Wintertime in Chicago and promo postcards!

As one of my goals is to get better at self promoting, after starting a facebook page earlier in the month, I also had some postcards printed using artwork I made in spirit of the season and mailed a bunch out before holidays! Now I can go hibernate, right? :P

...and I'm off to the mailbox!

late night sketch of bao staring like a staring cat

2nd penpal drawing between Seoul // Chicago!

Heui and I both got each other's second assignments in the mail!

This theme was a portrait of our grandmothers. I think our relationship with our grandmother comes out through the way we approached the renditions.

Heui's grandma:

my grandma (I called her "婆婆" (po-po)):

She taught me how to fold origami and she used to make 饅頭 (mantou) or chinese steamed buns/bread a lot.

A Metra ride to see the Viper and His Famous Orchestra

and a bunch of sketches along the way! Last night's venture to a downtown show.

On the metra ride to downtown.. 

 at the venue:

these sketches began to become a little inebriated towards the end...looks like the start of an ink-only sketchbook. My friend's husband was playing in the band so I ended up making weird portraits of all the members. yei!

Michel Gondry's New film + New Facebook Page!

Last night my friend and I watched Michel Gondry's new film "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?", an animated documentary starring Noam Chomsky.
As I haven't been following the world of independent film/animation for a while, I actually first found out about this from Tuesday's edition of Democracy Now!

Trailer on youtube and Michel Gondry's website:

I find both Gondry and Chomsky equally mind-blowing inspirational figures and this film was especially a delight for me to watch since it's two geniuses from two fields I feel - in my personal experience ahem :) - are so alike and bridgeable though they are often perceived as polar opposites. Gondry vs. Chomsky or Art vs. Science. You have to see this one if you are a total art/science geek/nerd whatever. It's for everyone really. Ok if you're at least a human you must watch it! Even if you're a robot it's awesome too!!

Also new: You can find regular updates on my facebook page now!

Congrats to Hua Foundation on their LAUNCH + their new logo!!

[image from huafoundation.org]

Recently I helped design a logo for Hua Foundation, a Vancouver-based environmental and community geared non-profit. It was such a pleasure to work with these passionate and amazing peeps! I totally dig their values and really appreciate the opportunity to contribute to their group (and through their message- towards all our benefit, health and well-being!). Earlier this week, Co-Founder Claudia Li talked about Hua on CBC TV and Radio. You also get a sneak peek at Co-Founder Kevin's 皮蛋(1000 year old eggs)! They look so good - hope to try them in the future.

This was a really exciting project to work on since it melds a lot of my interests and own attempts to combine the experience of 2nd gen. immigrant, cultural heritage, health, environment and plus using the arts! what a winning combo! yay
I heard their launch event at BaoBei (mmm one of my favorite restaurants in Vancity..hum hum hum) was a great success, I wish I could have been there!!

{the approved design}

Check them out at:
www.huafoundation.org

Or on
Twitter
Facebook

For more about our collaboration on the Hua Foundation identity: check out their post

Edel Rodriguez at Curly Tale Fine Art "Dystopia" Opening

(I yoinked this photo from Mr. Rodriguez's fb post about the event)

Friday I had the honor of meeting Edel Rodriguez and friends at his "Dystopia" opening at Chicago's Curly Tale Fine Art gallery. Mr. Rodriguez is a Cuban American artist from New York who has garnered tons of awards and bling (I mean medals) and has been exhibited and collected by awesome and cool places like the Smithsonian Institute! If that's not enough to convince you to check out his work, then you should go just because I said so (because I am ruler of this blog post)!

I also found out he was in Vancouver at Emily Carr (!!), my old stomping grounds, to give a talk about his work for the Vancouver Opera. (For some of his own reporting on this visit you can read them at his blogpost.)

You can peep some of the artwork he has on display at the gallery in his blogpost . Or you can just go to the gallery in person and experience the brilliant pieces in 3D!!  The show runs through December 30th.

Patriarchy won Best FX at Vancouver Short Film Festival

[film still from 'Patriarchy']

So proud of being a part of the team at SmallAxx and working with such passionate, crazy, and talented peeps! Director Karen Chapman presented our short "Patriarchy", a visual treatment of Toronto poet and spoken word artist Travis Blackman. I just found out we won the award for Best Visual Effects for this project!

unhatching a new Penpal project..

My friend Heuiwon and I are starting a penpal (or maybe it's more like a paintpal) project! We still need to iron out the details but here's a look at our first project. We painted each other's portraits and then snail-mailed them to each other! We just received each other's pieces in the mail - now it's time to find a nice frame :D

Hoping to build this into an ongoing project so will post some updates on it as it develops :)

 Heui's portrait of me with cute cat ears ^_^

 a close up

Cats were surprisingly the theme since I also added Heui's cat, Haru, to her portrait:

'Patriarchy' screening at the Vancouver Short Film Festival!

Last year I got to finish up a short experimental film with director Karen Chapman at SmallAxx Film Productions and editing genius Rajarshi Basu and fellow animator/filmmaker Warlo Melgarejo (that's Karlo to laymen! ;]). 'Patriarchy' integrates live action and animation together over Travis Blackman's spoken word piece...  

Vancouver Short Film Festival! Check it out!

schedule can be found on their page:
http://www.vsff.com/pg/films

Media Launch for Mexico tourism @Union Station Chicago

I had the lucky opportunity to tag along with Juancho SC Photography at the media launch for Mexico tourism's new marketing campaign reveal at Chicago's lovely Union Station downtown.

Some photos of the event:

the ceiling was lovely!

Some contemporary dancers:

And we were treated to some really nice mexican choco! :)

hum hum hum :d

Can't wait to visit Mexico! :)

Work from Robots & Monsters @AydenGallery

I found a shot of the gallery opening night below (my work is in the corner)! Too bad I could not make it but excited to see all the fun times. :)

Original photo and article by Aaron Morris found on grinddown.com

The two pieces in the show:

Coder, 18"x24" Ink + gouache on paper

Meigui, 18"x24" Ink+gouache on paper

Robots & Monsters Show @Ayden Gallery, Vancouver: Opening Friday October 11, 2013

I will have some paintings at this show along with a bunch of other awesome artists! Come drop by and check us out next week at the opening next Friday, October 11, 7-11pm

:D

More info can be found on the facebook event page.

CSS animation

Wow...NY Times has this short story, illustrated by Attila Futaki that has an interactive animation going on with the scroll..it's a simple 3d layered zoom but sooo cool! Check out the story and what I'm talking about:
Tomato Can Blues

I'm seeing a lot of these new css-based animations- which reminds me of another super cool animation (animated ENTIRELY in css!) that I was led to via my fellow Gamomo friend Kenji:
The Good Man by Pedro Ivo Hudson

USSAG: Erotic Friday 13th Opening

 Some people trying to figure my stuff out for me

that crazy lighting is from...

the disco floor!!

There were some mysterious masqueraders as well:

My lovely friend accompanying my lonely self to this show.

Afterwards, since it was 2nd Fridays (something similar to Vancouver's SWARM except more frequent! - all the local galleries open their doors to the public), we went to check out some other work being shown in neighboring galleries:

Very cool performance piece in the windows of ROOMS gallery:

(those are very uncanny stones they are playing with!)

USSAG: Art Drop Off

I just dropped off my artwork at Ugly Step Sister for the upcoming group show over the weekend. Since my lovely sister was in town to visit, I dragged her along to help me out :)

Gallery front door

They had some cute soaps on display in the front

(check out that moustache one)