fill me

Except for these clay pieces, nothing much is going on in studio right now. I haven't painted or printed anything at all these past few weeks (months?!). I'm about to burst.

This past weekend, i was home with the family, hanging out mostly with my sisters and cousins. Still so happy that Michael suggested going to the museum, which i totally did not know he would be interested in doing. You're my new museum buddy forever now, Mikey. None of us who went (me, M, and F) to the Whitney Museum were crazy with the current Biennial show but it was good just to have gone together. We all did like one wall drawing by Sol LeWitt and an installation by Carol Bove (okay, just Michael for that one; Francis doesn't like it and i would have liked it more if you could run through it).

Ting and May looking older, more grown-up, so beautiful and alike in ways i had not notice before.

The next day, May gave me a short short haircut that i've been wanting. In the middle of the haircut, the parents' visitors came and i quickly tried to hide and clean up. Saw how nicely the fallen hair got clustered together when i started to pick it up. And before anyone could catch what i was doing, i stuffed it in a bag for me to take back with me. Look where they are now:





Wish i had collected more.

they carry the sounds of wind

self-hardening red clay, no bigger than 8 cm, in the process of drying

Made these last Wednesday when i called in sick for work. Felt much better at the end of the day.

two jelly things

paper on wire & clay, distance in between: 6 cm

Was playing around with these the other day while taking their pictures. Originally, they were conceived to be jellyfish-like:



But i think i am liking them as they are without any specific identity to them...

one floating heart

paper on wire and clay, heart dimensions 12 x 15 cm

clayballs

I made these clayballs right before my parents came to visit earlier this week. They will be used for more wrapping sketches. The clayballs, not my parents.

My parents are my heroes. I wish i had not forgotten to take pictures of them while they were here. Especially of my smiley mom with all her crazy blanket purchases filling the whole bedroom, and of my dad showing me how to make the bittermelon egg dish. yummmy. We were all so caught up in the moment of shopping and eating and cooking together. Best is that they are becoming younger in spirit and i wanted to capture that.

I miss them already and they are right that we should all live closer together. They drove 5 hours south to see May and then 5 hours north to see me. Parents really should not have to work that hard just to get to see their kids. And Ting is half way across the country whom they kept mentioning as we sat around eating and talking.

This is the first time my parents came to visit me since i moved here with John. I was eager to show off our place, my scattered works and things, but i think they feel sorry that i am not living in a nicer place, having more fancier things.

But i already have so much that i am happy with that i am more afraid of losing what i have than thinking about having more.

about them sketches

So before i made my paper leaf dropping last week, i had been beating myself up for not sketching as regularly as i used to.

Years ago, i would sketch almost everyday, going through maybe 3-5 sketchbooks a year. Drawing/collaging while watching tv, talking on the phone, riding on the bus, blah blah blah.

Today i still have the one sketchbook started in 2003 and it is still barely filled. Mostly just skimpy [half-assed] drawings in there that i forced myself to do. It nagged at me all the time since i was pretty stuck on thinking i got to draw everyday because that is what all artists *should* do. But i just had no desire (or not enough discipline) to dwell into those blank empty pages.

Instead, i found myself mindlessly wrapping the dried gourds. Just wanting to cover up the raw dirty-looking surface and make it like new again, not really caring where i was going with them.

While wrapping one of them, i noticed some scrap wire pieces lying around. So i grabbed those and started twisting them into loops for more wrapping to do. What came out were those paper wings and this guy here:


Japanese mulberry paper over wire and clay, about 5.5" across*

I don't know why it took me so long to realize that i've been sketching all along. If i knew i were, i would be making so many more of these in the last couple of years! I didn't know where the heck they were going so i couldn't allow myself to spend too much time on them and of course, no wasting of those precious Japanese papers! nooo, gotta be painting and making masterpieces all the tiiime!

It's funny stupid how the mind works sometimes.

Bend, Mind, bend. Bend and twist like your paper wire sketches...


*Please note that this little guy has a little genitalia. Either that or that thing that hangs in the back of the throat.
(Ma, don't be embarrassed to look. Click for larger image.)

my paper purse

paper on wire and clay, about 10" across [a sketch]