Waiting to Exhale...

as my daughter Danielle makes it to her first big finish line when she graduates from Esperanza High School tonight.  She's our Homecoming Princess (on the field with her dad)...

our beach girl, lover of the sun and water...

our artsy-fartsy child...

our Varsity golfer extraordinaire/fashionista...

who still lets her mom hang out with her..

Our 

wild

child..

and the biggest slob you ever want to see.

A lover of all

animals...

and the sweetest, best little sister ever!

My maid of honor...

and my very best friend.

We are so very proud of you Danielle and all your accomplishments.  Your extraordinary grade point average, your study and organizational skills, your golf swing, your love of family and home, your fashion sense, your fiestiness and tenacity to go after what you want, your work ethic in the business marketplace, and your brave spirit.  But most of all it's your gentle heart and sweetness that I'm the most proud of.  You have a goodness about you that everyone feels upon meeting you.  You are truly a beautiful woman both inside and out.  

Your future is so bright Dani, congrats on a spectacular job.

With so much love, Daddy, Zach, Jim and Mom  

Paper Mache' Collaged Boxes - Student Work

These little beauties were built from scratch by my Beginning 3-d students.  They started with recycled cardboard and masking tape to build their lidded box forms.  Then they learned the fine art of paper mache' and did 2 layers both inside and out.  The finishing touch was the paper collaging at the end.

This first one was made by senior Shivanti Kariyawasam.  I love her colorway and her recycled tin can roof .  It's an exceptional piece.  Shivanti was one of my top art designers this year at senior awards night.

The kids were required to bring in one special paper from home to incorporate into their paper collaging.

I really like this paper that junior Mark Ilog brought in for his pyramid here.  And then how he used 2 different colorways of it.  The ripped edges showing is also a very cool look.

For some students it was more about building a cool form then it was about the paper they used like the one above by senior Shane Suniga.

But many were into both like the sensitive one below by junior Stella Park.

Junior Lydia Ko came up with this extraordinary piano shaped lidded container with sheet music in her paper collage.  She shows off her great critical thinking skills with this double lid.

Junior Alice Zhang is another who gave us wonderful creativity with her adorable teapot.  I love how she literally thought outside the box to incorporate wire for her spout, handle and knob.  Very clever girl!

This next lovely box was made by senior Sunny Cheon.  She is using all my favorite things; flowers, handmade papers and text.

Junior Lily Lin loves to incorporate black lace in all her works.  She pulls it off well.

I saved my 2 favorites for last, this one by junior Niki Shah where she has built 3 into one, so cool... so pretty...

and this last one by junior Julia Faith Chanco.  What a gorgeous colorway she has chosen, and such beautiful papers she has found.  

Fabulous work all of you!

Hard and Fast

That's how it was for me when I recently saw a tease of Diane Savona's work on Morna Crite-Moore's blogsite, and fell instantly, deeply in love with her work.  This first piece that I'm showcasing, "Fossil Strata", is like magic for me.  I could stare at it for hours and marvel at her handwork, her composition, her subtle colorways, and her choices of sewing notions. 

Diane says:

My art is constructed of salvaged linens, found at the local equivalent of archaeological digs -garage sales. Once-common crocheted doilies and embroidered tablecloths are becoming extinct.  By presenting them as unearthed fossil specimens, I hope to change viewers perception of our textile heritage. 

Domestic Markings #2

Domestic Markings #3

Visit Diane's website and see other series she is also working on.  These next 2 pieces are based on maps, and aerial views of the disasters in New Orleans and Japan

Hurricane, New Orleans

Chalmette section

close up view

Tsunami, Japan

close-up

These next 2 she calls her Fossil Garment Series in which she deconstructs garments and overlays them on top of her strata work. 

Landscape of a Past Civilization

Overgrown Fossil

I hope you get a chance to explore her site for a real treat.

Just a Little Too Full

The sunset from my studio patio, shot by Daniel Leeb, my son-in-law's brother, a filmmaker who was visiting from Brooklyn.

This month's full moon was my worst ever, a speeding ticket (which I totally deserved LOL), a hum-dinger of a disagreement with my hubby, and my daughter distraught over end of year senior activities.  Just a very bad day with a lot of tears.  It's funny how that moon makes crazy things happen.

But all is looking much better today.  I was turned on to a new fiber artist and she has given me permission to showcase her here.  Her name Is Diane Savona and I've fallen hard for her work.  Coming soon.

Laid to Rest

Recently I stepped out onto the patio of my home/studio and saw the saddest site, these two sweet very dead yellow birds.  I don't know my birds so I'm not sure what species they are, but they were the most lovely shade of yellow, one a bit more so than the other, so I'm assuming male and female.  

I have lots of large high windows on this side of the house, so once again I'm assuming they were flying together and hit one of the topmost windows and fell side by side onto the patio floor.  I picked them up with these coconut shells I just happened to have handy and took them over to my beloved garden at our other home for their burial.  I dug a hole and laid them side by side, then carefully covered them with soil, and placed a few blossoms on top.  It was all so very sad.

Belinda Wu - Student Art

Every year I get a couple of very artistically talented kids who come to me and ask if they can challenge my beginning level 2-d class and go right into the Intermediate class.  In order for them to do the challenge they have to jump thru several hoops first.

This year I had 2 students ask about the challenge.  One declined after she heard what she'd have to do, the other took the challenge and made it, with flying colors, in fact.  And she is junior Belinda Wu.  I took pix of 2 of her challenge pieces that I'd like to share.

In this first piece I asked her to watercolor a flower and then to bring in more value range with some charcoal.  As you can see the piece is quite lovely and very well designed with wonderful range of value, color choices and sound watercolor technique.  I was impressed.  

Belinda tells me she is completely self taught which really surprised me because her work is very sophisticated.

Below, I asked her to compose a self portrait collage with some bas-relief elements, text, interesting background, and also to work to a theme in her life.  Again, she brings me this incredible work.  And I think, where have you been all these years?  Her reply, focusing on her academics. 

Well move over math and science cuz we have a few art classes to get thru before this girl graduates.

Needless to say, Belinda passed the challenge and I'm really looking forward to see what else she will be creating for me.