More 7th Grade Art Wheel - Color Embossments - Student Art

Wanted to show off my 7th graders final pieces for the quarter. We spent several days learning the basic techniques in watercolor and pastel. And then I introduced them to the very basic techniques involved in printmaking, and zeroed in on embossment. I had them build a plate from very dense cardboard as their base, then they glued on shapes, textures and lines using additional cardboard pieces, yarns, wire, screen, laces, low relief buttons, seed beads and anything else around the room that might work. I gave them thick, wonderful, cotton rag embossment paper, had them wet and blot it, then place it over their dried, glued down plate, and sent the whole thing through the printing press. It was so fun to see the delight on their faces when they saw their print for the 1st time. Then they had to choose from watercolor, colored pencil, or pastels to finish piece off with. Everyone's favorite belonged to Benjamin Domae (above). Another favorite belonged to Sharon Oh (below)

More of my favorites belonged to (above) Jada Gonzales and Raji Ganapathy and (below) Erica Abrina and Karen Malacon.

And these last two beauties were done by Kyung Yi and and Anna Lee (below). Can you believe these are just 7th graders doing art for the first time? I am so lucky to teach at this school. I count my blessings everyday for this wonderful job, and I also send thanks to my very wise mother, R. Patricia Foote, who I never really appreciated till it was too late. She encouraged, pushed and cajoled me to follow my dreams. She passed away 2 years ago in March after a brutal 10 year battle with Alzheimer's disease. Miss her so much. She would have loved Sharon's rose (above).

7th Grade Art Wheel Soap Scrubs - Student Art

One of the 7th grader's favorite units this quarter were the soap scrubs that we felted over bar soap with dyed wool rovings. The ones this quarter were especially sculptural and so much more cool and interesting to the eye then last quarter's pieces. We are looking at Courtney Shin's above. It was one of my favorites.

Aren't these so much fun? Just love all the tails, knots and bows that the kids designed with. Their favorite part of the assignment was getting very soapy and wet while working. What a mess we had for clean up! Above we have from left to right, top to bottom: Jeremy Brown, Brandon Pu, Jonathon Xue and Turath Liebenau. Below are Bianca Tolentino, Anna Lee and Tiffany Chu. These are fabulous you guys!!!

Alma Gudino - Student Artist

Senior Alma Gudino had a little free time on her hands last quarter so for extra credit she created this fabulous collage series. We had just finished a unit on 2-d collages (see Self-Portrait Collage Finals under labels on right side ) so she was on a roll to do more. These are so lovely Alma, great job! Below is a close up of my favorite one. All students: you can turn in yesterdays EXTRA CREDIT on the day you come in for your final this week.

Curvy Bridge

Saw this incredible looking bridge on a friend of a friends blog and couldn't not put it on my blog. It's just so dang cool. How come we don't build bridges like this in the USA?? Or maybe we do and I just haven't seen them yet. This pix is for you senior Michael Clark cuz I know how much you love unusual sculptural structures. This one happens to be on an atlantic roadway in Norway. For EXTRA CREDIT in third quarter on green paper cut it into the shape of this bridge and write down the name of your favorite architectural structure. Can be found anywhere around the world. Of course write your name and period on the paper. :)

Xmas Hydrangea

Couldn't resist this unusually beautiful hydrangea at Trader Joes. Gave it to my best friend for his patio table this past Xmas. We are going to either re-pot it or put it in the ground, and are hoping for the same amazing colored blossoms to return next year. If anyone has any suggestions about the best way to do this, please let me know.

Slab Footed Bowls - Student Art

Love this piece done by one of my favorite students this year, senior Kyoung Lee. The assignment was to built a shallow slab bowl over top a mold, then to attach feet that worked visually with bowl. Also to bring in surface design for added interest. I feel Kyoung did this masterfully. And then he choose to stain it with red iron oxide and cobalt carbonate rather then glaze it to further enhance it.

Above is senior Julie Chong's backside (hands holding up her bowl) which we both loved, especially how the glaze turned out, very earthy.

Above is senior Chris Shishido's favorite design motif, his classic bear claw that he has used for many of his assignments. He informed me today that he is ready to move on to something new :) What I really liked about this piece was how his foot, below, is the bear holding up his claw. Very clever Chris!

And above we have senior Erin Unson and junior Chareena Eleazar. Both girls did amazing coil inlays as part of their surface designs and then stained with rutile and red iron oxides, then glazed with transparent. What beauties they are ladies!

Pen & Ink Wash Drawings - Student Art

I'm really tardy in showing off these sweet little pieces. They were done in 1st quarter by my 2nd level drawing/painting students. What makes these pieces so remarkable is that they were drawn with only a sharpened dowel dipped in india ink in a modified contour style (see Betty Edward's "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"). The object of the lesson was to draw from real life and include as many contour edge details as possible. Then the students were required to lay down at least 3 values of ink wash. But this year I made them jump thru one more hoop before I let them be done. They had to also bring in watercolor and collage elements into enhance the piece even further. So these are a few of my favorites. Above we have senior Shabnaz Khandoker who did a great layout design as well as brought in very exciting colors, and below we have senior Brandon Liao's clever composition that contains a lot of wonderful movement.

Above is senior Ashlee Chang who cut out her shells and put them in bas relief back into her background, and below is senior Anne Guu with her playful composition.

And then we have senior Kyoung Lee (one of my favorite students to bug :), and then senior Kate Lee who has not drawn since the 7th grade, look at her go!

Transformer Down

At 10:00 a.m. yesterday our school lost power from one of our transformers, and more than half of our school was completely in the dark, including the classrooms. I was one of the lucky teachers. Only half my room was in the dark, so my kids were able to keep on truckin' on their projects. But two hours later and no Edison company within site, with the entire school in a

lockdown mode, the kids were getting restless and found other ways to entertain themselves. In the top photo Kevin and Paul took turns painting each others faces with india ink (very hard to wash off, silly boys) and another group got a card game going on.

Above, this was the scene in the science room which was completely in the dark. They made luminaries and played the game Mafia. I put my flash on and in the pix below this was exactly the same scene.

At 12 noon they had all the teachers and students (at least 1030 people) report to the gym and hang out till school let out at 2:50. They put my class over in the far corner. Here we are below.

And here was the entire crazy scene below. Because the kids went to the gym in one of the biggest downpours in history (we are having some serious rain issues and a few small tornados here in So Cal) the kids were soaking wet and very smelly. It was pretty nasty and very stressful trying to cope with that many bodies for over 2 hours, so I am very thankful to be back in my classroom today. Cal Ed showed up at 3:30 and power was restored by 4. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7th Grade Art Wheel Collage Boxes - Student Art

These gorgeous collaged boxes belong to my 2nd quarter 7th graders. Within this group I'm finding out that I have many talented future art students. So you guys must come back to me when you get older. Inside these boxes are housed their wire wrapped pendants and their lovely stamped pattern tissue they made to wrap the necklaces in. (See post below this one) In the pix above we have talented artists Kyung Yi and Sharon Oh.

In the photo above are a few more of my favorites that came in. On the left is Benjamin Domae, and the one on the right belongs to Karen Malacon. Then below is a close up of Karen's gorgeous work. Look at all the great overlapping textures she achieved.

In the photo above we have young art star Anna Lee's up close, and below her is a close up of Sharon Oh's. All these kids seem to have an innate sense of design.

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

It's truly amazing what you can get 30 7th graders to do once you get them quiet, in their seats and focused (not an easy feat with my 2nd crop of kids :) This assignment was about package design, pattern/texture and working with wire. In the photo above Raji Ganapathy has stamped out a beautiful pattern design on tissue to wrap her pendant with.

And inside when you peel back the tissue Benjamin Domae and Karen Malacon have created these incredible wire wrapped necklaces.

Preliminary Floral Watercolor/Collage/Ink - Student Art

Last quarter my 3rd year 2-d students were required to do a small prelim. in preparation for a much larger floral watercolor unit. They were also to bring in some text as well as some pen and ink work. These small prelims. actually turned out better then the larger ones. Sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles. From left to right: junior Jason Kwon, and seniors Hannah Park and Jullian Kho. And below is a close-up of Hannah's. Love this piece! For EXTRA CREDIT on a piece of pink paper tell me what has been your favorite art assignment this year and why. Of course put your name and period on the paper and cut it into the shape of a heart.

2-D Class Self-Portrait Collages - Student Art

These little treasures were done by my Beginning 2-d class for their 1st Quarter Final. They had to pull together all the Design Elements we had studied in a collage format with Self Portrait as their subject matter. Wow! That's a lot of stuff. As you will see they are extremely complex and well thought out, and very expressive as well. The top piece was done by an exceptional talent senior Sonya Liu, and the one below by gifted designer, senior Pankti Patel. Sorry a few of them are a bit out of focus.

Above we have one of the class favorites done by senior Jeremy Chung, and below his is a highly expressive piece by senior Nandini Kannan.

Senior Edna Wong did the beauty above and senior Betty Tong did the lovely piece below.

One of my personal favorites, above, was done by junior Suzanne Kang, and senior Alan Tsim did the very cool one below. Sadly, all these seniors waited till their last year here to take my class. And as you can see they are all such great designers. I sure wish they would have come to me sooner so I could have had them for a second and even a third year to take them further with their artistic skills.

And finally we have juniors Paul Kim and Kevin Aquilo who both came up with very original designs. I am so pleased with all the pieces. Every year they just seem to get better and better. Great work class!

Sewing Machine Review w/ Watercolor and Collage - Student Work

Before I have my 3rd level 3-d art students embark on their Art Quilt unit I have them do a few simple works combining paper, collage and watercolor, so they can practice their machine sewing skills that they learned in level 2. Sometimes they freak out because there is drawing involved and after all they are my 3-d students not my 2-d students, but I have them keep the drawings real simple and we focus more on design, watercolor, and implied line (sewing machine) with a bit of collage thrown in. These always turn out well and are usually very sweet as you can see in the pix above. All four of these were done by senior Audrey Pulido with a close up down below.

Mishima/Sgraffito Bowl - Student Work

My 2nd level Ceramics students recently finished glazing their gorgeous mishima/sgraffito bowls. This beauty belongs to senior Steven Ebalobor. Mishima is an inlay technique and sgraffito is an overlay technique. Both are done with a porcelain slip that the kids mix colored oxides of their choice into. I'm pretty sure Steven used black oxide in his mixture with a transparent glaze over top. The slip is applied when the clay is still very wet, we call that plastic clay. The feet on this bowl are skateboards. Very clever Steven :)