Faking It

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Retro Bunny

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

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

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

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

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

 Ladies and gentlemen... the dancing bear!

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

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

FITC 2012

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

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

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

More posts are coming shortly. I pinky-promise ♥

Comic Strawberry Jam

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

Stores with Hyein Stuff ;D

October 2012 Calendar for Kid Icarus

There are some of my stuff on sale at selected stores in Toronto. You can get a hand silk-screened 2012 calendar by Kid Icarus. They invited Toronto illustrators to illustrate each month. I mentioned it back in my November post. Above is the full illustration. I am not suppose to show my image, so I changed the background and colour. You can purchase the calendar at Kid Icarus.

Magic Mug: when you pour hot water, monsters show up! Available at Miracle Thieves

Mr. Furry Pants mouse pad at Miracle Thieves

Wonderful ladies at Miracle Thieves are carrying my stuff in their store. Check out their store, it's filled with handmade goods from local artists. :D

My friends and I at Miracle Thieves winter sales opening

My mugs got featured at Toronto Standard.

Speaking of buying stuff, I bought a couple of silicon squeeze bottles by GoToob today. I wanted to fill it with Aveeno lotion for Lee. They were small enough to carry around in a pocket. I was so excited about them. Made with silicon! But once I got home, I read on their website that Aveeno lotion is not recommended inside of the bottles. I looked up each ingredient and found out that there is a type of silicon in Aveeno lotion. Silicon in the lotion would melt the bottle. Craziness!
I already sanitized, washed and dried the bottles so I cannot refund them. But I'm sure I can find million ways to use them, they are so cool. I love silicon.

Hungry Lies

 Piece I've done for the awesome, fun, cool and nice people at Broken Pencil. Thank you so much for your awesomeness!

Yay!

My illustrator friends Ben Rivers and Matt Daley, we all occupied this issue of Broken Pencil side-by-side :D

It seems like I only post when I'm sick one way or other, but yes, I am sick again. As I lay with a hot water bottle, I thought, 'why don't I post on my blog?' My apologies, I will post once a week like before. Many news to cover.
Anyways, back to being sick, I ate a huge pile of deep fried squash last night, which made me so sick. My body cannot take the beatings as it used to.

My very nice friend Gregory found me tickets to "Kim's Convenience" by Soulpepper Theatre. I went to see it last night after eating a pile of deep fried stuff. Good god, I think my stomach churned watching the show. It was about Korean first generation, sacrificing everything to come to Canada and raising their kids. A story of my parents! My dad used to be a top interior designer in Korea, and my mom was an art teacher who had many friends. They threw away everything to come to Canada for my brother and I. They are nothing now, just working in a engraving/embroidery shop, while strangers treat them rudely. My dad loves Canada, but my mom still has a hard time connecting.
Anyways, the play was suppose to be a tear jerker. But I couldn't cry. I almost threw up and had many impulses to leave the theatre. I felt soooooo guilty. I already feel guilty all the time, I don't know if I needed more. I'm grateful that my parents brought me to Canada. I wish I were making tonnes of money to make their lives comfortable. Hahaha.. but I can barely take care of myself. One day, mom. I'll get you that diamond ring you never got. And give my dad a dirty look. I'm kidding.

In the spirit of this stream of consciousness writing exercise... more on injuries. My body has many patches of bruises from playing extreme ping pong two days ago. Good god, I need new shoes. The sneakers I have are heelys. They are one of those sneakers that have wheels in the sole. If any one of you are thinking of buying those... please don't. I almost killed myself many times, and they are not as cool as you think it'd be if you are over 25. I took out the wheels to wear as a regular sneakers. But the heels are still slippery plastic. I slipped, rolled and fell, attempting to hit the ping pong ball.

Another big bruise came from a pancake accident. Suddenly, piles of my owl bowls, plates, etc. crashed down on my hand in my kitchen. I got big bruises. I don't care for pain, I just hope it doesn't leave scars.

Pancake injuries <( ; ~ ; )>
Okay, doesn't look that bad in photo. And yes, I'm a delicate buttercup.

And that leads to an interesting topic. Pancakes! Bunena chocolate vegan pancakes to be exact! I got very good at making pancakes believe or not. Here is the recipe. Fold in dark chocolate pieces just before pan frying. Or just come over, bring some ripe bunenas. I'll make you pancakes anytime of the day.

AGO Gift Shop

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