Looking back and looking forward

paper cut

I just finished this paper cut, “dragonfly with lotus” and then I was wondering which one was my first on 2014?
After some searching, I found this one, a watercolor, “blue irises”, As I looking back my year past I been spending equal time on my painting and paper cut. Often, I switch back and fore of the two;
Paper cutting is my new medium which I had started to experiment with about two years ago. I enjoy the challenge of only using paper and a knife to create which I learn to be patient as each cut can be crucial to the final outcome. Paper cut is not unlike watercolor; one always needs to think of the positive and negative spaces.
I am looking forward what the next year would bring me and where I would end up.
Wishing you, a happy and creative New Year!

 

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A year of MAC shopping bag make over

It was a year ago; I started to use shopping bags to make art:
Last Christmas I went to the shopping mall, Eaton Center which is near my studio to take photos of the Christmas display. When I was there, I noticed shoppers would discard their shopping bags as soon as they exit the stores.
An idea came to me to give them a new life, I gather a handful of the bags and used for my paper cutting.
With each bag I would incorporated my design with their logo and some are my favors because of their logo.
One of them is the MAC Cosmetic bag with the yellow inside which really add a glow to my finished paper cut. I always get excited whenever finding the MAC bag in the garbage bins.

Here is a little review of my MAC bags make over from last year.

Going home for Christmas

 

watercolor on Arches paper

“Going home for Christmas”

Watercolor on Arches paper, 14″x18″

My one of a kind Christmas gift

 

I just finished my latest commissioned painting and have some free time on hand; I decided to have some fun and make some one of a kind Christmas gifts.
This Christmas bookmark is made from a large Starbucks coffee cup, the string is from an old calendar. Perfect for the book loves I know.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Farewell to the SRT

watercolor on paper, 18″x22″

For twenty years, I travel from my east end home to my downtown studio daily. I first took the bus then the SRT (Scarborough rapid transit, an above ground train) and then the subway which take an hour and half. Every morning, I armed with newspapers, books to well use my travel time. Some days I even work on my drawings while on it.
Although the SRT is only little more than twenty years old, it has many problems with constant break- downs, delays and over crowed, especially during the winter. When it happens, a normal 20 minutes ride would turned into an hour or longer.

Just to avoid all those unforeseen problems, I would raise extra early in the winter when the sky was still dark to get there early.
However, my daily routine has been changed since I relocated my studio back home, no more getting up early, waiting in the frizzing cold the trains any more.
Here is my watercolor painting: “Farewell to the SRT”, 18”X22”

Starbucks bookmark

Starbucks bookmark
For the one who has everything this is my hand-cut one of a kind bookmarks from a recently discarded Starbucks coffee cups just in time for the season of giving.The bookmark still have a slight scent of coffee.

Dancing on the square

 

There is a large square in front of the St. Joseph Cathedral in Beijing: one afternoon as I approaching I could hear rather unusual music playing, it sound Middle Eastern. As I getting close I could see a small crowd gather at one corner, to my surprise a Chinese woman in sunglasses and dress in a colorful costumes was doing a belly dance! The crowds seem to enjoy her performance I watch her for a while took some photos then go on my way.
Later, I discovered, there always some activities going on at the square, from early in the morning till late at night. it could be groups of men playing chess, wedding parties using the cathedral as backdrop for wedding photos.
One afternoon a young man was there lip synching, dancing with an empty water bottle, as he was rehearing for an singing contest

At night, it was even more interesting; two groups of dancers, one of mainly middle age man and women, doing the slow ball room dancing. The other was a group of young guys doing a combination of hip hop with break dance. They seem to respect each others’ spaces with an invisible line separated the two at the middle of the square. Both had their own music (big band music for the slow dancers and hip hop for the young guys) they were illumined by the moonlight above and lights from the billboard across the street.