Thursday, June 30, 2016

LAKE ARROWHEAD WINE & ART FESTIVAL 2016

My Hobo Angel was invited to play at a breathtaking venue up at Lake Arrowhead,
located on the grounds of the UCLA Conference Center.
Lots of local artists showing their wares,
local bands playing their tunes,
and a lot of wine tasting going on 
with the wealthy who own homes around this gorgeous mountain lake.
Just driving thru the winding roads to get to the festival was like driving thru Beverly Hills.
Stunning homes and gardens abound.
A delight for the eyes.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

A PERFECT DAY

FATHER'S DAY 2016

My boys,
three generations celebrating together on this special day.

                                                               With lots of pool time...
but not sure if Syd likes the water or not.
In the end, 
he loved it
and fell asleep on his mother's shoulder floating around in the coolness.

Monday, June 13, 2016

TAKING A LITTLE BREAK

as I get myself and my students thru Finals,
cleaning my classroom
and putting all the art supplies away,
Graduation Nite,
several Retirement parties,
and of course adjusting to my new summer schedule.

What does that look like?

Sleeping in till 11 or 12,
2 hours at the gym,
 a couple hours reading at the pool,
gardening,
and working on blog posts and art pieces until 2-3 in the morning.
Aahhhhh...
9 weeks of bliss.
I earned it!

Friday, June 10, 2016

LIL' FARTER

No name yet for this sweet new addition to my son & girlfriend's family of cats,
other then she's a big time farter  LOL
She makes #3 for them.
Super friendly, 
playful,
and she even let's you pick her up.
A rescue.
Only one year old but has already had a litter.
A precious young mama.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

HAPPY 30TH NICOLE

I made the long trek up to the San Fernando Valley,
having to get around the L.A. traffic two Sundays ago, 
to spend the whole day and evening with several of my favorite peeps,
my son Zach, 
his girlfriend Nicole of 3 years, 
and Nicole's mother Mary,
 and father Nick.
Plus a few good friends of the kids.
It was Nicole's 30th birthday and we spent part of the day at The Green Thumb Nursery
buying all kinds of plants,
then went to the kid's new home and planted our brains out.
They've got veggies growing along with several cacti and succulents.
Then we headed over to Nicole's parents beautiful home 
up along Topanga Canyon and Mulholland Dr. in Calabasas
(yes, where the recent wildfire was & they are fine).
Mary and I spent at least an hour walking around their yard exclaiming over her glorious gardens. 
Truly impressive Mary.
We have much in common including keeping our fingers crossed.  LOL
Hint,
hint!!

Love you Nicole,
and Happy Birthday sweet woman

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

IT'S ALMOST OVER

SENIOR AWARDS BANQUET NITE 2015-2016
JUNE 6, 2016

What a thrill it was for the whole school to see the best of the best
 of what you seniors have produced this year in art.
The hallway in the MAC Building looked magical!

I want to give a very special thank you to 2012 Alumni Alyssa Olea 
for putting up such an extraordinary display for you Seniors.

And congratulations to all my Art Award Winners!
I heard your parents truly enjoyed seeing your artwork 
after the many months I have kept it for myself for display purposes and shows.
I'm sure they were beaming with pride!
And I want to apologize for not being there to announce your awards in person.
Sadly I have a huge phobia about public speaking,
something instilled in me since childhood.
I'm hoping to one day conquer it.
Perhaps when I retire I should come back and take Ms. Improta's drama class.
I hear she works miracles with us shy ones. 
Elias Rodriguez,
This was so much your nite!
Seeing the culmination of the past two years on this side of the hallway wall was a treat for us all.
From what I heard your parents were especially pleased and impressed.

BRAVO TO ALL MY AWARD WINNERS!

OUTSTANDING 2-D & 3-D ARTISTS
1st Place- Elias Rodriguez
2nd Place- Jonathan Hsu
3rd Place- Hazel Cruz

Honorable Mention - Hapshiba Kwon, Charity Lizardo & Lily To  

OUTSTANDING 2-D ARTISTS
1st Place- Bernice Lin
2nd Place- Risha Bhakta & Katherine Ku
3rd Place- Kyla Balquin 

Honorable Mention - Nandan Vinjamury & Emily Allan

OUTSTANDING 3-D ARTISTS
1st Place- Hapshiba Kwon
2nd Place- William Kim & Kristine Luong
3rd Place- Antoniette Jabat, Amber Wu & Liana Chie

Honorable Mention - Eileen Wang, Clarissa Gutierrez & Karen Long

OUTSTANDING CERAMIC ARTISTS
1st Place- Klyne Madayag
2nd Place- Celeste Zambrano & Sitara Puliyanda
3rd Place Efrain Quintero & Eryn Burnett

Honorable Mention - Sandhya Raghvan, Archiana Vancheswaran & Casey Yoon


Monday, June 6, 2016

HOBO ANGELS

My honey is in a new band up at our mountain home.
They call themselves the Hobo Angels,
and the lead singer on the ukulele,
Maxx Hill,
comes up with some interesting outfits,
as you can see above 
LOL
(last weekend for memorial Day he wore an authentic sailor suit from WWII)
This was their second gig together.
They played on the patio at The Trinket Trader in Crestline for the monthly Wine Walk.
There were 11 stops on the walk.
and we were number 10.
By the time the people got to us they were pretty looped.
But it was FUNNNNNNNNNNN. 
And after it ended Jim and I went to stop number 11
 and danced till the place closed down.
The next time they play is on June 26th in Lake Arrowhead at the 
Art & Wine Festival.
I'll post more info as it gets closer in case you'd like to join us.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

GOT MAIL?

JUNK MAIL BOOKS
INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART
junk mail, gesso, watercolor, sharpies, & charcoal

ASSIGNMENT INSPIRED BY CARLA SONHEIM

This is such a great assignment for the kids.
It involves recycling, critical thinking, working in a new technique,
and oftentimes they get to bring in a sense of whimsy.

Basically the students pick out several pieces of junk mail that I've saved for them.
Some of it has been ripped open which adds to the textural interest.
They loosely gesso over each piece (front & back sides),
watercolor over the dried gesso, and put the pieces into a book form.
They are required to draw to a theme,
 and drawn images are layered over several pages.
That's where the critical thinking comes in.
You will see what I'm talking about as you see the books.
They sharpie over their drawn lines and add a touch of charcoal for value.
These books are so cool.
Enjoy!

We begin with senior Risha Bhakta.
She worked to an underwater theme,
and this is her front cover.
Notice that as the pages are tuned
the design on the previous page morphs into something else on the next page.
Also notice that Risha is limiting her color choices so that the book flows visually.
Sometimes you have to look closely to see the small changes that occur like here.
Above the right piece of mail is fully opened up,
but below that right hand flap is closed.
Look how seamlessly Risha has blended the pages. 


Kind of a scary ending Risha.
LOL


Next we have senior Kyla Balquin's book.
Her theme obviously Spiderman.
The kids were required to bring in a bit of text...
and to add some textural details.

Loved Kyla's back cover.
Powerful!

Next we have senior Hazel Cruz.
Her book took on a religious theme.


Several of the kids made some extra pages
 that they wanted to work on at a later date.
I believe these (above and below) were a couple of Hazels. 

And her back page.


Senior Katherine Ku shared her heart and the love of her life (A.K.) in her book.
I really like the peek-a-boo plastic envelop parts that she made use of.
She also had several extra pages as you can see below
that she will add to at a later date
as her relationship grows.
But even though their story is still ongoing,
her pages undone,
we really loved her book.
She gave us such honesty.




Our last book was done by senior Bernice Lin.
She also made many extra pages but was able to finish them up.
Can you find the subtle nuance between the page above and the one below?
If you didn't,
it was the bottom piece that moved.
Now look again,
she has done another tiny flip of the middle section above.
Now we are seeing a real difference as we travel the world with her.
I thought this a very clever book,
and would be a wonderful children's story...
as these two little ones explore the world...
as well as their love.
Adorable Bernice.