Things I Never Thought Of by Ashton Simon-Gardner

 Ashton Simon-Gardner is a former student who recently moved to northern NORTHERN Alberta.  She always made amazing photographs.  During a recent visit I was glad to see that she was still making beautiful work.

She didn't want to say anything about her photos other than she broke a lens trying to photograph icicles in minus 40 degree weather.

WANTED

This is a Art/Drama split class and I teach both disciplines to them.  In drama we created "bad guy" personas for ourselves.  We discussed what our crimes were, how we talked, walked etc and in Art we did these super cool posters.  That ink spill on the "devil Tickler" Poster was a total accident but rather than start again she decided that it looked scarier and went with it. Awesome!

IGNITION by Frank Wang

Frank Wang has got it goin' on!  He keeps a studio outside his home.  He dedicates massive amounts of time to his work.  He views process as a necessary and important part of the act of creation   He EXPERIMENTS.  He THINKS.  He EXPLORES.

fw: The following pieces explore the theme of creation through destruction. I chose fire as a subject because of its ability to simultaneously destroy and create.

 eruption

an oil well fire viewed from an unusual perspective shows ordinarily hidden expressions.
environmental exploitation gives us energy potential, but at what cost?

re!ncarnation

phoenix, the bird of fire

the creative energy spent designing products is not destroyed when the matter is destroyed

 it is infinite, waiting for new life

re!ncarnation details

re!ncarnation destruction

i destroyed my project to create anew

death/life process

death/life

the entire skull is fabricated from the burnt wire frame of re!ncarnation
the creative process is filled with destroying ideas and creating again
ideas die until one finally lives

kindle

the photos are still, but the dynamic energy of ignition is captured

Autobiographical Comix: 2012 Edition

They've arrived!  This year's comics - by my very lovely and talented Art 9 class.  These comics represent everything that I love about teaching art - I'll let you come to your own conclusions.  The first image is from my instructional comic that is in production - it gives good background for looking at the students work and what we talk about and focus on.  I didn't include all the student's work - maybe I should have.

 The first page of my instructional comic book

 Adam Ridell

Cell-phones - a teacher's nightmare!

 Andy Lan

I've seen that cartoon and it's true - almost NOTHING happens in each episode - it's infuriating

 Angie Tsamos

So funny - reminds me of my 4 year old daughter

 Yuka Nakamura

So cute i've got a stomach ache

 Jessica Chan

amazing - how much more can you communicate in a single panel?

 Celia Coe

A perfect example of how to make a GREAT comic with stick figures

 Marcus Cheng

Look at how creatively he composes each panel

 Samuel Lin

Beautiful and hilarious

 Issing Tang

So clever

 Josh Zhang

"Accept Challenge" is my favourite panel of the year!

 Justin Chan

I've asked and asked and I still have no idea how, why or even if the dog actually died!

 Tin-Tin Villapando

I love the pacing in this story

 Dani Zitron

Great contrast between simple drawing style and advanced shading

 Michelle Lam

Coco Wang

I love it when Coco "high-fives" her brother's face!

Unbounded by Connie Huang

Next up in our series of self-curated student exhibitions is Connie Huang.  Connie understands that the act of painting; the process of discovery, exploration and trial and error in painting infuses that work with potent symbolic meaning.  Check out Francis Bacon for some context. Check out the process work for the last two paintings for a deeper understanding of Connie's working methods.

It starts off as an observation, or a word

next comes a thought, or a feeling

then, that speck of thought sparks,

radiates,

and triggers

a profusion of ideas and visualizations.

Then, I explore, because

I do not believe in success of initial conception

I do not expect to achieve perfection from meticulous planning

I am sometimes reborn in accidents, ruins

I journey through trial and error and hunt for the best outcome

I make sure that I am FREE when I create.

 Free To Judge 1

 Free to Judge 2

 Dichotomy

 Guile

 Accumulation

The process of creating Accumulation

 Domain

The evolution of Domain

Dream Canvas by Whitney O'Brien

Our third student exhibition featuring the travel photography of Whitney O'Brien:

When I take a photo, I am stopping time.  I am capturing a memory forever with a click of a button.  A single frame can capture more detail than I can remember.  My photography represents how I view the world, what impacts me and what I want to look back at.  They record my life in a way that is fun and rewarding.

France:

France was full of famous sights and fictional monuments becoming real in my eyes.  The ancient architecture juxtaposed to the bustle of the modern city is a photographer's dream canvas.  The noise, the lights, the language, the food, the culture is what I try to capture so I can take the people who look at my photos back there with me.