Cooper (American) and Gorfer (Austrian) are an amazing photography duo that have recently showed a series of mixed media images reminiscent of painter Gustave Klimt's work. I found their work in the Guardian and Hasselblad news and invited Sarah to visit my virtual classroom all the way from Sweden.
Sarah Cooper's presentation fascinated and inspired the students who will be creating mixed media photographic dioramas in the upcoming weeks. In the Zoom presentation Sarah talks about her creative path, partnership and most recent work.
Today, I took my freshmen class for a trip to Seattle to visit with paper artist extraordinaire, Patty Grazini. Patty comes from a costume background. You can see her interest in costumes in the characters that she creates. (Watch her presentation on the link above.) Everything she makes is from paper down to the last minute detail. Patty collects paper from all over the world, mostly Japan and Europe. She has files and files of paper just waiting for the right project.
What I find fascinating about Patty's work is the research behind her pieces. She collects old news articles and develops characters from them. When you purchase one of her pieces it comes with the original news article from the 1800's-to early 1900's. Every element of the sculpture is lovingly hand crafted from paper that has a history. Patty rarely uses new paper. The image below was taken from her Instagram account. With this piece she has created a bug using old currency. Fabulous!
Today, I took my photography class to visit a photographer friend who I had recently reconnected with, Andrea Davis Kronlund.
Jamaica series
When I first met Andrea in grad school at NYU/ICP, Andrea had been working on a project about Jamaica. Her early years were spent in Jamaica. At the age of 14 Andrea moved to be with her father in New York. While we were both students she modeled for me and one of the shots was later used on a CD cover for the band MC 900ft Jesus. The photo was shot with infra red film then painted with watercolors.
Hillary & Andrea 1992, NYC
Portrait of Andrea/Hillary Younglove 1991
Hairpiece/ Andrea David Kronlund
Hairpiece, Self-portrait, china bumps 2
While in NYC, Andrea started working on a hair series. Originally, the work was done using liquid light and printed on canvas. When Andrea revisited the project in the 2000's she used an inkjet printer and printed on book binding cloth to make her work more accessible. By that time I had moved to California and lost touch. Oddly enough, I also did a hair series in the 1990's without knowing she had done one! Mine were shot with black and white film then hand colored using watercolors. I also did a series of large scale oil paintings. You may recognize Andrea's face in one of them.
African & African American Hair as Sculpture/Hillary Younglove
Fashion Shoot for Krull Magazine/Andrea David Kronlund
Here is a link to the hour long interview with Andrea. Andrea Davis Kronlund is currently working on a new series which is influenced by her past photographic work and her job at the National Museums for World Culture in Stockholm, Sweden. Recently, Andrea established Krull Magazine. "Krull Magazine is a creative digital platform and the preeminent, lifestyle publication for black culture in Stockholm, Sweden. Krull brings together alternative perspectives of black culture to change perceptions, break stereotypes and include a diversity of voices."
Pippa Murray is a local mosaicist who works on commissions around the world. You can see her work in Spain, Greece and throughout the Bay Area. Pippa was classically trained and is fascinated with traditional mosaic techniques based off of her studies of ancient Greece and Rome. She works with traditional materials and tools.
Pippa with her daughter, Ithaka
A work in progress
We learned a lot about ancient techniques and design through Pippa's engaging lecture.
Today we visited with artist, Carrie Reichardt, who lives in the suburbs of London in Chiswick. Carrie is a contemporary mosaicist as you can see from her methods of cutting, use of color, mixed media and design. Reichardt gave a talk on how she became a mosaic artist, ceramicist and activist. Her friendships forged with inmates on death row in Texas influenced her development as an activist artist and led to a 20 year long project, mosaicing the facade of her house.
Take a tour with the BBC below.
Today, Carrie is working on a number of public art projects such as the Elm Tree of Life, which incorporates stories from the local area with the urban environment and its natural past. Carrie collects historical imagery and embeds the images in the tile, a modern technique often used in public art.
Her talk to the students was powerful. (Click on the link for the entire lecture. One hour long. ) Carrie deals with personal trauma through her artwork. It's always inspiring to see artists who use their creations to move out of dark places. Carrie's artwork is anything but dark. It is colorful, playful, uplifting to view and loaded with personal symbolism.
This fall & spring Sonoma Academy students worked on the Identity project with the Puropelto School in Turku, Finland and the Mont Kiara International School in Malaysia and got to meet the students and ask one another questions about the project and life in the US, Finland and Malaysia. For our first meeting with the Mont Kiara School, students wanted to know who they would vote for in presidential election if they were allowed to vote. Our students asked the students in Malaysia about their favorite food. We also had a question asked about pet cats since so many of us have been spending more time with our pets during this pandemic. Sonoma Academy, Santa Rosa, California, USA
Sophia
For my project I wanted to represent the more blithe, lighthearted, side of me and the more serious, deep, side of me in one homogenous piece. Though it may look like the left side of my piece is meant to be ominous and morbid, that was not my intention. I meant it to convey the side of me that is more serious, thoughtful, and aware, as well as to convey some of my hidden desires and insecurities. I decided to incorporate a skeleton as the other half of my face due to my interest in the medical field. I used a simple micron pen with lots of tiny crosshatches to give the skeleton a more 3-dimensional look. Also, I used a picture of a real skeleton for reference, making sure I made my skeleton look accurate and realistic, further demonstrating my interest in the medical field. My interest in the medical field stems from my family. My father and my grandfather are both doctors, and my mom was a nurse. Ever since I was little, I’ve been surrounded by the idea of becoming a doctor. When I was younger it never used to appeal to me, I had my heart set on becoming an artist. However, recently the idea of being able to help people and do something good with my life has become much more enticing. I’ve always wanted to make an impact on the world, but lately I have realized that I do not need to do that to be respected. Sometimes, making an impact on regular, everyday people, without worldly recognition for your accomplishments is far more admirable.
The next aspect of my piece that symbolizes something is the snake coming out of the skull. The snake is meant to convey my tendency to overthink as well as my insecurities. Throughout my life, there have always been things to overthink about, whether it’s something vital like my future, or something more temporary like a math test. I have also always had things that I am insecure about. Sometimes it feels as though my thoughts and insecurities are trying to strangle me, hence the giant red snake emerging from my head. For the background of the left side, I created a black and white collage of places and objects from around the world, displaying my love for travel and discovery. Traveling has always been an immense joy to me, for I love experiencing new cultures and scenery. I have been to many foreign places, but I would love to travel to more. All these components make up my inner self, something that people do not see at first.
For the right side of my piece, I wanted to include more color and liveliness. I also wanted it to contrast the left side without being too dramatic. I decided to use watercolor to show the more soft and light side of me, while also being able to capture the vibrant colors that represent me. The reds, oranges, and yellows represent my vivacity and happiness, the words my friends and family used to describe me as. After I watercolored my paper, I decided to cut out pieces of it to glue on my piece to give it a fragmented look. The little cartoony designs on the watercolor of bugs, flowers, and suns, represent my outer happiness and lightheartedness. They remind me of fun and youth, things that I project on the outside. My friends know that I love to be childish and joke around, and I thought these little designs represented that. Overall, this project reflects how others view me, and how I view myself in a delicate balance of symbolism and artistic representation. It includes aspects of my creativity as well as my deeper thoughts. Creating this piece has helped me come to a deeper understanding about how I come off to others and how I want to come off to others, furthermore, it has helped me develop a greater sense of my identity and what makes me Sophia.
Esme
For me this project was a bit of an inner exploration. I had to look inside myself in order to create an accurate representation of me in the form of art. Creating the outer side of the piece was far easier than representing the inner side of me. For the outside I did a collage of old printed text with dried lavender flowers on top of it. The writing in the collage represents the societal norms I feel held down by, and the lavender represents how I’m always trying to grow and learn. I often try to come off as a put together organized person, even when things are chaotic on the inside. The right side of my artwork represents what’s inside. The background represents the chaos, beauty and confusion that are my emotions. The tiger face represents strength and determination. I am always pursuing my goals and chasing my dreams. Tigers have very similar qualities so i often think of them as my spirit animal. The M&M rappers that I used to fill in my shoulders, show that I have a sweet side, even though sometimes it can be hard to find. Mont Kiara International School, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
My name is Rassam and I'm from Iran. I moved to Malaysia around 2 and half years ago. The left side of my art piece is what other people see and also it represents my family and culture. First my dog is a big part of my family so I put half of her face on myne. I was planning to put pictures of my family as well but because of quarantine I couldn't do it because i don't have a printer. The writing is called Bani Adam. Bani Adam is a famous poem by Iranian poet Saadi Shirazi. A translation of the first line of the poem was quoted by former U.S. President Barack Obama in a videotaped message to Iranians to mark Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on 20 March 2009.
This is the translation of the poem
"Human beings are members of a whole,
since in their creation they are of one essence.
When the conditions of the time brings a member to pain,
the other members will suffer from discomfort.
You, who are indifferent to the misery of others,
it is not fitting that they should call you a human being."
The pattern around the poem is a famous Persian pattern that was used hundreds of years ago. The right side is what I see. The basketball on my shirt represents my favorite sport. Basketball is my favorite sport and I used to play it a lot. The black outlining on my face represents a puzzle. The puzzle is my future that I have to find. The background for the right side is cartoon faces or memes. The background doesn't really have a meaning but it shows that I love social media.
I would like to start this snippet about myself, by first introducing myself. Hi my name is Kairangi Te Huki but everyone calls me Kai, I’m 15 years old and I’m from the USA and New Zealand. Ever since I was a kid I always loved playing basketball and that has obviously translated into my life now, as I play basketball everyday to become the next Lamelo Ball. In my artwork I tried to convey who I was on an A4 piece of paper, which was nearly impossible, but my finished product really does speak, me. On the left hand side of the piece is what people view me as, my exterior. I chose to wear my schools’ basketball jersey to represent my undying love of wearing the most fashionable sports clothes to any occasion, whether it be my wedding or a basketball game, I can guarantee if I wasn’t forced to wear something else, you would see me show up in a cavaliers shirt, and some basic Nike shorts. Finally on my exterior I chose a plethora of words that described me, I chose these words by thinking about what my friends and family would say about me if they were being honest, and I tried to make it so that, you, the audience would be able to meet me through this A4 piece of paper. Furthermore, my interior side is more complex. Let's get the subject of basketball out of the way before I turn this into a whole autobiography. I chose some pictures of me playing basketball that depict the player I am, a slashing forward. At the bottom of the right hand side you can see various cut up pieces of currency, these are to show how where I have lived, have made me, me. Being a third culture kid does shape how you view things, and it will take pieces of culture from where you have lived, and where you are from originally, to create this weird mélange of a personality. On the background there are more images, these photos are my family, and I would predict, you, would say the same. My dad taught me what determination and competitiveness is, my mom taught me to be empathetic and hard working, and finally my brother taught me how to be respectful and humorous. Finally you may be wondering what is drawn on my face and what my hair is made of. My face is to represent a culture that I belong to, that being Maori culture, and in my culture people tattoo their face which is called “Moko”, to represent how proud they are to be from the culture. Finally I chose to cut up a basketball and glue it as my hair to represent that basketball is always in my mind, and it will forever be glued there.
Hi, my name is Suh Yun L but everyone calls me Olivia. I’m from Seoul, South Korea and I’m turning 15 this June. Since I was a kid, I was very outgoing...basically an extrovert. I really enjoyed doing outdoor activities and loved making new friends. However, as I got into puberty I started being timid and quiet around people. I also started feeling some kind of feelings that I have never felt before. In addition, I tend to get emotional very easily and the mood swings hit significantly. My whole point of creating this artwork is to share my experiences with the big and small emotions that I felt during puberty. During the process of making this artwork, I have learned various ways to express my feelings through art which significantly helped me let out those dark and caged emotions.
First of all, the left side is my outer identity. I feel like people around me identify me as a bright and talkative person so I mostly used some bright colors on the right side. I colored the background with a yellow color pencil and drew out some random shapes with different colors of sharpie. I also drew two sunflowers with a sharpie and color pencil. The sunflowers represent my sister and my mom who are my mental stabilisers and my mentors and the random shapes represent my “weird and energetic” personality. I outlined my face features with sharpie and colored them with color pencil. I colored my hair with dark gray sharpie and made those curly shapes because I change my hairstyles very often.
Second but lastly, the right side is my inner identity. For the background, I used dark colors such as black and gray. I drew some gray stripes to represent a cage. My intent was to express my caged and depressing emotion that I feel sometimes (really rare hits once in 2 months). Also, I drew a monster inside the cage in order to express my small anxiety that hits sometimes (also really rare). For my face, I ripped out some pieces from a magazine in order to express my puzzled mind.
Overall, I’m quite satisfied with my final piece. Even though it is not a high quality work, it allowed me to relieve my stress throughout making this piece.
My name is Sofea and this is my split face illustration. For my outer identity, I drew and glued flowers all around my head to show peace and kindness. These flowers are hibiscus flowers, which are the national flower of Malaysia, which is my ethnicity and nationality. When a person first gets to know me, I’m often seen as very kind or gentle, but there is so much more to that. This can be seen on the other half where I show my inner identity of who I really am. The first aspect I have is a collage. The collage consists of my aesthetics, my interests, actual pictures of me, and what I see of myself. This definitely shows my inner identity as it’s who I really am, and it's based on not what people see me on the outside. As we can see, it consists of sunsets, adventures, film, and so many more things that I personally enjoy that not everyone will know when they first see me. In my inner identity, for my hair, I decided to use a different medium. I decided on using an old t-shirt. This is so that I am able to choose my own t-shirt, preferably one that means a lot to me so that it’s more personalized. I decided on using a purple t-shirt for the hair because I believe that by changing your hair, you can change so much of yourself. I’ve never dyed my hair before, but when I see people with different colored hair, so much of their personality shows, and I think that is so interesting. My surname when translated means king. And often purple is correlated with power or royalty which represents my family bloodline. It’s so fascinating that just by changing one thing on your outer identity, people will see you as a different person, however your inner identity doesn’t change. The next medium I chose for my inner identity is colored paper. There are so many different choices with colored paper, but I chose red, orange and yellow because all three of them are warm colors. When people get to know me deeply, they realize that I’m a fiery person with so many opinions, and I wouldn’t step back to not have my words spoken out. To separate those colors, I used string because not only does it help separate them, but strings are also a great way to connect things. The strings represent that no matter how much chaos there is in my inner identity, the strings will always be there to connect everything together and make everything complete. The next medium used for this project are words. I wrote words, any words, that I think of when I think of me. There are so many words that could describe me, and I wanted that to be shown in my project, whether they're negative or positive. The last medium used for my project were teabags. These tea bags made my work look vintage, which I admire the look of. They also represent insecurities and imperfections. There is nothing that is perfect in this world and the teabags are here to represent the flaws that I have, and the flaws that the world has.
Zooming with students in Finland
Our students learned that Finnish public schools are renowned for their educational system which resembles what we would call a private school in America. SA students learned that Finnish people eat a lot of rye bread. Many of the questions revolved around life during the pandemic, food and what students do after school. Currenly, Puropelto students are attending class on campus and wearing masks.
Puropelto School, Finland
To see all of the students' work as well as work from previous years, scroll through the slideshow.
Last semester was such a success that I have continued to create opportunities for my students to meet artists in their studios via Zoom.
In September, my studio art class visited with NYC activist and puppeteer, Andrea Lomanto. I have known Andrea since 1985, when we both met in Paris. Later in life, our lives crossed paths again in the Czech Republic while studying puppetry in the early 2000's. Andrea was part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement and has brought her puppetry to a South African Township to promote girl's rights.
Here is a link to a recent piece that Andrea created with her partner.
In October, my students and I traveled to upstate NY to visit with sculptor and ceramicist, Robin Whiteman. What attracted me to Robin's work is how reminiscent it is of the relics one finds in ancient cultures.
In November, my advanced portfolio class met with local muralist, MJ Lindo Lawyer.
Screen shot from MJ's Instagram video of a mural in progress
MJ (Maria José), was born in Miami, lived in Oklahoma, Toronto,Canada and Nicaragua, (where her parents are from), before moving to Santa Rosa. Art has been a constant in her life through all the moves. She was studying architecture at the local community college in Santa Rosa, CA when she had an epiphany while browsing through an art magazine that she could become a muralist.
Her advice to students is to seize the moment and don't let "no" stop you. Seek out job opportunities rather than wait for them. MJ showed us an example of a beer label that she had designed and told us that she had approached the company about creating a label. The other big piece of advice she shared was that as a muralist, once your work is out in the public it becomes the property of the public. For example, one of her murals was defaced by someone who threw paint on it. This happens often with public artwork and you just have to let it go and not take it personally. That was a hard lesson to learn but important.
For the opening of school I had all of my students watch the documentary, "Mrs. Vera's Daybook". It's a love story and a story about how two artists cope with the AIDS epidemic. My Foundation Arts class had the opportunity to have a Q&A session with Michael Johnstone, one of the co-creators of Verasphere. It was a unique opportunity to get to talk to someone who lived through the AIDS crisis, was involved with workshops in creating the AIDS Memorial Quilt and developed as an artist with his partner, David, an amazing body of work: photos, costumes and a community. Making the most of every day through play, creativity and color the two artists navigate challenging times like we are facing today with the pandemic, California fires, political climate and times of social unrest.
Mrs. Vera's Daybook offers us a way to see the world one day at a time, with color and a playful spirit.
