wounded

It's not really as fleshy and creepy-looking as above. More like this here:




scar, wounded series, wax, string, paper & wire, 13 x 2.8 cm

I made it last week. It's a new addition to the spoon series i thought i was done with last November:



It feels like i have only touched on the surface of what i want to explore. There should be hundreds more.

seeds and lace

happy new year! rabbit rabbit.

happy mess

Gosh where to begin...much has happened these past few months. My little uncle's baby was just born a couple of weeks ago. She is the sweetest thing, so tiny and precious in my arms. She also got these oddly long but very cute finger toes. I can't wait to see you again, little Tienna!

What else? Ba is not grumpy with me anymore, happy that John is officially family now. The other day Ting and Francis bonded over being the black sheep of the family. Ma and me able to talk things out no matter what. Sadly, not always the case with some friends though...

But oh yay! i got to meet Marjojo (Marion Michell) for the very first time in person when John and i took a trip to London this past September. So lucky in this lifetime i can get to know and be friends with my favorite artist in the world. Speaking of world, I want the whole world to know that Tate Modern Museum following our visit to Marion Michell's studio was such a disappointment. There was nothing i could remember that was remotely comparable to Marjojo's work. Seriously.

Coming back from the experience in London, i feel transformed, aware of myself changing and growing as a person, and in particularly as an artist. It's a feeling that makes you breathe deeper, stand taller, and unafraid to seek what you want. Thank you, David & Erica, for being there so we could make this trip.


Some studio updates: completed a new series of spoons, making progress with a couple of paintings, still wrapping those broken pieces of eggshell, and dipping all sorts of things in hot beeswax.

I am really loving how the dried fruits and leaves turned out after being covered in waxed. They seemed better protected now from the elements of decaying without being changed too much at all.


art art art

i like my bad haircut

acrylic and pencil in sketchbook, 10" x 7.5"

John tells me to stop cutting my own hair. Is it really that bad? looks pretty cute to me. I think i am a pro. it's just a little strange that except for one other person, nobody else seemed to have noticed. hmm.

So anyways, the other day, it occurred to me that i could be whatever i wanted to be. like if i wanted to be a doctor, i can go ahead and really do it. It's all just a matter of time and training. I don't know why it was such a revelation but i seriously believed it like i never knew before.

Lately, i've been approaching every little task with the Chinese proverb of moving mountains, one stone at a time in mind. The dishes, the scattered tools, the laundry, tiny bits of styrofoam - picking them all up nice and easy. Not sure where all this is going.

Studio update: a big mess, a drawing here and there, torn prints everywhere, crocheting more bowls to be felted, thorns waiting, spoons cold and neglected...

felted

some ups and downs. spending vday and lunar new year alone right now. the studio feels empty and abandoned. tomorrow we will go home and be with family. i'll start again and see where this takes me...

monna's hair

Ting yelled at me for my last post. i sheepishly felt loved again. A couple months ago, while getting my studio space in order, i came upon a newspaper bundle. I opened it and saw two ponytails of Ting's hair. scared the heck out of me. Quickly remembered that i had found it at home last year and secretly took it back with me. Isn't it so beautiful? i am torn about returning it (so it can be donated as it was intended years ago) or keeping it for myself...

So i've been taking it easy with studio work. making more wimpy starts and not finishing much still. I don't like it at all. I decided i need to treat this whole process as work that i have to do regardless if i feel like it or not. EveryDay. well, except for Mondays, cuz the full-day studio weekends are more exhausting than day job work and i'll definitely need a break in the evening. and Thursday evenings cuz we have to watch Survivor (and a movie). And probably Fridays since that is usually our clean-up day. Well. that aint so bad, is it?

Tea time!


pencil and acrylic on paper, 12.7 x 10.2 cm

A drawing done earlier this month. One thing i'm happy with that came out from these few weeks of take-it-easy studio time. But i know i can do more so i will I Will.

sketches

sleeping heads, on plane to Hawaii 3.31.09, pen drawing in sketchbook,19 x 25cm

Also, overheard on the plane ride:

Little boy who eats nonstop with his mother:
When are we going to blast off?

Minutes later, we hear two other kids up front counting down to blast off as the plane is taking off.

Same two kids, as the beverage cart starts to come down the aisle -

Little girl: I want juice.
Little boy: I want coffee.
Little girl cracks up and then: I want BEER.

ahhaha. makes me think of Ting and Baby. I wish i knew to jot down their dialogues then.

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Happy to be back. Finally cleaned up my studio and ready to continue with some works. A sketch done shortly before i left:


pink underwear, pencil and acrylic wash in sketchbook

i think i'm going somewhere with this

an old print torn to strips

So this weekend i have started printing again. Took out some old plates from college years and also some more recent ones that i started last year a couple of years ago. Look how neat my table is. No nasty hair.



(before)

Cat, your hair is everywhere here.

---
And this print i thought was horrible is okay after all...

looking back picking up

works from BFA thesis show, tape & string on wood and various materials, tallest at 11 feet, 1999

Feeling a need to write things down. Mind is cluttered with stuff, both art and unart related. Grieving hearts, suffering minds, and a broken friendship. Feel helpless. Also trying not to feel guilty about: being out of touch with people in real life but maintaining close contact to this virtual world. It is real to me, too. And is really the only public outlet for my art right now. Want it to be seen as a primary job that i report to on a regular basis. like everyone else who can't just take days off from work whenever they want to.

Many pieces of work scattered about, unfinished. I want to pick up the enthusiasm i had for making big things as when i was working on my thesis show years ago. a little embarrassed to say it's been nearly 10 years ago and i am still looking back, not quite done with what i have started then. I don't mean not done with the pieces themselves. They are finished works but they marked a new beginning for me, one that i stopped short of exploring. Went off towards a different path that was more space-conscious, more practical, and less in courage and timid in drive. Slowly, i find myself breaking out a little with this piece and that. And Now Fully, Consciously, Embracing it.

I want to get back to working more with string and wrapping and mixing mediums crossing disciplines, and just thinking bigger in general.


pop


pretty in pink


lady in red


touch me


pregnant


blue

pink avocados

acrylic on dried avocado skin, not halves of each other, work in progress

and other observations

pen, acrylic & collage on altered book, book dimensions 6.25" x 4.25" [started in 2003, came back to it and reworked it end of 2007]

The book started out more as a collection of sketches, quick discreet sketches made while riding the bus. This was when i was still living in NY and the bus commute was about an hour to/from the subway. Some pages had paint laid out first before the sketches were made and others had color/texture added afterwards. I love the looseness and spontaneity of how the pages came about. It/I was not trying to make it become more than what it was, which was simply to observe and capture, take in and sketch, and let some pink help tie it all together.

I came back to it a couple of months ago, thinking i just need to touch it up a bit here and there before posting it up. Well, that was not the case.

I have kept almost all the pen drawings made in 2003 with only 4-5 small new ones created but the whole mood of the book has changed since reworking it. Almost all the pages have been retouched a bit, some with layers of new paint or paper, and a few completely reconstructed. I still miss before because it was more simple and just is what it is. Now, i see there is a trying to tell a story, maybe wanting/needing to be more connected and complete somewhere? Found myself consciously keeping some words on the page because they now have a more personal meaning to me than before.

View book as slideshow @ Flickr: redredday