Testimonials

Jayesh & Vaishali P.

We have known Ms. Johanne for more than 8 years.  We have been very fortunate to have her in our son Kiran’s life. Ms. Johanne has played many instrumental roles for Kiran. Not only she helped Kiran become an art kid with solid foundations and attitude toward creativity but also helped set him on a strong path to become a creative professional in the field of animated movies. She has been an early art teacher, a long time coach on portfolio development, and the college counselor.

Kiran has been lucky to have sincere, loving, and consistent encouragement from Ms. Johanne for more than 8 years.  A lot of activities, classes, and teachers have come and gone but classes with Ms. Johanne have been the highlight for Kiran’s education in general and learning about becoming an artist in particular. She has taught him not only the core skills but also have confidence and discipline of becoming a great visual artist.

Being in a STEM focused school during a pandemic college application season for an art student could be daunting. Ms. Johanne worked with Kiran to map out a phenomenal process to develop winning admission applications with portfolios for world’s most sought after art schools. Unlike STEM college applications, each art school has a unique set of application requirements: portfolios, sketchbooks, essays, artistic statements, and so on.  Ms. Johanne helped execute each of these requirements masterfully with weekly guidance and discipline. Kiran was able to get into all of his dream art schools including California Institute of Arts, Rhode Island Institute of Design, USC Film and Animation School, Gobelins in Paris, and many more. We will be forever grateful to Ms. Johanne.

Kiran P.

Pre-College 

I have been mentored by Johanne for around 8 years, ever since I was 10/11 years old. As a particularly rambunctious child, typical fine-art lessons that were hard for me to understand would not be engaging. However, under Johanne, I was given creative freedom to explore art in my own way and understand technical skills in projects I organized which fueled my excitement to create. As a young artist aiming to translate my own imagination and work towards a professional career in visual arts, Johanne equipped me with an understanding of a variety of mediums and a solid foundation in technical abilities, which proved immensely helpful as I pursue a career in the animation industry.

College Application

Applying to art schools is a rigorous and lengthy process. I had decided to apply to 23 colleges total majoring in Illustration and Animation (depending on the school), each with its own unique portfolio requirements. Johanne helped me to curate portfolios for each individual school, and plan out pieces that could best show my abilities. The majority of art-focused colleges require a firm understanding of drawing, shown through live studies of people, animals, and environments, which I had already been practicing through our studio sessions. During our weekly meetings, Johanne would offer constructive critique and feedback for each drawing I had her look at (which sometimes was very VERY many) and gave me detailed notes which helped me to improve exponentially.

For more conceptual and creative pieces, Johanne guided me through each piece from brainstorm to finish. She offered another perspective which helped my intent with the piece communicate well while maintaining visuals appeal.

Outside of the art itself, my colleges had all asked for separate essays and artist statements in addition to a portfolio, which Johanne happily offered to edit and workshop, just as she did with my portfolios.

Johanne was immensely helpful through each step of the college application process, and provided support both artistically and emotionally, which ultimately led to my acceptance into my dream schools. Out of the 23 schools I applied to, I was offered a spot at 14: California Institute of the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Southern California, Gobelins L’ecole de image, Parsons, Ringling College of the Art and Design, ArtCenter College of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design, School of Art Institute Chicago,  Otis College of Art and Design, San Jose State University, San Francisco State University, and Fresno State University.

You can view Kiran’s portfolio here.