A COLLABORATION

Rarely do any of my demonstration pieces get finished,

in fact if you were to go into my home studio,

my husband had to build me a huge entire wall shelf to stack all my UFO's on.

So it's very satisfying to see one of my works come to fruition,

even if it wasn't finished by me.

This is the Coil Trivet assignment that I demoed a few years back.

And of course I never got around to finishing it.

So this year one of my seniors who had been out ill,

Christine Caballes,

 who missed out making the clay mask project,

needed something to glaze while the other kids were glazing their masks.

I looked into my cabinet of unfinished clay pieces and gave her this trivet to work on.

She made it way more beautiful then I would have ever taken the time to do.

First she stained it with Red Iron Oxide, 

then put several shades of green and blue glass shards into the carved recess area.

When it came out of the kiln she glued on those lovely stones

(I think they are Tiger's Eyes)

and wella,

a collaboration that makes me very happy and gave her a perfect glaze grade.

Both of us loved how it turned out so I made sure she knew it was hers to take home. 

CONE ME UP SCOTTY

CHARCOAL CONES

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 3RD QUARTER - 2015-2016

charcoal on paper

The creativity is flowing in this group as they compose their cones in charcoal.

Let's take a look see.

Starting with this very sophisticated backdrop designed by Loren Kim.

When she turned this in for grading and I uncovered it from it's protective covering,

I was like "Wow"!!

So very impressed.

And check out this soft and lovely cone above,

that has feelings too.  :)

And Palmer Patel comes up with a clever design as well.

I just love how much thought goes into each of these pieces.

Ending with Mmasiolu Gamero's fun interaction between the cone and butterflies.

Butterflies are a signature symbol I found Mmossy including in many of her pieces.

Lovely!

AN ASKING

Prom is just around the corner,

 so many of our young men are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps

 and "asking" their favorite gals to prom.

We had one happen at lunch today in my room between two of my favorite students.

Super duper shy senior Efrain Quintero,

 surrounded by several of his best friends holding signs of support,

got up the nerve to ask very vivacious senior Sitara Puliyanda to prom.

The answer,

YES.

I'm beyond thrilled.

These two kids are so very special to me.

They are both in my second year clay class and topnotch designers and craftsmen.

And they are always teasing each other and are adorable together.

Have too much fun you two!

WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK

BURNISHED WHISTLES

CERAMICS I

clay, sawdust fire& glue/water mixture & metallic rubbing compounds

Let's see what my clay peeps have been up to.

Making clay whistle.

Not an easy assignment,

 but they were up to it as you can see below.

Junior Gary Liu Jr. patiently trying to get his clay to whistle.

They had to burnish the pieces with smooth river rocks as well.

And after whistles came out of the sawdust fire they had a choice to either rub with 

the metallics or to use a glue/water mixture to bring out the natural markings from the firing.

All 3 senior boys here chose the metallic.

They are Tarun Desai, Andrew Chen & Jonathan Hsu

Metallic was put on by junior Manav Gandhi (far left) and senior Robert Dunn (far right), 

but junior Gary Liu (middle) used the glue sauce to seal the sawdust fired clay with.

Next we have the work of senior Jonathan Gong,

and juniors Jessica Andres and Annie Oh.

And lastly we have whistles by juniors Cathy Huang, Benjamin Barnett, and Nathan Lam.

I want you to look closely at Nathan's whistle,

note the 6 holes on either side of the whistle area?

He figured out how to play a full scale of notes by the hole placement 

for a whooping 25 extra credit points.

It was very difficult and required great patience with a lot of trial and error on his part.

But he did it!!!

This sawdust was one of the best firings of the year.

Note all the cool flashes of carbon as it marks the clay.

Credit for this goes to my lovely assistant Alyssa Olea (Whitney Ceramic Alumni 2012)

who comes in to load, fire and unload these beauties.

We use anything combustible for the firings.

Poor thing has to put her hands in horse and cow manure

so that we can reach the temps. we need to get to in the oil drum we recycled to fire in.

Keeps it interesting around here  

LOL

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES THIS SATURDAY FROM 5:30 -8:00

ATTENTION WHITNEY ART STUDENTS

offering up 10 points of EXTRA CREDIT points for attending this art show at Chemers Gallery in Tustin.

Then drop in next door at Discoveries Gallery and get another 5 points of EXTRA CREDIT.

Just take your pix inside the galleries to show me you were there.

Easy breezy.

This Saturday is the Day! You + Chemers Gallery + TACFA + 28 local artists + Broadway in the Park = a heARTful hoopla! full images not shown The heART of Orange County All Media 2016 9th Annual Juried Exhibit Juror: Julie Lee, Bowers Museum Vice President of Collections and Exhibitions Artist Reception & Awards Ceremony April 23, 2016    5:30 - 8pm show continues through May 7th Plus TACFA's Broadway in the Park reveal! Let the Jubilant Joyousness Begin! Delight all your senses with an evening filled with artists, artwork, awards, auditory amusement, and gustatory treats! Join Chemers Gallery and TACFA for our 9th annual juried exhibit featuring Orange County's art scene from the perspective of 28 local talents. This year, it's all about the ART! Entries to this unique exhibit are anything but ordinary - enjoy interpretations centered on dance, music, culinary and visual arts! Congratulate your favorite artists in attendance, schmooze a little, and enjoy all this spirited evening has to offer! Not only will there be artwork to admire and desire, TACFA will be announcing their 16th annual Broadway in the Parkproduction! Hear melodies from their much-anticipated summer show performed by cast members of Anaheim's Chance Theater as you enjoy the artistic atmosphere. If you can't make the opening, come see this wonderful selection of local talent through May 7th. For a list of participating artists, click HERE. All works, including paintings, mixed media and photography, will be available for purchase - help keep our arts community vibrant! A very special thank you to Enderle Center for helping to sponsor this heARTful event. All links above shown in purple 17300 17th Street Suite G . Tustin . CA . 92780 714-731-5432   art@chemersgallery.com

SOMETHING SHINY & NEW

WIRE HANDS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

copper, silver & gold craft wire

Recently I saw some intricate wire hands on Pinterest 

that were connected together to form a hanging sculpture.

So I thought it would be fun to have the kids give them a try 

and I'd assemble

and give them as a gift to the office for permanent display. 

Junior Cherly-Mae Mallabo, 8th grader Malia Pulido & senior Jenna Llamas

But sometimes things don't always go as planned.

It turned out the wire I picked wasn't strong enough to hold the hand shapes for stringing.

So I had the kids strengthen the wire by hammering it.

That helped but sadly not enough.

Junior Helen Park, & seniors Clarissa Gutierrez and Eileen Wang

So the students will be keeping these hands or selling them at Open House.

I loved how they turned out.

Very decorative and creative.

8th grader Elliana Lee, junior Thulashi Raveendran & teacher Deliana Park

I had them trace around their own hands so it became a self-portrait assignment.

I was thrilled with how expressive and delightful they turned out.

8th graders Sydney Eng & Charlotte Park and junior Insha Khan 

Cheryl-Mae got so into it that she made two additional ones that belong together

Note the bit of text along the wrist area.

So very COOL!!.

And speaking of cool,

check out senior Elias Rodriquez's dimensional hand.

I love that he thought to take the assignment further.

Also is there some significance in the fact that the middle finger is made with a different metal?

Or did he just run out of copper?

FIVE YEARS STRONG

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JIMMY SPOSA

To my best friend...

The love of my life...

For better or worse...

(mostly better)

Richer or poorer...

(mostly poorer)  ha ha

Partners in crime...

(and we do get into mischief)

Lovers of great food and beautiful settings...

(good lookin' couple aren't we?)

Jim Sposa,

you have taught me so many valuable life lessons,

you've made me stronger and wiser,

and mostly

you have brought so much JOY and HAPPINESS to my life.

Thank you for taking such excellent care of me and my children.

I LOVE YOU

5477

(kiss)

GOING FROM DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT

VALUE SCALES

7TH GRADE ART WHEEL - 2015-2016 - 3RD QUARTER

graphite & colored pencil

Alrighty,

introducing my 3rd Quarter Art Wheel kids,

ready or not here they are with their clever value scales.

We are starting off with Reese Velez who impressed me from the get-go

because of her skills coming into the class.

Turns out she is good at everything!  ha ha

Next this lovely butterfly was done by Jovitha Prakash.

The kids had to only show me a 5 step value scale but Jovitha did an eleven step scale.

Plus she took the time to add the extra credit colored pencil.

Nice job young one!!

Quiet & shy Chloe Canete came out of the gate with this very large

and important piece.

Wow Chloe!  :)

And Ena Hu Loera made this very soft & pretty drawing.

I was really impressed with how she transitioned her value scale into a colored pencil scale.

And last but not least, a boy!

Yes indeed,

young Andy Ouyang created this magnificent art piece.

I was so impressed with his sophisticated design.

Great job all of you, 

looking forward to seeing more from you guys.