Fresh sights...sites...cites in new works.

Website.

[brain-sic begins]
...websites/design/pages/how?/paintings?/sections/flow/illustrations/print/books/macputer/software/macputerdead/crap/graphics/tattoos/animation/e-card store/macputerdead/crap....[pause]woah,waitamin,whatsgoingonhere.....crap
[brain-sic ends]

What are my real intentions? Had it changed?

On ruminating my master-web design ideas, I came to realize that I LOVE creating art...of any kind. That not only do I want to do and sell paintings, I want to seriously get back into new-media arts as well.

I was a full-time Multimedia designer. I suppose...I still sort of am but my roles have changed and are more stretched out. At work, I usually refer myself as Girl Friday. But I digress...

So, I want to do all kinds of art.

Just recently, by chance, I was given several opportunities to work with two non-profit organizations that needed some online graphic works. Boy!!! So much fun. It really reminded me how much I love this medium.

I also really miss animating with Flash. A few years back, for fun, I had designed/animated e-cards for special days. It started in 2007; I had wanted to sent out a Halloween e-card but could not find anything that was funny or original. I suddenly realized...hey, why don't I just make one up? My friends loved the e-card. I started making a bunch. BOOM! An idea - one day I want an e-card store. People all over the web can use my e-cards. My e-card store would have unusual designs and be called 'Can we still be friends?'....hahahahah!!

Below is a static e-card I made. It was hand-drawn and scanned and colored digitally!! Beware readers...I do have an odd sense of humor.



A Halloween E-card 2010



Guess in some way, I have evolved, and so will this Blog. I and Blog will unfurl our wings. Don't worry....my focus is still painting...just gonna do some sub-art.

I suppose I should update the banner and add somewhere on it, "...and other art stuff..."?

T

Tic, tac, toe'd...

(Fyi: Below was written about April 28 – managed just enough backbone to overcome a smidgen of procrastination....much)

It's been a month since the gallery show. What an awesome experience! There is something to be said about having your paintings on display in an art show. It's almost like eating freshly baked bread with a good cup of Earl Grey, or getting a Guinness (er possibly a few) with friends at my local pub. There is such a satisfying feeling about it.






My First art gallery show - with two of my paintings.
The painting closer to the foreground won 'People's Choice Award'

So the 'experience'? There's about an hour or so of awkwardness. I really did not know what to expect. Beyond making sure your painting is hung to your liking and the pricing is correct, you are mostly skulking (and honestly, trying to look cool and nonchalant) around your paintings and at the reception, chit chatting about your paintings...you know sharing with visitors about the vision...'the idea'...


“…the idea came from this deep sated need to establish the connection...”

...yabba-dabba-doo and so on.

Highlights? Besides having the paintings up, I met a few fabulous artists. It's interesting to observe how each one started with their creative flow. I met an amazing artist who was showcasing her works on sunflowers!! She is like me in some ways. She works in a Corporate world thought moreso in the Financial side. She has been doing painting for 10 years! Wow! Loved her and her works. It's quite Van Gogh-ish but not sure she'd appreciate the comparisons. I suppose all artist wants to feel original...(quietly noting Picasso's quote, "good artists borrows, great artist steals')

So what next?

I have tic'ed. I have tac'ed. I have toe'd! Website's next.

T

Suffering for art is a good thing... really!!!

I'm bleary-eyed, my brain feels like mush, and my painting fingers is somewhat curled, frozen in a witchy way...but I swear, I'm living the dream.

I am done with the paintings...well kinda. I assume as an artist, art pieces are never done to the point when you are satisfied? Or maybe I'll outgrow that too....?

So...less than 48 hours from my first art gallery show - will be showcasing two art pieces. Just sent photos and details of it to one of the co-curators. He just emailed asking me to sent the pricing of the paintings, should it get sold.

WHAT?? How surreal is that?? Glad my brain is feeling mushy or the shock of it might just give me a brain hemorrhage.

Well...till Saturday - will blog more about the pre and post process!!

T
ps- Did I mention a lady, who is looking to buying some art pieces for her building may come down to check stuff out? Lordy....

wHaT?? ... HoW'd tHiS HaPpENed?

Guess what? I am participating in my first art gallery show....this coming February, last weekend.

What? How'd this happened? Kept asking the same question myself. All I know was that about a year ago, I declared to the Universe my intention of wanting to have my first art gallery show.

A busy month ahead will write more...

I guess this art thingie is getting serious...I think I should take more *art classes*.

T

Fans of Art or ...'Farts'?

...I have been an avid watcher of Bravo's reality show 'Work of Art' where 14 artists from various disciplines vie to be the winner (and for some reason, it's slightly reminiscing of 'The Breakfast Club').

I love this show. L O V E! At this moment, when I have SO many questions and NOT many answers, this show was Heaven sent.

At last, some bearings, a point to begin noodle-ling through the art world, from movers and shakers, to important curators and galleries, and current, viable artists and their artworks. [Well, I have been asking the Universe for a mentor AND we are a television generation...]

Regardless of what ever editing was done, I enjoyed the process the artists went through. Often, I'd imagine myself in their weekly challenges, creating my own art pieces, alongside theirs. Boy, when they say art is subjective, that art should make you ‘pause’ and think...this show makes primo example of it. The judges critiques and estimation would change from week to week with cat-ish finicky-ness. I often wondered about the judges (or anyone in general): What makes them....art-judgy?

Just this last Tuesday, my friend (whom I shall call Russ) was recounting an experienced he had which completely left him dumbfounded and somewhat jaded. He had recently just finished an art show. During a deathly, boring hour, several artists came by and critiqued his works. They remarked that his 'realistic' works were too 'old fashion' looking, though his abstracts held promise, particularly one piece. They were quite smitten with this particular piece and gushed, describing each intricate colors and shapes with fevered reverence, pointing out, with self-indulgent observations and prideful glee, the reasons behind such bold strokes. What no onew knew was that, Russ had not wanted to waste his left-over paints, some still mixed over on his palette. So, he decided to just 'splat' the unused portions onto a canvas in different squared shapes, with no special or significant intent.

Curiously remarkable? Or pleasantly ironical?

Either way, I whispered to him that perhaps he might consider omitting the last bit from the story when recounting it in outside circles...

So, back to my original question, what makes judges or even anyone in general, art-judgy? I haven't figured it out quite yet. But, there is a fine line between pompous regurgitation and thoughtful, provoking reflections.

Fans of art or 'farts'? You too can be art-judgy.

T

Blockage! Blockade! Blockhead!...

...recent frustrations in figuring out the 'how to' and the 'what next' in my artistic pursuits, has led to art blockage. Even meditating in the park with my toes squishing in the green-grass last week did not help calm my mind. What is going on?

Further reflections and a dose of 'LA Ink' Wednesday night had me realize that certain elements were missing in my life right now. In LA Ink, the tattoo artists would sketch on their down time, practicing and perfecting their craft. It reminded me that there was a time in my life where I was always drawing in my sketch pad. Everything to anything.

[What other things have I stopped doing, possibly PG Rated, which I could mention here without embarrassing my mum?]

I am a fanatical reader. I read profusely - from fiction to non fiction. I can't remember the last time I strolled in a book store and browse until a book called and beckoned me. The last book purchased was Karen Armstrong's 'The History Of God', (I think I bought it six months ago). A really fascinating read. No. Really! The book suggests that the idea of 'religion' was created during a time of great economic strides and the fore-fathers feared their people would be 'spoilt' and get carried away by their wealth, and so installed certain beliefs to curb negative tendencies....alright, I got carried away myself, back to the present.

So....maybe, my blockage somehow, may be tied to not reading or drawing, that these elements might be the connecting 'in/out' cables to my creative source. Who knew...

So back to the drawing board...or pad...and possibly a visit to my local bookstore. I need to get back to *tabula-rasa.

It is weird that I feel relief? Man, I do.

T

*Merriam Webster Dictionary defines TABULA-RASA as something existing in its original pristine state.

A world was born from 2 minutes….

...a whole 2 minutes. I heard a ringing and felt something settling in my head - an epiphany exploded, exclaiming that I am not who I am.

If I am not myself, then how can I connect and be the artist that I need to be? Who really am I?

My earlier life has mostly not been of rainbows. In a time and place where I should have had a happy childhood, I had pain. Slowly, being broken, bit by bit, stripped and rained on, in an endless storm. I found a rock and held on, and with my little hand, I gripped and tore to get onto this rock, my own ‘rock of Gibraltar'. One day, I woke up. The storm had ended and I was as hard as my rock....but, I survived. In the coming years, I became harder and harder....but, I survived.

It all changed. Epiphanies does that, you know.

As I am writing this, I begin to understand it all now. I became hard to protect myself, to weather the storm. Perhaps parts of me were hidden for a reason, so certain parts could evolve. I don't know. But somehow, I became lost and I forgot.

And now...well, like a cheese-cake (emphasis on the cheese), I guess I'm ready, and the epiphany came heralding a change, a beginning, a new world.

My true self? I have learn that I am strong, that I can withstand plenty of challenging situations. I accept that I am really not a jaded person, that I still do believe in the goodness of the world. And while I'm baring my soul, I might as well come clean and confess that I am a goofy nerd that loves to read about discoveries in technology and science, sneaks in documentaries on CBC, who cries at sappy commercials and movies. For gracious sakes, have you seem 'Terms of Endearment'? I've seen it 6 times and cried all 6 times! Forget that...I cried watching FINDING NEMO. Yup...a total softie!

But you know what's more important? I learn that I can be solid like a rock but I don't need to be hard - the trick is finding the balance. And yes DAMMIT! Love is the answer! No matter what we have gone through, we ultimately came from Love.....even if it lasted for 2 minutes.

You know, a world was born from just 2 measly minutes. Ask your mum...

T