NYC Vinyl Record Exhibition

I'll be in an upcoming vinyl record show at gallery APW in New York City. Opening reception is October 3rd, 2008.










It was really fun painting on a Vinyl Record. I remember working on a Record Album for a show earlier this year, but this is a first time I ever painted on a Vinyl Record.

Anyways heres the beginning of the Record










and the final... (sorry its not the best image to show the piece, but I didn't had a scanner while I was working on this in NYC)

'Womb of Nature' Acrylic and Oil on Vinyl Record 12x12

Update!!! Silkscreening and NYC!

Sorry guys, been away for a bit.

Lots to update on...also a lot of things in progress...some upcoming things to prepare for..etc.

I've just recently finished a course by the amazing Jeff Garcia on silkscreening. Hes a great silkscreen artist/teacher in the Toronto area..love his work. It was great to finally get my hands dirty and try silkscreening...it was always something i wanted to learn...took the course with my friends Hieng and Lettie.

Here are some of the results..of the class..was fun! (Photos are courtesy of Lettie's blog)


















































And heres a shirt design I did, had 12 of these shirts available for sale at the NYC convention and its now sold out!! Thanks to all who came out and bought a shirt! Also thanks to my friend Hieng for silkscreening em and selling them at his booth! A second batch of shirts will be in the works.























Anyways, the past 2 weeks have been pretty busy, but it was all good fun. Went to Atlanta 2 weeks ago and just returned from New York City yesterday.

One of the highlights of my New York trip was meeting one of my favourite game design/animation illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, a illustrator legend for the famous Final Fantasy series and the Vampire Hunter D series. Also had the pleasure to meet Hideyuki Kikuchi, the writer of Vampure Hunter D and last but not least the iron chef of japan, Masaharu Morimoto.

Things I had them sign in respective order.. Amano, Kikuchi, Morimoto

amazing

Today, some of my good friends are having a show at project:gallery. They do some amazing things. Its a fresh faces show of these four up and coming artists. Really excited for them, while I was in LA, saw them work on those pieces in the studio and it was inspiring to see.

Natural Affinity (work in progress)

Here is another piece I am working on right now. Concept is again nature x human interaction and the idea of life and energy giving from our natural environment.

Here is the defined drawing and the first layer of acrylics + colored inks... working a bit differently this time, instead of painting on wood with oils and acrylics like most of the other pieces i've done, I decided to experiment a bit and try painting on paper again..

Fun stuff...I'll post more wip on this piece soon or the final...

Continue the Work in progress...

Some new work in progress shots of the paintings i've been working on..
more to come..hopefully very soon. Also some retouching...

Square Foot 2008 at AWOL gallery

Amazing event, really glad to have been a part of it.

Lots of people, great music, had a great time there, even though it was short. Never

Here are two pieces that I contributed to the show with my friend Tyrel, it was fun collaborating with him on these 2 pieces. (sorry about the bad photos, i couldn't get a scan of the piece before i sent them out unfortunately..) After i painted the girl, he worked on the airbrushing of the background and texture of the piece. He also painted the red riding hood running away from the octopus monster i painted. Tyrel is now the third artist I've collaborated with.

"A haunting thought" oil on wood - 12x12












"Better run" oil on wood - 12x12










Collaborative art is a really fun part of art creating for me, its really exciting to see how my style fuses with others and how each style compliments each other. Whenever I pass my art to another, I'll tell them to do anything they want, paint over my work a bit, change or add things to what I already have on it...etc. Its a great surprise when I see the result.

As much as I love collaborating with other artists, it might be a little while till I can collaborate with another. We'll see, but I got lots of pieces to finish first before I'll have the chance again.

Unfortunately, that night, I couldn't make it out to the other opening at Whippersnapper Gallery. I will try to make it and post photos of that one later on.

Here are photos of the rest of the show

A social network for artist

Got a great new art social network to share today. It has just started recently.

We all know deviantart, CGtalk, and Concept art. But here is a new great place for both digital and traditional paintings.

CG HUB
http://cghub.com/

Go check it out, looks like its going to be an exciting place, I am addicted already. :)

Show photos from squarefoot and whippersnapper will be updated soon.

Whippersnapper Show pieces

Heres one of the 3 pieces Whippersnapper gallery selected for their Summer bonanza show this weekend. I finished it a little while back for the grad show at the burroughes building.

Longing Tree - oil on wood 11x17








As for the concept of the piece, its a reflection of the feeling of a song called maple. Originally, it was what the assignment asked for, a reflection of a song for the personal narrative class. It was also how I was feeling at the time. Here is the lyrics of the song for those interested. I wish to create more pieces like this in the future, with more emotional connection. Special thanks to Harvey Chan and Blair Drawson for art directing me through this piece.

Dark clouds cast a shadow over our hearts
I listen intently to the feelings that have long been silenced
Distinct and clear
Just like a beautiful landscape
That can only be clearly seen in one's memories
Can a heart that's been thoroughly wounded continue to love me?
I tried hard to hold (your) cold hands
The tenderness in the past
Is locked in time
All that's left are sadness that cannot be dispersed
Longing is like maple leaves, slowly drifting down
I light a candle to warm this year-end's autumn
The aurora steals across the horizon
The north wind flits across the face that's thinking of you
Ashes from my burning heart falls like leaves
But I can never regain (your) familiar face again
Longing is like maple leaves, slowly drifting down
Why must I try to recover all before winter arrives?
My love for you transcends all time
Two streams of tears that were shed for the autumn's end
Let the love flood through
I just want you by my side
Snowflakes have already covered the ground
Fearing that the maple leaves outside the window are already frozen

These are the other pieces that will be in the show, also for sale.

Innocence (Chaos Series - Collaboration with Elise Trinh)
Framed Print 17x22









People and Places
Pen and ink on paper, Framed 9x12

Two shows coming up this saturday.

This weekend is going to be busy. I'll be in contributing a few pieces in these shows this coming Saturday in Toronto..

One is the annual 'squarefoot' show at AWOL gallery, and the other is the summer showcase bonanza show at Whippersnapper Gallery.


Square foot 2008 at AWOL Gallery.
Come check out the annual Square Foot Show at Awol Gallery. 600+ artist works on 12" by 12" panels.
A MUST SEE EVENT!!
This Saturday, August 16th @ 100A Ossington Ave,. 2nd Floor 7PM












Whippersnapper Summer Showcase Bonanza
This Saturday, August 16th @ 587A College Street 8PM

Sleep in Sepia

Heres something I worked on recently for the upcoming Chaos 2 anthology book. More info about it to come soon..

Been interested in ideas of sleep and dreams recently.. dreams is kinda a mysterious thing.

so randomized. Often, they say excess thoughts goes into dreams..so you can relax during your sleep...

Sometimes, dark shadows might just be beneath you...while sleeping..

"Sleep in Sepia" Acrylic and Graphite on BFK - 6x6

Hopeful Protector

We need more of these guys in our society..(and did i ever mention i love drawing turtles?)

Anyways, bought a nice new sketchbook while I was in LA, so i can paint in my sketchbook.. allowing me to play with ink washes, acrylic glazes, etc again.

This is going to be a future painting..but for now gotta finish working on my submission for Chaos 2 and square foot show.

More to update soon.

Few work in progress...

Here are two paintings I'm working on right now..
Top one is going to be a collab with my friend Tyrel for the Square foot Group show coming up on August 16th at AWOL gallery in Toronto.

How Nostalgic

Heres a digital painting I did in Photoshop recently. I posted a rougher version few months ago, but recently I had some inspiration to finish it. So here it is.

Its of my childhood...quite nostalgic. I grew up with these characters, as with many of you, probably..

It was fun to do this, also thanks to everyone who bought a print of this at AX 2008 this year.












Here's a little animated gif of the progress from start to finish.

6x6 online group show.

The 6x6 online group show is up and i've contributed a piece to it. I posted the sketch of it recently on my blog, heres the final version.

All of the pieces are on sale at the show. Check it out here.
Heres a little feature about this show at Vinyl Requiem.

This is first of a new series of traditional paintings i'm starting, the concept for this set will be about human x nature interaction touching on ideas such as chaos and protection.

"Underneath" Oil on BFK mounted on board - 6 x 6

Back from LA, great trip!

Back from LA!
It was an awesome trip. Met lots of new artists, great people and had a great time. Also had some really good food...oh man...love zencu and the food in little tokyo...hahaha

Was awesome to see the project:gallery artists and their studio. The studio space was very inspiring.

Expo was fun, but artist alley wasn't as great as last years, though.
Now its back to work, time to start painting my pieces for the square foot show.

New Links:
Stevie Lewis
Leslie Hung

Here are some photos of the trip..

in LA till July 8th

Getting ready to go on a one week trip to LA now..
From July 1st (today) till July 8th I will be in LA for the beach, galleries, and for anime expo. I will be selling prints of my work there, some come by if you are in the area.

Looking forward to visit Lipking's solo show (www.lipking.com) in Santa Monica and Project Gallery LA.

I will be updating with new paintings once I get back.

So what happened to art?

I noticed there hasn't been much art update on my blog recently..haha. So better do an update on that right now.

Recently I've started working again on some personal pieces for future shows and such..
Currently I am working on a 6x6 piece for an online show coming up in early July and perhaps a few 12x12 pieces for the square foot show coming up in August. I will post details of the shows when they are near. Heres a pencil sketch I started (did a little colour tint to see how the mood looks)...might be used for the 6x6 piece.. or use it for the 12x12...thinking right now...


















As for the concept of the piece..i'm trying to work around the themes of nature and human interaction right now.. as a general theme of my traditional paintings. I also want to continue to explore the idea of 'dark fairytale' in my work like the past few paintings...we'll see how that goes.

I finished two digital paintings not too long ago..they are designs for two miniature fairy toys which is probably in the process of being made right now. I can't post the full image yet but here are some small cropped part of the piece. I will post the final image as well as images of the actual toys when the toys are made and shipped. I haven't painted digitally in a while now so it was interesting to do this..again. Now I am itching to paint with oils again...

soon...

Also, for those interested, I believe the pieces me and Elise Trinh put up in Passion restaurant is still up. So if you're in the area and looking for a restaurant to eat maybe you can consider it. Its on yonge street..heres the link http://acanac.org/blogs/passionrestaurant/

Special thanks again to Anda Untila for inviting us to be a part of the show.

Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara Merchandise

During my trip in Japan, I had the chance to visit Mori Gallery Shop and it was awesome. If you like Takashi Murakami and/or Yoshitomo Nara, you'll love this store.. I haven't seen any store in Toronto that sells merchandise related to him..so this gallery shop was particularly special for me.

Anyways here are some pictures I want to share.

Of course, I had to pick up a bunch of Murakami postcards, stickers, buttons and a dvd.. just couldn't help myself..
i had to pick up this nice print/poster at the shop for a very affordable price...sorry for the bad photo..it is one of the promo posters he did for 'Roppongi Hills'

On the note about Yoshitomo Nara, i saw a few of his originals at the store too, which was nice.

During my stay in Osaka, my homestay introduced me to a lady who was the curator some of Nara's gallery shows.. which was very cool. So we sat down, had some dinner that night, talk some, and before I parted, she gave me this beautiful poster as a gift.