The work below is entitled “Heirloom” and is probably the last artwork of mine that will published in Malate Literary Folio (at least as a member). It’s currently one of my favourite works and last time I checked it is still being displayed at Exile on Main Street bar & restaurant.
Left: ‘Hairloom’ (2010), Watercolours on thick sketchpad paper || Right: ‘Heirloom’ (2012), Mixed media collage on wood panel
To those who are now familiar with how my process in making a/an drawing/painting/collage/artwork go I like creating works which prod the viewers to close-read it to make sense of it. I love surrealism and the philosophy behind the art movement, in addition I often enjoy works which present something perhaps only found inhabiting ones dreams or imagination. Most of the time when people ask me what is the meaning behind my painting I often reply back with the same question, ‘what do you think it means?’. Normally I just do this because I love hearing what other get out of my work, but another reason is to see whether or not my own personal concept has translated well onto the piece itself. In the case of “Heirloom” I have heard only one or two interpretations of the work and I was glad to hear their ideas were quite in-line with my original concept. It makes me feel that I did a good job in portraying my feelings in an image.
Another reason why I’m fond with this work is because it was one of the few revised artworks I have done which does not look like a cleaned-up second copy of the the original work. If you look back and forth from the original work done in 2010 to the final 2012 work the only thing that seems the same is the fact that the older man’s beard grows into the younger man’s hair, and the use of the sun-halo behind both figures. Everything else on the other hand has changed from the colours, their faces, and the position of younger man has changed. Okay, on one hand the original does not look that different from its original concept. However, for me this is a big change. Normally when I’m asked to revise I just fix those things which I was asked to fix be it colours, position of a hand, etc. And in the end those revisions look exactly like the first artwork just with perhaps one or two minor alterations. Heirloom was different and I’m quite happy about it and it makes me want to revise more old artworks and see what I can come up with.
Remil posted a link yesterday followed by a cheesy line so here’s my in retaliation but on WordPress because facebook is just too big a space to share this.
Other things I could’ve put in the speech bubble:
“If my penis drawings get me accused for commiting cybercrime you’d visit me, right?” “Yeah.”
or
“Your mouth smells like your breakfast.” “Why thank you.”
When was the last time I got into blogging? I don’t know, if you don’t count out the playlist-that-never-was posts (which I still have yet to finish due to my forgetfulness and aptitude for not finishing what I start) the last time I updated this blog was a while back. My lack of activeness is mostly due to the lack of illustrations and other works I’ve been producing on my own accord. It’s not artist’s block of anything, rather it’s my lack of willpower to get off my butt and just draw, draw, draw or paint, paint, paint. It’s a bit unsettling, actually.
Given that I’ve been taken on two random commissions. One to do a logo for a friend’s bakeshop and the other to draw up my my other friend’s cover for his steampunk album. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I believe art should be done for profit or material gain, the commissions just help give me structure and motivation (in the form of deadlines and cheesecake-pie as pay) to actually produce something. Maybe it’s the fact that for the past 3 (if not 4) years I’ve gotten used to the system of the publication I was in which worked on more or less strict deadlines and an environment which bred this habit of always wanting to make something. With graduation being ten days away I somewhat shudder at the idea of being in this constant dry spell once I get my diploma. So here’s to hoping those two commissions and my promise to Joelle to make ACEO cards (which is actually underway because I started cutting up paper) will get me back into the groove.
I haven’t seen familiar faces (mostly those of my female wunderkind friends) in a while too. This bums me out. If I haven’t seen your face in a while don’t worry, I’m trying to update myself by reading/lurking around your blog. If you don’t have one then I’m probably lurking around your facebook profile. Ha ha.
In other news, I’ve been trying to exercise in order to lose weight and be able to flex. For those who don’t know this embarrassing fact, I cannot flex a muscle even if my life depended on it. There is too much fat over the muscle for me to flex, or so I’ve come to believe/understand. So I’ve been hopping on a bike, lacing up a pair of actual non-converse-or-vans rubber shoes and awkwardly jog-walking around my village. My dear friends I am so unhealthy and here’s me trying to fix it without vices, be proud.
Dating bears should come with a warning. “Caution: May give you this urge to eat more than you normally would and will guilt trip you if you skip meals”.
Did no exercise today though because the weather’s been wet. Fingers crossed that tomorrow yields a clearer sky.
Currently Remil is out-of-town being a bear and will not be around till Tuesday. Given that I have no idea what to put for his last two songs (because the playlist is very spontaneous) I’ll just make this temp post and edit it whenever I finally have those songs in mind. Until then, enjoy this printscreen of Remil and I in the midst of a Skype conversation from a previous month. Note that we’re turds.
Remil had this one screenshot wherein he looked terribly handsome. Of course I had to show this one instead because of the chat.
D-day is actually in less than an hour. Given that most of my finals are over and the term is closing and I will possibly drink myself happy tomorrow here’s a pretty cliche’ but (I believe) fitting song for The Playlist That Never Was. Non-specified category because it’s either very obvious or I’m just too chicken to mention which category this falls under.
This song is self-explanatory and I think it should speak for itself…that and I’m tired tonight. Ha ha.
Due to thesis being a bitch I forgot to post a new video for the Playlist that Never Was. To make-up for it, here are two videos for the categories of “Dear Fucker, here’s my music and may you think I’m awesome” and “Dear Fucker, here are some shit I think you’d get a kick out of” respectively. For those of you who keep tabs, I’m currently not tackling any considered love-songs because I’m doing that on the d-day itself to be all sentimental and gay like that. By the by, I realized that I counted the days wrong. I was a day late this entire time, so d-day is in two days. Damn me and my bad math.
“Cannonball” – The Breeders (1993)
“Transmission – Joy Division (1979)
Other runner-up artists include Nada Surf (esp. their song/spoken word poem “Popular) and The Pixies (probably something from Doolittle) and the Violent Femmes (either Blister in the Sun or Kiss Off).
So what makes these songs special? Well for one thing both songs can belong to either category and it wouldn’t matter because they both define what I love about music. Musical acts from the 70s and grungey/post-grunge sounds slay me all the goddamn time. What I like about Cannonball is the fact that the bass line is one of the most memorable bass lines I have ever encountered. In the same fashion as the Pixies, simple bass lines equal catchy equal memorable equal the perfect way to tie a song together. Also, The Breeders were one of these almost all-girl bands and you gotta love that. Joy Division is self-explanatory. I honestly could not deal with Remil saying he didn’t delve much into Joy Division (same goes for the Pixies) so here is one of their note-worthy songs from the infamous Peel Sessions. I think I also chose Joy Division in the end because of Curtis’ epileptic dancing which should resonate well with Remil since he listens to Talking Heads.
Today’s video is brought to you by the category, “Dear Fucker, here are some shit I think you’d get a kick out of.”
“Burning” – The Whitest Boy Alive (2011) @ BeatFest
I quite honestly do not have any cool background story to this similar to the previous posts. I always found this category the hardest to fill up because Remil’s music tastes are pretty much covered in the stuff I didn’t even touch until late high school and early college. His high level as an internet dweller also makes me half-fearful that whatever I share is something he’s already passed by before. So yeah, this category was such a bitch to me.
Reasons why I think Remil would probably like The Whitest Boy Alive:
(1) for the superficial reason of their band name
(2) (German-Norwegian) indie pop funk sound
(3) my god just look at what they look like
(4) did I mention that the singer/lead guitarist is Erlend Øye of Kings of Convenience?
I totally recommend listening to the album version of the song as well if not just downloading their album Dreams (2006) in its entirety and listening to it from start to end. Un-shuffled and on repeat for the best listening sound. I would honestly jizz if they made an entire live album of Dreams because their music just makes me want to sink into something and let my mind do all the dancing for me. So yeah. Indie pop, you can’t go wrong with that.
Five more days to go till d-day and I have a gross exam to try to ace. Dear Remil, I probably made you listen to The Whitest Boy Alive before but here’s me selling the band again because I’m stubborn like that.
It is now six more days until d-day and I am continuing the spirit of sharing music for “The Playlist that Never Was”. If you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to the previous post to update yourself. Today’s song-video on the list falls under the category “Dear Fucker, here’s my music and may you think I’m awesome” for terribly obvious and semi-stupid reasons. Without further ado, here is the song.
“Can’t Stand Me Now” – The Libertines (2002)
Why this song: because yr not punk & I am.
No. I’m not kidding. I totally thought The Libertines were so flippin’ punk. I also went through this embarrassing phase starting at the age of 12 until probably 15 wherein I would only listen to punk music or anything vintage rock. *le sigh* Up to this day I still remember stabbing my eye with cheap black eyeliner, using a sharpie to paint my nails black, and looking for studded belts while dreaming of Sid Vicious. I was so early 2000s punk revival it hurt. I found The Libertines by chance when I still listened to the the radio on yahoo messenger. If anyone still remember the yahoo radio/music system how it goes it that you input your favourite bands/artists and songs and the radio will dish out songs from what you like but also include similar artists/songs which you may or may not like. It’s like last.fm but it was run by yahoo and it played on messenger. Generally, it was cool shit back in the day for me.
This particular song didn’t play on random, it was actually “Don’t Look Back Into the Sun” which sold me to the band’s sound (because they sounded like The ClashxArctic Monkeys in my teenage brain). Almost immediately I fired up LimeWire (high-fives to all of you who remember/used this program) and downloaded as much music of theirs as I could. I fell in love with Can’t Stand Me Now and it was one of my most played songs on my first iPod (R.I.P. Jeeves I).
There were probably a bunch of other songs I could put under this category but it’s fucking hard to choose. As in, originally the task was to sum up your taste in music in six songs. I dunno about other people, but that’s fucking hard for me to do. What it makes it more hard is if you’re super OC, like Remil, and list these songs in a specific order to ensure a good sound flow for your listening. Well now I’m just down to two songs but I figure Remil probably gets the general idea of what I listen to nowadays and this playlist is for him after all so I shouldn’t stress to much in trying to define myself with music. Eww, long run-on sentence. Eww. Anyway, The Libertines from what I know now is not punk and I was probably never really punk but who the fuck cares? A lot of my music sounded the way The Libertines did. A lot of what I like in music in general can be seen in Brit rock. So “Can’t Stand Me Now” works perfectly, I suppose. Not to mention, it’s a catchy song. Totally wasn’t surprised when I learned it was a single (which was a year later because I just listened to music but didn’t care about the news and publicity and shit, haha).
In summation, hai Remil. I’m punk and yr not. Six more days to go!
Some time in the middle of January I asked Remil to make me a playlist. He agreed to make me one on the condition that I make one for him as well.
For a little background information, Remil and I have realized early on in our friendship/relationship that our taste in music can be explained through a Venn diagram where the space of music we like independent of the other would be as small as the edges of fingernails. There was also this mutual insecurity that our respective music-taste repertoire was nothing in comparison to the other. That sentiment is as dead as a dodo now, but nonetheless it should be noted that our background with music made this playlist project no easy task.
We eventually outlined how many songs would be on the playlist and what the theme of the playlist would be. The result ended up in the agreement of a 24-track playlist that would be divided by 4 categories which had 6 songs each. The categories were the following: (1) Dear Fucker, here’s my music and may you think I’m awesome; (2) Dear Fucker, here are some shit I think you’d get a kick out of; (3) Dear Fucker, these songs sound, look, and/or act like you; and (4) Dear Fucker, here are bunch of gay songs because let’s face it, I like you. Now that the outline was made the only thing lacking were ground rules. So we laid down that no songs by the Beatles, or David Bowie, or by Weezer from the album Pinkerton (specifically for our mutual love for these artists/that particular album), and that the playlist needed to be done within a month or two.
Now at first the outline of this playlist sounded massively epic and too cool for school (and actually up to now it still is). However as the month progressed we both eventually realized how much of a bitch it is to come up with this playlist. Personally I had such a hard time keeping songs on the playlist because of some paranoia that Remil has either heard the song already or wouldn’t like it at all. In the end I never finished making the playlist but neither did he so we’re pretty even and square about it…UNTIL NOW.
Due to circumstances, particularly the coming of Friday, I have decided to post a song that is congruent with the playlist agreement set-up. So for the next seven days it’ll be one song that falls under any of the 4 categories, keeping in mind that each category has a max of 6 songs. Although given the time constraint I figure I’ll just do 2 for each category and post an extra song on the last day. So yeah.
Without further ado, I shall now present to you the first song one the Playlist-That-Never-Was.
“I’m One” – The Who feat. Eddie Veder (2000)
I will not say that I am a fan of The who because I do not listen to The Who outside of what I know from soundtracks and singles. So let’s just say I know of them and like what I have heard. Remil fuckin’ loves The Who, though and his fuckin’ pair of Chuck Taylors can vouch for that. This fact isn’t the reason why this song was picked, although it did help with the decision.
I first heard I’m One while watching Freaks & Geeks. For those of you who don’t know, Freaks & Geeks was let me copy&paste the first sentence on their wiki-page. “Freaks and Geeks is an American teen comedy-drama television series, created by Paul Feig and executively produced by Judd Apatow, that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season. Eighteen episodes were completed, but the series was canceled after only twelve had aired.” Consider it a mesh of Pete & Pete, and Catcher in the Rye, Freaks & Geeks was a coming-of-age story that tackled on real-life problems pre-teens and teens faced school and life, be it about fitting in, getting the girl, or figuring out what to do with in this world and what you want.
This song, well not the cover video above but the original, was used in this scene where Bill Haverchuck (one of the show’s “geeks”) comes home from school after being bullied and being treated like crap by the same people and crap system. He goes home, he makes him a snack, and goes over to watch some comedy TV and laughs his butt off on the couch. Despite whatever crumby situation Bill has at school or elsewhere, this scene showed that he was able to laugh it off even for just this moment and I found that scene sincerely touching. This song means a bunch to me because of that show and that scene and when I looked up the lyrics I realize this song was just perfect for the playlist.
Remil is one unconventionally smart person. He’s a grade-A internet dweller and geek in a neo-classical sense. He has low self-esteem, the mouth of a sailor, and enough sarcasm and pop culture knowledge to make you feel like you haven’t been living enough in this world. Yet at the same time, and ironically, he’s too fuckin’ nice deep down to really make anyone feel bad on purpose. This song reminds me of him a lot more than it could relate to me, I suppose, and that’s why it’s here and why I’m writing about it. If you were wondering why I chose this specific version, I really could’ve just put the original or that actual clip from the TV show. The only reason I picked the one with Veder was because I liked Veder’s voice, and I guess that makes sense since it’s my playlist for him.
So yeah. One song down, seven to go. Seven more days to go to.
I’ve been interning at this Museum that’s real near my college. I don’t get a shitload workload but I the work keeps me busy, makes me feel like I’m learning basic office know-how (like how to operate and reload new fangled dangled printers) and stuff like that. Currently I have to make sticker graphics for this in-coming exhibit which’ll hit around the end of May. Right now I’m working on re-acquainting myself with Adobe Photoshop. The last time I messed around with this program was back in high school and ever since college hit and my scanner lost its installation CD (thus making it useless) I’ve just been going non-stop with traditional art forms and mediums. So yeah, pretty cool how my college years turned out in terms of art and design exploration, and given the fact (or so I hope) that I’ll be graduating soon I’m hoping unemployment/bumhood will allow me the all the time to explore further.
Right now I’ve been commissioned to do an abstract book cover for one of my college professors. So far here are some screen shots of what I’ve got going.
I have yet to mess around and add craniums and perhaps some connector for the two heads. I like the blue though, what d’you think?
Has nothing to do with hipsterism, I swear! I just like mountains and triangles for their aesthetic appeal and symbolism!
I had an idea for a third book cover but then I haven’t started on it yet. This is all due on Friday so I should really finish the damn mountain by Thursday D:
Aside from intern work and this commissioned work (and that one doodle of Nick Fury and Fred in the previous post) I haven’t done much with photoshop.
Not 100% aligned but I’ll fix it when facebook stops acting dumb on my laptop. So yes, I have used my powers of photoshop to play around with the timeline layout which has a cover photo (huge image) and the profile pic (little icon image). Hee. I am terribly amused with what I’ve done and because it is rare I openly fangirl in this way. *le swoon* Bolin from Legend of Korra is too wonderful for words and I’m just so optimistic on how the series shall fair out. Wheeeee.
I’m tired and I have to wake up for OJT tomorrow. I was going to mention this really really really great screen shot of Remil during a skype chat (wherein he looks terribly “hot damn”) but then I’m too lazy to post and I don’t believe I have a great reason to post it anyway. Lawl.
It Hurts To Stand Up(,/-) Right(?/). 