Hyein Lee

AGO Gift Shop

2012-01-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

My favourite artist, Sean Martindale is having a show in AGO. The show title is NOW. The opening party is this Friday 7pm. He was very kind to invite me to be a part of his project of taking over AGO souvenir shop. I was super excited to be part of it. I drew on bunch of art-print greeting card boxes and on individual cards. There were 20 cards in each box, and I drew original drawings on them all! I also drew on AGO souvenir pop-up cards. They can be available for purchase in February, but you can see them at AGO gift shop in a meanwhile.

Here is the opening party facebook invite:
NOW Facebook Invite

I love the clever idea (I wish I could take credit, but it was Sean's idea!) of making mass-produced art-print items back into original art.
Here are some shots of the gift shop items. I'm really sick right now. Head spinning and everything! So please pardon me for the poor writing + photograph qualities.

BOX 1

These octopus-like aliens have collective brain. They transimit outer-space broken heart, but they don't feel no emotion. Maybe they just stream thoughts without feelings. Look at that card bundle. I drew on each one of them! (actually, it was fun to do)

BOX 2

This one features bunny destroyers. It's from my sketch thinking about War of the Worlds. These bunnies are relentless destroyers. Hostile beings in space.

BOX 3

Monsters and boxes-within-boxes drawings.

AGO Souvenir Cards

AGO has these ghetto 3d pop-up cards. I got to draw on them!

Lastly... look at all those cards I drew in. Santa Maria. I was a machine, yo.

I have a lot of other news but just could not find time to post them. Please stay tuned for more news. :D

Sneeze!

Sniffle!

Over and out! xoxo

From London, with Love (Process!)

2012-01-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

From London, With Love
48" X 36"
Mixed media on wood
Created for amazing Jason B.
Left building is Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and the building on the right is a building in front of Bank Station in London, UK.

Happy Happy New Year!
My apologies for the lack of blog post in the month of December. I usually disappear, sucked in by the black hole during the holiday seasons. I've been working at my parents' store for the past 13 years of my life during the holiday rush. We have a store in a mall in Brampton. It is a monstrous place. I worked average 13 hours a day, listening to eternal loop of Carol songs and being yelled at by angry mall customers. I don't understand. If Christmas stress them so much, why bother celebrating? Anyways... my parents usually go on annual vacation on the Christmas day and come back at the end of the first week of January. So my brother and I had to take over the store while they were gone. But this year had been different. They could not afford the annual trip. It's very sad... but I got to have my first ever New Year's Eve, ever!
There were parties, countdown and everything. Just like in the movies. Staying warm inside with one of my favourite movies, Strange Days, I had the best New Years ever. 2011 had been kind to me. I hope 2012 is better than ever. I have a good feeling about it.

To start off 2012 blog post, I present you with the first ever process photos! With my bad memory, I always forget to take photos between steps, so I never got the complete process photos until now. This painting, "From London, with Love" is for Jason B., I am very grateful for his commission. It was the first time for me to paint on such a big canvas (48" X 36"). I worked on oversized papers before, but never painted on a giant canvas. It was challenging and fun at the same time. I'm going to paint more giant paintings in the future for sure.

Lining the floor with newspaper, made sturdy with masking tape. I should really buy a sheet of tarp or something.

Masking out a rough building shape.

Paint paint paint with a giant brush!

Draw in building details. Notice a waving bunny in one of the windows! Can you spot him?

Paint in the River Tame and determine the spot for the pink monster.

Determine the spot for the double decker.

Size comparison! (and show off my new tank top) Thank you very much Lee for taking this photo. I also thank him for helping me deliver the giant painting.

Pictoplasma Paris - Post Digital Monsters Exhibition ( O o O )

2011-12-04T09:29:00.001-08:00

7 - 31 DECEMBER 2011

conférences, installations, spectacles,
projections, jeux vidéo

LA GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE
3 bis rue Papin 
75003 Paris

Wonderful Motomichi's monster! I LOVE his work.

Central to the Pictoplasma experience at La Gaîté is an exhibition presenting the work of contemporary character artists: en route for a post-digital era!

With the artists: Shoboshobo (FRA), AJ Fosik (USA), Allison Schulnik (USA), Ben & Julia (FRA - SUI), FriendsWithYou (USA), Hyein Lee (KOR), Jeremy Dower (USA), Jordan Metcalf (ZAF), Joshua Ben Longo (USA), Juan Pablo Cambariere (ARG), MyMO (GER), Nick Cave (USA), Nick Sheehy (AUS) , Nina Braun (GER), Overture (USA), Raymond Lemstra (NED), Rina Donnersmarck (GBR), Roman Klonek (POL), Sarah Illenberger (GER), Steve Alexander (GER)

I am invited to participate in Pictoplasma Paris! I have three pieces in the show. They are going to be exhibited in the prestigious LA GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE gallery.
OH MY GOD!!!!
I tried to act cool, but I just can't. I LIVE for Pictoplasma. I feel like I'm just passing days until I can go to the next Pictoplasma. Having a show at Pictoplasma is a dream come true. I almost fainted. I wish I can go to Paris for the show. I've never been to Paris. It sounds lame, but it's one city I don't want to go alone. I heard it's a romantic city. I am contemplating, but I am saving up for Berlin Pictoplasma next April. I still have two more days to decide... Should I just book the ticket to Paris? *biting nails*
Thank you Lars for this wonderful opportunity. I'm so honoured to be a part of it!

My favourite illustrator and an awesome person Aaron Leighton is also part of the show. All you lucky souls in Paris or near Paris, go check Pictoplasma out! Entire month of December. xo.

Me at Pictoplasma Berlin April 2011 with Motomichi card :D

Motomichi moving monsters in Paris Pictoplasma invitation

Blue + Yellow Phase

2011-12-02T09:39:00.001-08:00

울지마, 씨바

Definitely going through blue + yellow phase. They are so awesome together. Baby blue and pink go well together too. Yeah, that's going to be my next drawing. :)

Everything had been blur since two weeks ago. I seriously thought today was last week. December is already here... Maybe I should start drinking coffee. Sorry for bombarding with so many posts past few days. One more to go, and will go back to the regular pace.

The top sketch was done during pen club, drawing in a bar with bunch of friends. The translation of the title is, "Fuck, don't cry." Right side of the picture says, "Don't draw tears." I was attempting to not draw tears. So instead, I opted for bunch of small cubes. It is a bit strange to write about how I felt couple of months ago because things are quite awesome right now. After I finished my Master's in September, I dug a hole and lived in it for few weeks. I had to re-write my thesis like 28 times and when everything was over, things that I didn't have time to deal with all flooded back. All rolled up in bed sheets, I'd just sit and stared at computer screen, clicking random stuff all day for two weeks. Didn't talk to anyone. Hahaha... I will NEVER pursue another education again. This is it. Let the unlearning begin!

Whenever there is sad times, this song always picked me up, let me get back on my feet. Cradle of Filth's No Time to Cry. Because I truly have... no time to fucking cry.

Thesis paper prints

October 2012 Calendar for Kid Icarus

2011-11-30T14:05:00.001-08:00

Cropped bottom

Cropped top

Seriously cool store in Kensington Market, Kid Icarus, invited illustrators to illustrate each month of 2012. I got OCTOBER! Halloween is my favourite holiday, so I was so excited about this. Here are some cropped images of the Calendar.
My stomach hurts a little looking at it because I really want to put wood texture at the background. I will try it once the calendars sell out. There is a limited edition of only 100, so order yours now! A lot of my talented friends are also participating. Here is more info about the 2012 calendar project:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On Sunday December 4th 2011, our highly anticipated 2012 Handprinted Calendar will be available for sale at our storefront in Kensington Market. You can also pick up an early copy at Handmade Holiday, Saturday December 3rd, St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. The calendar is a limited edition of 125 copies, with only 100 available for sale at $80 each.

If you are unfamiliar with the project, the concept is to take 12 artists and produce a calendar with each artist choosing one month to illustrate and only two colours to pull it off. There are no guidelines on layout or how the information is presented, the artist has full control. The entire calendar is screen printed by hand from the cover, right through to the backing.
Calendars will be available for sale at Kid Icarus, and other locations (TBA).
Introducing the 2012 Calendar roster:

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Jeannie Phan
Selena Wong
Melinda Josie
Claire Louise Milne
Mike Ellis
Reverend Aitor
Katherine Verhoeven
Halley Rigbey
Caitlin Taguibao
Hyein Lee
Nolan Pelletier
Anjo Chiang

RGD Ontario Award for Design Thinkers 2011

2011-11-30T08:30:00.001-08:00

I won RGD Ontario scholarship for Design Thinkers 2011. Thank you RGD!

This year's Design Thinkers was amazing. RGD arranged me to meet Eric Ryan and Jessica Hische, both of whom I was dying to meet! Yeah and of course I was very scared. I acted very strangely, but let's not talk about that. Their talks were amazingly inspirational.

Hand Lettered Canzine Posters ++ Pink Monster

2011-11-29T23:09:00.001-08:00

Wonderful people at Canzine - Thank you Lindsay and Tara! - got me to work on this year's Canzine advertising campaign. Working with them was so much fun. Thank you for letting me do whatever I want to do! These furry fishes were 11X17" posters that were posted all around Toronto. I actually am rarely happy with my work, but I must say, I love the furry fish. I was very proud to see the posters reproduced. The letters "Canzine 2011" were embossed and everything was offset printed on beautiful papers.

I hand-lettered all the type in the poster and I think that worked much better than computer fonts. This year's theme was "Piracy." I thought of plagiarism. These fish are copying each other in circles. They are mostly unhappy because they are being copied by the other. I got the furry fish idea from this movie/tv show I saw long time ago. It was set in a Victorian era. There still were unknown parts in the world still. Explorers would travel and bring back exotic stuffed animals. I remember the scene where the explorer/traveler brought a stuffed furry fish. It was of course fake, he probably was swindled or made it himself. Maybe he never went overseas. The woman in the scene was so surprised by the furry fish, she dropped the wine glass. That moment is so vivid, but I have no idea what movie that was. Let me know if any of you remember what it was. And are furry fish common thing? Meaning, are they in our collective conscious?

How they are reproduced.

Rough for the poster.

I had a table at this year's Canzine (last month). It was fun as always! Thank you everyone for kindly visiting my table. I took a photo in front of a wall covered with my Canzine posters. So happy!

Advertisement I illustrated and designed for "The Grid" magazine. All hand-lettered.

Lastly, here is another pink monster painting I did! The background is Toronto cityscape. This was commissioned for a wonderful patron. Quite big, 18X24". It was so much fun to work on. I'm so honoured to have my art work hung on his living room. Thank you, you know who you are. xo

Ammo Magazine + Art Elemento Features // if humans can love a machine

2011-11-28T21:48:00.001-08:00

Ammo is UK based illustration magazine. I'm a huge fan of this beautiful publication, so I'm honoured to be included in the Issue #8. Thank you, Dave!

Awesome cover by talented Toronto illustrator Jess!

Ammo magazine is only £5. It's full colour with beautiful images. Go check it out!

Art Elemento, an English art magazine from Kwangju, Korea had been kind enough to feature my work in their wonderful website. The cover shows my noodle cup promo. Joe, the awesome editor showcased my work in four-page spread. I am very grateful.

I wrote the article for my section. I feel so insecure about my writing. I hope I didn't babble too much. You can read the whole thing for free here:

Because I've been too busy to upload on my blog, there still are so many catching up to do. I hope I remember everything. Sorry for being so scattered.

There was a big change in my life a month ago. I finally decided to join the human civilization and buy a cellphone. I know, I know. If you ever talked to me before, you know that I made some dumb iPhone apps. I made apps and don't have a cellphone?! I was probably the only Korean in the world without a cellphone. I felt like floating and smug. But deep inside, I knew that as soon as I get a smart phone, I'd be horribly addicted to it. And I was right; I'm hopelessly addicted. I feel a little uneasy without it. For the first time in a month, I took a walk without my cellphone tonight, and it felt liberating.
No, I don't really need a smart phone. I'm home all day anyways, why do I need a tiny computer with me all the time? The only thing that push me over the edge was... twitter. I envied my friends twitting photos via mobile. I had to take photos with a digital camera, import the photo to my computer, turn on the internet, and then tweet. Now, I can be like a normal person, just take the photo with a goddamn phone and tweet right away. God, certain material possession can definitely make a person happier. I love you, smart phone. Yes, I bought a smart phone for purely superficial and useless reasons. Gut me.

Canadian Family

2011-11-26T12:49:00.001-08:00

This is such a late post! My apologies for abandoning my blog for an entire month!
Things had been crazy. I finally got my Master's degree and have been working on all kinds of projects ever since. I haven't slept much for a long time, so everything is a blur. Oh my god, time flies by so fast. A lot of projects are finally completed and the next week will be a bit relaxed. I have so much updating to do. There will be some frequent posting in the next few days.

I once again worked with the awesome art director, Colleen, on these illustrations. They were for the October issue of Canadian Family's "Ages and Stages" section.

Here it is in print!

Queen West Art Crawl - This Weekend!

2011-09-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

Bunch-o-snails!

Monster. He's delicate.

I have a tent at this weekend's Queen West Art Crawl. Do come and say hello if you are checking out QWAC; my tent is E41. Here is the info:

Trinity Bellwoods Park

790 Queen West Toronto

Sat & Sun (September 17th and 18th)

11am to 6pm

Here is the map to my tent:

I spent past three days in Brampton, participating at Brampton Indie Arts Festival. I didn't talk to a real person for the most of past three days. Good god, being alone in the great suburbia took my head to the darkest places.

Brampton Indie Arts Festival was very cool. The city and the local musician, Rich, did a lot of work to give a bit of magical spark on a desolate fall night. Brampton's brand new Rose theatre was decorated with strange paper stripes and pinatas (??). Weird song-making machines were cranking carnivalesque tunes in an empty concrete court yard. There were many musicians, mainly folk and jazz. I didn't check out any of it. Being alone for three days made me go coocoo, I think. Everybody came in groups, and I didn't want to be by myself watching bands. I do enjoy being alone, but man, it was too much.

Anyways, here is a photo of strawberry pinata. I think strawberry candies would come out of it, if you beat it.

Oh, almost forgot.
All the Applied Arts readers can see how messy my place is:

Sheridan College Special Feature. Sheridan Rocks!

Thank you Sheridan College for using my photo for the recruitment special feature. :D

★★ Twinkling Stars Above: Videogame Demo + Thesis Exhibition ★★

2011-09-02T01:56:00.000-07:00

I am having my Master's thesis exhibition / videogame prototype demo next week. I was not going to have an opening party because I was afraid of nobody showing up to the opening party. However, there will be a coffee & cookies closing reception. If you are around town during the gallery hours, please drop by and say hello. I'll be sitting the gallery throughout the show. If you bring me vegan drinks (London Fog with soymilk or smoooothies!?), I'd love you.

Oh and I'm in fear of everything going wrong. And currently, everything IS GOING WRONG. So if the exhibition fails, please don't hate me. I'm a crying owl.

Here is the information:

Twinkling Stars Above

Hyein Lee

Thesis Exhibition

September 7th to 9th, 2011

OCAD University Graduate Gallery

205 Richmond Street Ground Floor

Toronto Ontario

Gallery Hours 1 to 6PM

Coffee & Cookies Closing Reception on Friday, September 9th 1PM at the gallery.

❤ Thank you ❤

2011-08-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Thank you very much for visiting me at Fan Expo 2011. It was exhausting four days, but fun days at that. These are drawings I did while sitting at the table. It was quite busy, people to see, hair barrettes to make, smiles to smile. So I didn't get to draw as much. My German grammar book also went untouched. Yes, I'm learning German by myself, preparing for the Pictoplasma 2012. I'm determine to speak at least, 'Entschuldigung (Excuse me),' although I heard I don't really need it.

I like these dudes! They will be Snakes in the Forest attempt two

They are sheep... I can hear my teacher from college days yelling at me. "What is that? Pig? Cow? It's a Pigcow! Go learn how to draw properly!" Well, if you get a ridiculously useless over education like me, you can draw sheep like me. I'm kidding. They are terrible.

These ghosts are saying 'Hello' in Korean

I LOVE triangles lately

I got drawings from my fans! Thanks girls ❤

Some photos with girls who gave me drawing gifts:

With Roma

With Sarah

Awesome & beautiful things I got. From top left corner, Kailey, Miko, Anne Koyama, Charlene Chua❤
and Taryn.

Now back to work on my Master's. My apartment looks like a serial killer's room right now. It is disturbingly messy. I will clean after I finish school. I can't wait to make it presentable enough to have friends over.

Anyways, thank you again, and see you again at Fan Expo 2012❤ ❤

More Stuff for FanExpo 2011 ~✿

2011-08-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

Oh the night's rapidly passing and I am injecting caffeine (I wish!) to stay up, making things for FanExpo. I still have a lot to do. Look at the pins and barrettes I'm making. These little dudes are going to be lions Oㅅ O More update photos soon as I complete them. Skull, strawberry and monster barrettes are coming also.

Drying future lions ❤

Making skull, yeti & animal barrettes and pins

Yeti with manly chest hair

Rings! It was the first time I made rings

Special Macaron for my friend <3

If you've met me, you saw me wearing these. Mine are over 5 years old but I'm strangely attached to them.

There are mini plaques for my work.

Mouspads! They come in two designs. I made a very few of these (4 or 5 I think), so come and get them while they last.

Oh I wish I were sleeping. One day, I'm going to sleep all day. Yes.

Fan Expo 2011 ~✿ (2" Buttons, Magic Mugs and Mouse Pads)

2011-08-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Two inch buttons! Two inch buttons are here for FanExpo. I made 2 inch ones 4~5 years ago, but they didn't sell as well, so I stopped making them. But this year, I brought them back. My weekend was spent assembling buttons, getting poked by sharp pins, iron-smelling fingers, endless Jurassic Park series, and heart break. These are going to be 3 dollars each at FanExpo (I think).

This is a silly drawing of slugs in my sketchbook. Do they look depressing? I cannot tell because I've been drawing crying monsters way too often. I love these dudes... Especially the one with five-o-clock shadow.

Snakes in the Forest was painted for Erika's Canvas Collective site. You can download this image as a desktop wallpaper from her site.

Jellyfish Wrangler! I love jellyfish. I wouldn't go near them, no, but they are cool. Did you know that some jellyfish is immortal? I wish I were immortal. There. I admit it. World is big and many things to see. I also wish I could time travel. Oh~ all the mistakes I made in the past! I'd go back and NOT DROP THAT COCONUT ICECREAM SANDWICH ON THE GROUND.

This painting makes me feel infinitely guilty. I am sorry that I painted boobs. I mean, I paint boobs all the time, but not for illustrations. Ooooh the guilt. Please take this painting off my hands. I'll be selling the original at QWAC next month.

Come visit my table at FanExpo 2011! My table is A98 at the Artist Alley. I got a corner table again, yes! Please come and say hello. If you mention my blog, I will give you 1" button of your choice. Wait, we need a secret code. Say, "hoot hoot" and I'll give you a button of your choice. Bring me a vegan snack, I'll give you three buttons.

FanExpo is 4 days this year:

Thursday, August 25 - 4PM TO 9PM

Friday, August 26 - 10AM TO 8PM

Saturday, August 27 - 10AM TO 8PM

Sunday, August 28 - 10AM TO 6PM

At Metro Toronto Convention Centre

How to find Hyein! Find DC table and walk straight to the back. :D

Limited Quantity Magic Mugs! It's a black mug when it's cold. When you pour hot water, my painting shows up.

Lastly... the magic mugs are here again! Sorry for not having enough last year and they were sold out very fast. I didn't know how many they might sell, so I only made a small quantity. Because I am an idiot, I made the same quantity as the last year. I should've made more, but the material cost is quite a lot, so I got scared. Come and get them on the first two days!
I made the mugs with In Bruges I &amp; In Bruges II and Mr. Furry Pants.

In Bruges I &amp; In Bruges II together on a magic mug. I like how they almost connect. :)

Mr. Furry Pants will also be on magic mugs.

I will also have Mouse Pads of some of my work! I am only making 5 mouse pads, again, the materials are expensive and I'm not sure how many I can sell. Do people buy mouse pads? I will update photos of mouse pads when they arrive tomorrow.

Last of shameless self promotion. Society 6 is having a free shipping world wide week! Until Sunday August 28th. Come and get your iphone cases, tshirts and more (I wish I had an iPhone...) at www.Society6/HyeinLee.
You know what I'm going to get? John Malta's prints! I absolutely LOVE LOVE his work. He is my current favourite artist. Maybe I should also get his iPad skin...

Oh and my another favourite artist, Alex McLeod is having a show this week. Opening is Thursday. I'm so sad that I cannot make it to his opening (I have to be at FanExpo). His art works have been my monitor wall paper for two years now. Please go check out his work this Thursday at Angell Gallery. I promise you, he's AWESOME.

Again, my apologies for the thin content on my blog. I'm so, very busy. I panic everytime I look at my calendar. I just handed in the final final rough (Wut? Only in grad school) of my thesis paper. I cannot wait for my Master's to be over. The end is nigh!

I want to get back to painting, drawing and moving images. Aaaaanyways. See come visit me at FanExpo. Say "hoot hoot," I'll give you a button.

On Billboards in Toronto - Thanks Courvoisier

2011-08-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks Wilbur and Selena for sending me this photo. It was at Union Station. Unfortunately, it was taken off before I went to see it.

There are more around the town, but I've been too busy to go take photographs.

My painting, In Bruges I is all over downtown in billboards and advertisement boxes. I'm very excited about this. Now I can check that off my Life Wish List:

In Bruges I is a special piece for me, the painting was inspired by trip to Bruges. I always wanted to go to Bruges after watching Daughters of Darkness as a teenager. Then in 2008, a great black comedy, In Bruges came out. I needed to go there. When I told people I'm going to Bruges, everyone asked, "Where is that?" or "Never heard of it. Why do you want to go there??" It is a beautiful Gothic city above water, perfectly preserved. It is sort of like Venice, but I love it more than Venice. Bruges has surprisingly affordable and beautiful Bed n' Breakfast places with skeleton keys. I was alone there, once again. After 5pm, all the museums and shops close in Bruges and tourists leave the city. I was strolling between the striking Gothic buildings eating Belgian fries, I felt happy in loneliness.
As a sneaky sneaky-little-doo, I sneakily linked the image to my Society 6 page. If you have a disposable income and like my piece, you can order prints :D

Anyways, In Bruges I won second place at The Courvoisier Collective awards. I'm very grateful for the wonderful people at Courvoisier. They kindly sent me two mini bottles of their delicious cognac. A small drop tastes like a burst of grapes!
My piece is shown at Gallery 1313 starting tonight, August 10th to September 4th, 2011.
Opening reception starts at 7:30PM.

Canzine Ad Campaign

2011-08-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

I am working with the wonderful people at Broken Pencil magazine for their Canzine 2011 advertisement campaign. This is a magazine ad, and we'll have a completely new image for the posters around the town. Canzine is one of my favourite events, and I am very honoured and excited to take on this job. Check out Broken Pencil's brand new pimpin' website!

Thank you Benjamin Rivers and Sean Martindale for all your help. :)

This year's Canzine theme is piracy. I pictured digital piracy. I painted circuit-looking board with resistors and chips. Animal paws and a tentacle are grabbing/stealing whatever they can. It's a playful way of showing illegal data downloads. I must admit. I was listening to TRON: Legacy soundtrack a lot, while painting this. I love the movie, it makes my heart swell! I love the soundtrack so much. Daft Punk, dude. This is my favourite of it all: "Game has Changed."

I know you cannot really tell from the illustration, but all the little wood pieces are actually laser cut and hand painted. It was an insane amount of work. At this point, I am not sure if it was worth the hassle because it looked computerized anyways! And I could make pretty convincing wood texture digitally. But it is definitely fun to paint with hands instead of staring at computer screens.

Look at these little dudes... I like them!

Keep posted for the Canzine Toronto posters with brand new images! I am so excited and grateful for Broken Pencil team for letting me paint two different images for this ad campaign.

And I will see you at this year's Canzine. Follow me on twitter @HyeinPain and tell me when you visit my booth at Canzine. I'll give you a free button just for being an owly person. It should be a lot of fun. :)

Canzine Toronto:
Sunday, October 23
Toronto – 918 Bathurst Centre
918 Bathurst St. @ 1 – 7 pm

Baby Skincare - Canadian Family

2011-08-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

I did a small spot illustration for wonderful Canadian Family magazine's baby skin care article. The whole page was cut, so it didn't get published, but here it is! Thank you Colleen for a wonderful art direction. It's so much fun to work with Canadian Family. I was very happy to get away with drawing bottles with funny faces. Haha...
The article is about choosing a right skincare product for your baby. And the right answer is whatever you and your baby like the best. The so-called "natural" products aren't necessarily good. As a weirdo who uses "natural/organic/paraben-free" skincare products, it was good to learn that. I will still stick with paraben-free products, however.

Here are some rejected roughs:

I know this one's a bit silly, but I really liked it. Talk bubbles!

The baby and the lotion are high-fiving each other. Yeah. Another silly idea.

Across the Ocean

2011-07-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Pauline and I are collaborating overseas. She's painting murals of my drawings in France. Pauline is a dedicated and talented wall constructor. She owns a company Hylé. She constructs and paints walls with environmentally and health conscious materials. Her painting pigments are fine Italian limewash, the same stuff, which murals in centuries old European churches were painted with.

I am so very excited about this collaboration. It is a strange and wonderful feeling to have my friend painting my drawings in the other side of the world. And to think of my work as a permanent mural in some child's room in France! Oh the wonders of modern technology! I'm happy and grateful for the opportunity.

Today is the last day of July. It is usually my favourite month of the year. I've been meaning to post more this month, but just could not find time. I am finishing off my Master's, and things are crazy busy. I am discouraged by school. People are dying all over the world in horrific circumstances. I can't believe I am worrying about petty and insignificant things. I cannot wait to be done so I can get on with my life.

To end this post in upbeat, my sweet friend and an awesome motion graphic designer, Sara made this for me for my birthday! She's another friend who's ocean apart from me. I met both Sara and Pauline in Berlin. Another proof that Berlin is magical.
This is made with the photo she took of me as a ghost. I LOVE it.

★★ Twinkling Stars Above ★★

2011-07-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Finally, the opening sequence for my videogame prototype, ★★Twinkling Stars Above★★ is completed. The music for the opening sequence is by Ghostrust under Creative Common license. The credit says Michael Daykin because my brilliant musician friend Mike composed the music for the whole game.

I thank my coop students, Nayoun and Hyunjin for all their help.

Busy busy busy days!

Resurrection (Zombies!)

2011-07-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

I realized that I've never written about Memories of Enemies show from last October. I was waiting for a chance to scan the artworks, but no avail. For the death of me, I could not find a way to scan 30X40" painting and 50X60" drawings. So here are the photographs of the pieces for Memories of Enemies.

Out of All Them Bright Stars I
Mixed Media on Wood Panel
40X30"

The title was from Nancy Kress' short story by the same name.

This piece was painted during Nuit Blanche Toronto 2010. I've never got to see Nuit Blanche. I either had to do work, help my friends with their art projects or work on my own project (piggy-backing the festival). During 2010 Nuit Blanche, I was busy painting for "Memories of Enemies" show. All the monsters (or minerals from alien landscape) are crying because I was feeling a little sad. I could hear the people having fun outside from my studio. No matter how many times people told me that I didn't miss much, I could not help but to dwell on the things I've missed. Haunted house at the old Bay station on Nuit Blanche few years ago for an instance. How magical is that?! The old Bay station is below the current Bay station. It is abandoned, but sealed from the public. A scene from Matrix was filmed there, apparently. A haunted house in such a strange place sounds like an amazing idea.

Bit of a closer shot. I wish I had a better camera.

Ambidextrous
Mixed Media on Paper
50X60"

This one was inspired by a dream. In the dream, I said, "I wish I were ambidextrous." Then this girl walked toward me and said, "If you cut off your right hand, you'd use your left hand more."
My mom was definitely upset by this piece. She called me after visiting the gallery. I asked what she thought of the show. She said, "uh... your pieces weren't good. Why do you draw violent stuff?" Ha ha ha... Thanks mom!
This is the first "violent stuff" I've done in a long time. I grew out of gratuitous violence in my early twenties to make ma mama proud (..not?).

I have a small drawing version of this giant drawing. Size comparison.

Why Me?

Mixed Media on Paper

50X60"

This is really bad, but I actually forgot the name of this piece. I have a strong feeling that it might have been 'Why Me?'. The green stripes on the trees are dessert take-out bag from Starbucks. I LOVE how they look. I actually cannot eat anything they sell, so I asked for the empty bags. Nice people at Starbucks gave me a whole bunch. I'm not a coffee drinker (I see through space and time continuum if I drink a bit of coffee. And act like a squirrel on acid), but I am thankful for Starbucks. When I was travelling alone in Belgium, I had a wise idea of staying overnight at the airport instead of paying for an extra night of lodging (I learned to never do that again). Um, that airport was cold, dirty and sketchy. Then there was Starbucks. With its 24 hour glowing glory and friendly people... I ordered smoothies and they let me sleep in a comfortable, warm couch. Thank you, Starbucks. Oh and providing me with uniform quality bathrooms wherever in the world I go. Thank you.

Enough blabbering nonsense! And commencing on more blabbering.
I promised a zombie posting. Resurrecting my old art from last October and resurrected dead people. How fitting is that?!

Quite recently, I found out that most people don't have nightmares every night. I have nightmares every single night and I thought it was normal. I was very surprised to learn otherwise. Someone suggested that it's because I watch too many horror movies. Me loves them zombie movies! Very often, I have epic zombie apocalypse nightmares. Epic, yo.

I actually wrote a whole section of zombie movie recommendations but then I quickly felt incompetent. I have a very bad taste and low standard. To give you an idea of my bad taste, Doom made into my list. Delete delete delete my writing. I suppose, part of being an adult is editing oneself. I'm just going to introduce this one:

This is the DVD I have. It has a very embarrassing cover, I know. People laugh when I pull this one out of my shelf.
Anchor Bay re-released much more tasteful cover recently.

Dellamorte Dellamore
This is my absolute favourite movie in the world. No other movie ever topped this for me. The title means 'Of Death, Of Love.' This movie accurately portrays: love, death, life and bleakness of it all. With its poetic dialogue, strange music and seriously attractive visuals - it is a mesmerizing. At the same time, it doesn't take itself seriously and it's loads of fun. Dread that is not balanced with a hint of humour is just dreadful. There are countless scenes I often think about: Anna Falchi standing under the moonlight, in front of a fake cemetery castle, holding white flowers; Anna Falchi slowly rising in the mortuary saying, "yes, yes my love. It'll be better with me than the others" while Rupert Everett watches; aaaaah, there are too many to list.

The special effects are wonky. You see fishing lines for floating ghost lights. But I just don't care. It is from the time when digital special effects were scarcely available (or too expensive). There is something very charming and even more real about handmade special effects. Imperfection is beautiful.

Every time my relationship fails, I throw my hands in the air and go, "I'm through with love," like Everett does in the movie. It is strange how much 'love' occupies a chunk of life... and DEATH!

★★ Video Game Playtesters Needed ★★

2011-07-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I've been working on a small video game for my thesis project, ★Twinkling Stars Above★

I need game playtesters for the prototype. Do you have half an hour to spare? Then please participate!

As long as you are in Toronto, I will visit you at your convenience, with my laptop. You have to play the game (very short) and fill out the questionnaire. I need to observe you while you play. You can ask me to withdraw your questionnaire if you change your mind after the testing (withdrawl deadline Aug 1st).

Playtesting dates:

Friday, July 15

Monday, July 18

Tuesday, July 19

Wednesday, July 20

Please book a time with me with Doodle Calendar:

http://www.doodle.com/hitynxv2pb9ebts7

Or contact me at:
hyein@hyeinlee.com
416.260.6331

I need 20 people for the playtest. Thank you so much!

★★HyeinPain★★

For the Love of Summer

2011-07-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

This was drawn during DEVO (!!) concert

More silly sketchbook stuff. My apologies for the short writing. Summer skies are beautiful and I don't want to sit in front of the computer. For my next post, I promise zombie stories.

Man, I LOVE summer. I will be very sad when summer dies. And the summer dies fast.

Here is how one of my sketchbooks look like. I bought it in Germany. I'm so much in love with this sketchbook, but alas, I only have six pages left. The papers are little pulpy (it melts and catches onto felt pens if I squeeze too much ink), but I still love it. Look at the beautiful binding! It had a fun empty thick cardboard as a cover, which I get to draw on.

Glow in the Dark

2011-06-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

See the white-coloured bunny and a cloud? See the white eyes of space slugs? These white areas are GLOW IN THE DARK paints! Yes, they glow-in-the dark, ladies and gentlemen. Glow-in-the-dark paints... what kind of witchery are they?! I faintly remember in physic's class how they have something to do with radioactive half-life... Whatever it is, it doesn't seem so healthy. While I was washing the brushes in my kitchen sink, some of the diluted glow-in-the-dark paints got into my food dishes. I hope to get glow-in-the-dark eyes soon.

I hereby present you with one of my favourite bands, Teddybears' song, Glow in the Dark. It'll keep you crooked in this lonely summer night.

Acquainted with the Night

2011-06-27T00:30:00.000-07:00

I have a terrible memory. And it seem to get worse and worse, losing all my marbles. "Losing marbles" is such a cute phrase. I always picture a fuzzy cat, who doesn't know what to do with her glass marbles rolling and scattering on the wooden floor.

Many people smiled at me and talked to me the past few weeks, people who are total strangers to me. I know I've met them, because of their behavours towards me, but I have no idea. I just smile and nod in conversations, try to piece together information, try to figure out who they are. I don't mean to be rude... if I don't smile back, it's because of my bad memory. Names, numbers, dates, faces... they all fade away rapidly. Memories are meant to fade and I'm grateful for that. But the memories I want to get rid of, they don't disappear (like, for instance, saying really dumb things to a love interest... out of nervousness. Or my entire highschool memory).

A story of my bad memory:
I was going to my friend's place. His place is only 2 minutes away from mine. I memorized his buzzer number and the apartment number. I went to his apartment and called him through intercom. At that point, I forgot his apartment number already. I asked his unit number (this is even more ridiculous because I've been to his place many times before). He told me the number and I took an elevator up. During the short ride up, I forgot his apartment number again. I don't have a cellphone, and even if I did, I'd be too embarrassed to ask again. So I knocked on EVERY APARTMENT on his floor to find his.

I used to have an unusually good memory. Or did I? I forgot.
I didn't need bookmarks because I memorized page numbers (now I lose my bookmarks). I used to remember most of my friends' phone numbers (now I barely know my phone number). I'd vividly remember how I met each person, surroundings, conversations, etc. Now, everything slips through between my fingers like sand.

This ain't no way to live.

My dear friend and an amazing illustrator Selena told me few days ago, it is because of the messed-up sleep schedule and lack of sleep. It is hard to keep up a regular sleep schedule for me. Deadline comes, and I'm bound to rush. At 4 am., I'm not happy with what I am doing, and start re-working. I often stay up all night and think I'll catch up with sleep later. It never happens. I'm going to reset my sleep schedule as soon as my dumb-ass Master's is over. It is really hard for me to go to bed early because ever since I was a kid, I've always loved the night. Night is when the magic happens. I get most inspired at night, thoughts are amplified. Be acquainted with the night. I hate the fact that human beings need sleep. Try Nancy Kress' novel, Beggar's in Spain. It's about a new genetically-modified humans who don't need sleep. They become super-human and immortals. I wish I didn't have to sleep. I pity the hours I lose sleeping. But I'm only a human. I do need over 6 hours of sleep a day. One of my friend is exercising, losing weight, etc. just so that he can paint till he is in his 80s. If we want to have a long career, we better take care of ourselves. It's 4AM again. I better stop babbling nonsense and hit the hay.

Just to disturb your sleep (and for me to have a night company)... Here is me as a Ringu (Japanese horror movie about a ghost) ghost to haunt your bedside:

Photo by my lovely cousin, Pam

Okay, sorry for the scary movie reference. Just looking up the link for Ringu movie gave me the chills. Koreans often say that scary things would make people forget about the summer heat. So they tell ghost stories during summer (and watch scary movies). I think the chill we get from the scary stuff is different from the actual temperature. But anyways... in my poor defense... you won't feel the summer heat tomorrow under the hot sun.

▒░░ Smiling Antimatter ░░▒ Art Works

2011-06-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

The opening night for the Smiling Antimatter when very well. Thank you very much for all those who attended. It meant a lot to me. These are my works for our group show, Smiling Antimatter. My apologies for my horrible photography skills. I realize more and more that photography is a basic survival skill for an artist. When the show comes down in July, I will have a better scans of them.

Ta-da!

Out of All Them Bright Stars II
Mixed Media on Wood Panel
24X30"

This is a second in the "Out of All Them Bright Stars" series. The title is from a sci-fi author Nancy Kress' short story. I'm a big fan of her writing, especially "Beggars in Spain"

Out of All Them Bright Stars II
Close-up shot

Engine Summer
Mixed Media on Wood Panel
20X24"

"Engine Summer" piece is dedicated to my favourite book with the same name. I've been drawing pseudo auto engines a lot lately because of the recent comic on Engine Summer I did. The author of Engine Summer, Mr. John Crowley actually wrote me back (I sent him a comic link to his blog). He didn't have to. Um... of course, I fainted when I saw his comment. Another proof that he's the awesomest author in the world.

Deus Ex Machina
Mixed Media on Wood Panel
20X24"

"Deus Ex Machina" means "god out of the machine." It's used when complicated problems in a story is solved by an unlikely solve-it-all event. One of my favourite book, Chrysalids is often criticized for Deus Ex Machina ending. Sometimes, those kinds of ending makes me angry, but most times, I don't mind when they are well used. Almost a relief.
I also thought... since I was running out of ideas, a bunch of machines would definitely save my ass. What's more fitting than the title "Deus Ex Machina"? Also, it sounds very badass. Anything in Latin sounds really epic and badass!

If I sound like some sci-fi dork, then yes, I am. If I read in English, I have a hard time reading anything other than sci-fi (of course, there are exceptions like Jon Krakauer). It's because I LOVE reading sci-fi. I can read other books, but it takes me a lot longer time. In Korean, I can read anything. I just finished 1Q84 in Korean. I feel guilty reading in Korean, because I can feel my English deteriorating every time I read in Korean. But I wanted to try Haruki Murakami (the author of 1Q84). A book about people having lots of sex in a strange world (like Murakami's)? I'm not going to get through it in English unless there is one of the following: aliens, clones, nanobots, space travel, time travel, apocalypse, etc.
I don't know what I'm rambling about anymore... My apologies.

My wonderful friends and also talented illustrators in the show. I love them.

Please check out our show, if you haven't yet. It's up till July 1st. Here is more info:

https://smilingantimatter.wordpress.com/
You are cordially invited to the opening reception of Smiling Antimatter, a group exhibition by Toronto's hardest working illustrators.
Participating ArtistsVicki Nerino • Britt Wilson • Roben Nieuwland • Selena Wong • Ale Diaz • Ilichna Morasky • Ty Dunitz • Hyein Lee • Franzisca Barczyk
At Steam Whistle BreweryExhibiting June 1st - July 2nd, 2011

Map

Lastly... It ain't Hyein's blog without some pathetic sketchbook drawings.

Sorry for the poor drawing quality. It was very dark, so I couldn't really see what I was drawing. They were done last night, when I went to Junior Boys' show. I love that band! I had such a great time. But... I was all alone. What kind of loser goes to a concert alone?! It was awkward to stand around alone waiting for the bands to play. I don't think I have been to a concert alone for like ten years. The last concert by myself was Mayhem (Norwegian black metal band), and I could understand why nobody wanted to come along.

... in the end, the Junior Boys show was just great. Along with their heart pumping classics like Double Shadow and In the Morning, they played a gem like Parallel Lines. Oh my god. They really raised the roof. They sound better live.

So anyways... As I was alone at the venue, sketching, waiting for the bands to play, I thought "Man, I fucked up. I really fucked up in my life to go to concerts alone. I fucked it up."

Another Very Very Old Comic

2011-06-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

This one is about my younger brother. He now sometimes lends me money. (By 'lends' I mean 'gives'. As I have no capacity to pay back. I am just saying 'lends' to thinly veil my shame) Having an artist sister sucks, I know, Dan. Happy birthday. You rock.

Oh and this comic's really old. Please excuse the drawing quality.

▒░░ Smiling Antimatter ░░▒

2011-05-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

I am organizing a show with my dear friends this Wednesday. If you feel like seeing some art, please drop by. There is pretty good finger foods. This beautiful poster is designed by Ty Dunitz and the painting is done by Selena Wong, both participating artists.

My apologies to the participating artists. I am so disorganized and busy, things are running like avalanches. I have three summer jobs. THREE. Master's is draining blood out of me (in a financial sense as well as everything else). Dear school, you have my blood on your hands.

Anyhow... here is more info on Smiling Antimatter show:

https://smilingantimatter.wordpress.com/
You are cordially invited to the opening reception of Smiling Antimatter, a group exhibition by Toronto's hardest working illustrators.
Participating ArtistsVicki Nerino • Britt Wilson • Roben Nieuwland • Selena Wong • Ale Diaz • Ilichna Morasky • Ty Dunitz • Eric Overton • Hyein Lee • Franzisca Barczyk

Opening Reception June 1st, 2011, 7-11PMExhibiting June 1st - July 2nd, 2011

We heard the news. Scientists finally produced mysterious antimatter atoms for the first time. We don’t know what it means, but we know that the future is here. We live in a science fiction world, the world our previous generation hadn’t even dreamed of. We converse with people on the other continents face-to-face using video chat, watch movies on our cellphones and tweet our daily routine to everybody. How does it feel like to be living and depending on high technology? What would tomorrow bring?
“Smiling Antimatter” is a mixed media painting exhibition. Each artist captures the anxiety underlying the experience of living in a science fiction-like society with humour and carnivalesque grotesqueness.

Why I Love Owls So Much (A Very Very Old Comic)

2011-05-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

I am backing up my hard drive, going through some old stuff. Here is many many years old comic about why I love owls so much. My apologies for the poor drawing quality. I hope I got a little better now (not really).

My dad still buys me owl stuff every time he sees them. I love you too, Dad.

Engine Summer by John Crowley: Comic For Whazamo Open Book Toronto

2011-05-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Please click on the image to view full-size

Wonderful comic writer, journalist and a film maker Ian Daffern, let me participate on his Whazamo Comic project for Open Book Toronto. I am very excited and grateful for his awesome write up on my work. Thank you Ian!

To be honest, I panicked and panicked about this project. Ian also asked people like Charlene Chua, Michael Cho and Kalman Andrasofszky. They draw REAL COMIC BOOK COVERS and shit (and I'm their huge fan). Who the hell am I?!? I felt so inappropriate, very insecure. I spent many sleepless nights writing it. Thanks again Ian for being so patient with me.

If you are curious about my comics... you can read almost all my complete comics for free at this page (click the speech bubble!):

The Whazamo comic I did is about the book Engine Summer. It is my favourite book and John Crowley is my favourite author in the world. Absolutely. Someone told me having a 'favourite list' is not cool, but I definitely have a favourite list. In my opinion, no other author spreads magic and dusty longing like John Crowley. Engine Summer is about a boy going on a journey to become a story/legend and to find the girl he fell in love with. The setting is in a post-apocalyptic world, few millennia after the end of our civilization. The earth ecosystem has changed by the apocalypse as well as the extra-terrestrial influence. Pink fungus is alien origin and it is part of human and animal biology. Everyone is sort of addicted to the fungus and it lets them hallucinate. Not in a negative way, but the way South American shamans use drugs to communicate with god/spirit animals. Makes you think of Dune, "He who controls the Spice controls the universe!" but it isn't. There is not a hint of greed or hunger for power in this peaceful world. I did not want to come out of Engine Summer's magical dreamy world. Oh and there definitely is darkness. It is post-apocalypse after all. I cannot read any book without some darkness in it. It's one of those books you don't want it to end.

I first encountered John Crowley's work in Orson Scott Card's anthology, Future on Ice. His short story, "Snow" was and is the best short story I've ever read (for me at least). It is about memory, loss and letting go. The story reaches, grabs my heart and squeezes it. Orson Scott Card had the best introduction for Snow: "in a tight confines of a short story like Snow, he can take the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and make a crystal out of it, small but complex and multifaceted, beautiful even as the breath of entropy melts it before your eyes."

Crowley's fucking brilliant.
His works used to be really hard to find. (oh my late teen & early twenties spent looking for his books in used/vintage bookstores!) But they've been mostly republished in 2002 by Prennial, making them very accessible. Snow can be found in Novelties and Souvenirs collection or The Best of the Best (it IS the best of the best).

Outside the Planter Boxes: Public Intervention Project

2011-05-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Magical Tongue
Public Intervention Project
Wood, paper and fabric

Before

I once again got to participate in a Toronto artist, Sean Martindale's public intervention project. I had so much fun! I love Sean's work, and I have a total respect for him; so I was honoured take part in it. Sean's very sincere in his approach to art and making our city a better place. I often find idealistic people creepy, but not him. He does it with non-creepiness whatsoever. For those who haven't seen it before, I have participated in his Toronto advertisement take-over project last fall. Outside the Planter Boxes intend to direct public attention to Toronto's neglected tree planter boxes. Some of them are in a pretty bad shape. I picked the ones with dead tree and a damaged planter. I want to thank my intern, Nayoun Kim. Without her, I would've been up all night.

I tried not to do a permanent damage to the planters because it would defy the purpose. But it was very hard not to leave any footprint at all. I should've used more natural materials, I was hesitant using polyester fabric, treated paper, markers etc. etc. There were so many things to worry! In the end, I just went for it. If I worry for everything, I'd get nothing done.

The first image is "Magical Tongue." You can see this guy on University, North West of Dundas and University intersection. One block South of Mount Sinai hospital. I went to check the next day, and somebody already ripped out his tongue. \( ; o ; )/ Oh why! He was my favourite one, it kind of hurts. Thing about street art project is... it can be damaged pretty rapidly. So you have to plan for the graceful degradation (which I didn't... I was so inexperienced. I will plan those the next time).

Snake Snail
Public Intervention Project
Wood and paper

An incriminating photo. I deny everything.

Before

"Snake Snail" can be found on University, North of Dundas, East side of the street. In front of Sick Kids hopital. The little dude on the front is a speech bubble. My intern told me it looks like a blow-fish. I kind of regret putting that strange speech bubble there. Now that I see it, it doesn't go well with the composition.

Tear Me
Public Intervention Project
Wood and paper

"Tear Me" is on the West side of University street, just North of Queen Street West. I forgot to put up its arms and remembered it just before I went home that evening. The sun was setting, so I didn't get a very good photo of it. It was cute with two arms!

Here is a peak of one of Sean's planters. He put grass on top of planters and made it look like spilling out between the gap (the tree roots are pushing the concrete). Isn't it AWESOME?! He worked on many planters around the city. Here is Outside the Planter Boxes site. You can read up about the project on:
Good
Treehugger
Torontoist
Blog TO

The project is also covered on Global TV News, May 24th 2011 6PM and 11PM.

Sean Martindale

45th Anniversary Cover for This Magazine

2011-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

What an honour to work with This magazine for their 45th anniversary cover. It was SO MUCH FUN! Dave, the awesome art director, actually let me draw a typewriter with a strange face! And I didn't know they would let us use my hand-written 'This' logo instead of their real logo. I am so excited about this. Thank you so much. Please subscribe to their amazing magazine!
Oh, while you are at it, please check out This magazine's cover gallery! 45 years of This Magazine Covers.
Big congrats to This magazine for its 45th year! Keeping us politically progressive <3

This is a original colour scheme, I like both versions. :D
We went for the top one because it stands out in the newsstands.

Snakes in the Forest

2011-05-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

Snakes in the Forest
20X16"
Mixed Media on Wood

Having a really really busy Spring. I've attended FITC conference last week. I volunteered as a cotton candy maker at the event. My hands cramped by the end of the night, but it was a lot of fun to give away cotton candies. People smiled at me as they got cotton candies, and that made me feel like a rock star. Oh the things I'd do for some smiles! There were some amazing talks and technical workshops. But the best was at the very last; Kyle Cooper talk. He is the man who did opening credit for Seven, Gattaca, Superman, Spider-man and pretty much everything else. Oh man, I remember the first time I saw Seven. I was mesmerized by the opening credit. My heart sank when I first saw Gattaca opening sequence too. His talk was amazing. He also seemed to be a decent human being. There were so many memorable quotes, but what stood out the most was; "The only thing what you have in life is what you give away." He talked about giving to other people and involving others. I was deeply moved. I want to be a better person and become as nice as he is! It's just so awesome when a successful genius also turned out to be a nice person.

I also went to almost all the after parties. I think I am getting better at this "art of mingling at parties" without being overly creepy/nervous. I remember me being too nervous to go to my own art opening parties. I am actually having fun these days and meeting a lot of people. I've been having a difficult time lately and I thank everyone who spent time with me, taking me to places & keeping me company.

Above image is what I've done for my wonderful friend Erika's Canvas Collective website. You can download desktop wallpapers of mine and other illustrators' work. The original work has beige & blue colour theme, but I like the blue & pink theme better.

And... here I give you... Hyein as a cotton candy maker!

My Berlin + Amsterdam Travel Log

2011-04-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am writing Berlin + Amsterdam personal travel log. My writing is... not good but if you are curious about what I've been doing in Berlin, please do check it out :)

My memory is rapidly fading. I have a very bad memory, which I should really see a doctor about. Hopefully, I can jot them all down before they all fly away.

Click here or above image to read my travel log.

Sketches from Far Far Away Part II (a.k.a Sketchbook la pathetique)

2011-04-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends...
I miss you and I love you.
Only that I'm away (and not even that long), far far away, I truly realized how much I love you all. Two more days to Toronto.

I owly do miss you.

This guy's face was inspired by the windows in Amsterdam.

There is no London Fog in Europe. When I get back, I plan on drinking many gallons of London Fog. I guess it's "London" in Ontario.

My life doesn't mean anything without you and London Fog. To me, the colour of London Fog is purple.

Missing Berlin and Bruge (Caution: PATHETIC posting ahead)

2011-04-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

Pictoplasma was a lot of fun. And the city of Berlin was everything I expected it to be and more. I am still in Europe, in Amsterdam. Got here today. It is raining outside and I'm shivering in a hostel basement, unable to sleep. This city is not made for a solo traveler, lemme assure you. What was I thinking when I booked this 5 months ago? Definitely not thinking straight.

Anyways... more postings once I get home, but here is my mental state right now (I spent the cold rainy evening here, drawing):

Finally Started Society 6

2011-03-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

You can get my prints, iPod cases, laptop covers, etc. at Society 6!
Click the image below to access my Society 6 studio:

Meet the Cosmic Bear

2011-03-03T23:28:00.000-08:00

Meet my cosmic bear (the very top image). It's saying,

"Remember the time we stared into the Alpha Centauri. Vertical icicles twinkling in million directions... and I miss you."

It's only partially depicted here. I fucking LOVE Alpha Centauri. The name itself is badass. And such a bright star. I want to die in Alpha Centauri, death wouldn't be so bad in its glory. I wish I could name my Master's thesis, Alpha Centauri, but alas, it's already taken as a game name (and a very good game at that).

My apologies to myself and whoever is reading this blog for thin content these days. I don't remember posting this many sketchbook stuff consecutively, ever. These are the darkest hours. I'm kidding, actually, my life is pretty rad. I think meditating definitely changed me. I'm much less stressed. In the end, I live in an awesome city, where vegan donuts are finally readily available. God bless vegan donuts.

Sorry for rambling, so the point is, I am very busy with my Master's. It's draining my social life, soul and work. Here is another glimpse of what I'm working on for my Master's.

Text animated and added.

Lastly, if any extra-terrestrials listening to me right now... please do take me with you. But please do not probe my kidneys.

How I Feel These Days

2011-02-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

See the sad crying ghosts? That's how I feel these days...

Pam

2011-02-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

My cousin Pam <3
We both like sunshines, beach and sea water.

What I'm Working On

2011-02-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

In-progress video for my thesis project title. I used Shugo Tokumanu's song, "Button" as a place holder, but will have an original music for final. There are still kinks to be fixed, I lost sleep with the colour of the writing, but I think I am going to leave it as it is. Also the stars are just place holders. Have to make better ones. I also have to make more backgrounds.

Today is a SNOWDAY! How exciting! I regret waking up early, but oh well. I'm eating cereal and get ready to do some writing & animating etc., while snowflakes are dancing outside my window. I feel bad for cold owls going hoot hoot (this is a very bad reference to a Korean children's song.... Actually a German folk song with Korean lyrics).

Lucky Charms

2011-02-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

What have I been doing for past many months? I've been working with Cossette for an online game for Lucky Charms cereal. I got to set a visual tone for the game with the magic book above. It was a fun project and.... the game is finally online!
Play it here.

Happy Holidays & New Year <( O , O )>

2010-12-24T21:52:00.001-08:00

Please Keep Warm

My Interview on Ms. Magazine Blog!

2010-12-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

My interview on Ms. Magazine Blog!
If you want to read about my rambles, please do click this link. :D
Ms. Magazine is AWESOME!
Thank you Kyle for the wonderful questions and introduction. It was a lot of fun.

And... Farewell, everybody for the rest of the year! I am going to Brampton to help out at my parents' store in Bramalea City Centre mall. Yup, I'll be disappearing into the holiday abyss. I'd really like to have a few days off, please... but what can I do. Gotta stay afloat and I have youth to burn!

As always, Master's study is pain in the a*s. Seriously, I cannot believe I worked so hard for no visible result whatsoever. It is another proof that art masters is just waste of air; other disciplines work to make the world the better place. I should've gone to a med school or something.

Sorry for ranting again. I will post my works in retrospect. Photos from Memories of Enemies and Krampusnacht.
Have a wonderful holidays everyone!
xoxo

Girl in the Attic in the Current Issue of Broken Pencil

2010-12-09T01:35:00.000-08:00

My comic "Girl in the Attic" is in the current issue of Broken Pencil. The comic is actually the episode 1 of 3 part book, "Three Girls". You can see the excerpt in my website.

I also received a TOFU award for co-hosting podcasts at Toronto Vegetarian Association. Look at the cute hand-made trophy! Thank you TVA, I miss you a lot.

As always... I am busy with school, hence the 5am blog posting (I haven't gone to bed yet). I'm in the amidst of thesis writing frenzy, writing solid 8 hours a day for past two weeks. Let me tell you, among many things, I really suck at writing. Everybody, please wish me luck.

Krampusnacht 2010 at Resistor Gallery

2010-11-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

Gruss Von Krampus!

I was invited to participate for Krampusnacht 2010 at Resistor Gallery by my wonderful friend (and an awesome illustrator) Steve Wilson. I've never heard of this 'krampus' until that very moment. How come I never heard of this?! I feel cheated out of something too good to be true. I think I would've liked Holiday seasons more if I knew of this monster. Krampus is a pagan evil monster, who is a counter part of Santa Claus. He punishes bad children. SO AWESOME!!! Krampus is still celebrated in Austria, Czech, and Germany. They get an awesome furry monster, and we get a fat man in red suit? Life is just not fair.

Oh there were many plans for this show, there were. Alas, I've been too busy with school and making moooooney. I was going to make a painting along with the furry head above, but just didn't have time to make paintings. You'd think doing art Master's would let me make more art. Reality is always punch in the face.

Come look at my furry mask. If you are busy, no worries, I will post photos.
Here is the information on the show:

• KRAMPUSNACHT 2010 OPENING RECEPTION - THURSDAY DEC 2nd •

• Show runs Monday-Friday 10am - 5pm until January 10, 2011, Resistor Gallery •

284 College Street 2nd Floor, Toronto (Map)

Now back to my thesis writing.... *sigh*

Oh by the way, I made slippers to use in my school studio with leftover faux fur:

...And the Winners Are

2010-11-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

Thank you everybody who participated in the Toronto Mayoral Election prize draw.
There were only four entrance and there were 6 prizes. So I decided to give them 2 prizes each. I let them choose what they want in the order of participation and more ;)

The winners are:
Colleen - prize 6 and 1
Steve - prize 6 and 5
Daniel - prize 3 and 4
Jinsung - prize 2 and a pack of stickers

Oh lordy, I've been very very busy. Of many projects I'm working on, I'm working on a game called 'Infection' with my friend Louie. If you are curious and have PC, try it out. We have released beta version on our development site. The graphics are still rough but basic mechanics are there.

The title page of the game:

And... here is the background graphic I just finished (not included in the beta version):

Vote to Win! Toronto Election

2010-10-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Vote for Toronto Mayoral Election tomorrow!

It is very simple to enter this contest. Take a photo in front of the election booth, line-up, or whatever. Any proof that you've voted. And either tweet/email/facebook me the photo. 6 lucky people will win Hyein goodies! I don't know many people, so YOU have a very good chance of winning.

My twitter: @HyeinPain

Facebook: Hyein Lee

Emal: Hyein@hyeinlee.com

Here are the Prizes.

PRIZE 1: YOU ARE RED, YOU ARE RAD

It is a magic mug cup. Red is my favourite colour. I only made 2 red magic mugs. One for you, one for me. When you pour hot water, my art appears. They are In Bruge I and In Bruge II pieces I've done inspired by my Bruge trip last year.

PRIZE 2: HANG ME DRY 1

Collection of my best selling prints. Have all 3! Clockwise, I Cried a River Over You, Cupcake Girl and Pieces of the Sun. They are 8.5X11" high quality prints.

PRIZE 3: HANG ME DRY 2

Collection of my best selling prints. Have all 3! Clockwise, In Bruges I, Jellyfish Wrangler and Mr. Furry Pants. They are 8.5X11" high quality prints.

PRIZE 4: READ ME COMICS UNTIL I GO BLIND

Have 3 of my comics. They are heartfelt stories of tragedy and humor. Excerpt from Three Girls (my experience growing up in 80s South Korea) comic is featured in the current issue of Broken Pencil. From Left, Three Girls, Frequently Asked Questions about Threesome and Bryan.

PRIZE 5: YOU AND ME AND A LONELY WHITE PAPER
I'll draw you something on this paper. Original drawing on a very nice paper. You can even request me something if you'd like.

PRIZE 6: YOU RUB ME RAW
Win a hand silk screened print by Hyein! Four colour, hand pulled print on a very nice paper with raw edges. 11X14". It is titled Even When Strawberries Are Falling From Skies, We Are Sad. Read my complete story about this piece here. This is a very limited edition, I think I made 5 copies or less (and I'm keeping the most). I won't be screen printing for a long time, so enter the draw!

The winners will be announced at the end of the week. Since the winners all live in Toronto, please pick up the prizes in person :)

Why am I doing this? I'm in a total fear of a certain crazy person becoming a lawyer of my beloved city. I don't want Toronto to be in the world news for a crazy mayor again (remember Mel Lastman's cannibal joke?). I want to live a quiet life and my city out of global news. I'd ideally like you to vote Joe Pantalone, but this is a democratic society. It's none of my business whom you vote for. Just don't tell me if you voted for Ford, I don't want to know.

Sorry for the Toronto-central post today. Another apologies for crappy photographs. It's late at night, and I'm very tired from Canzine today. Thanks everyone who visited my table at Canzine today, by the way.

Come on, you don't need a dirty immigrant like myself to beg you to vote, do you? Thank you all in advance for being awesome citizens. We can make a difference. Please vote.

Naughty or Nice

2010-10-14T14:27:00.001-07:00

I got to work with the amazing people at Canadian Family again. I had so much fun drawing angry kids. The illustrations were used for a center fold-like flow chart. Along with the serious, good advice, there was a splash of humour.

They were kind enough to add me to the contributor's page!
Thank you Colleen. :D

Memories of Enemies Opens Tomorrow

2010-10-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

A sneak peak! This piece is giant at 30"X40". Okay, all my pieces are giant for this show.

I am having a show with some of my talented and awesome friends: Vicki, Britt, Roben, Ilichna, Alej, Selena and Franzisca. I am so very excited about the show. I also love the venue, it is a huge old fashioned beer factory made out of bricks! That building makes me think of Dickens novel. The opening is tomorrow, please come by if you are free. Oh I have 3 new giant pieces for this show. Here is the event info:

Opening Night is Wednesday October 6, 2010

from 7-11pm

Steam Whistle Brewery, The Roundhouse, 255 Bremner Blvd., Toronto.

Event Page

Another sneak preview (I will post the full image after the opening tomorrow. This piece is also giant at 43"X60")

And here is our poster. You might have seen these around town. Roben painted this amazing munkey. :)

It had been an absolute chaos past month; painting everyday and dealing with school bureaucracy. And again, not sleeping for 3 days... On top of this show deadlines, I had to prepare for a presentation and plan a workshop. At the end of the day yesterday, I started to hallucinate. I actually saw a guy walking through a wall!! So amazing. I recommend sleep deprivation to anybody, any loving family. The talk I gave at OCADU was pretty bad, I kept forgetting what to say, so I stopped in mid-sentences a lot. I taught 8 hour intense AfterEffects workshop on Sunday. Thankfully, despite of the hectic course schedule, it went very well.

Anyways, I had a good rest today, and not quite ready for more crazy schedule, but I got to do what I got to do. Say hello to me at the show! If you cannot make it to the opening, the show is on until October 31st. I'm so excited...

Can You Stay Pure.

2010-09-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

I really shouldn't be doing a blog post (in the middle of the horrors of grad school. I should be writing papers). But it has been long enough since these works had been in display, so I shouldn't wait any longer either. These works are huge. Definitely taller than I. Maybe you've seen them around town somewhere. I don't know where they are installed. If you ever walked by one, please do tell me. Here is the complete map of the project.

Sean Martindale, an idealistic colleague of my program stopped me on my way to a farmer's market on my pimpin' bike. He briefly told me about Toronto Street Advertising Takeover (TOSAT). "Can you have them done in two days?" I always wanted to tag along to his brilliant projects, so I said yes. He told me the dimensions and I didn't think much of it. Once I got to my studio, I realized... OH. 67.5" by 47" is taller than my height. I already lost a day exchanging appropriate info via email. I had one night to draw them. So there I was, alone in the school studio, desks put together to make room with a lot of Korean soap operas playing at the background. Not sleeping for art isn't anything new. I haven't drawn in this big scale since Sheridan College so it was therapeutic. I even got to see a couple being topless on their condo balcony. Win-win situation.

My art supplies look like garbage. And yes, some were actually garbage.

Being a cheap (I was educated at school to do this in Korea, actually) person that I am, I have a pencil extender to get the most out of that small stub of a pencil.

So what were these drawings for? Bunch of frustrated street artists decided to take over the advertising and substitute with art. Frustrated by our cityscape dominated by advertisement. Fight against capitalism? That sort of thing. Sean Martindale is one of a few people in my program I truly respect. He's ethics, theory and practice are consistent and he makes stunning art that makes you stop. I was his fan before I even met him when I noticed his poster plants. I was waiting for a light to change on Queen and Spadina on a gray day and noticed his poster plant. I was so jaded from illegal advertising (I didn't even know they were illegal until I heard Sean's talk) that covers the city like so many other Toronto people. Seeing the illegal advertising cut up to harbour a fragile green life-form was beautiful and moving. And made me think of... yeah, the nature's triumph even after we are long gone.

Poster plants weren't his only work. All of his works are almost equal in emotional impact. Google his name and you'll find out about his other amazing projects. So to be honest, I just wanted to participate in whatever he does. I cannot honestly say that I was purely angry at advertisements to work on TOSAT project. I know there is something inherently wrong with Capitalism (I suppose it's felt by everyone except rich people. For one thing, why is it so expensive to put a roof over our heads?). But I cannot clearly point how to make a better world where everything works okay. I always hide behind the excuse that "people who are a lot smarter than me tried to figure out for a very long time". Flawed human beings as we are, I have no idea how we can fix everything. I'm in a fatigue. A lot of people before my generation tried to change things and failed. We saw Communism come and fail. We saw many pseudo political trends come and fail (hippies and punks?) which led us to be cynical towards any attempts. Also as a participant of Capitalism system, I am often hesitant to bite the hands that feed me (or hands that might feed me in the future. I never got any ad jobs yet).

Sean has a designer background, and his fearless criticism on his potential clients are so admirable. In Hideo Okuda's novel Southbound, his character says,
"In this world, there are things that change slowly by fighting back till the end. Things like slavery and democracy. Equality wasn't just rewarded for free by some nice powerful/rich people. People had to fight every step to achieve it. If nobody fights the society doesn't change. I'm one of those people (245)"
Art doesn't have much power to change society but I'm happy that there are people like Sean who stands up for us (rights to not to become some corporations' marketing ploy everyday) , no matter how small it seems.

My intentions for participating with TOSAT weren't pure. More than criticizing advertisements, I wanted to flatter my ego by making people see my art work. Hey, I got a tiny bit of press too on Torontoist (except that they don't know who did it).

Anyways, I rambled nonsensically long enough. I'm going to go learn how to be a morally better and just person (at least try) watching Michael Sandel's lectures. Maybe after these lectures, I'll be able to participate other art projects like TOSAT with clear mind.video platform video management video solutions video player

My Summer Promo is Finally Here!

2010-09-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

They are plastic hand fans! I declare this because somebody asked me today what it was suppose to be. Now I'm a little worried. North Americans do not use hand fans? I hope it doesn't head for the garbage bin.

I know, I know... the summer is practically over, but I just got this delivered TODAY. Oh god, the drama I had to go through to get these done. Three printers flaked out on me, and shipping was another drama. Santa Maria!

But now they are finally here. And thank god, it is the hottest year ever, and September might be hot too. They are being shipped to you right now. If you are an art director/publisher and would like this awesome promo, email me your mailing address at hyein@hyeinlee.com.

If you are my friend and would like one, grab me.

Thanks for Visiting My Booth at Fan Expo 2010

2010-08-31T08:22:00.000-07:00

Lance Henriksen bought my buttons! Of all those booths, he chose mine to buy stuff! I said he can just take them for free, but he insisted on paying. "No, you gotta make a living too", he said. I gave him lots more free buttons and stickers on top of that. What a nice guy. Man, even my friends don't pay for my stuff. I felt really bad after taking a photo with him. He just wanted to look around and shop. But people did not leave him alone. Even when he was picking which buttons to buy, annoying people would talk to him. During all that, he never stopped smiling. He'd gladly pose for people and shake their hands. What a guy. I felt so bad for him. I wish I given him more stuff (as materialistic possession solves any problem in this capitalistic society). I wanted to thank him for his craft, but he must hear that too much. "Hey, I loved your work in Aliens! One of my favourite movies. I also love Alien vs. Predeator!" Aliens was 20 years ago for god sakes. Anyways, Mr. Henriksen, thanks for buying my buttons and taking photos with me. You are awesome.

The top right image is "Even When Strawberries are Falling From Sky, We are Sad" silk screen. Nobody bought one. Does it suck that much? With 4 colour hand pulled, it was a lot of work. I lowered the price to $20 immediately, but still no interest. *cry*
Using Photoshop's "automate" feature, I accidentally permanently lost all my high quality photos. So sad.

I'm in a mint condition.
I was quickly looking around before the opening hours.

Here is my brother Juhyun Daniel Lee of Cat comics. :D
My brother is a software developer at Starz Animation. He never ever took art lessons (our mom was an art teacher and dad was an interior designer... so he did get some education, I suppose), but draws & paints much better than I. He also does a lot of paintings for game websites and indy adventure games.
Look, Kotaku once stole my brother's painting on Ron GIlbert: http://kotaku.com/185206/ron-gilbert-vaguely-defines-next-game

Ah~ Thanks everyone for visiting my booth. I was so grateful. You are the best! And Keith, who bought my original 'So Noodly' painting. He came by during TCAF as well.
Thanks to you all, my magic mugs were gone within a few hours of opening. I will have more for the next year, and more designs.

See my complete FanExpo photos in my flickr.

Ricepaper Cover Illustration (Thanks Melissa and Rob) and a Magic Mug!

2010-08-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

I'm on the cover of Ricepaper Magazine! Thanks Melissa and Rob for the amazing art direction. This season's Ricepaper was a Food Issue. Oh man, my favourite subject! I throughly enjoyed working on this project.

Back of the magazine.

This was an original. We decided to switch the background to red since Ricepaper's other issues were darker colours as well.

Check out their website. I'm so excited to have my illustration on their website. Their magazine is so awesome! Ricepaper is an Asian-Canadian culture magazine from Vancouver. Read about exotic food imports from China, learn about eating local in Canada, history of Chinese restaurants and an article on Sursur Lee (with his famous Singaporean Style Slaw recipe - I was fortune of trying this on my birthday 3 years ago. Man, I will never forget its epic taste)!

Here are some rejected roughs. I was happy for their choice because it was the one I wanted to paint the most.

Lastly, a news! I will be at Fan Expo this year, again. Please come and visit my booth if you are coming to Fan Expo. Info is:

August 27-29th 2010

Friday 4-9PM

Saturday 10AM-7PM

Sunday 11AM-6PM

Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto ON

I'm here:

This year, I have wicked MAGIC MUGS with my monsters. How is it magic? Like so:

At first, it looks like a normal black mug. But when you pour hot water (or coffee)...

A painting start to appear!

Tada~! Enjoy your hot tea with Hyein Lee painting, only while it's hot.
I made 2 designs, 3 mugs each. There are very limited quantity, so hurry to get yours. :D

What I taught my students today...

2010-08-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

I teach digital motion graphics at Continuing Studies at OCAD.

What I taught in Flash class today. :D

Bye Bye July

2010-08-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Big Foot

dry point, edition of 17

will be available at FanEx (Aug 27-29)

Bye bye July. It was the best month of my life (as long as I can remember.. with a hint of exaggeration). I took it easy in July. Above piece, Big Foot was done just before my July vacation. You can guess my mental state at that point. My parents' store moving, teaching 2 classes, writing papers, drawing, etc., I had been very stressed. My teeth clinching habit came back. So purchased a hockey mouth guard (a cheaper solution for a poor artist like myself - I hear the dental night guard costs over $300) in place of the dentist recommended night guard. I thought they were the same thing. Boy, it wasn't.

I felt dumb spending 20 dollars for it. But I do not give up that easily. I'm going to cut it down to fit it in my mouth. One day, one day, my love!

So anyways, I don't need night guard for a while anyways. After the best month of my life, I feel splendid. I'm going to list how I pressed Hyein reset button:

1. Mexico for a week! As with everywhere I go by myself, I almost cried on the first day out of loneliness. But as always, I loved it starting the second day. It is a very un-cool thing to say, but I do love staying in all-inclusive resorts. Yup, among retired people and rather large Americans, waiting at the buffet cue, I fit right in. It is sad, but I am tired of travelling. At some point in my life, travelling became work. I have to run around, see a lot and experience things to be inspired. But in these all inclusive resorts, I can check my brain on the way in and stare at the ocean for 7 days. AWESOME.

When I meet people who say, "I'm not a tourist. I am a traveller", I want to punch their faces, but I act cool.

I realized I never posted photos from Bruge last year. I will get on that on the next post.

2. Yes, I turned 30 in mid-July. Seriously, I never dreamed of me turning 30. While I was walking yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me that I cannot say I'm in my twenties anymore. Man, I remember my mom turning 30. Anyways... I got great presents! TV tuner and Doctor Who book from my brother. Also grocery bag with a bigfoot on it and gama-go owl wallet. My Emily Strange Wallet was falling apart (all ripped so cards and coins scatter on the floor every time I take it out of my bag), so I was desperate for a new wallet. I suppose not desperate enough to buy one myself... I had over 100 zip lock bags, new wallet could wait. Back to my birthday things, I also got some money from my parents. Cash presents always brighten me up, oh yeah. I heard I have a very low standard for good birthdays, but it was rad.

There are two owl illustrations in this wallet <3

3. I've been on-and-off meditating. One of my favourite illustrators, Aaron Leighton taught me about stress-free meditation methods (check out of his new book, Spirit City). It's strange, time slows down when I meditate but moves fast when I surf internet. Whenever I spend a long time away from internet, I feel refreshed and productive. I seriously considered to cut this evil thing off. But how am I going to work without internet? I'm trapped. Um, back to meditation topic, I'm going to attend free meditation classes for artists coming Fall.

4. Cottage! I haven't been to a cottage in a very long time. When we first move to Canada, we had to have this 'cottage' experience, so we rented a very small dirty cottage somewhere North. It was damp everywhere with dusts, rodents, and broken appliances. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I also had to spent a lot of time in ice cold cottage-like places in my Geological Engineering days. However, this time, it was a very nice and comfortable cottage. It was so much fun to jump into water with inner tube around my waist. I can't wait to do it again someday.

5. Won Friends With You stuff from Magic Pony. I won 2nd place. I never won any lottery in my life. I am still numb from the shock. I thought those prize draws were all fakes. Friends With You is another one of my favourite illustrators. My love for them is just ridiculous! Because I am a crazy person, I haven't opened all the boxes yet. That is for the special occasion and there will be another blog post about that. *pounding heart*

Magic Pony gave me 3 dolls, 2 zipper tops (I don't know what they are), 1 button, 1 tshirt and 1 chocolate. I thought there was only one doll, but they kept coming out of the prize bag. I love you, Friends With You. I was too scared to talk to them at their signing in June. But when I smiled at them, they smiled me back. I think they are very nice dudes.

That ends another super-long and badly written blog post. I should actually be writing my thesis proposal. Grad school is endless writing... I want to paint, dammit! Oh, I got a new studio space at school. I'm sharing the space with one other classmate. I will post pictures later.

Good bye July. You were too kind to me. Now time to go back to work.

Even When Strawberries are Falling From the Sky, We are Sad

2010-06-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

"Technology is ethos, not devices" - Jeanne Randolph
In the present day, technology is not the iPhones, iPads, eBook readers nor computers. Technology as ethos is the god everybody firmly believes in (well aside from money I suppose). We are always pushed to become more efficient and productive. What should be applied to the machines are being applied to human beings. We are told, "Do time management, make plans, be efficient, and for god sakes, do not show any emotion! It's nothing personal that I have to fire you." We live in this repetitive, boxed-in daily lives and come home to a boxed apartment. Is this just current phenomena, or has it been like this ever since we discovered fire. I have no idea. One thing for sure is that most people are unhappy with their daily boxed lives. We cannot be efficient and on schedule all the time. Shit happens. We are not machines after all.

Someone very close to me is chronically depressed. Not many people understand her as she seems to have everything. A beautiful place to live, a good job with benefits, lots of fun travels and lots of money. But as my friend once told me, material things are not a path to happiness, I suppose. I thought of printing her a t-shirt that says "Severely Depressed" with a quirky smiley. But I don't think she'll find that very funny. So here it is, an art work instead for her and for all of us who has to run the rat race. We are sad in our boxed lives. And even when good things are happening; even when strawberries are falling from the sky, we are sad.

This art is for the Strawberry Festival at Port Hope with my collective Not an Octagon. It's far (near Peterborough) but guaranteed good time with tonnes of strawberries. Let's defy productivity and eat some strawberries under the hot summer moon.
This Saturday June 26th at 6pm
Facebook Invitation

We Mop!

2010-06-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

I am having a group show, "Just Act Natural" in Kingston. My piece here is called "We Mop!". These bunnies look like mops and they are sweeping the forest ground. Yeah, I know. I am not too happy with this work either. However, I just didn't have enough time. *cry* My plan to have a painting & illustration focused summer has been shattered. I'm teaching 4 classes this summer (fun classes, I promise!), working as a research assistant, writing thesis paper and auditing a summer printing class. I also work at my parents' store on the weekends. I'd like to live in a world where I can just happily paint, but what can I say. We all gotta pay the bills. Anyways, here it is. Haters gonna hate.

Here is the info if you in the Kingston area:

Studio22

320 King St. East (2nd Floor), Kingston, ON K7L 3B4

Creative Directors: Ally and Hirsch Jacob

613.842.9895 map studio22 homepage

Exhibition: June 25–27th, 2010, 1–5pm daily

Reception: Saturday, June 26th, 2010, 7-10pm

You can view my artist statement for the piece.

Shameless Cover

2010-05-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

I'm on the cover of Shameless Magazine! I thank the wonderful art director, Sheila for all the kindness. It was an absolute delight to work with her. Shameless is a magazine aimed for teen girls. Amidst of countless fashion magazines that focuses on superficial qualities, Shameless reminds us that there are more to life than just appearance. I love working for this magazine. I wish I had this magazine growing up. All I had were fashion magazines like Seventeen and YM. This issue's theme was on sexual health education in Canada. It is a great issue. Available at bookstores near you. Please do check it out!
My Contributor page!

I liked this spread because of donuts. It is an one-eyed snaked going through a donut hole. I tried to make a sexual innuendo without being too overt. It was very challenging.

TCAF photos! Thank you everyone for visiting my table at TCAF. I know my table was a bit harder to find. But I gave away a lot of free stuff. I hope it was worth it. :D Let me know what you thought of my new comic. Yes, I am totally self conscious about it. It is the worst writing ever, but better looking than most of my comics. I have some new (and hopefully better) ideas on the go. I'll have them published for FanEx this August.

I couldn't go to any of the parties during the festival. It was heart-breaking. I was planning to go. However, I was very tired by the end of the day. I also had to print sold-out comics at home. On the last day of the festival, I had to run to friends' wedding. If they let me in again next year, I'm going to attend all the parties (picture me as a Scarlett in Gone with the Wind while she clinches her fists and go "I promise I'll never go hungry again"). It's too bad I cannot drink. Socializing and friendship seem to naturally come with drinking. *sob*

Lastly, me with Banksy in Toronto! It was very exciting to see his work in my town. This one is a little North of Spadina and QueenW.

Hyein at Toronto Comic Arts Festival

2010-05-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

I will be at TCAF! Please come and visit me.

If you mention this blog post, I'll give you a free button. Wow, that was a pure marketing tactic right there. Anyways, come by and chat. I worked so hard for this with very short amount of time (because of school finals and things). However, I got to release a new comic book, "Frequently Asked Question about Threesome". I realized the grammar mistakes after printing. *sigh* Please do scroll down for lots of photos :D (I should really sleep - haven't slept much for past week)

Buttons, I got them!

Stickers! They are only $2 each. Sorry, I cannot give these away for free because I spent so much money printing. *cry*

Shiny sturdy sticker!
I'm on the far right wall of the Second Floor (where web comics are situated). It is a very nice lounge area of Toronto Public Library.
Details:

Saturday May 8th, 9am-5pm
Sunday May 9th, 11am-5pm

@ Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St., Toronto, Canada
416-533-9168
Admission to TCAF is Free.

Here is their website:

http://torontocomics.com/

And here is my related article about TCAF on National Post:

Loneliness Is I & II

2010-04-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

Awesome photographer in my class, Josh Morden filmed this for me. Thank you Josh.

Here is my interactive art project!

I wanted to create a way to escape from reality and into the cartoon world. However, my cartoon world is an ambivalent place. Black rain clouds of rain follows you around.

It is programmed with Processing with a lot of time, pain and tears. I am not sure if I am ever going to venture into the digital interactive world. The installation is up at the Graduate Gallery on 205 Richmond Street West.

Here is the info (but you don't have to come. That's why I embedded videos here):

Pretty Ugly

Graduate Student Gallery

Thursday April 22, 2010 to Saturday May 8, 2010

Gallery Hours 12-6pm

Opening Reception: Friday April 30th, 2010 6pm to 9pm

I'd say it is a pretty bad exhibition. I'm glad we named it 'Pretty Ugly'. Look at the write up for our show:

"First Year Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media and Design present... Pretty Ugly

Pretty Ugly is the critique of aesthetic judgment; the interconnectedness of Art, Media, and Design; the rain on your parade; the definition, limitation, and possibility across disciplines; the abject, the beautiful, the tactile, the patterned, the provocative, the theoretical, the suggestion of something else. Pretty Ugly features new work by MFA, MDes, and MA candidates in the Interdisciplinary Master's of Art, Media, and Design program Teresa Ascencao, Anya Chudnovtseva, Joseph Clement, Barr Gilmore, Hyein Lee , Geneviève Maltais, Josh Morden, Alexei Vella, and Lisa Visser."

I have no idea who wrote this, but I am ashamed of it. I apologize to everyone. Sometimes I think of my Masters program and wonder... Other Master students make the world a better place, save lives by curing cancer and AIDS; raise our standard of life with a new technology; etc. But what do we do? We waste oxygen and space.

Anyways... changing topic... I've been volunteering at TVA (Toronto Vegetarian Association) Resource Centre. They are located at Baldwin and McCaul. We do podcasts, and if you want to hear about me making awkward comments about vegan food, here it is!

This week's TVA Podcast

I Love You In the Most Platonic Way Possible

2010-04-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

That is a lie.

I am totally defeated by MAC. I was so happy until this morning. Everything was working so well. Then today... Well, let me start this rant from the beginning. There is this programming called 'Processing'. It's a java based language that's easier for artists to work with. It is mostly used for interactive art. Here is a WICKED TED talk by Golan Levin on Interactive Art. He uses Processing. I attended his workshop (but I was already his fan).

So I've been working on this interactive art piece for a while. I've completed it last night. It works perfectly fine on my new PC. What a happy day. Our year-end show is coming up this Thursday. So I thought, 'I'll spend an hour setting things up tomorrow morning'.

WRONG!

After 9 hours at the Grad Gallery today, fiddling with iMAC (and never sat down due to the installation set up), I gave up. AV guy and I even installed Windows. Good god. I'm going to go at it again tomorrow morning. Wish me luck, strangers (especially you, anonymous Viagra salesman who spams my blog comments). Hopefully, I get to show you what I've done.

So far, MAC 9: Hyein 0. But it ain't over yet.

Before I close this post, one last thing; platonic. (Man, that's got to be a wrong use of semicolon. But I'm too tired to look it up) I've never heard that word until few years ago. I always thought it was spelled 'plutonic'. The geologist in me was thinking, 'as in hot rock...?' I just learned that it's spelled different.

Cartoon City at Harbourfront Centre

2010-04-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

Mystery Mister Lee

Mixed Media on Wood

18X24"

I was invited to portray my neighbourhood for the Cartoon City exhibition at Harbourfront Centre York Quay Gallery. I went around my neighbourhood taking photos. It is Dundas and Spadina China town area.

Other talented Toronto cartoonists were invited for this show. Among them is Michael Cho! I've been his fan for a long time. It is an honour to be in a show with him. There is an opening for the show, if you'd like to attend. I will be there:

Harbourfront Centre

Friday, April 9th

6-10pm

Here is an artist statement I wrote for the show:

I immigrated to Canada 15 years ago. Before and since, I've been to many beautiful cities around the world. In the end, there isn't anywhere I would rather be than Toronto. With the infinite loneliness of its sky scrapers, with the gritty colours of Chinatown, the dry memories of the summer and the beige slush of the winter; there is no place like here.

Yes, it's basically saying how much I love Toronto. It is not cool to like the place you are living in. Everyone always wishes to be somewhere else. I know. Stores and restaurants close early, very tiny subway lines, it's grayiness (this is what people told me. I don't think Toronto is gray), apathetic people...etc. But I really love it here. There are many reasons: you can walk everywhere, so many vegetarian restaurants, vegan cupcakes, hot hot summer, art supply stores... But most of all this is my home. Something about 'home' that makes you long for no matter where you are.

Lastly, I end this post with pictures of freeze dried strawberries! Freeze dried fruits are some of my favourite things! They are so crunchy, airy and oh-so tasty! I mean, dude, it's astronaut food! ASTRONAUT!!! (no comment on whether or not astronauts actually eat freeze dried food or not) I love it so much I wanted to make them. (they are very expensive) But after learning about the steps and equipments required to do so, I gave up. You need to create a vacuum environment to make freeze dried foods. *sigh* If you are wondering how to make them, check this show out:

Jimmy's Food Factory - Preserving

I hope somebody makes freeze dried soy icecream soon.

We Heart You, Yes You!

2010-03-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

I was keep on falling asleep trying to do homework for tomorrow. Constant complaints about my Master's makes me sound like a very gloom person, I know. Seriously, I'm not! Believe me! Just look at the list of these pretentious words (in readings/discussions/classes, etc) I encounter daily basis. It's bound to make anyone gloom. I keep a list of these. Welcome to "The Words I Absolutely Hate" list (there are some phrases as well):

-autonomy

-discourse: it sounds even more repulsive when people actually use it in conversations

-aesthetics

-obfuscates: WHAT???

-in it of it itself: make a round gesture with your hands while say this BS

-idiosyncratic

-metanarrative: wow, just WOW

-metonymy

-disembodied: pops up everywhere without any restrain. Truly putrid, pretentious word

-disenfranchised

-mirror phase

-Freud: I am very sorry. I know a lot of people worship him, but I really cannot take him seriously. Sounds mostly BS. And please stop bringing Freud on every contemporary art work. Is that really all you got?

-ethnographer (when talking about artists): makes me ill

-paradigm, paradigm shift: I thought you can only use 'paradigm shift' in mathematics. However, since language is a floating thing, it's okay to use it now. This pretentious phrase makes me go ape s**t

-discursive paradigm: not even going to bother looking up dictionary

-reflexivity: *sigh*

-polyphony: Good lord

-dialectic: I just LOVE IT when art theories act like philosophy

-anachronistic

-identity: I realized I can throw in this word during any sentence at any point I want. It's a simple no-brainer word, but at the same time, sounds very professional and Post Modernism. Use 'identity' freely, abundantly

-any French words that isn't translated: I HATE these. Thank you very much. 'dans le vrai', 'vis-a-vis' and alike. Wow. Thank you. Not translating whatever that you are saying, makes you sound really smart. Can I use Korean words freely in my theoretical paper without translation too, just to sound intellectual? Oh, what, Asian words don't count? Maybe some cool Japanese words?

All these 'intellectual papers' written on subject of art is very laughable. Yes, and you got it right, I don't quite understand what I read either. I do not think I'm that dumb. I suspect Contemporary Art criticism is trying to legitimatize itself by sounding quasi-smart, quasi-academic. I swear to god... if I hear 'discourse', 'disembodied' one more time, I'll.....

I should stop here, before I spew out more anger-driven nonsense. What I gotta learn is how to love~

Saga of hateful words continues...

Boobs!

2010-02-23T19:33:00.000-08:00

Boobs!

Mixed Media 9X12

Holy Mongoose... my apologies for abandoning this blog for a month. I've been taking a walk in a wild side. I've opened a food blog through a Korean blog portal. What have I done! It has been too addictive. Because of the shear number of people that uses that site (population in Korea is about 20 million more than Canada, all in a space smaller than Ontario), I've been getting a lot of comments from random friendly strangers. There is nothing more addictive than a false sense of popularity. I've been writing a lot in Korean lately, which is detrimental to my English. It's been only a month, and I already feel like I forgot how to write in English at all.

One might say, "who cares, you are having a good time. It's a hobby". But time is a luxury I cannot effort at the moment. So does my horrid English.

So... I decided to stop my Korean blogging madness. It had served me nothing but wasting time. I'm going to continue write food stuff here instead of that god forbidden Korean blog. Seriously, it's as addictive as gambling (making cross with my fingers). Good lord deliver us!

Here is my food blog in Korean if anyone's interested. There are ample amount of pictures. Please do not use Google translators. Contents are embarrassing at their best.

London Fog

Anyways... changing my topic drastically... the very top art, "Boobs!" is my latest work. I'm having a show in Washington DC, opening in March 1st, at Art Whino G40 Submit. I'm representing Canada~ Woot woot!

Here is more info about the show: Art Whino G40

Sadly, I haven't been able to paint for a quite some time. I swear, doing Master's is sucking creativity out of me. It's all theory theory theory, presentations, meetings, seminars, readings and endless proposal/application writings. However I'm going to stay positive. Illustration has to jump from the print medium, and I'm seeking answers.

So the painting took unusual amount of time and few expensive mistakes *cry*. The end product was sub-par. I was upset with it. However, after looking at it long enough, I got to like it even with its faults. Hopefully I'll do a better version of this. As I was shipping this to the show, I had a hard time letting it go. I want to hang it in my wall!

Okay... these are falling boobs. This painting is against everything I am thinking and learning about at the grad school. Boobs?!? Just boobs?!? One can critique that this is a deep insult to women everywhere, objectifying women as just body parts, etc., etc.. But seriously, I just wanted to paint nice soft things with cute face on it. I do enough theory at school, let's just paint it and get it over with.

Oooooh~ The magic of floating frames! I stocked these during a sale at Curry's (art supply store chain in Toronto area) last summer. I regretted getting these then. But who knew they would come handy! It made my work somehow better. The old maxim was right. Presentation is EVERYTHING. Now I'm going to use floating frames everywhere I can afford.

Punch Me!

2010-01-22T05:22:00.000-08:00

Modern life is stressful. Why don't you punch away! (either that or meditation. But meditation is boring to a MTV generation like myself) This poor creature is like Jesus. Instead of taking away our sins (come to think of it, it does a bit of that too), it takes away our stress. I feel sorry for it, but it is in human nature to sacrifice a blameless cute things (animals, virgins...etc.).

Ideally, I'd like to program in different random sounds, but I don't know how to do that yet.

Step by step "making of" this doll is on the right hand side Hyein's Arduino link.

I apologize for the Korean soap opera noise at the background. I got addicted to this show called 'Pasta'. There are many things to love about this standard love triangle storyline. I love the actress (she's friends with Doona Bae and she starred in Highschool Horror Story). She brings refreshingly funny and quirky dimension to the female lead character. She is one of the best actresses in Korea, but aside from her craft, there is another thing to love about her. She's not conventionally pretty in Korean standards. Finally, an actress who looks down-to-earth.

Also the show centers around FOOD!!! Dude!!!

Of course the story is ridiculous (but food forgives everything. Yes, indeed). A kitchen help girl (with a dream of being a pasta chef one day) is infatuated with an arrogant douche executive chef. I suspect he'll like her back in the coming episodes. A very rich restaurant owner seems to be in love with the kitchen help girl too. Following Korean soap formula, one can safely predict that she'll go for the asshole executive chef. For once in my life, I'd love to see girls (in Korean soaps) go for the nice, rich, handsome man instead of the asshole. Is this really a popular sentiment? In most 'making of' documentaries of these soaps, the lead actresses always say, "Of course I'd go for the nice, rich, handsome one". Likewise, I find nothing appealing about assholes. It just doesn't make sense to me. But I guess whatever floats your boat. My cousin and I were talking about House MD. Suddenly, she said, "I love House. He's very attractive"

"What?!? He is a complete asshole. I mean, it's funny that he is an asshole, but that's not hot. I'd go for Wilson because he's nice"

"Ew! He's not attractive"

Anyways, Pasta, light-hearted fun. Check it.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-23T22:58:00.001-08:00

I help out my parents' store (it's in a suburban mall) every holiday season. Yes, while most people enjoy this time of the year, I work 13 hours a day in crazy busy retail. However, this year, it has been creepily slow! Even worse than the last year, when the market crashed. Come on, people! Buy things! Capitalism has its faults, but it's how our society is structured at the moment. Bad economy => low consumer confidence => worse economy => lower consumer confidence... etc.

Let's move some money around. I'm not saying this just because I want to buy that cute fuzzy small zip-up hoodie from a shopping site with the money you spent at our store. I swear.

Dating an Older Guy

2009-12-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

This was for Shameless Magazine's advice column. The topic was about dating an older guy. An highschool girl is dating a college guy. People judge the couple based on their age gap and tell the girl to leave the guy. The advice basically said to follower her heart.

To be honest, I'd say, "RUN"!!!!!!

From Me to You

2009-12-11T09:19:00.000-08:00

I'm having a show with bunch of illustrators. Among them is one of my favourite artist, Scott Campbell!! He works at DoubleFine game company. They made Psychonauts few years ago and the most importantly, Brütal Legend!! Yo. As a fan of metal music, yes, this game is badass. Oh and he also did a cover of "King of Kong" DVD. If you haven't seen that movie, do watch it. Who knew a documentary about Donkey Kong game could have so much drama.

It'll be an awesome show. If you are around town, please do drop by.

And lastly, I apologize to my friends, family and random passerbys for lack of posts in my blog lately. I've been so busy with school. I got 9 page essay out of the way, most presentations are done. Only one big critique on my way. I hope all these school work is going to worth something in the end.

So Cold..

2009-12-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

It is very owly cold today. It's a gloomy winter.

Watch Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs! Foods falling from sky! It cheered me up.

Please do keep warm.

Canzine

2009-11-01T06:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-10-18T09:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-14T09:10:00.001-07:00

'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

2009-08-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T11:12:00.001-07:00

I Cried a River Over You

Mixed Media on Wood

14"X16"

$350

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!

SOS Show in Kensington Tonight!

2009-07-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

My fellow talented illustrators and I are having a show in the Kensington Market!

My pieces are inspired by my recent trip to Bruges. I'll post my art work after the opening.

Opening is tonight July 30th, 8pm at 165 Augusta Avenue. It's a month-long show so please drop by sometime. I'd love you to come and maybe buy an art or two. :D

Gallery Hours:

Mondays - Closed

Tuesdays - 10am to 5pm

Wednesdays - 10am to 5pm

Thursdays - 10am to 5pm

Fridays - 10am to 5pm

Saturdays - 12pm to 6pm

Sundays - 12pm to 6pm

I Made a Deal with the Devil

2009-07-27T20:35:00.001-07:00

Blue Beard's Bride

9X12 Mixed Media on Stonehenge Paper

$90

Santa Mongoose!

It had been the craziest month in my life so far. The craziest! To my shame, I am hardly ever this busy. I signed up for many shows and they all happen to be on July. Four shows in July!! On top of those, illustration projects flew in. Can a mere human being pull this off? Yes, yes she can. I'm the living proof of it. Bags under my eyes, bloated from sitting all day everyday and acne... Oh I paid dearly. Worst of all, I had to cancel ever anticipated camping to Algonquin this week with friends. I'm all alone in Toronto.

There are loads of new illustrations I should be posting, but I've been too busy. So please visit again in the near future.

This week I'm participating on the "We Made a Deal with the Devil" show. Here is the road show website:

http://methinkspresents.org/expedition

The show will be on the road for a month, from Toronto to Halifax!

Above image is a preview~

One of the things that greatly effected my childhood (along with Aliens, Terminator, etc.) was the tale of Bluebeard. Such a strange story possibly inspired by a serial killer, Giles de Laval. The story book - now banned in children's section - used to give me a lot of nightmares. I always wanted to do something with this story, so here it is. I plan to do series of large pieces based on this concept.

'Vevare, Ve Very Vare' is Bela Lugosi's line.

After I submitted this piece, a friend told me 'be ware' is one word. FML.

Hyein at Magic Pony

2009-07-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Surely you jest! Another show?!
No, no joking around. I'm a serious, serious person.
Yes, another show next week at Magic Pony gallery on the theme of Lonely Robots!
Two of my new works are going to be there. Please come and say hello, if you are nearby.

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 16th 2009, 7-10pm

July 13 - July 19, 2009

Location:
The Magic Pony Gallery :: 694 Queen St West, Toronto, ON M6J 1E7 416.861.1684
http://www.magic-pony.com

My trip blog entry is coming, I promise! I've been too busy painting. And believe or not, more shows to come.

Oh what a gloomy night. It's a gloomy, gloomy night. World's asleep, it's just me, my failure paintings and some sad folk music. On the nights like this, I want to watch Swordsman 2.

The Good Show

2009-07-08T09:15:00.001-07:00

Our illustration collective, "Not an Octagon" is having a show tonight at Balsam in Beaches neighbourhood. Artists Pat, Liz, Wendy and myself are going to be exhibiting. It's one night only, from 6pm at Balsam Bistro: 2343 Queen St. East (at Balsam Ave.) Balsam Bistro is a beautiful little restaurant in the Beaches neighborhood offering a delicious menu and a full bar. Local musician Peirson Ross will be performing a few songs.

Sorry for the last minute posting. My life has been out of sorts ever since I got back from my trip. Stay tuned for the trip photos and Speculoos!!!

Solo Show at Greenavi

2009-06-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

Yesh, yesh, another show! I'm having a solo show at Greenavi organic coffee shop on Queen West.
The paintings are there for the whole month of June, so please drop by! I recommend delicious London Fog and some vegan cheesecake. It's a charming and relaxing coffee shop owned by artists.

490 Queen Street West • Toronto, Ontario • M5V 2B3
Store hours:
Monday to Friday 7:30am – 8pm
Saturday 9am – 8pm
Sunday 9am-6pm

Ok, you must be sick of Hyein's shows... but more shows are coming up. Busy busy busy...

Stickers!

2009-05-23T18:13:00.001-07:00

Stickers are here!
I made these for the good people at VeganFreak. They are aimed for those freaky-minded teenagers. What a wonderful people to work with. They let me do whatever I want, pretty much.

Them being off-set stickers, I had to limit number of colours, omit gradients and textures. It was quite an adventure as I've never worked that way before.

These stickers will soon be available globally. Man, I love saying 'Globally'.

Speaking of 'global'... Here's a global news for you. South Korean ex il presidente committed suicide yesterday. He was Korea's the first "people's president". My mom called crying this morning. Don't cry for me, Argenti...I mean, Korea.

Marcos Chin at FITC

2009-05-11T13:39:00.001-07:00

I attended FITC Design and Technology festival last week. Among many interesting speakers were... THE Marcos Chin!
He lived upto the rumor. He is a ridiculously nice guy. Before we chatted for a bit, he shook my hand and said, "Hi, I'm Marcos"
Dude, I KNOW.

How could an illustrator with his reputation can stay so grounded and kind, I have no idea.

In a completely different note, I am working on..... wait for it......
STICKERS!
Three down, three more to go. I'll post once they are finished. Oh the excitement!

Hyein's Business Cards are Here!

2009-04-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

It's TRUE! Hyein's new business cards are hot off the press!
Come and get 'em while they are hot!
Ask for one, or five, when you see Hyein.
And do please call me some time.

Biting into Mocha Chocolatechip Mooooofins

2009-04-16T07:07:00.001-07:00

Bye bye winter.

I hate waking up so early these days. What is up with me?! I go to bed at 3~4 in the morning, then I wake up at 8. As a night owl worker, being semi-zombie state from the lack of sleep... doesn't help at all. I'm eating coffee-inserted moooofins I baked. If anyone knows good sleeping remedies, please do share with me.

Sinking Ship

2009-04-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

This is for the RRJ article on small magazines' survival in this global recession.
Click below image if you want to read the article.

I get depressed everytime I think about this damn recession. The whole world is changing because of this.
*sigh* Let's ignore the problem, hope for it to go away itself. (probably a bad idea. One should adopt to change... but my room is so warm and cozy)

To distract you from all the gloominess out there, here is an exciting and hopeful TED talk on how bacteria talk to one another.