yardages

i visited the handmade well made show a little while ago since Jon had work in there and we always try to go to openings together.

here's my friend Jo in front of her silk yardage. i liked hers (the green one) and the beetle one beside it the best. this piece is dedicated to her brother. she dyed the silk, printed her design using screenprinting ink, and then painted it with weak acid dyes. the pictures don't really do it justice.

i also really liked this piece, i don't know who did it though since the signage was in alphabetical order rather than the order of the pieces. i like the flow and organic nature of silk painting and i found it interesting that beetles were used for the dye. they kind of transition into colourless-ness as they go into the coloured areas. i think i want a scarf from Jo's fabric, time for another trade! 

finding inspiration

i was sitting in on an Advanced Painting class the other day and the students were presenting their inspirations and source material for their upcoming project. one student said that he likes the idea of authenticity and virtue in his own work and preferred his inspiration to come from him rather than other artists. he was more inspired by approaches, concepts, songs, and films rather than drawings and paintings.

i found myself nodding along with him - his ideas about the creative process are similar to my own. i definitely appreciate the work of others in my field, but like him, i don't find that i take much, nor do i want to take much from them when creating my own work.

to my surprise, some members of the class were very skeptical (and very vocal) of his ideation process. they felt that he couldn't really grow artistically this way and tried to persuade him to admit that he was profoundly inspired by the art he saw.

my main form of inspiration comes from words - from songs, from novels, from disjointed phrases i've picked up over the years. i like to create work out of ideas that i expand from these phrases, out of the emotions i instill in them, that i find in myself. with these ideas i work with imagery i've also garnered from novels, or films, or nature. the phrases that i collected here were major inspirations for my thesis work.

why should i pretend that i'm inspired by things that i'm not? i think that any inspiration is valid inspiration.

i'm glad this student stood his ground, there is no one process to making, and he shouldn't have been forced to admit otherwise.

Mystery Art Sale

i stopped by on the last day for the Whodunit? Mystery Art Sale.

as usual, I had somewhere to be far too soon.

i was looking for one in particular that i knew was there, but couldn't find it :( there was just way too much to go through.

at least i got my One of a Kind Show tickets super early this year, and I am definitely making time for that. fellow classmates and colleagues of mine are exhibiting - many for the first time, and I'm excited to see their new work.

fyi: the One of a Kind Show Christmas Show starts tomorrow and runs until December 5th at the Direct Energy Center.

the front and back

since the silent auction was last week i guess i can show you all this now.

while i knew that embroidery took a LONG time, i still felt compelled to do it. though, the last three days of embroidering were torturous. i hate working until the last minute. i try to always leave at least one day before the deadline so i can sleep peacefully.

however, the Whodunit? committee gave us a deadline extension, and i foolishly decided to double the amount of elements to my composition which resulted with hours upon hours of embroidering.

this piece (though this is the unfinished version), it won't ever change if you want it to stay the same is another in my lichen series.

i started using lichens for a conceptual project at OCAD. My paper lichen pins revolved around the idea of emotional baggage, and how it can envelop a person. later i made some out of sterling silver for earrings and pendants.

the gala

so i went to the Whodunit? gala on Wednesday. it was super snazzy, as expected. the food was fab, and the live auction was exciting to see. this was my complimentary ticket for having my work in the silent auction :)

instead of being the regular $75, each piece chosen to be in the silent auction started at $150 and each bid was raised in increments of $25.

can you spot mine? i hope my piece has found a happy home :) i didn't catch the name of the final bidder, but if they're reading this, don't hesitate to contact me!

from the casting house

here's the ring fresh out of the casting house. the white film is the fine silver that rose to the surface during the casting process. and that blob on the side was once a pathway that allowed the molten metal to flow and create this piece from the wax model i created.

casting can be unpredictable at times. casting into sterling silver from wax can cause the piece to shrink from around 5-13%. when you're casting a ring, that can be a change from it fitting perfectly, to it being too tight to get over your knuckle. so i designed the ring to fit him perfectly, so that it would shrink and be slightly small. with clean up and polishing you remove material, which should've made the ring fit, but for some reason it seems that the ring expanded rather than contracted. it came out about a quarter size too large.

annoying...so i've resized it and cleaned it up. more pictures soon.

Whodunit? Mystery Art Sale Gala tomorrow!

the Whodunit? Mystery Art Sale Gala is on tomorrow night from 6:30 to 10:00 at OCAD. i'm very excited to have a piece in it. i wonder how many people can pick it out.

this image is from last year's gala.

"the sale’s charm lies in its focus on artistic content rather than the individual reputations of artists themselves...That reveal once you turn the piece over and see the signature can be a really exciting moment."

hope to see some of you readers there!

“truly creative people care a little about what they have done

and a lot about what they are doing"

- Alan Cohen

things that are awesome

this is my puppy Simba. he can be quite insolent and peculiar at times, but his antics always make me smile. and of course, he's so full of love.

he's definitely one of the small joys in my life.

i was in Chapters the other day and i came across The Book of Awesome. while i sometimes i have a very dry, self deprecating kind of humour, i do like to be very positive about my outlook on life, and i always try to make the most out of a bad situation.

The Book of Awesome is pure positivity. it lists and describes 1000 small, sometimes unnoticed things that are notable and great about life - from dangling your feet in the water, to staying in your pajamas all day, to finding that lost sock, to the greatness of giving high fives to babies (since they never let you down). it was heartwarming and funny, and i'm glad i came across it.

you can visit their blog to read some more awesome things.

whodunit? mystery art sale

this year is the second year that i've decided to participate in OCAD's annual Whodunit? show which consists of "mystery art by the famous and soon-to-be famous." the mystery is that you don't know who the artist is unless you buy the piece since the signature is on the back or bottom of the work.

(image via blogto)

last year i submitted these two pieces. i enjoyed making the flower forms since i got to use the pottery wheel before i hand tweaked them [i miss ceramics :(]

i go out of my way to do this show because all the money raised from the work benefits OCAD's programs and allows them to have new technology and improved facilities.

i'm really indebted to the school since i've been inspired, educated, employed, and awarded there. so i'm pretty sure that i'm going to keep participating each year as long as i'm able.

i just received an email that my piece has been selected by the curators to be part of the live auction that will take place at the gala preview at OCAD on November 17th. exciting! the gala preview celebrates the work of emerging artists who are exclusively OCAD graduates.

and instead of being the standard $75, my piece will be sold to the highest bidder.

i hope whoever buys it will love it :)

MAGazine article

i was asked to represent OCAD's jewellery department in the Metal Arts Guild magazine for their College Review issue last year.

Elisabeth Heidinga interviewed me as well as Joyce Yang and Melissa Oleniuk about our experiences at OCAD and included images of our thesis work for the article - including my branch bun cage there's nothing here but what's here is mine. it was really exciting at the time since it was the first time my work was in a magazine.

i was absentmindedly going through the latest issue of MAGazine and unexpectantly saw my treehouse piece included in this year's article by Jessamyn Khan. It was a nice surprise.

i'll try to scan the article and post it soon.

i am a maker

"i am a maker.

i think work should be about making things work.

better. faster. smaller. smarter...

i build bridges between what's known and what's not...

i write poetically...

i hack. i dissect. 

i have an insatiable desire to uncomplicate the complicated.

i am easily inspired.

i believe that just because it hasn't been thought 
of doesn't mean it won't be.

potential is my thrill ride.

imagination is my most used tool.

i am a maker.

i am what moves the world forward."

- outside of the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering
building of Purdue University

changing your routines

so...i also create baked goods...sometimes. i'm trying to get into more routines lately since they keep me focused.

i really try to advocate a balanced lifestyle, especially to the other makers i know.

during my first semester of my thesis year at OCAD i became so driven about my work that i was never relaxed - and always tense. i wasn't eating well or giving myself any time to wind down. i was prone to injury because i was overworking my body. sometimes my eyes would twitch for days because i wasn't getting enough sleep. it was all work, work, work, and no play.

after speaking to my advisors at end of term, i realized that they were happy about my progress but worried about me.

with their advice, i started heading home from the studio at a decent time, gave myself breaks in between long work sessions, and started doing a weekly yoga class.

these little changes may not seem like much, but they kept me from burning out.

and then i realized, that this kind of attitude would let me stay in this field. i could stay sane, healthy, and uninjured. i could become inspired by life, instead of dogged down by stress. i could enjoy the process of making alongside all the other great things in my life that i thought i had no time for, but actually did.

who knew?

so many leaves

i've worked on a lot of these since i started working at Organic Metal Gallery. My boss, Robin Gray, was commissioned to create these pins, as well as many other pieces for a huge fundraiser. these ones are in various stages of completion and were designed by Nancy Meek.

there are so many steps until they get to this point - injecting wax into molds, getting them ready to be cast, casting them, cleaning them, soldering the pin backs, cleaning them again and then finally polishing them. eventually they'll all be done...eventually.