Frontal Fractures - Student Art

Couldn't wait to share these with all of you. Every year this assignment gets better and better. These belong to my 2nd year drawing/painting students and they were required to use either oil or water based patels to recreate a frontal pose of their choosing, and then to fracture it in some way. Afterwards they were to mount their fractures so that the whole piece feels balanced and the design feels right to the eye. The top one belongs to senior Amanda Garcia. Love how she worked out her fractures plus she chose a great subject to work with. The second one belongs to senior Regina T. She decided that she wanted hers more separated from each other rather than mounting them together. This way she could play with her presentation. Loved her subjects!

Senior Mindy Cho outdid herself with this piece. She distressed a piece of plywood with gesso, acrylic paints, fiberglass and nails to create a background to mount her fractures on. She also brought in wire that she pierced through a few of her fractures. Brilliant work Mindy! Belongs in a gallery on La Cienaga Blvd. in L.A.

A close -up of one of Mindy's fractures, and how well it blends into her mixed media background rather than just sitting on top of it. Impressive piece! Look closely and you will see her fiberglass inlay below the ear.

Senior Michelle Bui embellished her fractures with ribbons and ripped tissue paper. So lovely Michelle!

Senior Caroline Ma mounted her fractures on a painted acrylic canvas. I really like how she brought out the purples from the women's eyeshadow into her canvas color choices. Really pulls the piece together well. Caroline shared with me that she's still planning on doing more with embellishment over top the edges of her fractures. Should be interesting!

Framed Appliquilts - Student Art

So thrilled to finally show off my beginner's finished appliquilts in their paper mache' frames. The kids built their frames from scratch and then paper mached over their cardboard foundations. After a coat of primer they paper collaged then embellished them and put labels and hanging devices on the backside. Look at how beautifully their frames compliment their quilts. From top to bottom, left to right are junior Alma Gudino, 7th grader Andrew Veenstra, seniors Jenny Ham, Emily Choh, Ariel Improta (yes, our drama teacher's daughter), Connie Pae, Ivy Hu and Shabina Toorawa.


















A close-up of the pieces so you can see all the handstitching and embellishments. And these are just my beginners! What a lucky woman I am to teach these kids!

Ivy Hu - Student Art

This marvelous piece should have been posted with the other wire sculptures from my Beginning 3-D class but somehow was left behind. Ran across it the other day and really wanted it seen. Ivy made it much larger than the others then double mounted it for a very dimensional effect. On the back piece of board she drew graceful linear leaf shapes to compliment the dragonfly. Fantastic job Ivy!

Portfolios - Student Art

Every couple of years I like to change up the portfolio design assignment for my Beginning 2-D students. Last year, then junior Regina T. inspired me with her tissue paper collage of a sun motif, so this year I required all the students to use a sun motif as their subject matter, and boy oh boy did they turn out well, each one so unique and beautiful! Here are a few of my favorites. From top to bottom are: senior Darren Chan, juniors Amanda Lui, Andrew Huang, Shabnaz Khandoker, and Sarah Anderbrhan, and senior Kristina Le.

Beginning Wire Sculpture - Student Art

Every year in my Beginning 3-d art class I like to incorporate a wire unit. This first piece was done by Alum Jodi Chang who graduated in 2006 I believe. Her face reminds me of Alexander Calder's whimsical wire sculpture portraits. The 3 pieces below were done just this last quarter. Before attempting these sculptures the students first practiced with the wire in a pendant assignment so they got comfortable with the medium. In these works they were to form a recognizable subject that had volume so it didn't look like just a shell of the subject. I was very pleased with their results. From top to bottom, left to right are: seniors Ivy Hu, Shahnaz Khandoker, 7th grader Aman Patel, and senior Connie Pae.