Pin-Hole.

My dearest long lost pin-hole photos.

Oh man, these photos are making me feel seriously nostalgic. I remember the days when I would just go to the art room when I am free and start developing some photos I took with my little "miracle in a milo-tin".

It was the first time I was exposed to such interesting ways of photography and since then, my love for photography compounded. It was really fascinating to be in the darkroom, enduring the darkness and the pungent smell of the chemicals 1&2, but you know it's all gonna be worth it when you see you photo slowly appear.

Although sometimes you know that you screwed the picture up, yet you still developed it just in case your failure in the technical aspect may create some sort of artistic miracle. Trust me, that happens.

If I were to have an extra room, I'll totally change it into a dark room, complete air fresheners.

The Thing Made in China

This vase/or whatever you think it is, was made during my immersion trip in Fudan, Shanghai. I really wasn't sure what it was, and still not now. Therefore, I shall name it "the thing". I was merely interested in making an elongated "thing" with the coils or clay. And the flowers are just made of partially dried clays coils.

Actually, before it was painted with the acrylic, it looked really classy and elegant, but due to me suddenly being inspired to make it look tribal, I added in the primitive details at the bottom of this "thing".

Maybe I destroyed it, but at least I had fun painting it, and it's added much colour to my display shelf:)

Xindi's House.

Yo Xindi, feel proud that your name has appeared in my blog twice. And once on the title man.

Some really pretty pictures taken at her house on home-learning day. Oh, what a great idea to have home-learnings... Anyway, I bet she didn't know I took these.

Canon EOS (something)

24 Jan 2011

Balloons

I seriously love balloons. I love thei vibrant (sometimes pastel) colours. Looking at them just makes me feel re-energised. They make me feel light and airy, carefree and cheerful. I mean, which kid's childhood dream does not include floating up into the sky with a massive bunch of balloon? Hmm, maybe I shall try to incorporate balloons into my coursework...

For both pictures below, I'm really inspired by how the balloons seem to play a huge part of entertainment to these teens/adults. Shows how balloons are not just interesting to kids, but also as amusing to adults too.

Bananas and Monkeys.

Haha. I actually listened to Xindi's advice and did 2 ink and marker drawings of the Prada SS 11 collection. I really liked the bright colours and bold prints, especially those of the monkeys and bananas -- who don't? And for the record, bananas are my favourite fruit.

Maybe you can't tell, but the model holding a banana. is actually eating the banana. I guess I was just really wanted to eat a banana when I drew this.

Medium: pen and marker.

Date: 22nd Jan 2011.

B/W Designs

Some designs I came up with for Graces, wait, no, SEC 4 LIFE SKILLS CAMP (oh god, i love this name so much)

Final Desgin I chose

The enlarged version, can't really see it though. And the "G" was changed to "4".

CLASS TEE DESIGN 2010.

(di it on the back of my foolscape paper.)

I love designs in the doodle style! :)

all designs done with black pen and marker.

T.Venkanna: ART OR NOT.

As a start, I've never really been able to accept and appreciate nude art. Not even after the years of SOVA influences. Perhaps I can understand why some neo-classisist choose to paint nude women, but naked figures in contemporary art is just quite nonsensical to me. Yes, sure, these kind of art definitely will attract more attention, cause controversies to arise etc, but is art really just for the large amount of audience that probably don't even know what the true meaning behind your work is? In our modern society, people who get interested are probably perverts.

So anyway, on to T. Venkanna. "The Two Fridas", a naked man, remove trappings of identity, a live installation, $250. Hmm, they just don't really link to me. Since the artist never really released any statement to provide explanation for his artwork, its really confusion me.

To me, only the Frida Kahlo painting is quite significant in his installation because from some sources, I saw that his "customers" and him actually posed in the way the two Fridas were posing in the painting. Perhaps he is trying to say that yo can actually connect/communicate with a naked man too(?!) since the painting was trying to show Frida and her imaginary friend whom was the only one she could turn to when her divorce was being filed. This shows how you can be friends with/turn to anyone no matter his/her identity as long as you guys understand each other.

So, anyway, is he trying to 'remove the trappings of identity' by showing how everyone is the same without clothes? (or at least all men?) Then my question is, why did he return after a 2 day hiatus (due to much complaints), fully clothed to continue his exhibition? If being naked was a really important part of his exhibition, wouldn't he lose the true meaning behind his art? And if being naked wasn't that important afterall, WHY DID HE GO NAKED IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Next, he charges people $250 for a photo with him. Is he trying to find out how many people are willing to pay so much merely for a photo with a man you don't even know? Well, I guess that kind of relates to his theme in a way how people, without knowing his identity is willing to take a photo with him, without only doing so because he is famous or important or whatsoever. However, to me, if this was what he's trying to convey, he shouldn't have charged so much, or even charge for this act. It denies many from experiencing his art just because they think the price is unreasonable. I understand that it is his mean of survival, but he shouldn't have made it so obvious that it's daylight robbery.

To me, I bet the people who willingly took a photo with have no freaking idea what he is trying to convey, but simply because they think it's "interesting" and "unusual".

Alright, conclusion time. Besides some of his flaws in the execution, I shall (surprisingly) conclude that his installation IS a piece of art, not just 滥竽充数, I believe there is a significance behind his art. The only problem is he did not offer his explanation! If he did, I believe his work would have been much more significant, because right now he's just making poor students like us make assumptions about his intentions and pray they make sense to the teachers. I might have sounded a bit harsh about this nudity, but this is purely objective, I just have a thing against nude art, so in this area, I shall give no more comments. But I do think it means something to him, just that we don't know what and how.

Oh and, I have thought about it again, I shall take back the part where I accused him of rip-off, because I just remembered it was an art fair, so he was supposed to make a lot of money through 'selling' his installation. Sorry for my quite contradicting points, it's just, the work itself is messing with my brain cells, because THERE IS NO EXPLANATION FROM THE ARTIST HIMSELF! It's art to me, as long as I understand the significance behind the works. Or maybe he is just trying to draw different interpretations of his work from different people.

Omg, ugh, i totally didn't expect this to be so long. i guess i just got a wee bit too agitated

FAV PHOTO.

Yay. everyone looks so happy. A rare scene since, since like sec 3.

ILY 201 :D

Bizzaro

Fantasy

Theme for 2009 EOY D&P paper.

Hmm, ain't it quite self-explanatory?

Medium: Poster colour

Size: A3

Fashion Design Module 2010.

So, for my term 3 modular course, I chose fashion design and was really grateful that I got in, since I didn't got my choice in term 1 and ended up in Mr Sim's class (wherever he is now), which was not a bad experience, but I would have liked it better if I had my way.

Anyway for this mini coursework, we're supposed to be inspired by some weird looking micro-organisms. But before really starting on it, I did some pencil sketches of some poses from the magazines, and this was when I realized watercolour really might just be for me. It was definitely a worthwhile experience and since then, I had a thing with watercolour.

left: pencil sketch

right: pencil and watercolour

So after the practice and all, we finally embarked on our final project. We first had to submit 10 designs (I only posted four), with 3 of them being coloured and labeled the materials, and choose a final one and design the background for it.

all 4 sketches: watercolour, marker

sizes (all): A2

So as you can see , I chose the last sketch as my final product.

My background is apparantly pink because I like the colour and had polka dots because I am obsessed with them.

The End.

Party for the elderly.

Till now, the party of the year. Somebody have a party as epic as this please. But actually I think the people (me) contribute much to the epic-ness too.

Selected shots taken with Nikon D90. Edited in Photoshop CS5.

Greatest cut-cake moment. And the gooey fudgey(?) cake was AWESOME.

But I do believe the composition would have been better if the plates were removed...

I love this shot. Mainly because that only mine, and Zhiping's shoes stand out. The others are like monochrome. COLOURFUL SHOES :D

Ahh... My beloved cupcakes. Excuse my bias towards the pink ones, they are just too adorable to be eaten, but yet I did eat one in the end... Oh, and I see POLKA DOTS.

Holidays rock.

Reason for choice of title: I realised that most of my artworks (non-schoolbased) are done only in the holidays.

Not like I even have a life once school starts. No more art time, perhaps except this year, since there's a such a thing called "coursework"...

Impression: Shangri-La

30cm x 42cm

2008 December.

This is actually a photo-based painting. Taken in Yunnan, China. I especially liked the random bush as the right bottom corner, and the central position of the cloud.

Hmm, as for the framing, it was really simple. A gigantic piece of white cardboard, paste the painting on, stick on some red dots, also cardboard, and glue ruffled tissue (yes, the normal hand tissue) to the sides, and voila, a gorgeous frame! (hah, oh me...)

Cherry pop.

First acrylic painting. SO SO SO much easier than oil painting. the vibrant colours and tones of the acrylic paint is great for pop art. but not so for neoclassis-esque ones.

I Hate Cherries.

Dec holidays.

12cm x 17cm

To me, this coke can design looks the least retro in comparison to others, especially with the cityscape and the white outlines so clearly present in pop art. So what's with the vintage grunge background. Maybe it's in my subconsciousness to make a contrast? Or more likely, just like how I do all my artworks, its merely a 一时的灵感. It would just come to me.

From this, I move on to say that sometimes, even I don't understand what I'm trying to tell through my works, simply because i'm a random person.

Forgive me for not being able explain everything well, and sorry for my incompetence.

Don't even start on the title. Yet another random decision of mine.

Oil paintings from eons ago.

ok. my eons mean like last year or last last year :D

heyyo chiawei, these are done under 王老师. if you even see this.

I dont think they deserve names because they aren't originals. Just modified versions. and i don't have the artist's name.

40cm x 30 cm

this is actually my very very first time i even dared to touch oil paint. not sure why, but i've always had oil-phobia. i guess it's mainly because of its horrible stench from the linseed oil. oh, but whatever, it's all fine now.

Untitled

50cm x 25cm

one of my favourite. i love how the light seems to illuminate out of the not-so-dense foliage. the time yellow spots did were not there on the actual painting i imitated, but due to my obsession with 'sparkling' stuff, i added them to accentuate the lights reflected on the leaves.

Untitled

40cm x 50cm

first human figure i have painted, in oil. hardest one i have ever done...

Untitled

50cm x 40cm

this painting is quite post-impressionist, not really to my liking, but good practice it is indeed. had loads of fun just chucking blocks of paint onto the canvas. i edited the brownish backdrop to be a lil' bit brighter, and a lot yellower, basically because i also have an obsession with contrasting colours.

another thing. i think oil painting is HARD. REALLY HARD.

Lost (and found)

I first got inspired about this theme when I saw the trailer of a short film, Lost and Found, which was adopted from an illustration book of the same title. Its synopsis was a penguin appeared at the doorsteps of a little boy one day, and the boy decided to bring it home, even if it means rowing a boat all the way to South Pole…

After I watched the trailer, I tried finding the full film on the Internet, but to no avail. Apparently, no one posted it up, and neither can I find the scanned version of the book itself.

That’s when it struck me. Maybe, maybe I could do something about this theme for coursework! Although it is a children’s illustration book, the theme truly intrigued me. If the book was titled “Lost”, it probably would not have interested me as much as it have now. It was because of the “found” that drew me to explore into this theme. As a person who cannot fully appreciate ‘emo’ art, I decided that theme really fits my style. Perhaps a part of my coursework can be mainly based on ‘lost’, but also include a small part that will represent the ‘found’ part (hope)?

Actually (fine I admit), the ‘lost’ part of the theme got to me too. People nowadays (myself included), all we care about is what we’ve gained. New materialistic things we bought, the new knowledge we gained, but little do people concern what we have lost in the process of trying to gain. Let’s see:

Studying just for the sake of getting better results: Gains new knowledge, better results. Loss of freedom/time to do what you’re really passionate about.

Shop: Gain materialistic pleasure, pride. Loss of self-control to stop.

Fitting in: Gain new friends, popularity. Loss of personal identity.

Sacrifice much huh? This is exactly why I feel the need to bring this situation up, where people are neglecting some of their more important losses for the gain of things that seem so much more meager in comparison.

Other possible interpretations of lost are: lost you way home, chances lost, time lost, dreams lost, lost between choices, loss of innocence etc.

Something I really like is the idea of ‘lost between choices’. To me, it really applies in my life. Come on, in a world like we’re living in now, who doesn’t have to make choices? An insignificant but true example: it used to be ‘eat what you have’, but now its like it’s a life-changing decision when you choose which stall to eat from during lunchtime. Ok, that might not be very relevant but seriously, we have so many choices in our lives right now, and it’s definitely not hard to get lost in them, not knowing which one you should choose. Surely one would have asked yourself this “what should I do?”, “how should I act?”, in which you are in a total state of confusion.

Oh well, I need to choose a sub-theme where the ‘found’ component can be incorporated into…

Ugh, right now, everything is in a mess, ideas all over the place, yet nothing finalized.

Postcards I won't send out.

Another mini project I have embarked on during the holidays, which is to paint on A6 sized watercolour paper which is supposed to be meant as postcards which one can paint on themselves. Well, I really don't intend to send them out, firstly because 我会心痛, and secondly because I never had the habit of sending postcards. I'm wayy to advanced for that. Haha. Internet/phones FTW.

Drawn based on (copied from?) the picture that was on the cover of the watercolourpaper booklet. It's slightly modified to fit the size and fill in parts that were missing.

A slightly abstract vase bursting with flowers of vibrant colours. I started off with doing the 'wet-on-wet' technique, to create the splattering effect in the background. This was very meticulous as I had to leave white spaces for the flowers and vase as watercolour isn't like poster of acrylic, it's quite hard to paint over while maintaining the translucent qualities of this medium.

Well, this is really just a random burst of colours with a b&w frame around it. I actually like how the coloured boxes look wobbly and not very equally divided.

Tedious work FYI :/

At first, this started out as a stained glass window, but it somehow, unknowingly, transformed into a combination of all sorts of patterns, led by my subconsciousness. I'm quite satisfied with the end product, in fact, I LOVE IT!

Kudos to my beloved pink bed which provided such a magnificent backdrop to the pictures :D

INSPIRATION: POP SURREALISM

Pop Surrealism: the combination of two of my favourite movements.

Pop Surrealism in more officially known as Lowbrow, an underground visual

art movement that arose in Los Angeles, California in the late 1970s. Quoted from Wiki "Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor - sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it's a sarcastic comment. Most lowbrow artworks are paintings, but there are also toys, digital art, and sculpture." Lowbrow has been deemed inappropriate by some art critics as they felt that it was too cartoon-based and their themes were often controversial thus doubting if lowbrow is a "legitimate" art movement. This caused museums and mainstream galleries to be uncertain as to the status of lowbrow in relation to the fine art world, and to date it has been largely excluded - although this has not stopped some collectors from buying the works.

A short introduction to some of the artists i have had brief encounters with:

Mark Ryden (personal favourite)

Mark Ryden was one of the pop surrealists who changed the perspective of art critics that defined lowbrow paintings as non-technical, or no reference to fine arts. In Marks Ryden's case, his meticulous skills bridged the gap between him and the surrealists who are famous for their realistic/intricate painting skills. Hmm, maybe I should do a separate write-up on him?

Brian Despain (another favourite)

THE EXCHANGE

Oil on wood

20" x 16"

I've always been fascinated by hummingbirds. Not only with the way they can zip around, stop on a dime and hover there perfectly motionless, (motionless besides their frantically beating wings of course.) but also with their supreme cockiness, their aggressive attitude towards, well, everything, and the fact that they're about as crazy as a shit-house rat. They kind of remind me of this guy I used to work with. You could be talking about the most offensive, controversial subject known to man and he'd be perfectly fine, but then switch to some seemingly innocuous subject, like Twinkies or how I hate the water pressure in my shower and he'll go off on you like you've suggested something carnal involving his mother and a bushel of pears.

So I guess this is my tribute to one individual's innocent attempt at reaching out to another, to exchange thoughts, ideas, or even just connect on a deeper level, only to have the whole thing blow up in some spectacular fashion. That and crazy people birds.

Man, I love this dude the way he thinks.

Brian Despain, another artist with great techniques, bases his works on more fantasy-like themes. In which, we can see tin mans, unidentified creatures that looks like pears or fishes. In his defense, he explained that he wanted to be different from classical artists who painted much still-life of fruits by animating them into creatures. Also, infusion of white speech bubbles shows influence from pop art. Maybe I should do an individual write up on him too.

Scott Musgrove

This artist's main subject matter is animals. Not just normal animals, but weird, cheeky animals with disproportionate body parts and the weirdest facial features one has ever seen on an animal painting.

To me, lowbrow, or Pop Surrealism, as I would prefer it to be called, might not be fine art, but it definitely is a form of art. Art is a medium through which one can express their emotions, their thoughts, and not just for it to be critiqued on. Perhaps I may not be a Robert Williams or Joe Coleman fan, but I do appreciate some of the works done by the more recent pop surrealist artists as I have mentioned above, where one can clearly see the influences from surrealism and pop art.

All in all, I feel inspired by this art "movement" as its is different from Surrealism, where its main aim is to bring about confusion to the viewers or exploring their subconsciousness, but it is more to bring across their message through their very own eccentric styles. Also, they are not really given a specific theme or restrictions. One can truly explore their individuality and uniqueness through this paintings style. I believe I'd really enjoy painting in this style as I'm quite random, and I like to incorporate subject matters that are not meant to be, together.