aloha

This girl welcomes you on my cover letter. Please don't steal her!

new screensaver

I have a new screensaver! I spent some time to make it today and I think it's brilliant. I know I'm entirely complimenting myself but really. It's adorable. It makes me smile every time my computer goes idle. Anyway I'm so happy about it that I made an illustration for it. Enjoy!

Striped cat

For some reason, I always think this thing is a bunny.

Hide and Seek

Don't be afraid.

Tiger?

Meow?

Everything is Going to Be Awesome

Indeed...(hellppp)

child octopus

: (

profile

I was on the phone chattin' and a bit bored. Here's another profile picture, only it's also based on an outdated photo. I've no longer got waves in my hair : (
And if you don't believe it's me, here, seeee?

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Year of the Horse

I wanted to send my friends some love for Chinese New Year, a card, or an illustration, or both, but I couldn't come up with anything I was satisfied with. This is far as I got and then Chinese New Year got really busy.

Bear says hello

HI!

sidecar

Boyfriend bought a motorcycle a few years ago. He took it apart and I've never seen it since, but if I could get my hands on it, I'd add a sidecar.

pitches, pitches, pitches!

Was at the Health Hackathon and our exuberant MC of the event excitedly exclaimed, "Pitches! Pitches! Pitches! Are we reaaaady for Pitches!!" to start off the night. (And it sounded like otherwise)

Conversations with J

I met up with an old friend in Vancouver in April, and had a wonderful conversation. It was a really nice reunion and he is one of the few who understands both sides of my life. Anyway, I didn't have a pen so I transcribed as much as I could on the ipad.. if you can read it. Otherwise...


On the topic of creativity, and being a good artist, wherein my friend is afraid that his work is too 'safe'..

"I would like to live a simple life. Just a bed and a desk, nothing. What is all my stuff worth?" J asks.
Is he too safe? He is not a crazy artist/creative person (he is very balanced), so his work is 'safe'. Therefore there is no 'edge' in his work. But is that what makes better work? Craziness? Unbalanced-ness? I postulate.

"I think you cannot gauge art against other art. As there are different artists out there, they each have their own strength, quality and style. Can you say who is better, Picasso or Mondrian? What one admires in Keith Harring for Keith Harring's style is uniquely his and is something Yoshitomo Nara will not come up with." I reply.

"But," J argues, "What is skill?"

"To me, drawing is a skill, that is something you can sharpen. Draw all day, every day and you will improve. Guaranteed. Actually the question is perhaps, 'What is talent?'" I continue, "Talent is creativity and skill. Because you can have talent, but you need skill to ---- that talent into something understandable for other people."

"That's not true" he argues, "you can sit and do things 10x faster than the normal 'untalented' guy. I don't argue, that creativity comes from character and experiences, drawing is a skill you hone/sharpen. That will make you faster and more adept at it. It is a mental model perhaps even. But creativity? That cannot be trained!" At this point he seemed exasperated.

Hard work pays off, promise.

self portrait, 2011

Its digital! my doodles just went next level. This is my 2011 self.

Exhbit-B - Behind the scenes

Because the focus of the conference is on education, we created an extra side exhibition based on understanding how much work is involved in creating the conference. We wanted transparency so participants can see that there is more than just speakers and performers coming up on stage on time and that their subdivisions could host a conference if they wanted to too.

In order to be brief and succinct, I was only able to list out major departments on why they are important and their main tasks and/or difficulties. Originally, if given more space, I would have pinned real objects, photos, and drafts of proposals stacked in a pile. 

original space, then cut down in half..

IBLYARC Stage

A stage decoration was asked for two events during the conference, the Welcoming Dinner and the Buddha's Light Night. They wanted something that said, "Hey, look, we (Toronto) are your hosts, but we are happy you (any other city, Canadian or American) are here too with us." without looking nationalistic (via hanging a big flag) and looking like a political campaign. 

So I set to create a cityscape that held icons from each participating city in the conference. From left to right: Dallas (Tower), Orlando (Disney), Edmonton (City hall), New York (Liberty), Toronto (CN tower), Montreal (Biodome), Vancouver (Totem pole), Fremont (City hall), and Los Angeles (Hollywood).

Construction first draft

Construction took a while to figure out. We wanted something that wouldn't take up too much stage space and wouldn't fall over when people are dancing on stage. In the end we built everything out of foamcore and supported it with wooden posts and bags of rice as weights. A light ran between the skyline and the buildings to create extra depth and shadows.

go team!

Man this is going to be a rough month.

meow

I think you would.

Steve Hon prints shirts

This guy prints my shirts. He's really super!

Sponsorbook sketchbook pages

Working on a hunch for a background for the sponsor pages. A light image of the youth working together, happy and collaborating, and on top, are our sponsors, helping us make it happen.