Canzine

Come to see me at Canzine!
Comics and prints by me along with cake pins, dresses, lots of things. Featuring my brother's StarTrek comics, "Dip Space Nine". 'Tis funny, I promise.

Info:

Sunday, November 1, 2009
1pm - 7pm
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St. West (Queen just East of Dufferin)
Toronto

Camilo Music Video is Out!

I had been working with awesome guys at 3:AM Design on a music video for a pop punk band, Said the Whale. I've designed the characters and environment. Hopefully, Said the Whale becomes as big as Billy Talent! Said the Whale is also a Canadian band. :D

I've been aching to post the character and environment designs, but wanted to wait until the music video comes out (out of courtesy). Today, I'm adventuring to the Korea town to pick up some very Korean stuff (ingredients for this -please ignore horrible K-pop, cute character notebooks, tea... etc), so I don't have time to post the compositions I've worked on. I promise I'll soon. Oh and lots of more illustrations to come.

Jellyfish Wrangler

What a late post! This post should've been made a week ago. But because of my Master's I'm very busy. Hopefully, something will coming out of all this madness.

I am having a show with my friends in the theme of "The Side Show". The opening night was Nuit Blanche night, but the show goes on till Sunday. If you are happen to be around Queen and John street, please come take a look.

Here is more info:

2ndHalf Gallery
250 Queen West, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z7

Above work is called 'Jellyfish Wrangler'. It was many weeks of contemplation finally coming together.

I wasn't going to post the following image, but here it is:

I know, I know, it's a big headed girl with big eyes. My teacher at Sheridan, Joe Morse told us, "If you ever paint a big head girl with big eyes, I'll kill you. I will seek out and kill you." He meant the trend (maybe that trend is 3-4 years old now) of Mark Ryden style.

I felt guilty painting it, and that's probably why it didn't turn out as I intended (always find an excuse not to blame my feeble painting skills). I really wanted to paint a girl coming out of a cupcake, and usually, giving into your impulse is a right thing to do. In Jonah Lehrer's "How We Decided" book, our hunch/subconscious/gut feeling is actually a supercomputer. It access all the information without your awareness and gives you a gut feeling.

What am I talking about... So anyways, my 'supercomputer' failed for my Cupcake Girl painting but did okay for the Jellyfish Wrangler.

One last thing about The Side Show... Being in Master's is a strange thing. Other students are all mid-career professionals. Everyone has much more experience than I do. So I always feel intimidated, and it's impossible to fit in. Telling people about the show was a joke (maybe it was arrogant for me to even telling people about it. What can you do. I'm young, therefore stupid).

"I'm having a show with my friends on Queen Street..."

"Which gallery?"

"2ndHalf gallery"

"Never heard of it."

End of conversation.

Either this or nicely shutting me up about the show.

I came to realize that in the real art world, 'which gallery' is very important. I was vaguely aware of the different types of art galleries, but I wasn't aware (naive and dumb, I know) of gallery hierarchy. If your art work is not showing at the top serious galleries, then your art work is not worth seeing. There is a truth to that, but it hurts nonetheless. Would my 'lowly' illustration works ever show in top serious galleries? Probably not.

Sucks.

UFO TOFU

This piece was done for the good people of Ricepaper. 14.3 Space:Culture:Place issue.

"UFO TOFU" is a palindrome. I always wanted draw tofu in space, thank you Ricepaper!

I am not sure when this will be available. For all I know, it's in bookstores right now. I cannot wait to see it myself.

By the way, this is what I've wasted my whole Saturday on. My London tourist video. All day in the school editing suite with the state of the art equipments (I think?). And the result is quite shameful. To my defense, I didn't know how to use Final Cut Pro and after all day today, I still don't know. I just assumed it's the same as AfterEffects.

If you want to lose precious three minutes of your life, please be my guest.

WARNING: Repeated viewing results in nausea


.

Hyein's First Cover!

'Tis true! My illustration is on the cover of Crow Toes Quarterly 11th issue. This is actually a quite old news. If you go to bookstores now, you will see the 'November issue' instead of this one. To my shame, I've been too busy to keep up with blog posts. In this information age, updating blog regularly is a very important way to promote. I am seriously considering hiring YMI (Your Man in India) to update my blog and sort my life. ... When I get rich (which isn't going to happen anytime soon). Outsourcing is a way of life, goddammit.

In addition to my illustration work, I just started Master's program. I am reluctant to admit, but I really do like school. Ten years in post-secondary school education. Santa Maria! I feel like a total loser.

While Master's is taking my brain into the most interesting yet strange places, I've been running, running around, busy as a buzzing bee. Here are what's been happening:

- Organizing a group show to open on Nuit Blanche. Details on this show later! (I never knew organizing a show would be a full-time job) There most likely be cotton candy at this event

- Loads of new magazine illustrations to be updated soon

- Working on a music video with 3:AM Design

- Participated on the Speakeasy Illustration Show at Gladstone Hotel with fellow illustrators

- Had a table at FanExpo at the end of August

- Surpressing an urge to murderize drilling people outside

My table at the FanEx

Fellow Toronto Artists Ben and Adam

Ben is participating in some questionable film making practices

I probably should've advertise my booth on this blog before the FanEx. Oh~ all the things that I 'should've' done~

Days leading upto FanEx was an absolute chaos. Getting my comics and arts printed, and lots and lots of manual labour. I made sun dresses with my illustration on it, tonnes of little cake pins, sushi pins, sock monsters,...etc.

Getting back to the 'outsourcing' point earlier... I must tell you, craft market (and anything hand made, DIY) just sucks. I get disappointed everytime. It is extremely hard to have a feasible business with handmade items. I made a bit of money from FanEx, but only if I kid myself that my labour time doesn't worth anything. I myself cannot afford anything but cheap stuff from third world factories. I'm in no position to complain.

Anyways, an interesting news from Norway! They are resenting the current government despite of their prosperous economy. This shift came mostly from resenting immigration. Here is the article if you are interested.

Another interesting turn of politics is Japan! For obvious reasons (Koreans are afraid of Japanese' right wing politics that glorifies WWII), this is exciting. Due to the lack of strong leadership and public's frustration, the right-wing LDP has been defeated last month!

Feature at ILikeCharacters

I've been featured on ILikeCharacters.com! I thank my mama for raising me right.

The top two featured images were for my future post, but oh well... If you want to see them in person, you can pop into our SOS show in Kensington market. The very top piece is already sold. :)

I Cried a River Over You

I Cried a River Over You

Mixed Media on Wood

14"X16"

$300

It's a sad sad robot. So sad!

Needless to say, I sang "I Cried a River Over You" all the while I was working on this piece. This was done for the previously mentioned Magic Pony show. But this one didn't get sold. Oh so sad!

I'm actually in a pretty good mood today, full of optimism. I am starting Master's program at OCAD this September. I had a small chat with the Dean, Martha, and I am very excited about doing my Master's. (10 year of post-secondary education, Santa Maria!)

So it's a bit hard to post a picture with a crying robot. If you'd like to cry a river, I recommend you watch Pixar's "UP". Most people must have seen it already. Good god. I started crying five minutes into the movie, and just didn't stop. My 3D glasses were foggy from all the tears, I couldn't see very well.

Don't think I'm soft, emotional or anything. I'm tough. Here is the proof: Thug Life!