Black UniGryphon's Main Blog of Arts: 2007

Who is Black UniGryphon?

Black UniGryphon (or "BlackUniGryphon") is none other than The Artist Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman.

Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman was born a Prodigy Child, in New Jersey (USA). Since a very young age she showed talents in visual arts, along with various other creative and expressive arts.

In elementary school, she passed a test for a government funded program for talented students called "S.T.E.P.P. Art". In order to participate in the group you must pass an art portfolio test. The group was an after school program. She participated in the Elementary school program and the Middle School Program.

As a result of participating in STEPP ART she was given a scholarship to attend a summer class at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, thus began her love affair with The City of Brotherly Love.

Kandice Zimbleman (Black UniGryphon) is mostly known for her visual arts, but was also active in music, writing, and sciences.

In the 3rd Grade, Kandice learned to play a woodwind interment called a "recorder", and would begin to figure out how to play tunes from popular movies or radio as a hobby along with her brother, whom was actually more musically talented than she was.

Kandice, and her brother, would also sing in chorus, and by the 5th Grade she took up violin. She was placed in the advanced class for violin which only consisted of 5 students. To this day she is still puzzled about why her brother wasn't placed in it, because she feels he was a better player.

As a result of learning to play violin, she took a musical test in middle school and passed as the highest scoring student in the 6th Grade. She was naturally invited to participate in the S.T.E.P.P. Music program, but refused to join. The teacher made many attempts to force her into the STEPP Music Program, but Kandice wouldn't give in because it was the same day as S.T.E.P.P. Art, and Kandice wouldn't never give up her dedication to her craft, of Visual Arts.

Also, in the 6th grade she won 2nd Place in a Cartoon Comic Character Design Contest in the Courier Post (NJ).

Kandice participated in many artistic contests as a child, including contests for M.A.D.D., D.A.R.E., and Garden State Race Track. Kandice also competed in many Science competitions in school, including Earth Fair.

Although Kandice is not a competitive person by nature, she enjoyed entering contests for fun, or the challenge of it.

When it came time to go to high school, Kandice opted to attend a Vocational High School, and attended Burlington County Institute of Technology, The Medford Campus. Her original intention was to study "Advertising, Art, and Design" (AKA "Graphic Art"). But, as she became and advanced student she switched to "Environmental Sciences".

Kandice was accepted in "Vo-T.A.G." (Vocationally Gifted & Talented) and recognised for her work. Because of this, Kandice made her own assignments and work.

While attending BCIT, Kandice was in the Executive Committee of Student Council, she participated in FFA, VICA, and became a Peer Mediator for which she was Awarded "Gender Equity Leader of the State of New Jersey", and gave many lectures for Equity, Gender Equity, Sexual Harassment, and Conflict Resolution.

As part of her status, a large project which she'd engineered was the Giant Mural "Märauquatopiology" which is located in the "Environmental Shop".

The project was painted by using up old wall paints from buckets lying around the school, as well as donated materials from other students, including old brushes. The project also uses light and color tricks with the eyes, and was made to express/exercise/utilize many ideas and concepts, such as recycling and reusing old materials to make something new instead of dumping it as hazardous wastes, to visually express what the shop was about, and to utilize color theory techniques.

Kandice also received several scholarships to attend Saturday Animation Classes at the University of The Arts in Philadelphia, while still in high school, for a few years. She also received a 1/2 Tuition scholarship for the Summer Program, by her Animation Teacher, Lowl Boston.

Among Kandice's most well known accomplishments as a minor are her 2 NASA Medals, and Illustration "Eyewitness" Exhibited in Congress in 1995.

NASA:

My 2 Medals From NASA by =BlackUniGryphon on deviant ART

Jaguar Enigma: NASA Painting by =BlackUniGryphon on deviant ART

Exibition in Congress:

Eyewitness Congressional 1995 by =BlackUniGryphon on deviant ART

Other High School Accomplishments of Interest:

Kandice Also independently published a book of art and poetry ("Lila Poetry") with a groups of girls from Vo-TAG. The Group independently met in school, and off campus, as well as received contribution for publishing from the on campus Print shop, as well as self funded book cover printing outside of the school. The book contained poems by all the girls, and some written by Kandice, as well as her illustrations.

The Painting for the Cover can be Found on DeviantArt.com

Kandice's Love of Language:

Kandice is often known to be a terrible speller, but her writing ability has often won her praise, and honors. She enjoyed writing everything from Poetry to Fiction. But, She is also well versed in Science, and reporting.

Kandice was also known for her communication ability and has often been a public speaker for various subjects and events.

During the 1990s and the new fashionable phenomenon of Computers and the Internet, Kandice became curious to play on the Internet. In those days, the Internet was new, and there wasn't as much information on it as today, but, she would always find things of interest.

Due to this very new Internet concept, people from all over the world could communicate to each other, and Kandice often chatted with international persons. She met people from Germany and various other countries which inspired her to learn German.

Since, Kandice's Highschool didn't teach German, she decided to learn it herself. Kandice took to learning German very quickly and by age 18 was speaking very well, having never set foot within a German classroom.

Kandice became known for her enthusiastic love for German Techno. Much of it is often in English, but her favorite was a Rave Pop singer called "Blümchen". Her love for Euro Techno began to widen as she began searching for more of this type of music which was rare or non existent in America. After a while she'd amassed collections of CDs & MP3s in various languages. Then, became interested in in Japanese Pop, Anime, and Hong Kong Pop & films.

Due to Kandice's openness and curiosity, she became influenced by foreign musics and films, as well as Internet websites.

By age 18, Kandice booked a flight to visit Germany, and the experience changed her life. She became exposed to a world where people were open to all kinds of ideas, and possibilities, a world of multiple languages and acceptance of all things different. While in Germany she saw how common it was the people could speak other languages that weren't their native tongues, and that so many persons could speak English. It was common that people listened to music in various languages on the radio and TV even if they didn't understand the words. yet, they appreciated the beauty of it.

So, upon return to the United States, and enrolling full time as a Computer Animation Student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, she decided to take up learning another language: Chinese.

Kandice Speaking Chinese:

Altho' Kandice isn't fluent in Chinese, she can actually speak it, and somewhat well. Tho', she would prefer it was better, or perfect... it isn't.

When she 1st decided to learn Chinese, she wasn't sure about it, but when she realized it was a useful language, she began researching it. She was unsure whether to study Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese, so she began to study both.

She self studied Cantonese at home about a 1/2 year, but as it proved to be too difficult, and most books disagree about how it should be spoken or pronounced, she gave it up.

So, she decided to stick with Mandarin Chinese, which is more useful, more common, and the standard.

She has recently taken up studying the Chinese Characters and probably memorized about 30-50.

Kandice has also lived in China several times.