Featured on the spread are Country Day artists who represent various media and backgrounds. Art teacher Patricia Kelly teaches all but one of them. Scroll down to see their art and discover how they created it.


In the fall sophomore Kamira Patel, along with sophomore Margaret Whitney and juniors Imani Ritchards and Shwetha Prasad, won third place in the Mercy Cancer Institute group art competition.

“Kamira has a good eye, and she is willing to put in the time. And as a sophomore she can do that because she has more time than the AP students,” Kelly said.

“(Patel) has a good eye for composition and colors, and a lot of the time she is right on cue with what I am saying.”

Senior Gordon Ho approaches art from a “cartoony” aspect, according to Kelly. He interplays mythical elements in his piece, which she described as “really playful, borderline cartoon, and very contemporary.”

Another senior artist, Sasha Ragland, has adopted the photo transfer method.

“She has really embraced it and is experimenting,” Kelly said. “I admire her for thinking out of the box with that process and really exploring it.”

Another of Kelly’s students is junior Nick Fesler.

“I love Nick’s creatures. He has a unique style, doesn’t have a preconceived notion when he starts working on a piece, and then something clicks and it starts developing,” Kelly said.

Kelly said she also admires the “formulaic approach” and drawing skills of junior Tommy Peng.

Senior Anna Young studies ceramics with art teacher Julie Didion.

Didion praised Young’s “patient and repeated experiments” as she sculpted her life-size ceramic owl, which Didion described as “powerful and delicate, a fitting metaphor for the artist herself.”

“I still find ‘AY’ marked on the test tiles around the studio and realize that they were some of the many tiles she made to try out her colors!” Didion said. “I saw this really cool design of a white tree on a black background—like a silhouette but in reverse—and I wanted to do something similar.

The key on one side makes it look kind of creepy. I guess because you have the trees in the background and the only other color is a brown and this sea-foamy green. I was trying to get that kind of eerie effect.

Inside the actual key part I added a treasure chest at the last minute, so it was like you were inside the key with the treasure chest, but you needed the key to open the treasure chest. It added more visual depth. It was kind of like a paradox.

(Art teacher Patricia) Kelly told me I had to work with big pieces of paper, so I used acrylic (instead of dry media). I usually don’t use paints because they are really soft and can spread everywhere.

It was definitely an experiment, and I didn’t really didn’t know what I was going to do.

I worked on it during class time for like two weeks and then brought it home during Winter Break. I would say it probably took three or four weeks in total.

Ms. Kelly is entering it into the (California Art Education Association Youth Art of the Month exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum).”


"I love how photo transfers are not as clear as actual photos. The translucency adds another level to the piece.

I had done a self portrait for AP Art History, and (art teacher Patricia Kelly) suggested I try photo transferring.

To transfer the photo, you coat a printed photo like the portrait with layers of this transparent gel medium that solidifies after it dries.

After it dries out, you scrape the photo off the back of the hard gel, and it leaves the shadow of the picture.

It has a kind of smoky effect, like a shadow of the picture, and I really liked that.

It incorporates art and photography together but alters the photograph in an unusual way.”


“I designed the shoe when I was an intern over the summer in China. I was working in a studio with an ex-Prada designer.

I showed the designer my portfolio, and he said he would give me the internship and write my recommendation for college.

This is where I designed my first collection for high-heeled shoes and sandals.

The shoe I designed is made of hexagons. My inspiration for the shoe was a building in China that is designed with hexagons.

The shoe material is leather, except the heel. The heel is supposed to be plastic, but we aren’t going to sell it so we just used wood.

I made the sole and pattern (myself) in the factory that my dad owns, but we ordered the other materials.

I only made one pair because I am not going to sell it right now.

I might make a website when I get into college, and I might make a business—not just shoes, but other products too.

I want to go to Parsons (The New School for Design in New York City). Parsons is the biggest reason why I came to America. It is like a dream to get into there.

I want to make my own brand, TOMMY PENG. I will focus on dress-up clothes, like fancy stuff and couture, but I also want to do men’s design.”


“One of our first projects was a lidded vessel, and it had to have some sort of creature on it. I made an owl.

(Ceramics teacher Julie) Didion said that it was really cool and that I should make a life-size one.

The wings were probably the most complex part. I had to wait for the clay to dry almost completely before I attached them.

I cut open the body where the wings would attach, making little door-like flaps that folded out. Then I scored the wings on the outside then closed the doors.

The wings had to be just hard enough so that they wouldn’t break, but not so heavy that they would fall down. The plan was to have the wings outstretched, but as I continued, I realized that wasn’t going to happen without stilts.

On the owl’s back I used some tongue depressors to make it look like feathers with creases. Then I fired it and had to paint it.

The thing about barn owls is they have all these shades and spots. I put a base coat of gold, then took a sponge and put on my own shade of grey.

For the white part I had to take another type of clay that I painted it on, which made it look like it had feathers."


“I always like randomness in my paintings.

I talk to myself while I paint, and I’m always asking myself if there’s an element that’s not quite normal.

I made the background, but I decided that (the paint) was going on too heavy and the color was too powerful, so I had to mute it with white powder.

I was going to stick with just that, but (art teacher Patricia) Kelly asked me what I thought I could add to do something different or take it to another level.

I had used dolphins in a few paintings, and I wanted to do a whole series with them. So when I decided on (adding) Medusa (to the painting), I wanted to use something that wasn’t snakes.”


“Almost everything is completely random in my paintings. Sometimes I do a follow-up on a specific element but it usually turns into something very different.

I begin with doing a pencil drawing of what I am going to paint. I don’t usually have anything in mind. I just kind of draw stuff as I go along.

After that I go over all the pencil lines with a pen. Then I paint over that and add more detail with pen until it seems finished.

(The topic) mostly comes to me as I go. I usually try to do something, but at some point I decide ‘Screw it’ and just change it to something else.

Why does it depict what it does? Because that’s what I felt like drawing at the time.”