Affordable Art Fair Fred Loves Furniture

I decided to dedicate a post to my journey participating in the Affordable Art Fair Fred Loves Furniture Art Exhibition. Being able to be part of an exhibition like this was really exciting (and surprising of course!)

The flow of events:
Application and proposal of design was submitted, received a phone call from AAF, a pink chair was delivered to my place, worked upon and sent back for exhibition.

Work in progress

FRONT

BACK

 Title of Work: The Act of Seating

Statement: The Act of Seating celebrates moments of conscious awareness. This work is inspired by the occasional bouts of joy I’ve felt when I was aware that I’m well and alive, there and then. Blind contour drawings were done of someone seating down- front and back- as means to force one to examine what we tend to overlook, in this case, the very act of seating.

I was inspired by the drawing attempt I did a while back (check archives: post header- 365) titled, "WE ARE ALL ALIVE TOGETHER". In that drawing, I was trying to showcase the awareness I had of myself, my thoughts, my actions, my presence at that particular moment. Through blind contour drawing, I was trying to illustrate the intangible, what that you can not see but can be felt- in the process of drawing, in the process of mark making, in the process of creating something of finality. On an afterthought, this also showcased the similar aspects of being aware as well as drawing oneself, where one generally focuses his attention all to a single focal point. One being aware (in my opinion) triggers this subtle connection of one with space, of which I refer to only that of his surroundings then and there as well as his actions, then and there. Similarly, blind contours conforms the artist to be able to draw only what is then and there since it does not rely on false judgments of the mind when one looks at his drawing, triggering the same connection of one with space, of which now I refer to the positive and negative space of the object one is drawing. One no longer sees it as a person, but rather lines and shapes. I guess for this chair design, I was really intrigued by the idea of seeing what you can't normally see- yourself at that moment, in this case, sitting (seating) on the chair. It's more of being unable to rather than being unwilling to. That's why the blind contour drawing of my back view sitting on the chair is extremely awkward, and to be honest that illustration was also done in an awkward position. My neck was seriously strained thereafter haha (since I don't have eyes behind my back- something I realized only when I was trying to position myself to do blind contour of my back view, and so I had to make do with this slanting position). 

Oh, afterthought number two: my chair design can't be viewed simultaneously, it's either front or back. I guess that's pretty similar to the focus part mentioned above too. 

Okay so finally, at the fair.

A big thank you goes out to Affordable Art Fair and Fred Lives Here for giving me this lovely opportunity, Hwa Chong Institution/ AEP Department for the support and encouragement as well as my friends and family who gave me much advice, help and love <3

Post for today

Here's the post for today:

Looking back at the blog, I haven't managed to keep to my 365 day project/ ashamed.
I've just been back from Thailand, and hopefully I will get back on track now!
Visited BACC (Bangkok Art and Cultural Center) and Chualongkorn University's Art Center!
Hahah it was really nice seeing art in a different country, especially when this wasn't a school trip. But July's gonna be a tough month. With all the orientation camps and stuff..
I hope to come back with a happy post.

I realised images of the PEACH booklet's not up yet!

I will try to get images of the (really nice, imo) designs inside the booklet soon!

Liyi and I worked really hard for this booklet and it was really heartening to see that the booklet was a success. We had a lot of fun dealing with nature and just testing out whatever ideas we had in mind. It was fun working together since we never did things like that before. Having pretty similar tastes and outlook to how we wanted the booklet to be like really helped a lot in the process of its creation.

Apart from lazing around for this whole June hol, I worked on a painting back in school. Hmm it's not yet completed (far from completing actually) as well as the NYGH Little Booklet open call.

Here's how my Little Booklet look like

Yet Another Talking Book 

Ink, graphite, colour pencil, watercolour, thread, tape

Have fun digesting this (no sarcasm intended), I hope my mind speaks to you.

As usual, a compilation of my thoughts and feelings transcribed into words and mark/shape-marking. My never-materialised A level coursework idea of including the dialogues that come to mind when drawing images are actualised here. Each flimsy note attached by a thread is tied to a specific drawing.

I may dedicate a post about my Little Booklet after the showcase of the Little Booklet exhibition!
Till then..

Photo Credits: Little Booklet webpage

Check out the Little Booklet webpage for more info: http://nyghartelectiveprogramme.weebly.com/individual-little-booklets.html

All in all,

Haven't been uploading these days but I've been trying to do art everyday as promised.

But my work seems to be degrading somehow it's frighteningly sad. I am not too sure how these two words can come together but yeah.

Spoke to zhenming previously about illustration and his perception towards it. And I started to question myself about what exactly is the fine line between illustration and art? Are they at all the same thing? And does my work qualify as a good illustration? I've never been confident about my works and I wonder if I will ever be. But yeah what makes a good illustration and how can I strive towards a good creation? Perhaps I should really sit down one day and set goals for my art making. Or maybe start working experimentally, exploring different things and make new discoveries. 

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I've been working on a lot of things these days but I haven't found the time(or motivation) to post them up here.

1. I worked on nat's 21st birthday card. It's been a while since I've spent so long on making cards for people. I guess I never could find time to make these in the midst of study/training/homework.

(I will post this up once I get the image from nat haha)

2. Tried out lino cutting to make stamps for zhenming's "farewell/graduation" gift.
I forgot to take an image of the actual product but this is how it looks after it's stamped

3. Helped san design her wattpad novel book cover

The idea of trade came with the use of the term "bargain" so i decided to depict the image of a handshake which conveys the mutual agreement among both parties.

The division of red and white is supposed to indicate the two factions/parties. I wanted to do a vertical division with the dissecting line in the middle initially but the overall aesthetic outlook doesn't look as appealing as this one so yep.

Support san's book by reading it on wattpad!

4. I'm working on ko's 21st card as well

(I have no idea why I have so many friends who are 21 this year :/
I still have a 21st party to attend this coming Friday)

5. I participated in the Affordable Art Fair Fred Lives Here furniture design competition and I got selected! So the pink furniture got delivered to my place today, I'm supposed to work on it till 21 May for delivery to the fair venue. My chair design will be exhibited at the AAF! Please support by heading there. The fair's on from 23-25 May 2014.

Here's how the pink DSW chair looks like (image taken from the affordable art fair web)

Card for J!

It's been such a long time since I posted here, been contemplating a lot about the purpose and significance of this blog.

Was there a need to share, was there a need to publicly show. Well? Maybe not. But I really do need to document, remember, and hopefully make a conscious effort to understand my journey and growth.

Hence, i probably would still maintain this blog, maybe document cards and small gifts I've made? Haha

Here's a card I made for Justin!

Postcard size
Mixed media

#OG15!

These are 2 cards drawn for my lovely lovely OGLs, Yuan Jun and Ryo!
(done with markers, half an A4 sized paper)

I wanted to draw something relevant to them, something that they would relate to and at the same time, find it interesting~

So, since Yuan Jun does History, I imitated a Mao propaganda poster for his card- changing 毛主席 to YUANJUN and the face to his as well. As for Ryo, I really didn't know what I could draw for him, so I decided to do pop art! I drew his face and did some various designs at the side, to make it look more colorful. Haha.

I'm really glad they liked it :DDDD

FOR A FRIEND

For this, I drew with some permanent markers on a transparent iPhone cover!
The pokemon(s) had to be drawn inverted since I wanted to draw inside the cover; so that the drawing would not be subjected to wear and tear so easily.

Haha, my weird method! Get a rough composition for the overall look, then proceed to draw the characters on white paper with a marker, flip it over to see it's inverted look and copy in onto the cover. After the drawing's done, I sprayed it with fixative~

The shadows are remarkably stunning~

This is 201'09 design done this year (right). the original (left).

the shirt hasn't been printed, though i hope it will be.

the process has been on hiatus, or worse stopped. i don't know which it is.

this piece was a part 2 of an assignment, where we were to design our s4 camp tees.

The first few tee designs I had (check archives) were solely on creating a design that represented what I was doing. But over the years, designing tee designs, now had the task to incorporate meaning and relevance in them. So what if it was representational, like art pieces, what do you what to show? What is the thing you want to tell people through the design?

As for this one, it started out as an attempt to "dissect" a nanyang girl, and lay out the things that are being commonly associated to us. I felt that respect for self is something to be gained only when one chooses to conduct themselves with integrity, be it objects or human beings. I tried to show the importance of that 'everything else'- appreciation of own's good qualities, as well as the things and people who help her achieve success- (through her disassembled objects- for that are what makes her a nanyang girl)

The image and video I got inspired by- the act of disassembling. And thus, I came up with the idea of laying out the things we had and used on a daily basis and used a top-down approach for the design. The girl in the center, therefore appears to be lying down.

Did you ever know how many different parts it takes to simply assemble one of those cars out there on the streets? We often take for granted that the car is just simply being manufactured out there by the producers, but we fail to realize the painstaking manufacture of all those various parts which makes up the car. Watch the video, and you'd realise how much how much it is needed to simply assemble one of them. Shocking, isn't it?

I wanted to tell people that every single part that makes you who you are is equally important, because you might never know, if without just one of them, you might not be who you are today.

Tee designs

Here are some 2D design that I have worked on for my CCA (track and field):

This is the first tee design done for my CCA. It is that of a photograph display hanger made of a string and some clothes pegs. Photographs which imitates polaroid with the different Nanyang athletes in their events, signifying the instantaneous moment of joy or happiness. There are also '1st' medals and an Asics spike shoe (the most common shoe brand used by Nanyang track athletes) seen hanging from the line.

This is the latest track and field tee design. For this work, I mimicked the pop art style, with the use of the broad colour planes and polka dots. The base colour of the design is blue, and thus with the use of more reds and yellows, so as to not clash with the blue. Some geometrical shapes are used in this design, to focus more on the elements I would wish to portray. In this case, the three figures seen: running, throwing, jumping. These geometrical shapes also help to frame the figures together, presenting a neater and more concised image. The use of a typical font, the one which is often associated to those on the tees of highschool cheerleaders. Not forgetting the lightning bolt shape that is used to put all the shapes and figures within. It represents strength (throwers), agility (jumpers) and quickness (runs) which is often related to track and field.

Drawing pen, A4 sized

This is the other design, a personal project for NYLD (Long Distance). It is for the event category that I specialise in. The silhoutte of a female figure running represents the typical nanyang long distance girl (like me) running. With the silhouttes of the different trees mimicking the trainings that we often carry out at MacRitchie Reservior. Not forgetting the fact that I personally do love trees a lot. For them being natural, steadfast and simply beautiful in its way. There are also reasons for drawing six trees; 1-sec ones; 2-sec twos; 3-sec threes, 4-sec fours; 5-coach; 6-assistant coach(es). Adjoining the design beneath are track lanes, each having exactly eight track lanes (the norms). Besides training in the MacRitchie Reservior, we do often train on tracks at Hwa Chong Insitution, CCAB or National Junior College as well since we still do track events. On the track lanes which are interwined together, small figures may be seen running on them too. The purpose of the interwining lanes was to represent the long distances that we do in a literal manner. Giving rise to the tagline beneath the lanes, "we clock our mileage". The words, "NYGH LONGD" can also be seen above the lanes.

Felt pen, A5 sized

This design was done last year for the track and field sec fours graduation. Its purpose was simply to give it to the graduating sec four seniors in appreciation of their efforts. It is an invitation card for our sec four farewell celebration. Despite the fact that they already know of this annual celebration, the invitation was done in any case. It was a suggestion by a sec four senior to make this celebration more formal, and at the same time interesting. The pop art style is once again used for the design, with the broad colour planes and polka-dots. Rectangles are used as well. If you realise, the colours used are generally the primary ones, excluding the green, biege and pink which added afterwards to enhance the design further.

This simple design brings in the idea of the number tag that athletics pin onto their jersey for cross country or track events. There is no specific reason for the number '0001' chosen, rather to make it simple and illustrate the idea of a our track team as "first". This design does not need complex drawings like those presented earlier but uses more typography designing elements such the fonts, size and also the positioning of fonts (see the made up logo next to the school crest).

This is one design made last year, which I personally am not quite satisfied with. Firstly, I did not use much effort in producing this design, and thus resulting to a lack of profound meaning or effort behind this piece. Secondly, it is not desirable to put the speech bubble next to the figure. Even I myself am not aware of the reason behind placing that speech bubble there in the first place. (?) But nevertheless, I do like the square shapes in which the various places which we train at are placed into. It helps to give a sense of coherence to the picture and also helps to make the design neater. And I do like the idea of placing the girl over these places, holding onto them as if they were her friends. It seems to show that the girl immerses herself in her trainings, which gives her the smiles on her face (joy). And, it seemed as if the girl reigned over these trainings, as if they were her territory. Like she knew them so well.

As time progresses, I am enjoying more and more of designing work. Previously, all I thought about designing tees were boring and simply that (nothing interesting). But well, I was wrong. Who says that artworks can't be tshirt designs? Who says that tshirt designs have to be all words and nothing special to speak of? Google 'tee designs' and one finds a lot of intriguing ideas which could and already can be found printed onto tshirts. It made me realise that more quality drawings too can be translated from the paper onto tshirts. There are no restriction boundaries and it leaves it for one to express themselves through the design, which ought to be attractive, meaningful and special. And in my case, it speaks of the people who are wearing the tee.