My Awesome YPS Class

YPS stands for the Young Peoples Studio at MICA. And this is my 3rd. summer teaching a beginning oil painting class. It keeps growing with a whooping 16 kids and its been great this summer. We are ending our first week today and I've been busy making my power point of portrait mentors that include the likes of Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, Elizabeth Payton, Shawn Barber and Kerry James Marshall to name a few of my favorites. Here are some pics from this week.

Daniel Pink Ted Talk

I saw Daniel Pink last week speak at the Park School on his new book titled "Drive"...If you haven't hear of this guy....just watch and see if this gets you hooked. His new book is on what motivates us...and there are some very insightful findings!

a proud day

i am so excited! one of my junior students, Justin just got accepted into the Marie Sharp Walsh summer institute..an all expenses paid drawing and painting program that takes place in Colorado Springs..its very competitive and very awesome that Justin got in. My first to get accepted into this program. he just turned in his AP portfolio that dealt with the figure and texture...he stained paper with coffee and pressed it into plywood for an absolutely beautiful effect. you can See for yourself how amazing this guy is... and only a junior in high school!

WE're on the walls

yesterday we took 48 Parkville High Art students to the National Gallery to see the Edward Hopper show and then to the Corcoran to see the Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz shows. What a great day for ART! The Hopper show was amazing! Many of his watercolors I have never seen showcased his amazing talent for capturing light ! GO see when you get a chance...included is his famous Nighthawks!
Then we went to the Corcoran to see the Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz exhibits. Remarkable is seeing the technique of clarity in Adams photographs in person, not on a calendar or poster hanging from many an office and living room wall.. Leibovitz's portait photographs are quite entertaining. My favorites were Scarlette Johananson, the Oval Office..Bush and his crew posed as if on a tv sitecom...and her daughter Sarah with her stricking blue eyes. I wanted to see the Vogue shots! The lavish scenes that were highlighted on the American Masters series on Leibovitz. But to make up for that, they had a photobooth room, in which you took your own photo and had it project on the walls. It rotated photo's that were taken within a certain period of time. we all looked like models. Everyone looks so good in black and white! see more pics here.

first drawings of the year

Here is a small sampling of the first major drawing, my students completed in Studio 1 this year. I have a great class! I am so excited about my school year this year. I really feel positive about it. Alot is going on and I hope to showcase their work and happenings throughout the year. My class shown their endurance well by sticking with the tedious subject matter of glass, metalic objects and cloth ! Not bad for 15-17 year olds!

new finds in photo...photo search homework

i'm teaching photography this year and i'm very excited about it. i have this great class that is completely on the ball with mature behavior and enthusiasm. we talked about journal keeping and making a work of art at of what they learn. not only the photographs but the art of learning about photography. so i've been looking at tons of photo sites and photo books. i found a great site looking for katy grannan. she advertises her model searches from small town grocery store papers and flyers. she lets her models decide where and how they are photographed. many are in their own environments, wearing what they want, if wearing anything at all, in the pose they choose to have. i love this idea. what insight these photos show. she has moved her latest photos from their environments to near by parks, in nature, in very compromising situations. check her out along with others at gallery 51 . your job is to mach this pics with the artist found in this site. have fun!

Chair-e-ty..a great success!!!

we had a great turn out and an amazing group of chairs. You can see all of them here. we raised over $700 towards our scholarship fund. thanks so much for all who participated and supported our event.

another one!!!

a well padded chair by Alessandra Vadala! I'll post more tonight after I take more pics. Our event is tomorrow night at Parkville HS....2600 Putty Hill Ave...Balmore hon

bling bling

a set of bling bling chairs by Beka and Ben! bring some bling bling to purchase this set!

birdie chair

well i actually painted my chair yesterday while watchng "notes on a scandal"....therefore i had to paint something cheerie to take up for the evil judy dench. anyway i tried to make my birdies in an uncompromising position.

the meekins chair

here is yet another chair design by PHS alumni David Meekins, class of '05. nice padding dave!