Face lift and Heart lift

This is exciting, my molasses speed finally catches up with the new and pretty template designs. Blog is getting a face lift! Since the body turns sleek, the heart must not be too gloomy.
Time to pretend life is an endless stream of satisfaction!

All these happen because something exciting is coming. Watch out, a boat is sailing to your river, catch it and hop on board!

call myself an artist

11 years ago this month, I graduated with a MFA, armed with an unfinished film and no fine art trainings at all... All I wanted was to become a real artist.
So I started taking drawing and sculpting lessons and called myself an artist.

11 years later this month, I'm in the midst of reconfiguring my art career, work directions and struggling to differentiate my own truth from society's truth.
Life seems more interesting back then when I was a phony artist dreaming a dream.
A phony artist I was, but a real self knowing who I am.

Perhaps it is time to go back to the very basic, sculpting.
After all, it had never failed to break the curse of a chattering mind and idle fingers.
In 30 days, I shall call myself an artist again!



Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days Video on TED.com

seize new opportunity

I have repeatedly missed many good opportunities because I was afraid of commitment. Freedom is over emphasized in my spoiled memory perhaps. Jump on it when I see it coming from now on, even when I am not ready! This delightful event could be one that you don't want to miss:

"A New Day" exhibit at Bellrock Media, this Friday, May 6,  6:30pm - 11:30pm
100% of artwork proceeds donated to charity:
American Red Cross - Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami

Bellrock Media

2917 Santa Monica Blvd

Santa Monica, CA

30+ artists exhibit to help Japan relief and you will see this new piece from my studio

"Encrusted" barnacle sculpture with miniature seaside mountain landscape inside

 

 

and another oceanic piece, watercolor drawing of octopus "Mothers in their Den"

Those pieces are part of “A New Day” this Friday.
100% of the proceeds to benefit Japan relief.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161993067193128

New York City journey II

A visitor.

I spent a summer in NYC studying English while I was 17. My eldest sister was working on her PhD in NYU at the time. It was a liberating summer which rooted my fond memory of Manhattan. Returned to Manhattan again several times in my adult life, I grew to love Queens for its humble scenes and the cutting edge art venues.

PS1 is my must visit and every trip I was blown away by the artists/works they shown. It is my charging and challenging station, never fail to question me what contemporary art is and where I want my artwork to be.

Socrates Sculpture Park is the second on the list. It fulfilled my wildest dream that emerging artists can also have a space and opportunity to create public art. Snow was deep, we carefully trekked through the park; this place worth our 20 minute walk from the subway station in 30 degree wind and getting our boots wet.

This is a lovely piece named "Argyle" by Daniele Frazier. Look at how the colors on the sides create this very flat shadow, so 2D and 3D at the same time. Marvelously standing in snow against the busy skyline. Thumbs up, Artist!

Another piece that fed my appetite, "Sponge Piece for Socrates" by Jory Rabinovitz. Yes, made of sea sponges and concrete, metal. NICE! It is innovation and originality. Also, it turned out that there is a floor element that was buried by the snow.

And David M. Scanavino's “16 ft. Rope in Three Positions: (catenary, taut, and coil).” The impressions left by the rope on concrete shaped these three pieces. Smart and good looking, as art should be!

It was as joyous as winning a lotto when we walked into Ursula von Rydingsvard's exhibition at Sculpture Center.

You know once a while you run into a master sculptor's work, all you want to do is to curl up right next to it, sleep inside it, touch, rub, lean on it or lay on it. I lingered, and while nobody is watching, I laid inside this oceanic tidal mouth "Droga"! Ahhhhh... the ceder aroma, soft like Ursula's voice, I float on top of marks left by her...

In a side room, we discovered this "Ocean Floors." "Breath came out of one's life" was what I felt when I first encountered this piece.

 Look at the layers and how she "scooped" the cedar. Mark by mark, chisel by chisel, the texture is just magnificent. After finishing my cardboard pit in Bisbee, I just love the shape in this scale. Thank you, Ursula!

New York City journey I

Feb. 2011

Visited NYC to install a piece at Broadway Gallery, plus visiting friends and some of my favorite art spaces.

Work first. Spend a few days installing the work, a series of wall sculptures in the shape of barnacle clusters with vignettes of islander lifestyle inside, lit by led lights. Mom's calligraphy studies was the background on the wall. This is a piece about the encrusted memory of my childhood in Taiwan, an island country where ocean strongly influence every aspect of our lives. I could not remember a moment when we didn't have the sea in our mind, the temperature of the ocean, breeze and typhoons from the sea, the animals in it, the tides, the smell, color, texture and sound of the water.

Collaborator choreographer Malini Srinivasan came for a preview. This was our first time meeting each other. I knew right away, I have been very lucky to have found her. Here is Malini peeking into the sculptures

We saw a sneak preview of what she has in mind for the performance. Prior to my arrival, I asked Malini if she could choreograph a short dance to the concept of islander culture and fishing villages.

Swimming, nature and ocean sound informed this dance. Malini is a third-generation Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer and teacher. On the opening night, gallery visitors and all of us had the privilege to see her in action. It was a beautiful piece and quite a meditation for all of us, as the gallery owner Abra­ham Lubel­ski put it, "it is the same feeling when one watches sunset or sunrise. It is subtle yet powerful!"   

I had 6 days to locate a videographer for documenting the live performance after I arrived in NYC. Pulling out all the contacts from facebook, I found old friends from Calarts who had moved back to east coasts. Universe showered me with goof fortune once again as friends reached out helping me locating a videographer! Performance and video artist Run Shayo documented the whole performance. Next day, I picked up the DVD and set up the video projection so viewers can see what happened on the opening night.

This has been a growing experience for me. Some last minute emergencies where a cable was missing or a contact did not come thru. At the end, all turned out to be perfect. I was able to put a complicated piece together and learned again, there is no strange land, there are artists who are ready to be friends everywhere, well, at least in NYC! Thank you, NYC!