The Proud Owner of Jude Hill's Santa Beast

Yeap, that's me, I was finally able to purchase one of Jude's incredible cloth stories after months of logging on every morning only to see "sold" on all her works.  I watched her create this piece on her blog, and the more I saw the more I fell in love with the piece.  It arrived just in time for the Xmas season, and my favorite thing of all was to see one of her works in person...

to see all her stitchery, her natural dyed cloths, her antique linens she recycles into all her works...

Jude inspires me everyday to keep on truckin", to keep on stitching, and to keep trying new things.  Jude, I apologize for the lighting that I shot these with, especially this last one.

2- Point Box Constructions - Student Work

Senior Michelle Lee always delights and surprises me with her out of the box critical solutions to assignments.  In this 2 -point perspective box construction they were responsible for drawing at least 3 boxes in 2-point, shading them in with one light source, adding a touch of color (just a touch was needed), and putting some type of simple border around the piece.  Most of them chose cityscapes as subject matter but subject was wide open.  What always amazes me about Michelle's work is the amount of attention to detail that she brings in, and that she does it thru pattern and repetition.  Her work is so sensory to my eye.  She also added a bit of pen and ink with ink washes.  

A close of of Michelle's detail.

In this next piece above, senior Sarah Zhang draws a remarkable little cottage.  The touch of color she added was perfect and she repeats it in her border paper. 

Below, senior Crislyn Ogawa gives us a very complex construction that she then mounts on top of a fabulous watercolor backdrop that she slaved over to get it just right.  You nailed it girl! 

And finally senior Michael Chen has done a fun and clever construction site subject.  The touch of color is right on and I love that he added the people.  Look at those great cast shadows on the ground.  This 2-d Intermediate class is working so hard for me.  I'm really proud of the work you all are producing.

Congrats to my Girl !!!

For getting her official  acceptance notification from her top choice college yesterday to Cal. Poly Pomona, and for getting invited to the Honors Program there.  Congrats are also long overdue for being nominated Homecoming Princess by your friends and peers at Esperanza High School.

Your mamma is so happy for you and knew you'd get in...

your dad is so proud, but sad you will be dorming it, cuz he's gonna miss you like crazy...

your brother is thrilled you will be following in his footsteps and graduating from his Alma mater, hopefully with a great job out of the experience...

And Jim says "Here's to You, Dani Girl, We love you Big Time!"

Knit & Crochet - Student Work

It's been a while since you've seen anything from my Intermediate 3-d kids.  This was a beginning of the year assignment that had several components.  If you scroll down the right side and click on Knitting Needles with Polymer Knob you can see the knitting needles the students had to make out of wood dowels and Polymer clay knobs and the wool yarns they dyed with food based colors.  Then I took them thru a basic Knitting Unit where they were required to learn several different stitch patterns using their knitting needles they made and the yarns they dyed.  So cool!!  For their 1st Quarter final the kids had a choice between knitting a scarf or a pillow top/blanket with their goods.     

Above we have the gorgeous pillow top by senior Borah Lim.  In her piece you can see several of the patterns they learned.

This next piece and it's close up were made by junior Nida Fatima.  Nida took it upon herself to teach herself several more patterns so that she could include them in her scarf.

Loved the happy colors in this next top by senior Pauline Yang.  Pauline already had some great knitting skills when she came to me, so she was able to explore more difficult cable patterns in her work. 

This Infinity scarf was knit and designed by 9th grader, yes, 9th grader Karisma Dev, superstar extraordinaire. 

Look closely at her craftsmanship.  So perfect, so beautiful.  And I like how subtle her dyed yarns came out.  Ya did good woman!  

This next one above was done by senior Ingrid Huang.  Love the autumn tones she chose. 

As did senior Johanna Paz.  Learning to knit was very difficult for most of the kids.  In case you haven't tried it, it is a very challenging global skill to learn with a lot of struggle at first.  And the kids don't like to struggle.  But they do like a challenge and the end results, so none of them gave up.  Most of our kids are used to things going fairly smoothly for them.  Huh, junior Rita Labib??  But now that the unit is over I see her in the mornings before school sitting in the halls knitting away.  Cuz once you master a global skill it becomes really fun and enjoyable!!!  Am I right Rita???  LOL

Also notice the crocheted edging that they learned how to do around the outside of all these pieces, another difficult global skill. 

More Perspective - Student Work

After the 2-D Intermediate students get thru the 1-Point Basics, I challenge them with a box construction.  All of these kids went past the minimum requirements and came up with very complex pieces.  

This first one above belongs to senior Jessica Liu, and is truly remarkable.  Did she have to bring in color?

No.

Did she have to design more then 3 boxes?

No.

Did she have to include any other subject matter other t6hen boxes?

No.

Did she have to shade it in with one light source only?

Yes!

Let's look at some more.  Junior Laura Kadi this this darling, playful piece above and below senior Crislyn Ogawa tilted her horizon again (very effective strategy  by the way since the eye loves diagonals). 

Above senior Michael Chen created a powerful, striking piece with his design, and below senior Janice Min gives us the softest, most lovely box construction.  They are all so different, so unique, it's hard to say which is your favorite.  But for EXTRA CREDIT I want you to tell me which one you liked the best.  Try to cut out a cube in 1-point perspective, so it can't be just a flat square or rectangle, but it must look 3-d on a 2-d surface.  Any color paper will do.  On the front side put your name and period, and on the back tell me who drew your favorite box construction.  

2-Point Cityscapes - Student Work

After taking my Intermediate 2-D kids thru the 1-Point Perspective basics, we immediately went into 2-Point exercises.  This was their 2-Point Cityscape.  Once again, they only had one day to learn it and do it in class, but of course many of the kids wanted to wow me so they took their piece home and added so much more.  Above we have senior Michael Chen...

and this one was done by my senior T.A. David Hyun, a brilliant young artist who has been studying with me since the 7th grade.  He saw that the other class was working in perspective so he asked to borrow a pen and showed this piece to me at the end of class that day.  That's right, he just whipped it out like it was nothing.  I was so impressed that I asked him if I could display it at Open House.  I'm telling you I work with some of the most incredible children here at Whitney!

Golf Banquet Time 2011

I'm so proud of my girl.  Danielle has been playing golf since the 8th grade when she first was introduced to it in her P.E. class.  This was her 4th year playing for Esperanza High School.  This year was special because she was co-captain of the Girl's Varsity team.

The banquets are always entertaining because the girls get to get all gussied up in their pretty clothes and they like to take a lot of pix of themselves.

And usually it's all about the shoes, unfortunately, it's also about their farmer's tans from being outside in the sun so much.  LOL

But the girl's can get serious when they need to as the coach is presenting their awards.  Thank Goodness!!!   

Meet My 2nd Quarter 7th Graders

Creative, sweet, well-behaved, enthusiastic and fun, that's how I would describe my new crop of 7th graders.  I'm enjoying you all so much, and am impressed with all the artistic talent and hard work going on.  

For their 3rd assignment I introduced the kids to charcoal, had them experiment with finding their own shading style, and which sticks or pencils they liked the best.  Then the assignment was very basic: draw a cone, shade it in , put in a cast shadow, horizon and do something with either the fore or backgrounds.  Of course these young ones did so much more for me, and these were my top picks.

Karthik Sivanadiyan created the cool design on the top left, and Insha Khan drew the humorous one on the top right.

Superstar Felix Yiu did the very detailed piece on the top left and Raul Hernandez did the lovely desertscape on the top right.  I think we only have 3 more weeks together at most.  What am I going to do without you Eunice, Michelle and Brian???  I don't want to give you guys up!  They are the most pleasant group of 7th graders I've worked with, and it will be very sad to see them go.

1 Point Cityscapes - Student Work

This year I have a really strong group of Intermediate 2-D students who are working very hard for me.  One of our assignments in First Quarter was the study of 1 and 2-point perspective. This 1- point cityscape was a one day exercise that many of  the kids spent a lot of extra time working on at home to make them special.  

First we have senior Crislyn Ogawa who started off with her horizon on the diagonal.  And then after the line drawing was graded she took it back home to bring in the shading which adds so much flavor to the piece.

Senior Michael Chen has a passion for Star Wars and video war games.  So I can usually count on him to bring some kind of war theme into his work.

And senior Michelle Lee chose to cut her city up and mount it atop a sun motif, plus she brought a bit of color into it as well, making this a very unique piece which really stands out from the group in a critique situation.  Clever girl!

A Happy 23rd Birthday to My Son Zach

I know this is a bit tardy Zach (like by 2 months!), sorry, but I just did the math and I realized you are 23 years old.  That's so crazy!!!  It's going so fast.  For some reason I thought you were just turning 22.  I guess that's what happens when you are such a right brainer like me, those numbers get foggy.  Wow, that would make me...too old!! 

But I want to tell you how very proud I am to be your Mamma, you have always been such a good, sweet, and smart boy, you never gave me an ounce of trouble (unlike your sister LOL, only kidding Danielle), and you have matured into the most wonderful young man, sincere, responsible, educated, a hard worker, a world traveler and on your way up the ladder at Dole Foods. Buy Dole!!! 

 I'm so glad we could all be together this year to celebrate your birthday.  

I love you big time, all the way around the world!!!! 

More Clay - Student Work - Extra Credit Pinch Pots

Many times my clay students get done with their assignments early, so an option for them is to make an extra credit piece.  That's what junior Rita Labib and senior Jaimee Chirico did in these too pieces.  We had just finished pinch pot bowls and mugs so one of the extra credit challenges was to make and take two pinch pot bowls, score them together, paddle them into an interesting shape, then turn that shape into a subject.  Rita went for a sweet blow fish and Jaimee a sun motif.

Rita chose to finish hers off in our sawdust fire and Jaimee used oxides on hers.  I really like how Rita built in a lid for hers and Jaimee thought ahead to pierce holes to string beads on after the glaze fire.  Great job both of you.

Coil Inlay Trivets - Alum Work

Today is a clay day.  This work was done last school year by alum Freddy Perez but it wasn't finished firing till the beginning of this school year (long story)  LOL  Anyways, it was the most remarkable coil inlay that was produced last year and I want my Ceramics I kids to see it tonight since this is their current assignment.  Notice students the hole at the top so it can be hung n the wall.  Notice the center slab shape and how he carved it out to melt glass shards inside.  Notice all the other carved out areas as well.  A great piece Freddy. Miss you, stop by sometime so we can catch up.

Nude Coil Torso - Alum Work

For some reason this fabulous piece by alum Chareena Eleazar, didn't get posted last school year when she finished it.  And it's that time of year again for my 2nd year ceramic kids to make their nude torsos.  For Chareena, this was her third time to work in coil, and it was her most difficult challenge to date.  

The students can pick a male or female figure and are allowed to work as realistic as they want to go , or they can abstract the piece thru exaggeration and distortion.  They must all build in the ciol technique, the piece must be smoothed out on the inside but they can leave their coil work showing on the outside or they can smooth the outside as well or try some type of combo technique.  

I encourage them to try to bring in some expressive quality so the piece doesn't look so static like the Greek nude figures from antiquity, they try to not end piece straight across the top, and they don't make it perfectly symmetrical.

Chareena choose to finish hers off with a glazed inside and an oxide finish on the outside.  A congrats out to you Chareena, I heard a rumor that you are getting married to your armed forces sweetheart.  I wish the both of you all the best.