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:: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 ::

whoosh
welcome to march?!? oy! time does fly, eh?

been happy to get started on the year of the tiger, after a bit of a grueling year of the ox (not bad, just lotsa work...).

lots of things brewing, lots of work happening, lots of change smacking me around (in a very good way). so far, i'm happy with this tiger year. hoping to draw/paint more (always) so that i can pull together an art show later this year. hoping to post more of said drawings/paintings. and hoping to actually sell some stuffs (as soon as i learn how to let go of it...either i'm too ashamed to sell it, or i'm too attached...ridiculous, i know).

oh, and if you're attending this year's apiqwtc lunar new year banquet, i'm donating some art. feel free to start a bidding war. it's for a good cause...

Labels: art, doodle, drawings, illustrations, one-a-day

:: ewee 6:16:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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5 of 100

In accordance with my Sifu's recommendation, I've embarked on 100-days of training. I'm starting small, with a basic set of hand strengthening qi gong exercises. If I get inspired, I'll do my best to work in other movements as I learn them, but I'm setting the bar low, in the hopes that it'll make it more attainable. (Also, I'm admitting it here, hoping that it will keep me honest.)

So far, the main challenge has been to stay focused on each day as it comes. If I look too far out at the remaining days, it quickly feels overwhelming, and all I can see are the many possibilities of failures/missteps.

The movements are still challenging, but, remarkably, I can feel small changes in my body, and I can feel the work pushing through old injuries. By far, the best part has been starting my day in my studio, looking at our yard. I love that view, and no matter how awkward, the movements feel meditative.

It's also gotten me thinking about working my painting/drawing into the practice. 100-days of painting is daunting to consider. After all, my one-a-day has proven to be challenging (definitely in posting, and often in drawing). But I was struck at how well it fit into the idea of the 10,000 hour rule from Outliers.

Devoting time to art is exactly what I want this year to be about.

Although I've been privileged to already have amassed 10,000 hours drawing and painting, it seems like more rigor and more focus could only be for the good. Something leads me to believe that this will dovetail nicely with my impending (looming?) milestone in the next few weeks.

[Also: happy happy 70th bday dad! ...talk about a milestone!]

Labels: art, inspiration, kajukenbo, one-a-day, practice, qi gong

:: Eliza Wee 3:28:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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doodly bits
courtesy of da free box, new notebook (one of those softsided moleskin numbers). enjoying the paper and ink randomness...

Labels: art, doodle, drawings, illustrations, moleskin, one-a-day

:: ewee 7:08:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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More fishcake!
Worked on a few more little paintings. There's also something strange happening with another set of these boards. I'm not happy with how that set is turning out, so no photos yet. More to come soon.

Labels: art, dogdogdog, dogs, doodle, drawings, fishcake, illustrations, one-a-day, painting

:: ewee 11:06:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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exceeding our materials
After tearing through Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide, I decided to give his debut book a try. I haven't even got past the prelude, and I'm already taking notes. He ends this prelude with this lovely paean to art and science:

It is ironic, but true: the one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. This is why we need art. By expressing our actual experience, the artist reminds us that our science is incomplete, that no map of matter will ever explain the immateriality of our consciousness.

The moral of this book is that we are made of art and science. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, but we are also just stuff. We now know enough about the brain to realize that its mystery will always remain. Like a work of art, we exceed our materials.

...The experiment and poem complete each other. The mind is made whole.

He's got a nice touch with verbage--thoughtful, poetic and heartfelt. I'm doing my best to save this read for the coming Thanksgiving holiday, so I can enjoy it at home in our cozy living room, rather than on a cramped Bart or bus ride home.

Labels: art, books, cool science, eyeshurt, inspiration, reading

:: ewee 12:36:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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two more for july
Sketch on left from dimsum and coffee in alameda, and fireworks in jlo square. I love those cranes, can't seem to get enough of 'em. Think it might be time for another sketching excursion by the bay...

The one on the right was started at little skillet and finished during our (ahem) couply head shrinking.

Labels: art, doodle, drawings, illustrations, oaktown, one-a-day

:: ewee 12:10:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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she sees right through me
kehoe's always been able to see right through me. it's partly why i adopted her in the first place. even as a puppy, she had those eyes. right through the puppy prison bars, she looked at me, and it was hook-line-and-sinker. i never had a chance. she's proven to be a very interesting, and at times challenging, dog. with her, i take less for granted. and despite the difficulties, it's hard to express how much i love her, how much she means to me, and how my heart fills with love for this surreal little pup...

Labels: art, dogs, doodle, drawings, illustrations, kehoe, one-a-day

:: ewee 4:19:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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lovely friday off in the bay
this is from a foodly day with miz sy on the occasion of her birfday. 900 grayson, crixa cakes, dinner with friends, and a moment to sketch on the porch of belly p. life could be worse.

Labels: art, doodle, drawings, illustrations, one-a-day

:: ewee 12:37:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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More June/July Sketches
From left to right: Pride/commute doodles. Kehoe (and her cute toes), funny sexy dancing bird from Planet Earth. The chickies from the Vung Homo Maxi-chick-pad (and biker crew).

Labels: art, doodle, drawings, illustrations, one-a-day

:: ewee 1:45:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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catching up...
July was a bit busy for posting, but lots of sketching and some painting happened. Gonna see if I can't catch up a bit and post some photos...

Top sketch is my birthday wish for my Sifu. (We made her a book for her birthday.) Bottom left is just a loose bit of flowers in our yard, bottom right is a quick sketch of the Contemporary Jewish Museum after my Storycorps date with miz sy.

Labels: art, doodle, drawings, h2h, illustrations, one-a-day

:: ewee 12:15:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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Therapeutic
My wandering web ways have caught up with me. Nothing as spectacular or as humiliating as some (well, not yet anyway). It's been a long long time since I've been outta college, and I've been a reluctant alum at best. Since they've never managed to get much of a bead on what I've been up to, I thought I was safe.

My folks would be mortified to know that it wasn't producing progeny or six figure income that got me into the alumni rag (in case you're wondering, I have neither). Lo and behold. It's my noxiously gassy dogs that garnered me a mention--along with my FB tendencies, my predilection for Asian food, and the continued doodling disorder. All-in-all, not as bad as it could've been, and a remarkably good summation of my life. (And marginally better than the fictions I'd meant to send in.)

And despite my best intentions, my one-a-day project has slipped a little behind schedule. But I suspect that my gentle readers will forgive me the lapse (if said readers are even noticing the lapse). But I have been happily doodling my way through all sorts of occasions--the daily drawing is still mostly on schedule. So I'll post them as I can. I've also been working and reading a ton, so perhaps I'll use some of that fodder for my consistently random blog.

Labels: art, dogs, doodle, one-a-day, sketches

:: ewee 5:17:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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For Better or Worse
Been thinking a bit. lots happening offline these days. There's plenty of flak that happens everywhere, and I know that randomness means that anything can happen anytime. Yet, the killing of Marlon Mayorga gave me a bit of pause. A guy walking his dog a block away from his home, on a block that I love. Senseless and close to home, literally and figuratively. And been feeling overwhelmed and hopeless with all the changes at work. Decisions are made, people are discarded, and I don't expect business decisions to make sense to me all the time, but it's hard to keep rolling when it keeps happening, and things don't add up.

So I'm finding myself, on this rainy beginning to a rainy weekend, hunkering down, and thinking about living a right life, and how to appreciate and live life meditatively. We can't control how we enter or leave this world. Shoots, I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't want to have that kinda knowledge or power. But then what can we do? And what a perfect time to read my Buddha books. All we have, all we can do is now. In this moment. There's so much anxiety that drives me. It's good, in that it keeps me working hard and pushing to keep ideas flowing through me. It's bad, in that it can cripple my ability to enjoy the moment, to be here and now.

And to tie it all back to the posting-drawing schedule. Looks like posting once a week is about my speed, tho I'm still drawing nearly daily. It makes sense. Drawing comes to me easier, because it's the way in which I can reach that good crunchy present moment meditative state. When I draw, the constant dialogue is still there, and the lists of things I must accomplish are still there, but none of it is pushing on me as much--it flows, and sometimes, when it flows, it untangles and gets solved on its own. But mainly, it just flows, and I'm able to sit and look and truly see what's in front of me. And if I'm working on something that means something to me--a sketch, a painting--it can move me. Drawing my dogs makes me calm, and sometimes moves me to tears for loving their sweet true dogly selves so much.

So most of the sketches I'm posting this week are of my dogs. I'm working on a couple other paintings and bits, but this week I really got back into spending time seeing my dogs. Kehoe curled up tiny is how I imagine my pup--tiny and curled up and in need of protection. Funny thing is, she's a formidable looking rotty mix, and she's busy with her own defenses for herself and us against all manner of dangers--real and imagined. So many things worry her, and I wonder if she would've been better with an owner who wasn't so predisposed to anxiety and worrying. But dog and people are for better or worse (at least that's my theory), and so we keep on keeping on together.

The other sketches are of the mischievous little Tokimonster at rest. Despite all my defenses, she's carved out her own little curled up spot in my heart.

Labels: art, dogdogdog, dogs, doodle, kehoe, one-a-day, sketches

:: ewee 1:47:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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TGIF Post-it fun
Realized recently that my goal was to draw something every day as a non-punitive nod to lent and all that my Catholic upbringing has done to my psyche. And, can you believe?--Easter's come and gone (marked by the usual conversation with mom: "did you go to church?" "uh, no" {silence}). But here I am, still drawing! Woohoo! Lunamania said it takes 21 days to make something a habit. So I'm wondering if this is a habit yet, or what.

Interestingly, I've found it harder to post than to draw. Which is good, no, great! If I had to choose, it's the daily drawing that I'm more concerned with cultivating. But the interesting bit, to me, is that tho I'm on a computer all day (and able to post incessantly, if I care to), it's the drawing that's easier for me. Well, not easier, but more drawn to (no pun intended). Perhaps it's a function of being on a computer much too much, or perhaps it's simply that drawing and painting do something meditative to me.

Whatever it is, I'm happy to have started this experiment (and it's not over yet...). My next goal is to figure out a schedule for posting. Perhaps once or twice a week. But someway to keep me engaged and putting stuff out there. Also considering putting in an entry for a juried exhibition (thx mosspink for the kickinthepants). And work (not that work, this work) has been engaging and I'm excited to have opportunities to make stuff everyday, whatever the outcome.

Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, sketches

:: ewee 2:36:00 PM [+] :: 2 comments ::
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process of addition
added to monday's sketch over the last couple days. my favorite iteration is midway through the process. too bad it's been obliterated by the ensuing bits, but that's all part of the fun.

these sketches were a good exercise in continuing to work on a drawing (and knowing when it's done). taking photos of the different stages reminded me a bit of the printmaking process, with all its steps and forced stops along the way. my favorite part of the sketch is the spiky plant at the bottom. it's not completely accurate, but i really got into the play of shapes, shadows, and how it organically emerged from the drawing. funny how the loose bits came together so well--letting the image emerge, rather than obsessing about the accuracy of details resulted in a more real (and realistic) drawing. i'm hoping to take this kinetic feeling into more of my work.

(happy tax day y'all)

Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, sketches

:: ewee 10:50:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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one-a-day
well, one-a-day is and isn't a bit of a misnomer. i haven't been able to post as much as i'd like, but i have been drawing daily. baby steps...

this morning was sunny and warm. the jasmine's still blooming (tho slowly starting to drop) and it's feeling like we've turned the bend and are approaching summer. i had a nice bit of calm quiet to sketch and sit in the sun with the pups (kehoe grumbled and went back to her bed, but toki hung out with me, hopefully eyeing her toys). the sketches are a little blah to me. not enough focus to be interesting, not enough time to explore what i'm seeing. but i'm sticking to the idea that the exercise of drawing whenever i can is more important than the end result.

Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, sketches

:: ewee 4:38:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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sketchy post-its
while my computer chews on files, I like to calm my antsy energy by drinking yet more coffee and drawing on whatever is nearby. this series is safely tucked away in a suitcase (wonder whether they'll be discovered online or in transit?) and was a bit of a preverbal noshing on love and the like.

there's three parts:

• the bunnyheaded balloon, with belly palace in the background.
• a stripey starred fellow whose heart (on sleeve) has been flung about...
• the 8 post-its of love (as opposed to the posits of love). little bit of a note ended up on the back inside the coffee rings, and the doodles accordion out in between.

Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, sketches

:: ewee 1:19:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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