Animation [Facial Expressions]

Happy-Sad: The face smiles, but the eyes give away the disappointment

Emotional pain: The shoulders raise, the nose and brows bunch and top/bottom teeth show with a gaping mouth

Worry: the eyes widen, the brows come together, the hand often raises, the forehead wrinkles, and the mouth becomes small

Rebelliousness: the eyes shut or go very narrow, the lower jaw juts out, the tongue shows, and the nose raises and flares

During my sophomore year of college, I took a course in animation. The majority of the semester was spent tackling facial expressions. During this time, I was grieving the huge loss of my mother, and was in a lot of emotional pain. The feelings I was experiencing came through in my study of animation; I was better able to render negative emotions than positive. If I could take the class again, I would spend more time on the positive expressions, but above you will find my studies from the course. 

Before taking this class, I had no idea how many muscles there are in the face and how our expressions, especially those of our eyes can tell so much. Want to know how to spot a phony smile? Look at the person's eyes. Are the wide or narrow? Wide eyes indicate insincerity in a smile. Though animation is a study of art and cartoon, understanding the way that the body shows emotion and expression is a good way to better understand people and pick up on their body language and the words that often go unspoken.

Sumi-E [Bamboo Forest]

Sumi-E [Peony]

Sumi-E [Chrysanthemum]

Sumi-E [Heart Notion]

Sumi-E [Grape Vine]

Sumi-E [Orchid & Foreboding Sky]

Sumi-E [Abstract Blast]

Sumi-E [Abstract Fountain]

Sumi-E [Chrysanthemum]

Sumi-E [Abstract Motion]

Sumi-E [Experimental Landscape]

Sold

Sumi-E [Mountain Impressions]

Sumi-E [Bamboo Impressions]

Sumi-E [Cranes]

Acrylic on Canvas [Gunk]

Mixed Media [Belly]

Mixed Media Collage [Sunset]

Acrylic on Canvas [Split]

Acrylic on Canvas [Mist]

Acrylic on Canvas [Sand Stone]

Jewelry Design [Pacific] Bronze Pendant

Created Using Wax & Casting

Jewelry Design [Limón] Serpentine & Sterling Silver

Created by Wax Casting & Stone Setting

Jewelry Design [Jill] Sterling Silver Pendant

Front

Back

Jewelry Design [Roads] Braided Sterling Silver Ring

Hand Braided & Soldered

Jewelry Design [Atlantic] Sterling Silver Ring (Before Polishing & After)

Created by Wax Casting

Jewelry Design [Cube] Sterling Silver Ring

Acrylic on Illustration Board [Martini]

For "Martini" I restructured Fibonacci's sequence and worked with a diverse color palette based on cool chroma with a few warm sections. The highlighted outline effect was created using thin slices of tape and my good old exacto knife. 

Silkscreen print [Up & Up]

Silkscreen t-shirt [90s DiCaprio Crush]

Mixed Media [Ice Baby]

Silkscreen portrait [Tonight, Tonight]

Pen & marker on paper [Muchies]

Silk Screen Print [Lover, You Should Have Come Over] Lyrics by Jeff Buckley

I designed this piece in my silkscreening class, and it was inspired by Jeff Buckley's evocative song "Lover, You Should Have Come Over".  Hope you like.

Screen Printed Curtains [J POP]

I have always loved pattern. In my art classes, I've constantly had to stray away from my tendency to make everything fill the page and repeat. I decided that I would make a pattern for our project, for which we were asked to print on something other than paper.

It was great fun from start to finish. First I made the images vector graphics on the computer, then I laid out the pattern, and then I printed eight separate rounds, for the eight different candy colors. It wasn't difficult, but it was definitely time consuming.

I also painted my white "shabby chic" dresser a new and improved teal. I am all about color at the moment. Enjoy!

Below are the original graphics, pre-burning them into my silk screens. I had to use three large screens to fit all the imagery. I also spent more than I can afford on permaset textile inks in brights, which are so beautifully pigmented.

Photography [Street Car]

Photography [Leggos]

Photography [Coit]