7th Grade Graphite Spheres

Here we are again with the work of my 2nd quarter 7th graders.  

This is their 2nd assignment:  to draw a sphere and shade it in with one light source which also includes a cast shadow and horizon.  Then the rest of the piece is open for interpretation.  This is a 3 day assignment.  One day to practice and 2 days to complete the piece I will grade.

Above we have Manan Shah with his very sensitive drawing.

This next piece was done by Julie Guan.  She has put in incredible range of value (which I encourage), and very smooth transitions.  But what makes her piece especially nice are the ribbons and hearts.  Lovely Julie! 

And below hers is her partner in crime, Margaret Yiu.  These two girls are inseparable   They come into my room at lunch, glued at the hip, giggling so sweetly to say hello.  You can see that Margaret is coming to me with some very strong drawing skills already in place.

Wonderful job all of you!

Leftovers to Dye For

What do you get after you lay out your windfall...

brew it up ...

unravel it, you ask?

These amazingly organic, fascinating leaf and petal structures.  But instead of throwing them out, I've been saving the more interesting ones and drying them out.  

Then putting a bit of Modge Podge over front and backsides, and  

wella! A bas relief sculptural piece to be used down the road, so stay tuned  :)

Just A Quick Peek...

at a project made by my Beginning 3-D kids that I haven't had a chance to photo yet. They are called Charm Chains and they've already been packed away  to keep them nice for Open House, and I don't want to disturb them until then.  So it's gonna be a while before I can really show them off.  Just know that my Beginning 3-D kids are working their hearts out for me, and I'm crazy about them!

Finally... Meet My 2nd Quarter 7th Graders

It was love from day one of Second Quarter when these 30 sweet babies walked in my door for the first time.  So tentative and shy, so wanting to please, so sweet and well-behaved.  Are these 7th graders???  Yep!

Okay, I can do this  :)

These pieces are from their first assignment, their value scales.  In this piece I'm able to see what their design skills are like, as well as evaluate their craftsmanship.  Like First Quarter, I'm seeing a lot of talented kids.

Adriane Tam starts us off above with a very solid composition .  I like how she fills the whole piece of paper with design. She also has very nice craftsmanship skills and a textural shading style.

Next we have Raymond Ouyang with this fun hot dog.  I like how he bordered this piece and how clean his work is.  His shading style is very soft.

Kathleen Vo also knows how to fill the page and she has a lovely shading style.  The kids only had to do 5 value steps, but Kathleen was able to show me 9.  Way to go little one!

And then there is Margaret Yiu, a remarkable young artist who not only did a phenomenal job with the assignment, but then went on to create another below.  Wow!!!

Highly impressive young one  :)

Ahhhh... the life...

Of a dog and her Retiree.  It doesn't get any better then this!

LOL

Artist Jim Thompson at Drawing Board Gallery

Recently I saw the work of Mixed Media Artist Jim Thompson at the Drawing Board Gallery in Yorba Linda that I thought would be of some interest. He calls his work Reclaimed/Redeemed which is very interesting to me because I really enjoy when artists used recycled found objects in their work.

But I have to be honest, what really drew me to his pieces where the clotheslines.  I grew up in the late 50's and 60's when my mother used to hang our clothes out to dry.  It's such a wonderful, vivid memory, one of my first actually, so when I see it in an art work it really tugs on my heart stings. 

 I don't usually like religious artwork, but his references to religion are so subtle to be almost unnoticeable.

I don't usually like religious artwork, but his references to religion are so subtle to be almost unnoticeable.

All the pieces above have been assemblages but this last work seems to be part self-portrait, part collage, and part painting, with another wonderful clothesline.

Come Sing and Dance the Night Away

Tonight, Friday the 25 of January at Main Street Restaurant in downtown Yorba Linda from 7 till 10.  If you enjoyed the hits from the 50's, 60's and 70's you will Love the Rockits and the Highlites.

This summer at the Cypress Community Center they entertained over 3000 folks.

Fun was had by all both young and old alike

So come and join me, we will have too much fun rocking the night away  :)

It's gonna be Good, right Kaya!!  LOL

Esperanza High School Ceramics - Part Two

Kevin Kowalski has a great clay program going on at Esperanza High, especially for a newbie.  I think this is only his 3rd of 4th year there.

These are the pinch techniques Mr Kowalski employs in his classroom, all made by my doll-face, Danielle.  A pinch bowl turned into a mug with repetitive design round the top lip (a little hard to see because of the thick glaze)

Two pinch closed forms, the sweet little armadillo above, and the lovely giraffe below.  The neck is a hollow  pinch tube and the legs are solid coils all scored and slipped on.  Can't quite remember where Dan put the hole for the air to escape so it won't blow up in the kiln.

Work inspired from another clay artist, below.  Dani used ceramic pencils to draw her design then transparent glaze over top these pinch teacups.  She may even have painted porcelain slip over top her cups while they were still plastic because you can see how it's chipping away a bit before she applied her glaze.

Loved her whimsical teapot she built using a pinch technique.  I am especially impressed with her sense of surface design around the shoulder and bottom rim area.

There is one more piece that I forgot to photograph, and it's one of my favorites that she gave me as a gift.  I will try not to forget to share it at a later date.

Esperanza High School Ceramics - Part I

Featuring the

Ceramics Department at Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda, Ca.

Kevin Kowalski-Instructor

I think it's fun to see the artwork from other high school's, and compare their program with mine.  It helps to keep me current and fresh.

I was fortunate to have my daughter enrolled last school year, her senior year, in Mr. Kowalski's Ceramics class.  My son had also taken clay while he attended there 5 years prior (different teacher), and they brought home some noteworthy piece's worth sharing.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for my son, I never photographed his work (this was pre-blog after all  LOL), but Danielle was not so lucky.  By the way, my kids hate when I feature them on my blog, TOO BAD!!!  :)

So Dan, it's all about you today and tomorrow.  Ha Ha

These first works you will see today were all slab built assignments.  

I really liked this mug she brought home.  They were supposed to apply a face to the outside.  It has a very abstract feel to the design, and the glaze is wonderful.  I believe Mr. Kowalski also fires to cone 5 (2150 degrees) like we do here at Whitney.

This next little cutie was a slab mosaic piece.  I really like how she painted on all her glazes, very labor intensive.  But it sure looks like someone has dropped it.  Wasn't me.

One of my favorite pieces she brought home last year was this slab box.  She giggled and told me that for inspiration she googled 'Clay Slab Boxes' and Whitney High's work came up and she saw several pieces she liked that were done here.  How cool is that!

I was truly impressed with all the surface decoration she put onto this piece.  And then I love the text inside the lid!  She also added glass shards when she glazed her work, something that I make my kids do here, into carved out areas.

Her teacher also had the kids do a series that were slightly altered in some way.  These are sweet.

And then for her dad, for Father's Day, she made him these slab coasters.  They are fortunate at Esperanza to have the funds for a Raku kiln.  Raku firing originated in Japan and involves the use of a special kiln.  $$$$  That's how she was able to get these great looking iridescent finishes.

Part II tomorrow on Pinch Technique

A Lot of Shibori Going On Here - Student Work

Because I recently learned the art of Shibori last school year with Shibori Girl Glennis Dolce, I wanted to try it with all my levels of 3-D students.  

These experiments were done with my second level group.  

First they tried a small practice piece which honestly didn't work out so well.  Part of it was my lack of clear enough directions and the other part human student error  LOL.  But after that first mishap, the second and third tries went better.

The first and second tries involved stitching verticals, horizontals and diagonals into a design, along with a closed shape.  Those are the smaller pieces you see.

The third try was a binding method using folds to form design blocks and tin cans cut into shapes to hold and press the cloth together with, then string was used to bind the whole thing tightly.

We did those on large pieces of  Linen Damask that I rescued from a garage sale.

Above are senior Julia Faith Chanco's pieces with all three of her attempts,

and below is senior Tiffany Lee's second try.

The coolest thing that happened on the bound pieces was that we left them tyed up overnight, and the tins that were pressing the cloth together rusted from the moisture.  We ended up with these sweet little butterfly images.  At least I thought they were sweet  LOL

The piece above belongs to junior Josh Berger and the really showy butterflies below belong to senior Tiffany Lee.  So Cool!

I should have had the kids iron their pieces before I photographed them so you could have enjoyed the piece above a bit more.  It was a little balloon with a cool border treatment by senior Ashley Chowdhury.

Currently, my Beginning 3-d kids are doing their shibori, and I finally figured out how to teach it well and also how to correctly mix the indigo.  The next group you see will be even more wonderful  :)

Sayonara 

Woven Silk Eco-Dye Samplers

I showed you last month these gorgeous silks that my 2nd year 3-d kids eco-dyed.  Now this month, they have ripped them into strips and woven them back together again, ala Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth fame.  They stitched them onto a thin back fabric with perle cottons and the result is spectacular.

This one was done by senior Angela Wan.  The silks she choose have so much shimmer to them which really accentuates her weaving.

This next one was made by junior Josh Berger.  He chose to sew with a highly contrasting cotton which gives him a powerful, striking result.  And lastly we have the work of  Senior Ashley Chowdhury.  Hers was my personal favorite because she choose to leave her tails dangling.  I always seem to gravitate to dangling ends  LOL

There is still more to do.  You will have to stay tuned to see where we take them next  :)