quite a Journal!

      While enjoying myself during the lovely Chirstmas, I have managed to produced several sketches for my personal journal :)

Visiting Whitworth Gallery and the Corner House
(watching lots of cool non-English movies here)

And my quick paper-cutting flowers,
exprimented for one of my current projects

      The holiday has been relaxing and quite productive, as I got to read some serious stuff about third-wave feminism (which is by the way, related to my upcoming project), namely:
- "Fight like a girl: How to be a fearless feminist?" by Regan Meely, quite a simplified bible for feminists, coverage what is all about within the movement. 
-"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison (haunting me for days, I even cried silently in the toilet when I had closed the last page)
- "Living Dolls, the return of Sexism" by Natasha Walter. An illusionary portrait of misleading liberation within the feminism society, she's got lots of interesting life-reflective points!
- "Angry Women", currently reading. A book contains a compilation of talks and interviews with feminist performance artists, inclduing Karen Finley and Annie Sprinkle, etc. Makes me smile now and then actually, I am totally not on board with them but it's so interesting to learn how charismatic and furious some women can get over the seem-to-be male dominated society.
    

     And as a Christmas bonus, this spinning chair inside Victoria&Albert Museum made my whole roller-coaster ride of a holiday!

    

concertina book "Love Sabotage"

        My cut up poem called "Love sabotage" is finally presented itself as a tiny, white concertina book: 

      "Love Sabotage" tells an adventure of love from an innocent girl's perspective. Embracing her first love with guillability and compassion, she is shattered when her lover decides to leave. The poem then unveils how time can cure the wound and one's life must go on, as the future always beholds unexpected happiness for who strive and search for it. 

          The poem is complemented with two collage-like surrealist illustrations, as the whole poem is a cut-up collage itself (from selected poems of Carol Ann Duffy, Sylvia Plath and "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris. The progress of this technique is explained in my former post here). Conveniently represented, I attempted this look in order to attract the viewers to read the poem, rather than enjoy merely the representation itself.

PS. Are you enjoying the start of 2013? Let's embark on something special this year! ♥

♥ Thanks for making my year special ♥

Jumping into the number 13!

      This is my last post for 2012, dedicating to my family and friends and supporters who have made my year eventful. So we didn't go extinct after all; the last day of the Mayan calender passed by rather peacefully, til my partner pointed out to me that we had gone beyond the 21^st  December (happy jump!).

      Huddling up in a kaleidoscope of this year's memories, I was reminiscing through all the happy moments as well as the rough patches I'd gone through. Months living separated from home and my partner kept haunting me under the shadow of forlorn loneliness. Having the tendency to a slight pessimism also adds up to the hindrance of  my complete concentration on art creation. However, things seem to work out fine, as they always do. And I have grown so much within the last twelve months, both keeping myself in practice and developing my own viewpoint towards the art industry. 

• I am not trying to define myself among other artists anymore, as I realize how hard I try, my style will always, always encounter (or reminiscent of) someone else's. And art is not about how your works look aesthetically, but rather the executions and the ideas hidden underneath it. Take film directors for instance, my colleague had sometimes moaned about how many directors do the same thing just in order to attract mass audiences. But don't forget, most people do it! Numerous directors exploit digital visual elements in their movies, but Tim Burton still stands out among them as an extraordinary artist who blows a sense of quirkiness and bizarre visualization in his works. Or lots of directors choose romantic comedy as their goal, but is there another Woody Allen- who distances himself with extremely intelligent dialogues and filming techniques in Annie Hall and Midnight in Paris?
  Follow this point, I am confident that I have my own development of thoughts and artistic approaches. And I believe we all do.
  And remember, shock value isn't considered a mark of originality, but your personal viewpoints are.
• Through out my artistic practice, I have found it very essential looking out for various references around the art scenario. Although limited myself as an illustrator at the moment (which sometimes can be a bit overwhelming already), I never stop being nosy around other art events. Watching ballet, flipping through fashion magazines and photographers, visiting conceptual art museums and digesting a whole lots of movies have given me so much awareness, as well as inspirations in creating my own illustrations.
  Spend more time in the library, or have a book next to you in the toilet, or look out for show you are interested to watch will offer you so much more than you ever wish for. The feeling of accumulating knowledge is a great pleasure, and everyone should deserve to experience it.

    Lastly, I have found some of my most inspiring sources:

• Toni Morrison, lately I have gone mad with her novels, simply poetic! (The Bluest Eye and Beloved are highly recommended)
• Shaun Tan's books still capture every bit of my heart, both aesthetically and emotionally
• Tracing back time and finding out these tremendous movies: Mankiewicz's All about Eve, Benigi's Life is beautiful and Hitchcook's Rebecca.
• Whatcha mean? What's a zine? has introduced into an unconventional activity for writing diaries and noting down random things. Gonna start to do that next year!
• Amandine Alessandra and Abba Richman are two typography installation artists with innovative approaches to creating letters.

     Anyway, have a fascinating start for 2013! I shall ask the dandelions to carry out your wishes and make them come true :)

PS.

My colleague Elliot 
sketched a quick portrait of me:) 

the ballerina alphabet

      As promised, here is my outcome:

       

The Ballerina Alphabet
Selection of graphite drawings on paper
December 2012

      Each letter is a delicate A5 drawing on paper, depicting ballet movements combined with stage set and atmospheric elements. The alphabet is inspired and drawn from the beauty of ballet, various from classics such as Swan Lake, La Bayadere, The Nutcraker, Sleeping beauty,etc, to modern compositions, Afternoon of the Faun and Alice in Wonderland for instance. This alphabet was continuously drawn in 2 and a half weeks, much to my efforts, I am glad I have finally expressed my affection towards this tremendous physical art. 

      Be welcome to have a closer look at each letter as their individual:

b for Balcony,
the classic scene in Romeo and Juliet

F for Flame,
the passion for dance

O for Odette, my favourite drawing :)

b for Balcony

       Recently working on an illustration of a creative alphabet, which my mind subconsciously led me to my favouite art scenario of the ballet world. Turning dance movements into letters is sure a hard job, henceforth enjoyable :)

       The B for Balcony is one of my favourites so far, probably because I just watched Romeo and Juliet in the Royal Opera House recently. Here are some other letters in progress:

      The Alphabet is expected to be finished by Wednesday, so wait till then! 

PS. And during this short-term project, I have relived some fascinating ballet montage through these movies:

The Turning Point (simply classic! This is a not-to-be-missed piece when it comes to ballet films, visually astounding and heart wrenching performances from the leads)

The Company (elegant and sweet, with the gorgeous James Franco)

Black Swan (no need to discuss:D)

Series "I generate a silhouette of childhood"

Finally I can present my finished pieces for the "Sense of belonging" project. My illustrations embrace the magic realist beauty and nostalgic feel towards childhood, where we all live in a kaleidoscope of impossible dreams and radiant happiness. 

I generate a silhouette of childhood

        Medium: graphite and acrylic on paper, Photoshop retouch

        Dimension: 10x12 inch (25x31cm)

        Inspirations: 

* Visual art: Marc Chagall, Michael Parkes, Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon, Hayao Miyazaki's My neighbor Totoro and Spirited away, Tim Walker's photography and Naive Art movement.

* Literature: Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le petit prince, Anderson's fairy tales, Johoanna Spyri's Heidi, Carol Ann Duffy's poems and Shaun Tan's picture books. 

      as well as Tchaikovsky, Yann Tiersen and Aldophe Adam's music compositions that took me through those sleepless nights. 

        Unused sketches:

      You're also welcome to view this on Behance and help me 'appreciate' the project. 
Many thanks :)