On to the 10

Today is a day to think about what has happened this year and what we've learned and experienced from 2009.

2009 was an awesome year full of great people, memories, and laughters. Lots of travelling happened this year and it looks like that'll be coming back in 2010. I've learned a lot this year.

One of the most memorable moments must have been the passing of my grandmother. I've known her for so many years and it was tough for me and everyone else to see her leave us. This really made me re-evaluate life in general. You just never know, when things in life might change, for better or worse. Appreciate these moments that you live for, and love them even more. Call those friends you haven't talked to for weeks, months, years. Keep in touch.

2010 is looking to be an exciting one. It will take a lot of hard work and energy to continue the road to my dreams and the ultimate goal - complete happiness.

Thank you everyone for all the support and sharing a bit of you. I'm looking forward to many more great moments in 2010. Thanks for reading and commenting here on the blog. I'm excited to share new work in 2010 as well as seeing new ones from you.

Take care everyone and have a Happy New Year!

PS. JUMP more on New Years Eve! :)

Happy New Year! from Happy Garaje on Vimeo.

LXD "Choices" and "Moments" Trailer

This is nice. Check it.

LXD "Choices" Teaser from Jon M. Chu on Vimeo.

LXD "Moments" Trailer from Jon M. Chu on Vimeo.

A night of colors

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure to jam with two creative talents, Tessar Lo and Erika Danusasmita to experiment with a bunch of media. A night dedicated to good music, drinks and paint.

Its nice to draw and paint to bring out the inner child for a night. Enjoying the process and not worrying about the results.

Here are some photos. Courtesy of Mr. Lo

Lunch Bunch Print Auction

One of my last few Limited Edition Giclee (of 10) print 'Beenoculars' will be part of the 'Lunch Bunch' Print auction starting tomorrow organized by Ana Bagayan.



100% of all proceeds will go towards Lunch Bunch meals!



What Lunch Bunch is about >> Feeding L.A.'s Homeless
Lunch Bunch consists of two friends that get together once a week to create home-made meal packages to pass out to the homeless of Los Angeles

Artist's prints/artwork in this auction will include Amy Sol, Gary Baseman, Chet Zar, Tim Biskup, Glenn Barr, Amanda Visell, Jeremiah Ketner, Jeremy Berkley, Shannon Bonatakis, Liz McGrath & Morgan Slade, Fang Ling Lee, Peter Chan, Dominique Fung, Natalie Shau, John Zaso, N.C. Winters, Jeannie Lynn Paske, Christopher Umana, and more!

Thanks for putting this all together Ana!

Sketches from the Subway

Almost every sunday, I will go draw on the subway with a group of artists.

Depending on how I feel, I use different paper or mediums. Sometimes i might feel like drawing finished drawings, and sometimes I just want to draw loose and experiment with new ways to draw.

Here are some drawings from this past Sunday to loosen up, the beautiful thing about drawing with ink pens is you have to live with your mistakes. Accept them or start a new drawing.

For those in Toronto, come out to draw this coming Sunday, we meet at Union Station at 3:30pm.

I would pick more daisies

.
Things like this are truly inspiring.

Make more mistakes,
take more chances.

Thanks to my friend Sherwin for sharing this.

Moments of Life

a beautiful shortfilm directed by william hoffman about appreciating the small, simple things life has to offer.

"its that thing thats beyond the senses.."

Half Minute Horrors Halloween Cabaret!

Half Minute Horrors Halloween Cabaret was fun!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the gladstone on halloween for the event, it was a lot of fun and was great to see so many young children interested in reading. Here are pictures!

Hello Kitty books and videos

Here are some pages from the Hello Kitty Artbook as well as the toys and grab bags they gave to every artist in the show!






Also, recently Ken Tanaka uploaded a new video on youtube about the birthday event at Royal T!

A Halloween Day Family Cabaret

Hey everyone,

Just a friendly reminder that Bobby and I will be doing a book signing for Half-Minute Horrors at The Gladstone Hotel on Halloween tomorrow from 2pm-4pm

You can also meet many of the great writers who contributed their horror stories for this book. Come drop by if you're in the area, happy halloween!!

Serenity

Here is the piece I contributed for the Hello Kitty 35th anniversary show 'three apples' at royal/t art space in Los Angeles.



Serenity, Acrylic and Oil on Paper. 18" x 24"

Each hand represents a certain hello kitty on the side..can you guess them all? Answer at the bottom...

Thank you again Jamie, for having me in this show. It was great meeting all the artists at the VIP opening as well. Wicked event! Will be posting photos and images of the event soon as well!

Royal/T Café/Shop/Art Space
Los Angeles, CA
October 23 – November 15, 2009



Heres an image of it framed at the show via AM


VIP Night Coverage Video:


answer: from top middle clockwise (angel/normal, zombie, princess, tattoo/piercings, vampire/bat, emo, harajuku)

Off to LA!

Going to be heading off to Los Angeles today for the Hello Kitty Three Apples Art Show. An exhibition celebrating 35 years of Hello Kitty.

The show will be opened to public on October 23rd and will be at Royal T in Culver City, Los Angeles.

Royal/T Cafe
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

Here are some press information for those interested:
Juxtapoz
CoolHunting
Vinyl Pulse
Collect 3D
SLAMXHype

Part of the proceeds from art sales will also benefit event charitable partner, LA WORKS. So if you're in the area, come and check it out!

I'll be updating this blog with pictures from the show when i return. :)

Half Minute Horrors is Out!

A little while ago, I worked on collaborative project with Bobby Chiu on a cover for the book titled 'Half Minute Horrors' published by Harper Collins.

We're very excited to hear that this book is finally released in bookstores near you!

This book is a collection of deliciously terrifying short short tales and creepy illustrations including bestselling talents Lemony Snicket, James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, R.L.Stine, Faye Kellerman, Holly Black, Melissa Marr, Margaret Atwood, Jon Scieszka, Brett Helquist, and many more.

If you're interested in purchasing the book, please click here. For other information about Half Minute Horrors please visit the official site.

Also, later this month, we will be doing a signing at the Gladstone Hotel on Halloween. Here is the flyer for more info.



Here is the painting again that we did for the cover of this book.

Upcoming Show: Hello Kitty Three Apples

For the last little while or so, I've been really busy day and night working on a new piece for an upcoming show I mentioned earlier.

The piece is finally finished now and at the framers. It will be sent out to the gallery in a few days for the Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary show titled "three apples" curated by Jamie from Japan LA.

The show will be opened to public on October 23rd and will be at Royal T in Culver City, Los Angeles.

Its looking to be a great show with an artist lineup such as Bobby Chiu, Kei Acedera, Edwin Ushiro, Gary Baseman, Ron English, Natalia Fabia, Camilla D'Errico, Buffmonster, Yoskay Yamamoto, Tessar Lo, Travis Louie, Nate Frizzell, Frank Kozik, Colin Christian, Tara McPherson, and many many more. Please check here for more information on the artists in the show.

I am really looking forward to this show and seeing other artist's work up close in person!

Right now, I can't release the piece yet until they make it public on their website. So please keep checking back, there are some great pieces up already!

I will be flying down to LA with my friends Bobby and Kei from Imaginism studios and will be in attendance for the show. Looking forward to meet you everyone at the show!

More info to come soon and I will post my piece here whenever it is released on the website.

Twitter

Don't think I posted about this yet here, but just incase, heres my twitter page.
@peter_chan

October is coming... and its getting cold too here in Toronto.. But I have a feeling it'll be a great month. :)

new things on the go..

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, been really sick coming down with the flu. Pretty much fully recovered now.

Lately, I had a chance to set up a painting space in the studio, i will slip in a painting study here and there, sometimes just an hour or two before i go to bed.

Been experimenting a lot, got a new sketchbook, my first moleskin. Trying to have some spontaneous elements in my painting, as well as playing around with new ideas and symbols for future work.

Im working on a big traditional piece right now for an upcoming group show, probably the biggest piece I've done in the last 5 years. Can't post it yet, but i will post an update about the show soon. It will be in mid October in Los Angeles.

For now here are some snapshots of my current work space, fresh from last night.



Heres a page from my new sketchbook, will post more pages later.




Untitled. approx 5''x7''. Mixed media (acrylics, inks, pen, and soju)

Some Vids to check out.

Deadlines:


Paint Explosions:

Like fireworks...very cool campaign

Interview at ANN

The awesome folks at ANN did an interview with me recently. Its up now - click here.

Probably the longest and most thorough interview I've done so far.

Sometimes you just want to...

draw with a pen for a bit.
Been a while since i posted sketchbook pages/etc.
Heres some samples of what goes on in my sketchbooks...media exploration, rough drawings for ideas, some will turn into finish pieces, some won't. I think i want to post more rough work here too..

oh, watched District 9 tonight, it was sweet...

Wild Things

Looking forward to watch this...

Crazy

6''x7'', Acrylic and Gesso on Paper

Yea, kinda crazy lately, need to post and update this blog more.. so heres a sketch again. Need more time to do finished pieces...

Leaving for Chicago tomorrow, will be back on monday!

Something just for fun..

Beginnings

Had this image in my mind today...just an idea...

Its rough but here it is anyway since i haven't posted anything for a long time..hope this will start things up and stir the art energy of personal work again..

Want to explore different methods of image making.

Maybe use this to paint something bigger?


Acrylic, Gesso, and Digital

Good night, hope tomorrow is a beautiful day.

Protectors of Nature Tee

My friend Hieng recently started a new online store called 1%talent. Go check it out!

Available are a lot of awesome shirts as well as one of our collaborative designs called 'Protectors of Nature'. It was a screen i worked on earlier when i was doing silk-screening last year.

'Here comes the Protectors of Nature, Be kind to nature or they won't be kind to you.'
Hand Printed on super soft 100% espresso brown cotton shirt
If you're interested you can now purchase it through the site.

A much needed update on art is coming soon. :)

INTERMEDIUM short film by Alain Huynh

Heres a funny short film my friend Alain just posted on youtube. Check it out.

future perfect with tessar lo

congrats to my friend tessar
He will be having his very first solo exhibition this saturday at lebasse projects in culver city, los angeles. This new body of work conveys a lot of feeling and emotions, love how he conveys his ideas and feeling thru color and paint!

really wish i can go but i am all the way here in toronto..

Reverie

Going to be in Dallas, Texas this Saturday up until Wednesday for the Reverie Workshop from ConceptArt.org. Pretty excited and pumped about this event, going to be awesome. Really looking forward to meet the artists there doing the workshops! A few days of nonstop drawing, painting, learning, and partying!! There will be concept artists there like Jason Chan, Bobby Chiu, Kei Acedera, Justin Sweet, Jon Foster, Marko D, Coro to fine artists like Shawn Barber and Carl Dobsky.

Birds and the Bees Show - Opening Night

Thank you for everyone who came out to the opening reception on friday night. Special thanks to those who supported the fundraiser and bought a print or an original. Great seeing familiar faces again as well as meeting new ones. Thanks for the great comments about my piece and especially to those who bought a print. The 10 limited edition giclee prints are almost gone. Email me (info [at] peterchanart.com) if you still want one. Work is still up at the gallery as well as the online gallery right now.

Here are some photos from the show.