Art-O-Mat!

I was asked to contribute to a special project to celebrate the Art-O-Mat in Richmond on Wednesday, Nov. 30th from 6 - 8 pm at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. It is its 10th Anniversary of being at home at The Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Here is info from the press release:

Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art. There are more than 90 active machines in various locations throughout the country. Richmond's machine is #33, meaning its the 33rd machine put into action. The international project was created in 1997 by Winston-Salem artist and Art-o-mat National Bureau Chief, Clark Whittington, who refurbishes every machine and manages the ever-expanding Art-o-mat project.

A special display of Art-o-mat art, curated by longtime Art-o-mat supporter and artist, Alyssa Salomon, will be on display in the lobby of the Visual Arts Center from November 30, 2011 – January 22, 2012.

In honor of this momentous anniversary, 17 well respected Richmond artists, plus North Carolina-based Art-o-mat founder Clark Whittington, are creating limited 20-piece editions. These works will be loaded in the Richmond Art-o-mat on Nov. 30 and available until sold out.  Perfect gifts for you & those on your lists.

Art-o-mat founder Clark Whittington presents a talk about the history of the Art-o-mat project at 6:30 p.m., plus a festive reception, AND special Anniversary Art-o-mat art loaded in our local machine and available for sale, for just $5 just like always.

This event is free and open to the public.

I made a limited edition print (only 21 prints!) of a little terrarium in a bottle. I painted the edge of each block with either lime green, orange, or pink, so it's a surprise which one you will receive.  and only for $5! come on down to the Visual Arts Center and get yours!

NON SENSE poetry chapbook

okay, here it is: my first chapbook-length book of poems! 17 of them - about dreams, the frailty and strength of human existence, non-being, mystery, and renewal. it's hard for me to describe. but it means a lot to be able to share something that came from the more raw and tender parts of my heart with friends, family, and the world. I pulled together glimpes of my last few years in words and arranged them in four parts: "Non," "Sense," Promise," and "Return."

Excerpt from the poem "Chrysalis":

wet one finger to the wind &
follow the cold on your skin
your weathered face says much
& little
to one who needs to know
where to begin & end
when to follow & when to sing

This book was lovingly handbound by myself using sturdy yellow thread on an apple green gatefold cover. I typed the poems using a Tower Challenger typewriter, laid out every page by hand using the classic cut-&-paste technique, then photocopied it all onto a very pale chartreuse recycled paper. Each cover is also inset with an original cyanotype image in deep prussian blue and white.

"Non Sense" is printed in an edition of 75 copies. Each is numbered and signed by me. you can buy your own copy in my shop.

here are some photos of the process of making each cyanotype:

 

i arranged string and words i cut out of paper onto a pre-coated cyanotype paper (I used Tedco Sun Art Paper), then exposed the paper to UV light using a UV light unit (if you do this at home, you can just expose the paper to sunlight).

This is how the paper looks after being exposed to light.

then i rinsed the paper in water. you can see how the color reverses once water hits it. i had to repeat the process for each piece of paper, so they are all just a little bit different.

the making of each book is time-consuming, but i feel like it adds to the special handmade character of the chapbook.

hello goodbye images

okay, finally got around to posting images from my latest show "hello goodbye." see the rest of the images here. i'm posting a fancy little artist statement - hope it's not too pretentious. but it does reflect my thought process as i made these pieces. this has been the most personal work i've made in a long time. i've been sifting through a lot of memories in my head these days that make me sad at times. it's hard to reconcile the past, but art is the best way i know how to do it. hope you enjoy. and keep a look-out because i'll be posting some more artwork soon. love to all - aijung.

hello goodbye

Human beings moult just like other animals, only the skins we shed are psychic. Our scars are weighted with stories. The rambling moments accumulate as days, months, and years. We move forward through life by shedding joy and pain, occupations and lovers. We lose who we were in order to reinvent ourselves.

I am drawn to the tenuousness of life. It floats as delicate and strong as silk thread. As an artist, I process my experience through the creation of images – by stitching in the moments, scratching in the lines with ink. I create new forms with hands embedded with the past.

Through this series of work, I seek to find the infinite in the evanescent. It is my attempt to navigate the world through the corporeality of a body while also unveiling the invisible thread that runs through everyday life and keeps us pressing forward. I embrace the little deaths that we experience – a flower that begins to die once it is cut, breath exhaled as cigarette smoke, the shadowy flutter of moths, the passing of one more train. Each moment exists and is shed in favor of the fugitive, liquid moment. Only by saying goodbye can we begin to say hello.

hello goodbye

hi everyone!

it's been awhile. i've been busy. i have a show coming up and as soon as i get the work photographed i will post it on my website. i've been experimenting with cyanotypes, drawing, stitching, and portraiture. for now, here's a teaser with this postcard. it's a group show with it's a group show with myself, Ingrid Moldenhauer Chase, Matt Lively, Corey Durbin, Albert Epshteyn, Sterling Hundley, Josh George, and Jeff Love. there are a bunch of cool illustrations, oil paintings, terrariums, and squiggle drawings. a mixed bag of goodness. please come see for yourself if you're in the area!

Greetings from Comic Book Land!

whew, so it's been over 4 months since i last posted. i actually have been busy, and intermittently lazy, with art and writing and teaching and some travelling and such. but what i really want to talk about is my trip to Washington, D.C. last weekend where I visited my college friend Patty and attended the Small Press Expo (or SPX) nearby in Bethesda, Maryland. Patty and I both went to Pratt Institute where I majored in Fine Arts Printmaking and she ended with a degree in illustration. Patty helped introduce me to comics back when i was interested but didn't know where to start. ah, the good old days of "Johnny the Homocidal Maniac" and visiting Forbidden Planet at Union Square. i hadn't seen her for years, so it was really nice to hang out with her and her sister Sarah and discover some new comics talent.

 

patty (on the left) and me. an amazing savory potato-chive waffle and salad at a belgian place in D.C. where i discovered that i really like pinot gris. which is saying a lot since i don't usually enjoy alcohol.

i have to say that i admire all the freaks who call themselves comic book artists. i use the term affectionately, since i have made a few short comics in my time and i understand that it requires an obsessive and self-motivated personality to produce such things. you gotta believe in what you're doing because why else would you spend so much time drawing each and every tiny panel. also, i believe that comic book art is truly a democratic medium. anyone can put anything they want onto paper and call it art. sometimes it is terrible and sometimes some magical things spring from this uncensored and unique format. i myself love comics because they are a blend of art, writing, and cinema. they tell stories that might not normally be told. they are weird and beautiful and reading them brings me a pleasure that nothing else can.

so onto the show! it was totally packed and noisy and full of tablers. i probably missed out on some good stuff because after 4 hours i was overloaded and i know that i hadn't seen everything. i definitely want to go again next year. there were some awesome artists and it was cool to be able to talk with them and have them sign my comic books.

these were some of the gems i picked up at the show. i would've liked to get more, but at some point i had to be frugal. so i'll review what i got:

so Corinne Mucha is one of my comic book heroes. i love her simple, yet at the same time detailed, way of drawing and the fact that her comics are SO funny. i picked up her comic "My Every Single Thought: What I Think About Being Single" which she signed for me with a doodle of a sad cupid. this comic made me laugh and commiserate many times about the ups and downs of what media tells us is a pitiful state of existence. i almost didn't want to part with this comic, but ended up mailing it to someone who i thought would appreciate it more right now. Corinne also just published a young-adult graphic novel about high school life which looked pretty cool. wish i'd had something like that back in my awkward years. oh wait, i'm still awkward. oh well.

this chap came all the way over from Manchester, UK! His name is Joe List and he makes comics that are absurd yet at the same time heart-felt. this one is called "Skimpy Jim," about a hair-creature that materializes from a boy's unruly mop-top. Skimpy Jim wanders the streets trying to figure out the true nature of himself, good, and evil. heavy stuff. super-cute drawing style.

I was delighted to find a former Pratt-alumnus at the expo, Laura Terry! I had once taken a sculpture class with her back in the day. she attended the Center for Cartoon Studies in vermont (imagine - a school dedicated solely to comic book art!) and is now making comics and doing freelance illustration. this lovely comic called "Morning Song" was nominated for an Ignatz award for Outstanding Mini-Comic. laura has a very fluid drawing style and beautiful sense of color.

i picked up "Blammo #7" by Noah Van Sciver, who came all the way down from denver, CO with his publisher Kilgore Books. i'd never read his comics before, but i like the way he draws people and the ways that he tells stories. this collection was a bunch of seemingly unrelated narratives (actually, i suppose that death played a role in most, but i'm not sure how purposeful that was), including the one above about a grim young man who helps out a girl who gets lost on Halloween. the other stories in the collection include a couple of horror stories about near-scrapes with death, an unemployed dead-beat, and a historical account of the beginnings of Mormonism, the acceptance and rejection of which Van Sciver later reveals was a large part of his formative years. his comics are very self-aware and modelled after older alternative comics serials (including fake ads and a letters page), yet there is a sense of sincerity throughout.

David Mack had the most crafty-artistic display that i saw at SPX. he had many little books that showed a fine eye for detail and experimentation. one of his comics, Steak and Cake, used punch-outs on the cover to reveal said steak and cake characters. he also had cards, etchings, and originial drawings. the comic above was a tiny little story about a sheep in wolf's clothing, perfect for anyone who has felt out of place in their world (with a happy ending, too!)

okay, so that's the majority of it. i got my comic fix for sure. i wish the best of luck to all the aforementioned comic book artists and also ones that i didn't talk about. i do admire you guys, and you have inspired me to set aside time to make my own comics again! when that will happen, i'm not sure...

speaking of, i have done a couple of comic/zine collaborations with the amazing Katie Green that i am sheepish to say i have still not posted about. but i assure you they will be in an upcoming post real soon. and i have a few other things to report on as well. all in good time. for now, enjoy your day everyone and keep creating whatever it is you create!

I am a sketchbook...

hello everyone, this post will be long and a bit more personal than most because i feel the need to share what i've been going through lately. for the past couple of months i've been pretty busy working at a gift shop and teaching, and i feel a bit guilty blogging when there are more pressing things i could be doing. but i realized that i need to do this because i need to share at least some of what i've worked on since january. i want to feel  like an artist again, and an important part of that is sharing. when i make art, i have a relationship between myself and what i'm creating. that is essential. but sometimes it's not enough. i almost always have an audience in mind, even if what i make is mostly just for me. so right now, all i'm working on is process and that is what i'm sharing with you.

here is my newest sketchbook that i made some months ago. i hand-bound it with coptic stitch and decorated the covers with gouache. i wanted it to be looser and freer than my other sketchbooks have been.

here is a sketch of one of my children's book ideas. remember i was taking that class awhile back? well, i took almost a month to even decide on my idea. i had several of my own ideas i was working on, but decided i needed more time to develop my writing. so i chose an e. e. cummings poem "maggie and molly and milly and may." i typeset and printed most of the poem, but haven't even worked on the visuals yet. another one of my backburner projects.

here are just some random paintings and drawings. i got really excited about working with watercolor and painting again. while i love printmaking and all the process involved, i really enjoy the spontaneity of working with paint and the primal-ness of simply drawing. can you tell that i'm also really getting into using color?

i must admit, i've been a bit "blue" for the past month. maybe that's not the right word. anxious, lost, depressed, angry, imbalanced. there are different reasons for this, and part of it is that i haven't had much energy to create art for the past couple months. i've been trying to balance myself physically and emotionally by going to yoga regularly, but it's quite frustrating to not have any energy to create new things. at least i've been writing poems and making some art in my sketchbook just for fun every so often. making things for fun or self-therapy was not really part of my life until lately when i realized i don't have time to do much else. since graduating from college, i have felt a drive to create art that is presentable to the public or immediately "sellable," because one of my goals in life is to be able to make my living from my art. but driving my art in that way is not always healthy. everyone needs time to not know what they are doing, to not have a finished product in mind. wandering is part of the process, a very essential part that i have neglected. so maybe these negative feelings are okay. they remind me not to get ahead of myself, to be myself whatever that happens to be at the moment.

Unraveled Revelry Banner and Interview

hello all,

sorry it has been quiet around here lately. i've been working and teaching a lot lately, and i don't have much time or creative energy to work on my own art. i've done a few doodles in my sketchbook which i will share when i get a chance.

in the meantime, i'd like to show you this banner i was commissioned to illustrate awhile back and finished recently. it's for Elizabeth Revels, the eco-conscious crafter behind Unraveled Revelry. she's a cool gal who makes awesome things like board games and messenger bags out of upcycled materials.

Check out her shop and also her blog, where she did an interview with me as part of her "Self-made Saturdays" series. and just a reminder, Earth Day is on April 22nd!