What's really hot in the art world right now is mixed media pieces, so I'm really pushing my students to try out various media within their work. The top piece was done by senior Steffi Wong in my Advanced 2-D class. The unit was watercolor on a larger scale with flowers as subject matter. Then they were required to bring in some collaged text and a little pen and ink. I think Steffi did a lovely job with the assignment! The 2nd work was done by senior Julia Meng in my 4th year 2-D class where she gets to choose her own media and subjects. She started with a smaller watercolored alligator that didn't fit the paper well compositionally. So I encouraged her to expand the edges of her format by adding addtional papers. The piece still felt a bit undone so Julia went into it with some collage pieces and it still didn't feel right, so I suggested that she bring some linear elements into it with free motion quilting stitches. She had never used a sewing machine before so I gave her some lessons and off she went, drawing with the sewing machine needle on top of her piece. I was so excited with her finished piece, and I love how she left the edges raw and deckled, as well as the threads dangling. What a cool piece Julia!

Portfolios - Student Art

Every couple of years I like to change up the portfolio design assignment for my Beginning 2-D students. Last year, then junior Regina T. inspired me with her tissue paper collage of a sun motif, so this year I required all the students to use a sun motif as their subject matter, and boy oh boy did they turn out well, each one so unique and beautiful! Here are a few of my favorites. From top to bottom are: senior Darren Chan, juniors Amanda Lui, Andrew Huang, Shabnaz Khandoker, and Sarah Anderbrhan, and senior Kristina Le.