★★ Twinkling Stars Above ★★

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!)

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 ★★

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

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

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

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

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

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.