Art School

You’ve probably seen Jessica Hische’s work in a lot of places. She has designed everything from chocolate lettering to Wes Anderson movie title sequences. In this installment of Art School, San Francisco artist and author Jessica Hische takes us into her design studio with a demo on custom lettering from pencil sketch to vector paths. Most of us have experimented with lettering at some point –maybe doodling our name or our favorite band’s lyrics on a notebook or on our desk at school. But Hische has taken her love for lettering to the next level and built a successful career from her word designs.

Oakland artist, David Wilson, demonstrates mail can be a powerful and tangible way to connect people. Follow along in this special episode of Art School in collaboration with SFMOMA to learn about collage techniques and make your own mail art to share around the world.

Get an inside look into the iterative process of logo design with graphic designer, Mark Winn! In this Art School video, Mark takes us through the process of conceptualizing a logo theme and executing the design from pencil to pixel while providing some serious time-saving techniques in Illustrator along the way.

Have you ever wondered about the public art you see around town? Do you know how to find the meaning of outdoor sculptures and paintings? Join an adorable six-year-old host on a journey to discover monumental public artworks throughout San Francisco. Public art is all around us, but sometimes we don't even notice it! Get some insight about the famed Bow and Arrow by the bay by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, and Ruth Asawa's bay-framing fountain sculpture across the street. Then grab your hiking boots and head for the woods to see Andy Goldsworthy's all-natural installations in The Presidio. Learn how to read these public artworks and many more, brought to you by the cutest curator in town. Do you have a favorite public artwork in your town? Snap a photo and share it with us on Twitter @KQEDArtSchool.

Oakland high school student Zachary Fernandez made it to the finals on the first season of Project Runway Junior, then headed straight back to Oakland School of the Arts to continue his education as a designer. His newest collection, Kathmandu, was inspired by recovery efforts in Nepal after the devastating 2015 earthquake. Art School followed Fernandez’s process as he sketched, sourced fabric, and designed his new project, revealed at a culminating fashion show in spring 2016. For Zachary Fernandez, designing is an art form and a way to communicate his ideas. He considers how his intentions for a new collection will translate to his audience, and pays attention to his process and evolution, which helps him grow professionally. Though he just finished his junior year of high school, Fernandez is a rising fashion star thanks to his dedication and the support of mentors, family, and teachers.

In this episode of Art School, Apexer explains the foundation of lettering and demonstrates the progression of writing in a tag style, to a more three-dimensional form, to fully abstracting letterforms. He also explains the connection between street art sketching and spray painting.

In this video from Art School, Apexer explains the concepts for his murals in San Francisco.

Follow these five steps to create your own political art, and let your work shout a message from the rooftops!

In this episode of Art School, take a trip to the California Academy of Sciences with Jane Kim as she draws inspiration from their collection and talks about an early obsession with teddy bears that led her to a life of using art to give the natural world a stronger voice. She also explains how research and location play an important role in her projects and help encourage environmental stewardship.

Robb Godshaw makes artwork that is conceptual and, as he describes, “Uses technical means to move things that can’t be moved, or make visible things that aren’t normally visible.”

Nigel Poor is a photographer who spends time documenting everyday existence, exploring the meaning of the traces of ourselves that we leave behind. She focuses on ordinary objects and materials, researching what makes an object “worthy of preservation,” in her words. This KQED Art School video was created in collaboration with SFMOMA, who commissioned art-making activity ideas from Nigel Poor for their Open Studio project.

Jocquese Whitfield is a Vogue legend in San Francisco, a choreographer and performer who teaches the popular “Vogue and Tone” class at Dance Mission Theater. He has held the winning title at the Miss Honey Vogue Ball multiple times and is also a judge for dance and drag competitions. In the latest episode of Art School, Jocquese breaks down the five elements of Vogue and discusses how the dance form became a lifestyle. Learn the basics from this master known as Sir JoQ, and recognize that, when it comes to Vogue, it’s all about sass and attitude.

Artist Evah Fan makes drawings, zines and more in a style that is influenced by wordplay and folk art techniques. She tells visual stories through her interpretation of words she finds tantalizing with their multiple meanings.

Chad Hasegawa paints portraits of bears and notable artists, and his style is influenced heavily by the Abstract Expressionist movement, and a thrifty approach to materials. He has created murals throughout San Francisco and shown his paintings and sculptures in galleries. His work balances between abstract and figurative art, with dense, wild brushstrokes that are often pieced together to create recognizable forms. Find more videos at kqed.org/artschool

Brendan Monroe is known for drawings, paintings and sculptures of organic landscapes and otherworldly creatures. Art School visited with the artist during a transitional moment when he’d just completed a new body of work in collaboration with Heath Ceramics.

Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock are artists who focus on character design and development, creating a rotating cast of surreal cartoon figures inspired by visual culture, including fashion, skateboarding, Japanese regalia and folklore.

Elisabeth Higgins O'Connor's creates poignant, larger-than-life figures that are seemingly cobbled together with reused scrap materials including; wood, textiles and newspaper. Like marginalized creatures who are attempting to overcome adversity, her sculptures evoke empathy and amazement with their perceived resiliency, towering stature and patchwork bodies. While these figures are utterly unusual, the use of everyday materials can make them feel familiar and domestic.

San Francisco's Ben Venom creates punk quilts for everyday rockers who want to be cozy, as well as quilts that are a little less functional and sit more comfortably in a framed-art context.

Artist David Huffman provides the inspiration for a fun art project. Choose your favorite object and find different ways to abstract it to explore its symbolism. Subscribe to the entire collection and rate our videos. Find more Art School at kqed.org/artschool.

David Huffman is a Bay Area artist who focuses on the symbology of basketball and the space program in his artwork that addresses identity and cultural trauma. Subscribe to our channel and rate our videos! Find more KQED Art School videos at kqed.org/artschool

Artist Sanaz Mazinani explores intention of traditional of Islamic ornamentation in the short clip.

Sanaz Mazinani is an artist with a background in political activism who uses art to inspire dialogue about perceptions of cultural identity. In the latest episode of Art School, she describes her current art practice and the intentions behind her recent installation at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Ranu Mukherjee created the term hybrid film to describe her dynamic, animated artworks created with hundreds of layers of photography, paintings and digital imagery. In the latest episode of Art School, Mukherjee unpacks the narrative and details behind her newest piece, Home and the World, which examines cultural hybridity, the aftermath of colonialism, and feminist questions. Inspired by a scene from a film by Satyajit Ray, as well as the composition of traditional Indian lithographs, Mukherjee combined these influences with her own visual culture to create a subtle but complex moving image.

In this episode of Art School we visit Paccarik Orue in the studios of Rayko Photo Center where he is currently an Artist-In-Residence. We also tag along as he makes photographs in the Iron Triangle neighborhood of Richmond, California. From 2009-2011, Orue photographed residents and structures there for his book titled, There Is Nothing Beautiful Around Here. Orue also introduces us to his latest body of work which is centered in the city of Cerro de Pasco in his home country of Peru. Cerro de Pasco is one of the highest cities in the world, perched atop the Andean Mountains. Even though he has returned to his homeland, Orue feels like an outsider.

We get a closer, in-depth look at Odell’s practice in a second video below. Follow along as she walks us through the process used to make her piece Garbage Selfie, the product of photographing her trash for twenty-one days! In this demo Odell uses the application Adobe Photoshop to cut out and construct her selfie. But, there are a handful of software options you can use if you don’t own that particular program. One example is GIMP which is a free desktop application that is strikingly similar to Photoshop.

In this episode of Art School, we hang out with Odell in her apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District and get a glimpse of her process of gathering images and crafting them into grids and other forms. Ask Bay Area native Jenny Odell to describe her artistic practice and she just might tell you her work is more akin to a scientist or archivist. Typically her work involves scouring the internet for images on Google Maps, YouTube, Yelp or Craigslist, then making large composites from the photographs and video she collects.

How fluent are you in the language of dance? Follow along with us as we detail the five elements that all forms of dance and creative movement have in common. Being able to identify and understand these core characteristics can help you when talking about a dance performance or can help you get your own messages across through movement.

Brush up on your knowledge of color in the sixth installment of our Elements of Art series. By considering the vital and vibrant work of the Color Field painters of the 1950s and 60s, we get a glimpse of how powerful a role color plays in art. Find more Art School videos @ kqed.org/artschool

Artists are able to create the illusion of light by being able to produce a wide variety of values. In our fifth episode on the Elements of Art, we explore how artists produce and use different color and tonal values. Through the lens of black and white photography, we look at how artists produce value scales and contrast, and how different kinds of lines change the way we perceive depth and space.

Hit the streets as your own, custom-made Superhero and work for the common good of your city! Artist Amy Franceschini has fashioned an inspiring lesson that will help guide you through the entire process from brainstorming logos, mottos and costumes to ensuring that your Superhero works to help solve a community's needs.

In this episode of Art School we hang out with Franceschini in her Mission District studio that also serves as the headquarters for Futurefarmers, an international collective of artists, bakers, architects and other builders. Listen in as she talks about working collaboratively and making work that encourages dialogue and exchange.

In this fourth installment of our Elements of Art series, we look at the how visual artists try to engage our sense of touch. Follow along and discover the myriad ways artists create and use texture.

Artist Kristin Farr demonstrates how to paint your very own "Magic Hecksagon," which is a colorful, geometric design inspired by folk art. See our interview with Kristin Farr here: http://youtu.be/OX1r-3-VK-0

We visit the studio of KQED Art School creator Kristin Farr, who is also a painter of geometric rainbow designs that she calls "Magic Hecksagons," which are inspired by folk art, nature and sacred geometry.

Study up on the different ways visual artists create Form in the third installment of our Elements of Art series. Through the eye-fooling genre of Trompe L’oeil, we look at a variety of techniques artists use to transform shapes into forms and give their art depth and dimension.

Meet hip-hop DJs Celskiii and Deeandroid in their Vallejo studio. They discuss their Bay Area influences, the importance of the audience, and why vinyl LPs still reign supreme.

Learn four beginning skratches that all aspiring turntablist should know. DJ Celskiii and DJ Deeandroid guide you through the basic movements and techniques to get you started mixing and skratching.

Shape is one of the seven basic building blocks of art. Using still life paintings of fruit, we look into how artists create their individual style and develop a unique approach to making shapes.

Oakland artist Favianna Rodriguez guides us through two printing processes central to her work: linocuts and monotypes. Watch as she combines these techniques to create her layered, colorful work.

Visual artist Favianna Rodriguez has become a national figure in the fight for immigration reform. Visit her West Oakland studio and listen in as she talks about her mix of art and activism.

Brush up on your visual literacy as we breakdown the wide variety of lines that visual artists use. Through the lens of the self-portrait, we look at how line is a way for artists to express their individual style and also a tool to control the messages they wish to communicate.

In this episode of Art School, tag along as Lenora and her dancers prepare for a series of performances at Asia Society in New York City. Hear about the genesis of her current multimedia performances and the impact the local Chinese community has had on her artistic practice.

Follow choreographer Lenora Lee as she leads you through an excerpt of movements from her multimedia performance piece, The Escape. The choreography was generated from writing done in collaboration with her company's dancers. Watch and listen how she translated the dancers' stories into physical movements.

Oakland’s Franky Aguilar is the artist behind the wildly popular mobile art apps CatWang, Snoopify, Ima Unicorn, and GifYogurt, to name a few. Inspired by street culture, candy colors, and Internet iconography like cats and pizza, Aguilar works with artists to create a user experience that is equally fun and creative. For many of the apps, Aguilar or other artists create digital stickers that can be collaged onto existing photos, or used to make an original design, allowing users to remix art assets to create their own digital images that can easily be shared online. KQED Art School took a field trip to Aguilar’s studio to learn more about the creation of his company, 99centbrains, and his apps, which are used by millions of people worldwide.

KQED Art School presents rarely-seen photos of San Francisco Bay Area graffiti in the 1980s captured by photographer Jim Prigoff, co-author of the seminal book on early graffiti "Spraycan Art". Artist Neon describes the styles, spots, and writers that had an early influence on the Bay Area graffiti scene. See more art vids at http://www.KQED.org/ArtSchool.

Graffiti writer Neon describes the five basic formats of graffiti. Also, check out our video on the early days of San Francisco Bay Area Graffiti.

Jodie Mack is an experimental animator who makes colorful, abstract films with a vintage Bolex film camera. Tag along as she works on a new film and talks about her process.

In this episode of Art School, Neon discusses the pioneers of Bay Area graffiti, the most popular places to paint, and the styles that originated locally. He also talks about the PBS film Style Wars, which had a big impact on artists around the country.

In this episode of Art School, we go behind the scenes with Olek as she installs a new piece titled I haven't a Single Explorer on My Planet, and discusses her artistic path, process and intentions. Olek is an artist who works in the traditional medium of crochet and transforms the soft material into massive-scale art installations around the world. Blanketing rooms, cars, trains, public walls and sculptures with her exceptionally colorful crocheted work, Olek makes bold statements that often address important social issues such as equality and consumerism. She often reacts to current events as they happen, creating messages that ask us to consider our social climate and environment. Olek wants to inspire others to be creative, and she often creates public art to bring art and her vision to the masses. She views her crocheted, pieced-together artworks as a metaphor for the idea the everyone is interconnected. Find more Art School videos at Kqed.org/ArtSchool.

Chris Johanson demonstrates how to create a painting based on personal expression in a Venn diagram format, an art lesson developed for students in partnership with SFMOMA for their project, Open Studio: Artist-Designed Classroom Activities. Find more Art School videos at Kqed.org/ArtSchool.

American Nomad is a band fronted by singer-songwriters Hassan El-Tayyab and Shiloh Parkerson. Performing as either a duo or a full band at venues of all sizes, they keep Americana music traditions alive, performing tunes that are reminiscent of the days "when our country was first starting to form," as Parkerson notes in this episode of Art School. Head into the studio with American Nomad as they share their approach to songwriting and performance, and the process of recording their debut full-length album, Country Mile, produced by Bay Area bluegrass legend Laurie Lewis. In addition to the interview, featuring footage from a performance in San Francisco, Parkerson and El-Tayyab also offer tips for learning how to sing with feeling, and how to compose a great tune. Find more episodes from Art School @kqed.org/artschool