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.

Renee Harris - Professional Fiber Artist

Here is the Renee Harris piece I was talking about in my last post. Isn't it wonderful? Originally Renee was a drawing/painting major but found her niche in the Fiber Arts where she paints with threads. I commissioned this piece from her after my mother passed away last year from Alzheimer's. I told her how as my mother was taking her last breathe a bird came and sat on the window sill and seemed to be watching over her. Then the bird came back again as I was packing up the things in her room and watched over me . So Renee took my story and interpreted into this amazing piece that she titled "Memories". Thank you Renee for making me something so beautiful to remember my mother by.

One More Flat Felt Piece - Student Art

Had so much fun doing this assignment with my beginning 3-D students, cuz it involves getting messy. Heated up 3 large batches of hot soapy water and we went to town felting down all these gorgeous fibers. The kids start out by layering their raw wool fibers perpendicular to each other. We call this their foundation piece. Then they begin their designing by picking out colored fibers that they lay over top the foundation in the shapes they want to be felted in. The process itself involves a lot of agitation with hot soapy water over top this massive mound of fiber until it begins shrinking and tangling into self which in turn creates felt. I think the kids really like it cuz they get to work outside with a lot of soap suds flying everywhere. :) After they felt their fibers I take the pieces home and throw them in my washer to shrink and condense them even more. When dry the kids use their decorative sewing skills to embellish the design to make it pop. The students were inspired by the work of fiber artist Renee Harris. I will post a piece of hers tomorrow. She is listed in the artists I follow. Wait till you see what she can do with fiber!! The piece above belongs to senior Ivy Hu, and it was a class favorite, and was just turned in recently, so that's why it wasn't posted with the others from Jun 2.

Preliminary Scratchbord/Watercolor - Student Art

These sweet little pieces were done by my 2nd year 2-D kids as preliminaries to learn how to work on the scratchboard and for testing out their watercolors over top. I feel like a couple of them are pretty darn cool and should be framed up. I really like the one in the upper left corner done by junior Jullian Kho of the little girl's face, and the one bottom right corner done by senior Brandon Dumais with the high tops walking up the wall. Clever piece Brandon!


This black and white prelim study was also done by Jullian. I really love all the ideas she is testing out. And below is senior Peraya Siriwong's final piece that she turned in for grading. I love this one so much that it made the cut for the District Art Show last month.

More Senior Prank 2009 Pix

I was able to get these pix from one of my seniors camera which she shot on the night they did the deed. This top photo is one of my favorites of the kids pulling their cars into the interior halls and trying to be so careful not to hit anything.

Look at how many cars they were able to fit. Truly amazing feat!


Now this one is my absolute favorite of senior Krystal Rodriguez surrounded with the red cellophane that they covered all the overhead lights in.

And here's the havoc they reeked in Mr. Jeans room, a new teacher this year at Whitney. And below is a shot of the fire pit they built to surround all his books that he usually keeps in alphabetical order. Oops! Check out the irregular repeat pattern going on 2-D students. :)

They also strung string across all the lockers to make it more difficult to walk and hung red cellophane over all the over head lights for an eerie glow

And here we have the very artistic arrangement of water cups in the bathroom. Design students, check out the repetitious drop stack patterning going on. :) Wonder if one of my art students laid these out.

Senior Prank - 2009 Go Pirates!

This was by far the best senior prank I can remember for so many reasons. It showed off the creativity and ingenuity of our senior class, it was so well organized, and it wasn't destructive. It was pure fun. As I pulled into the parking lot the sign board greeted us this morning with "Abandon All Hope - Ye Who Enter" so I knew I was in for a treat. As I was walking in I saw many small sedans precariously parked between the lunch tables completely surrounding the school, with lots of pirate bodies and heads placed in strategic spots. Then there was this pirate fort/ship built in senior square that I thought was so well done using everything on hand to build it with. But the coup de resistance were the vehicles of the students that were parked inside the buildings interior halls. I counted at least 9 cars parked inside. How those kids manged to get those cars inside was truly remarkable without damaging any structures. It was so well organized and planned out. They even put pirate flags in all our rooms and gave us all a pirate key chain to remember them by. Mine is already on my school keys. I'm going to miss you seniors so very much. This is the first year that I haven't been looking forward to summer vacation. I don't want to say good-bye to you. I don't want the school year to end. This saying good-bye stuff is breaking my heart. Graduation is going to be a real tear fest. Many of you seniors are some of my favorite students of all time. Thank you for the wonderful year you've given me, for working you butts off for me, for putting up with my craziness and forgetfulness, for my occasional bad language LOL, for all of my mis spelled words, and the list goes on. Mostly, thank you for loving me as much as I love you all.

Looks Like Rain

This was the breathtaking view outside my classroom door this morning. Weatherman says rain. I'm hoping so because our city of Yorba Linda where we live just went on water rationing. So worried about all our beautiful plants that are thriving right now, and nursing them through the blazing hot summer months. We usually reach 95 to 105 degrees everyday in the summer. I'm saying my prayers.

Before & After Realistic Clay Heads/Rattles - Student Art

I challenged the beginning ceramic students to sculpt a highly realistic clay head, that also when picked up rattles. These first couple of pix are the heads right after they were built, and then the following shots are most of the same heads after the kids glazed them.

Below are the finished glazed works, from left to right: seniors Eaning Woo, Caroline Ma and Estelle Hong, award winners last nite in the Fine Arts category at our annual Senior Awards Banquet Nite. It's fun to see how much different the heads look after the glaze fire. I love that Estelle put a graduation cap on her guy, and look at how his pony tail is wrapping around his neck. Very well thought out piece.

These two handsome guys belong to senior Jessica Song and junior Steven Ebalobor.

And these three were done by seniors Jessica Su, Cynthia Tsai and Rikaya Obilo, all of them also award winners last night at the Banquet. One of the requirements was to make the heads

convey some sort of expressive quality. I feel all the kids accomplished that in their pieces.

Mixed Media Mosaic Tile Boxes - Student Art

So excited about this new assignment for my Intermediate 3-D class. I was first inspired by my mosaic teacher, Katherine England when I saw a very cool little box sitting in her mosaic classroom. She said she had made it in a workshop with mixed media artist Laurie Mika down in Encinitas, Ca. (down San Diego way). So I picked up Laurie's book at Barnes and Noble titled Mixed Media Mosaics, read all about her process then taught it to my kids, and just look at the results, stunning works of art. Many of the tiles are really made out of polymer clay but resemble glass. The top box belongs to senior artist extraordinaire Caroline Ma, who will be picking up my top art award tonight at Senior Awards. Shuuuuu.... it's a surprise. :)Congratulations Caroline, I love you, and I feel you are one of the most talented individuals that I have ever taught in the 29 years I've been working here at Whitney. Can't wait to see what you are going to create at Parson's in New York City. I'm so excited about your future. You are such a shining star!

This second piece belongs to another favorite student of mine, senior Rikaya Obilo. I love that Rikaya thought to do some wood burning in her piece which was optional. One of the many requirements was to incorporate a soldered glass piece into the top design. So cool how Rikaya did 3 soldered pieces and then staggered them.


This third box was done by another graduating senior, Joanna Han. Joanna is using her soft trademark colors in pastel tones for her Memories box. What a sweet piece Joanna! I really like how she used stamped text in some of her tiles.


Then we have this gorgeous box by senior Julie Kim. A really striking monochromatic color scheme with a beautifully balanced design in the top.


And look at this cutie by sophomore Breeana Johng. I adore the partially fused glass house she fit into the top design, and instead of stamping in black and white with text, she did her stamping in color. One of the greatest joys about teaching here at Whitney with these academically gifted children, is that they are all such create problem solvers, so that no two pieces ever look the same.

This beauty was done by 8th grader Joanna Coronel who is one of my up and coming super stars. I'm hoping to work with her again in 11th and 12th grade when she can fit into her schedule 3rd and 4th year 3-D Art.

This dreamy piece was done by senior Annie Kim.

And lastly, we have junior Audrey Pulido, who is a gifted designer and coming back to me next year for 3rd year 3-D Art. Can't wait, she is such an outstanding student who takes direction so easily and then runs with it and is a terrific problem solver. Audrey had twice as much space to work with on her box because it was much larger then the rest. She came in everyday during her free period to make the extra tiles she needed. Such a dedicated student, such a pleasure to work with.

Flat Feltmaking - Student Art

My sweet beginning 3 -D art kids just finished up their feltmaking unit. They work with raw dyed wool that comes from a couple of sources, Lori Lawson at Capistrano Fiber Arts, Joanna Gleason at Gleason's Fine Woolies in Colorado, and Morgaine Wilder at Carolina Homespun up in the Bay Area. All these women sell the most beautiful hand painted/hand dyed rovings at affordable prices. I have the students make a small dimensional piece first so they can be successful and get the whole felting process down, and then we move onto flat felting with recognizable designs and added pearl cotton embellishment. These kids are pro at embroidery now and feel very comfortable with a sewing needle in their hand. From top to bottom, left to right are: (top row) junior Jessica Lee, senior Emily Choh, 7th grader Andrew Veenstra, (second row) 8th grader Jenny Kouch, senior Shahnaz Khandoker, and senior Jenny Ham, (bottom row) 7th grader Aman Patel, junior Jullian Kho, and junior Hannah Chang


A close up of Shahnaz and Jenny Ham's pieces.


7th grader Linda Ly made this adorable bear and added her dimensional preliminary heart in the design. What a great idea Linda plus the text that you added really adds to the overall design.


And last but never least is a close up of Jullian's. She tried free motion quilting on top of hers and I love the results.

Fused and Soldered Glass Units - Student Art

One of the favorite units of the year for my Intermediate 3-D students is the fused and soldered glass assignment. The kids are required to make two full fused pieces with either an embedded jump ring or other silver wire hanging devise. They are also required to turn in two partially fused pieces, one that will be wrapped with wire and the other to be given to me (oh yeah) as a good bye gift that I will incorporate into an art piece to remember them by. This year they made me partially fused earthquake houses that are so whimsical and fun! Can't wait to start playing with them this summer. They were also to produce two silver soldered glass pendents, one that has a jump ring for hanging and the the other was to be incorporated into their 3-D boxes that will be posted next week. In the top photo are senior Caroine Ma's partially fused wire wrap pendent, and junior Audrey Pulido's soldered pendent. Bottom row is Caroline's soldered piece and Audrey's wire wrapped pendent. Look closely to what Caroline has captured between her soldered glass. She water colored over a piece of newspaper then free motion quilted over top. Pretty damn cool! Oops, I'm probably not supposed to cuss, but a certain junior with the intials S. E. says he loves when I cuss, it makes him happy. So that's for you Steven :)


Next we have sweet eighth grader Emmerline Kim's wire wrap pendent and the other two belong to gifted eighth grade designer Joanna Coronel, her wire wrapped pendent and full fuse with jump ring.


And lastly we have senior Julie Kim and sophomore Breeana Johng's wire wrapped pendents across the top, and down below are Julie and Breeana's full fused pendants. Really lovely work ladies.