Bottle Picking

Another bottle post! I picked up artist copies and some extras from Alexx today. I was so proud and happy with them, I almost cried at the coffee shop, like a crazy woman. It is something very special to see your art work on objects. Especially, Alexx' cute bottles. He worked so hard on getting the blue colour right, I was very honoured to collaborate with him. He's very inspiring and hard working.

The black/yellow one on Alexx' right hand is one and only copy for me! He tried on black/yellow colours. I LOVED that one too. But after brief polls among friends, went with the original blue/yellow. I'm so happy to own both.

You can order these bottles at Alexx' Etsy.
Check out his beautiful ceramics on Alexx' Site.
And the latest news on his Blog.

Windy Night

A video I made this evening to avoid real work. I rather play!
I watched a time management lecture today, and I'm not putting it into use yet. After I come back from Germany next month, I will sort my life, for realz!

See how one iris is off to the right? That's how my eyes actually are. And no, it has nothing to do with laser eye surgery.

This is made with a photograph of my past exhibition, this one:

The hair shadow is me. Yes. I wish I had an exact video of this, so the cloud moves around. Importance of good documentation, learned in the hard way.

♥ Bottles with Alexx ♥

You can purchase these bottles here: RCBoisjoli Etsy
Only 100 are made. Very limited edition, so get yours fast!

I have collaborated with a wonderful Toronto based ceramic artist, Alexx Boisjoli. He is one of a kind, a very few artist in Toronto who works with decals. His works are minimal, well designed and strive for perfection. Check out his glow-in-the-dark bone china Jack-o-Lantern clocks. They are so awesome!

Because an idiot like me use finicky blue glaze in the work, Alexx had a hard time making these. I feel so bad. Had I known, I would've went for a different colour. I'm grateful for his patience.
All the photos above are taken by Alexx.

Here are the drawings I sent him for this project.

And the second image that didn't get picked (Snails, yo!):

Faking It

Because of my favourite artist, Sean Martindale's kind invitation, I got to be a part of his GSGS show at Art Gallery of Ontario gift shop. Remember those fine art prints you can purchase in art museums? It's like those, but Sean wanted the image is of the museum shop itself instead of a famous fine art. So here, ladies and gentlemen, I present you the empty display case of AGO gift shop. I dedicate this painting to Sean.

I originally sketched bunch of monsters twirling around the display case, but decided against it at the last minute. I could not work out the composition, and thought staying minimal worked better. Here are some details:

And my posters, boxes, cards and opera glasses at AGO gift shop display:

The show runs from January till April 1st. The hours are:

Tuesday 11:30am – 6pm
Wednesday 11:30am – 9pm
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11:30am – 6pm
Monday closed

Here are some images of my items for sale at AGO gift shop. Most are sold except few, I'm quite happy about that. Check them out at AGO gift shop before the show ends!

I have a confession to make: I have a very low self-esteem when it comes to my work, it's a constant battle. A lot of good things had been happening in my life but I had a bit of a dip a week ago. I was sinking in self-doubt for a couple of weeks. I felt like I do not deserve any of good things in life for I truly believe my work isn't good enough. I worried people would wonder, "why does she get xyz, she sucks!" I feel like such a fake sometimes, and I'm worried that you'd see through my fakeness. I'm worried that when that time comes, everything will crash down.

But illustration is commercial art, and I have to sell my work. I can't sell it properly if I don't believe in the product! Nobody will believe in me if I don't believe in myself. It's embarrassing for me everytime I post my work online and show to people. I envy people who have natural confidence. I tell myself that being unhappy with my work gives me a room to grow. And I'd like to think that many artists feel the same way about themselves. Whether these are true or not, I'm not sure.

While I rolling around, worrying about futile things, I got to see this documentary, 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi' at TIFF Lightbox last weekend. It was about a sushi master, Jiro. Although he's been making sushi all his life, he doesn't think he's sushi is perfect. He always thinks about improving sushi with passion. While watching hypnotic monotony of his graceful sushi making, I started to feel much better. I came out of the theatre, calm and content. Just keep working hard, and everything will be alright. Whatever happens, there is no point on worrying about things I have no control of.

 

Retro Bunny

Briefly talking about art multiples with one of my favourite artists, Tessar Lo (he's having a show in March 30th at Cooper Cole Gallery) made me dig out some of my really old work. Preparing for tomorrow's class, I dug out some more photos. I made these guys over four years ago but never posted on my blog. 

I love art toys. The way they play with childhood nostalgia and generally cute aesthetic.... they are so attractive. I am quite excited to show students my collection of art toys: Friends With You, Nathan Jurevicius, Gloomy Bear, TOFU...etc. I wonder what they'd think of them. 

I always wanted to make my own art toys. Four years ago, having no money to mass produce them, I said, 'fuck it, I'll make them myself.' Korean labour (me) doesn't cost much. Then came subsequent poisoning my parents' basement air with resin fumes and liquid silicon. I um... hand painted each one of them after sanding them. I also printed box design on thick papers, cut and assemble boxes one by one. No, I didn't get out much back then, and I still don't. 

These guys are other prototypes. A lot of them didn't work very well and were hard to take out of their molds.

Here are some molding shots. I should've used different colour dye than brown:

 Ladies and gentlemen... the dancing bear!

...and this ends another poorly written blog post.

It's almost 2AM. That means I am going to get three hours of sleep tonight in order to get to the morning class. It's hard for me to fall asleep when I HAVE TO sleep. I also only slept three hours last night. Sleep is for the losers. <( 9 o 9 )/

FITC 2012

Above is some silly animation of a floating octopus for FITC 2012 ticket competition.

My apologies once again for the lack of posts! Things are crazy in the crazyville. I cannot believe it's almost the end of March already. I wish there were 30 hours a day.

Many news to give you, readers, but first, let me show you bunch of octopus drawings I did while preparing for this short animation.

More posts are coming shortly. I pinky-promise ♥

Comic Strawberry Jam

Sorry for the lack of posting again! It's been busy, away from human contact. I've been working on my website after 4 years of procrastination. Good news of new site launch is coming soon.
Above is a quick comic jam I did with my friend, Ben Rivers over a pot of tea. He's a webdesigner, illustrator, comic artist, video game designer and a prof. How does he do it all? I have no idea. Better drawn panels are by Ben, obviously! Check out his new horror game, Home. :D