LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

MUSIC INTERPRETATION

ADVANCED 2-D ART

oil based printmaking ink & other media

This is the Final project for this group of Advanced 2-D kids 4th Quarter.

They had just finished up a Monoprint Unit,

so the assignment was to combine Monoprinting with at least 3 other media,

but only after you have picked a piece of music to design to.

Senior Elias Rodriquez picked Warm on a Cold Night

by Honne.

A laid back kinda bluesy tune with a great beat.

A really soulful piece.

Elias brought together Monoprint,

Pen & Ink, 

Watercolor and Acrylic for a piece that I felt really captured the mood of the song.

Senior Jonathan Hsu pulled together Monoprinting,

Watercolor,

Acrylic & Tissue Paper

for his piece of music titled

Rose's Fountain

by

Aivi & Surasshu.

Jonathan's piece of music was more playful and uplifting,

and I felt he captured it nicely thru his imagery and color choices.

Both these promising young artists are on their way to bigger and better things.

Jonathan has gotten himself into Art Center in Pasadena,

no easy feat for one so young just out of high school,

and Elias is at California Sate University at Long Beach's Art Dept.,

my Alma Mater.

CSULB continues to have an outstanding art program.

Be prepared to work your butts off you guys, 

and meet those deadlines.

And remember,

it's all about craftsmanship!!!

Love you boys.

ONLY ONE

MONPRINTING

ADVANCED 2-D ART

glass or acrylic plates & oil based printing ink

The students LOVE this monprint unit.

They learn several cool techniques to produce unique,

 one of a kind pieces.

Senior Elias Rodriquez choose Landscape as his subject matter for all of his pieces.

In this first photo we are seeing the most difficult technique to master called Traced.

Then in the same photo right below is it's ghost.

I adore how moody his pieces all turned out.

This one reminds me of the famous artist Edward Hopper's House on the Railroad. 

This next technique is called Additive with it's ghost.

And in this next one we have the Silhouette process and it's super cool ghost.

But it was this one by Elias that really touched my heart.

This was his combo. piece where he combined all the techniques.

Love the movement he captured along with the subtle colorings.

Talk about moody!

These next couple were done by senior Jonathan Hsu.

What a wonderful little person he has created.

Looks like someone out of the past.

This is the ghost of his traced.

A lot of times the actual traced does not turn out well,

but usually the ghost will.

These two remind me of how a portrait of Michael Jackson might look.

The one on the right is his Additive and the left is his ghost.

If you ever get a chance to take a printmaking class,

I highly recommend it.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

There is so much more!

Feeling Free to be Non-Objective

MONOPRINTING

ADVANCED 2-D ART

oil based printing ink on various papers

Monoprinting is a super fun assignment which gives the kids a new freedom to explore abstract and non-objective drawing in a printmaking medium.

I cover traced, reductive, additive and silhouette techniques plus we pick up all those ghosts left behind on the plate. 

Fullerton base mixed media artist Mary Zarbano turned me onto monoprinting when she visited my school in the 1980's to give a demonstration to my drawing/painting kids.

She brought so much joy into each of her pieces and worked so spontaneously that I knew my students would love the process.

It's been in my curriculum ever since.

Both seniors, Megan Yeu and Jarick Simbol, really got into the process.

In fact, they made so many prints so quickly that we had to string a line in the kiln room to dry them out (below).

Above are all eleven prints that each one of them had to turn in.

Megan's are the top ones and Jarick's the two bottom lines.

Above is Megan's traced traced print, and below are two of her silhouettes.

Below are Jarick's traced and ghost of traced.

I'm so glad both of these young ones got to experience this medium before they graduated.

Monoprinting - Student Work

One of my favorite things about Monoprinting is that the students get a chance to work spontaneously which oftentimes leads to Non-Objective subject matter.  Senior Laura Kadi took advantage of this and did a terrific job with the assignment.  Laura had to try out 11 different techniques in monoprint, and the pieces above represent each one.

These two were my favorites of hers.  Correct me if I'm wrong Laura, but the one above is a reductive technique, and the one below is a ghost of a ghost of a traced with added color (oil pastel).  Complicated, I know  :)

Buttons, Buttons...

whose got the buttons?  Me!  And they are on sale right now.  

E-mail me if you are interested in purchasing a few.  

The cost is $2 each, or 2 of $3.50, 3 for $5.00, 4 for $6.50, 5 for $9.00, 6 for $10.50 and 7 for $13.00. 

They are mounted on mono printed paper.

They come from sample Polymer canes I build while demonstrating for my students.

I usually use either FIMO or Premier Clay Brands, usually whatever is on sale...

and I teach the kids several techniques with the medium.  They usually end up with 14 or so buttons and beads at the end of the clay unit.  

The mono printed paper I pulled from my classroom sink.

I think I shared this last school year.  My students are a bit wasteful when it comes to painting.  A lot of paint ends up being washed down the sink.  So one day it looked so pretty I decided to lay a large sheet of construction paper down on top of it and pull a print.  

Here is Print #1 below.

It turned out so well that I placed another piece of paper down and pulled it's ghost below.  You can even see the sink drain holes.  Of course the 2nd one is never as vivid as the first pull.

This is a sweater that I knit many years ago for my daughter when she was about 7 yrs. old.  It's when I first discovered the gorgeous yarn brand "Noro" from Japan, hand dyed and spun from wool and silk at about $11 a skein.  Ouch!  And the pattern called for knitting with two strands at a time.  Double Ouch!!  So about $150 dollars later and many hours I completed this sweater only to find that it was much too large for Danielle.  So sad.  So I gave it as a Xmas gift to my beloved Aunt Elena, but unfortunately it was too small for her.  So what to do.  It's never been worn.  It's a woman's size small/petite and it's lovely.  I even made polymer buttons to match (below).  It can be yours for the price of the yarn $150 or your best offer  :)  E-mail me.

Monoprint Surprise - My Classroom

How could I resist making a piece of art from the gorgeous color in my classroom sink the other day?  I couldn't.  The paint came from the leftover tempera the kids were using to make their color wheels as they were cleaning out their pans.

So before I cleaned the sink and rinsed it out, I laid a large piece of construction paper over top the leftovers and rubbed.  And this is the fabulous monoprint I pulled below.

And it's ghost below, a second pull with another piece of paper.

And then what to do with the monoprints?  Well, have my students cut leaves and feathers for me to mount my Polymer clay buttons on top of that will be for sale at my up and coming gallery show on Saturday, October 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Drawing Board Gallery in Yorba Linda.  :)  Oh yeah!  Thanks you guys for the help.  Especially to alumni John Balagtas and senior Jaimee Chirico for sewing on all those buttons.

Music Interpretation - Student Work

Isn't this beautiful?  Junior Jaimee Chirico designed this piece in my Advanced 2-d class to the music of Cold Play.  She got to choose her music and but I chose her media: monoprint, collage and oil pastel.

Fantastic job Jaimee!

Monoprinting - Student Work

Sadly this year I only had one student in my Advanced 2-D class, but luckily it was junior Jaimee Chirico, whom I've been working with since the 7th grade. She worked her butt off for me this year and did many incredible pieces. 

She loved the monoprinting unit and went to town producing so many original pieces.  

These were the three that I loved the most.  Jaimee will be coming back to me for her senior year as a fourth year 2-D student.  OH YEAH!!!

Designing to Music

For my 3rd year 2-d students, their final for the year consisted of picking out a piece of music then creating a design that worked with it. The kids were able to interpret their work in any media they felt would flow best with the song. So all 3 of these pieces are very different. I have to tell you that it's been almost 3 months since I heard the songs these kids picked out, so I won't be able to tell you what their music selection was. Sorry. The top piece belongs to junior Jason Kwon. He worked on a piece of clear acrylic sheeting that he cut to size which was very difficult since I had never done this before and had no idea what tool to use. But Jason figured it out. I believe he put the strips down with masking tape from the back side and then he monoprinted in acrylic on the front. I felt the piece was very bold and exciting, and extremely original and fit his music well.

This next work was done but senior Jullian Kho, and she incorporated graphite, monoprinting and collage. I felt she achieved a beautiful contrast within her design that really worked with the contrast in her music. Plus I really loved the layering of the monoprinting over her drawing.

And this last one belongs to senior Hannah Park. I feel she really worked with content in this piece and was definitely able to convey a message to the audience. She also combined monoprint with collage and I believe she brought in some watercolor as well. All 3 of these kids did really original, well thought out designs, and I'm pretty sure if I'm remembering correctly, they only had about 7 class days to pull them off in. Amazing, I can't wait to see what these 3 are going to do with the rest of their lives. I'm hoping it will revolve around art. Good luck Hannah and Jullian, Jason I'll see you in 2 weeks :)

Monoprints - Student Work

It's been a while since I've posted any of my students art, so I'm going to be getting back on track here a bit before next years bunch of kids shows up in Sept. These monoprints were done by my 3rd year 2-d students. They learned several techniques within the monoprint medium and were required to do an example of each. These first 2 belong to junior Jason Kwon, I especially liked his little car.

The kids learned the traced, along with reductive and additive techniques. They also did some silhouette work, and were required to mix several of the techniques. Monoprints can be very spontaneous, which I feel helps loosen them up. Love senior Hannah Parks house above and that she added text into her work.

These last 3 beauties belong to senior Jullian Kho. If you are interested in seeing more monoprints, there are several artists in the Laguna Art Festival that are working in this medium; their work is amazing and very complex. My upcoming 2nd & 3rd year 2-d students, get yourselves over to Laguna, there is so much there for you to enjoy plus it's worth 10 extra credit points to you. Read about it a couple of posts back for more details.