i am Little Beirut

Gym

2012-02-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Not sure if all straight guys are like that.

Los Angeles & Seattle

2012-01-24T15:11:00.000-08:00

Hello! I'm here to do two big updates. I have finished the Los Angeles map and the Seattle map. I'm going to take a break from map making. I'm working on a national forest series. Not really map but more like a tribute and dedication to the national parks around USA and Canada. Tons of research and tons of old photos to go through.

I'll post some sketches later this week. And happy chinese new year.

Map on the newspaper!

2011-12-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

Before I disappear into holiday hibernation, I was notify my Portland map is featured on a local alternative newspaper in Portland.

It is on the Willamette Weekly!

Toronto, my hometown

2011-12-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

I'm back from the Bazaar, crazy insane awesome event! I have to give credit to the folks that put it together. I also got to meet Grace of Design Sponge, got her to sign a copy of her new book. I didn't get a chance to meet Carson and Colin and get a copy of wildwood signed. Boo! I was so busy selling my prints, cards, and zines. As much I was overwhelmed with hundreds of buyers, and now I'm inspired to continue to create more great design art prints for the coming new year. One of my new project idea is creating an illustrated guide to national forests and parks. And yes, I heard many cries for a Seattle map, a Boston map, and a DC map. All lovely cities I've visited and admired. I visited DC a few years ago on a road trip. The Seattle marathon was my second marathon of the 9 I've ran so far in the past 4 years. As for Boston, I visited my friend Kim Slate (aka, precious) last year, and I plan to go back some day to qualify and run the Boston Marathon.
But for now, I need to introduce you this new map of Toronto.

Toronto is a city I am all too familiar with. I include most of the historical colonial architectures from the 18th century. A fellow Canadian friend mentioned how I made Toronto too pretty and European. I wasn't going to include ugly buildings and suggest that as a destination for bicycle and pedestrian tourists.

And here's a quick look at my process of illustrating the map. I always start off sketching the map in my tiny moleskin. I take a lot of time thinking about the landmarks, the neighborhoods, and the overall colour and composition. The actual painting part is the easiest but also very time consuming. Each map takes about 2-3 weeks for me to finish. I could finish a map in 2-3 days but I work fulltime, and I rather not spent all weekend stuck inside my studio.

portland bazaar

2011-12-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

I'll be selling cards, art prints, zines, at the Portland Bazaar! Come say hi to me! This weekend, December 10-11 (Saturday-Sunday), 420 NE 9th Ave. at Sandbox Studio. There will be gift ideas, holiday craft classes, food carts such as Pine State Biscuit and Heart Roasters Coffee. Also, Carson & Colin of the Decemberist and Wildwood will be there to sign their collaborative book. I haven't read it yet but I really like Carson's illustration.

Go pro camera & Iceland

2011-11-17T15:29:00.001-08:00

1 Go Pro camera + 4 cyclists + 16 days + Iceland = 1 epic bicycle tour.

Music Credit: Mum, Sigur Ros, Vato Gonzalez & Foreign Beggars.

I took the last few evenings to edit this together. Its all filmed with my go pro camera mounted on my bicycle, 12 days of biking across Iceland.

Lower Manhattan map

2011-11-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Eastern Oregon last weekend, had our 4th anniversary, and hiked through the oregon badland during its first snow season. Kind of cool, the landscape was blue and yellow and snow just drizzle onto the juniper forest. Back at the hotel lodge I went back reading Independent People by Laxness. I started getting some ideas for my next painting series... not quite sure yet what kind of project it will be, but probably something less conventional from my recent design works.

Though I did finish my new map few weeks ago. I almost forgot I finished it! Here it is! Lower Manhattan. Why did I only do lower manhattan? Have you been to New York City? Its a small island with so many things jammed into tight compact neighborhoods. I still can't believe I live there, East Village, was like the place where you could find punk rockers eating in a ramen house at 4am. Though today, its cleaned up and full of yuppies. I can't even imagine what the rent is like now.

I also learned letterpress last month. I'm working on some holiday cards that involves letterpress. I'll have those ready in a week or two.

A gift bag and a p:ear tree

2011-11-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! Another holiday sale coming up and I'm preparing for it. Please come see me at Mississippi Studio in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday November 27, 2011.

And I'll have new prints and new holiday cards to sell this coming holiday season.

Paranorman

2011-10-28T17:44:00.001-07:00

A movie I worked on last year to early this year with 200 plus other individuals. Its gonna be awesome!

Reykjavik Iceland map

2011-10-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm back with another map. This time is Reykjavik, Iceland. I had to drawn this map out before I forget what it felt like living and residing there. It is up for sale as well!!!

What do you think? It was a small city of 200,000 and I tried to highlights local sights that I remembered and didn't get to visit. I hope this map will trigger everyone to visit Iceland instead of flying there as a transfer to Sweden or Denmark.

map & Iceland

2011-09-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Iceland! The last two weeks four of us biked through Iceland highland desert and its volcanic glacier coast. It was a very intense and memorable trip. Everyday we biked about 50-60miles, total amount of about under 500miles. We had great sunny days and really wet days. About 3 days into the trip we got hit by Hurricane Irene, and at that point the hurricane is a rain storm. Thank goodness! We survived the 15mph wind storm. I don't know how my bicycle survived through the hail and freezing rain. Overall it was an amazing trip! I'm very sad it ended. Iceland is very beautiful! I wish I can live there for a few months just to create art and explore its secret caves and mountain.
Before I show you a few photos of my trip, here is a new map I made before the trip.

ON SALE NOW!

And time for some bike tour photo!

map

2011-08-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

When did I update this blog? AGES AGO! Recently I got sick, like really sick, had to go to the hospital and stuff. But I'm feeling a lot better now. Meanwhile I've been creating map illustrations. The first map art of course is Portland, Oregon.

What's next? I'm working on San Francisco, which I've only been there 3 or 4 times. I really need to visit that city a lot more. Other cities I thought of illustrating is Toronto, Montreal, Provincetown, Austin Texas, and Savannah Georgia. Not sure if I want to illustrate Los Angeles or New York City, those two cities are gigantic. But I did live in both of those cities... would be silly not to design maps of them.

Oh and here's more details of the map:

And they are for sale on my store!!!!

Renegade Craft Fair LA & Design Sponge!

2011-07-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

Yes! It is that time again! Los Angeles Renegade Craft Fair this weekend! Come and see me at the Los Angeles Historic State Park. Remember, it is also Carmageddon in LA that weekend! The temporarily closing of the HWY 401 and HWY 101 to downtown LA and LAX will definitely cause some serious traffic. I highly recommend everyone to take the metro/train or bike to the craft fair. And bring your sun screen, there will be plenty of sun!

For anyone who mentions this post on my blog, you get a free postcard!

And some of my sketches in NYC and Portland.

One more thing! My cards are blogged on Design Sponge!

Just s happened one of the writer for the website visited Portland and found my cards at a local flower shop, Emerald Petal. Thank you Hilary!

canada day

2011-06-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

Its Canada day next week. In the honor of my nationality's birthday here's a little tribute.

SHUT UP AMERICA! Its Canada's birthday July 1st, you can celebrate your birthday 3 days later.

And I'm off to camping in the North Cascades National Park this weekend. I hope I see a black bear!

more and more art

2011-06-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

I went camping last weekend! Also, I went surfing for the first time on the Oregon coast. It was amazing and beautiful. I want to go back. Rain or storm, I don't care. Here's a sketch of the cedar on the coast.

I'm leaving for Brooklyn next week! I'll have a booth at the Renegade Craft Fair. Please come and say hi to me. If you mention the name of my blog, I'll give you 50% discount to all items. YES! SO COME AND SAY HI! And I take visa, mastercard, and american express.
In the meantime I'm extremely busy with this gallery solo show coming up in August. I finished my second piece last night. I need to speed up and finish 6 more pieces! Yikes! Below is my mess of paint. I'm finally getting a hang of it, again, after months of neglecting my paint and brushes. This time, some sponge and dry brush action!

Also some more sketches I did on the commute to work.

paintings for august show

2011-05-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

Aside from busy preparing for Renegade craft fairs in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, I've been working on some paintings for my first solo show in August. I will have more information in the upcoming months.

And here are some of my progress with thumbnails and first painting finished.

This weekend I'm going surfing and stand up paddling at mt. hood.

I also started a new blog called Dear Designer with fellow artist and friend Brigette Barrager. Its basically our posts to each other talking about all things fashion, design, and art. But really, its mostly about fashion and how we wish we more money to buy them. Materialistic, yet, fun to write and post.

Renegade Craft Fair Brooklyn

2011-05-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

YES! I'll be in Brooklyn this June 11-12! Come see my booth! Visit! Check out some new cards and art prints I'll be selling.

Crafty Wonderland

2011-05-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was my attendance at Crafty Wonderland. Now you might remember I attended the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco 2 years ago with Lorelay Bove, and at that I was super unprepared. Well, this time I'm prepared! I didn't make a killing but I met tons of people, ran out of my 200 business cards in the first two hours. I also broke even, which is good for my first ever booth event. I also made some contact with retailers, one of them is Powells books. Big deal! They will definitely bring me big exposure. So here are some photos from my booth. I think I have to prepare better for the next two craft fairs I'm doing, Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. More update about those in the next few posts.

Packing home! I fit almost everything onto the bike. Thank goodness it didn't rain.

sketches

2011-05-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

My brother came to visit a few weeks ago and we went to my favourite watering hole, Secret Society Lounge, and got absinthe and few cocktail drinks while drawing in the bar. Some sketches are from my daily train commute.

Have a good week!

crafty wonderland

2011-04-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

I made a new zine! And I also got into the Crafty Wonderland spring sale. Its on May 7th, Saturday, 11am-6pm, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Please come and say hi if you are in town. I'll be selling zines/comics, cards, postcards, and art prints.

Also, if you are in Los Angeles, The comic book store in Los Feliz called Secret Headquarters now carry my zines! Check them out!

Forgot I made this

2011-03-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

Its been a month and I forgot to post this. I finished my fourth zine! Its about a lady and how she really want a wolf to make her a fur coat.

What do you think? I have more sketches coming. I might start carrying colour pencils. I also got a few new stores to carry my zines: Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle and Quimbys in Chicago. I'm pushing to get a store in San Francisco, LA, and Brooklyn to carry them.

The New York Times

2011-02-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Last year around October, I convinced two coworkers (Vi and Alan Cook) to come out in the rain and humid sun to make a video for the New York Times. The NY Times website had a video submission on their travel page called "Show Us Your City". I thought this will be fun to make a video about my city, Portland, Oregon. I did the whole entire tour on bike (except the last scene, I had to return some video equipments before end of the day). Its been on the NY Times website for a while and I finally remember to post it on my blog. I hope you find the video amusing.

The video has gotten a lot of popularity in the Portland cycle community. I've been spotted three times now by random people on bikes. Anyways, come visit Portland and I'll give you a bike tour myself!

Commute sketches

2011-01-31T12:29:00.000-08:00

I'm working on my fourth zine right now. I'm spending more time on it than my previous zines. I made some scans of sketches I made in the past week on my daily train commute. I realized that most people have a frown on while riding the train. Its like everyone is sad to go to work.

Boathouse

2011-01-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

New zine!!!! I'm working on the next zine already. I have to find the nice paper to draw on, right now I'm using cheap cardstock and it sucks. Got any suggestions?

Portlandia, and I'm proud of it too.

2010-12-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my friend Chris Turnham, an ex-Portlander moved to LA (yes, sadly), he showed me this new show today.

I have to say, I do fall in that category of your typical portlander. I do put birds on things, I like guys with beards, my hot girl friends wear glasses, I sold my car for a cargobike, I bike in the rainstorm to work, I know like 10 lesbians, and I don't eat meat. And I'm proud of it.

So in celebration to my pride of Portland, OREGON, not MAINE, I'm proudly to announce the release of my second zine.

This is another short story, about 30 pages long, colour cover, black and white interior pages. And only $5.00 at my new web store!
http://store.ridingthehermes.com

My new store

2010-12-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

My store is finally redesigned and finished! As of now I am only selling cards and zines. If anyone wants to buy a print, they will have to contact me through email.
So far four local stores in Portland carries my cards and zines. And the zines are selling fast. I made 14 copies of the first zine, and in 3 weeks I've sold 10 zines. Crazy! As for the cards, I kind of lost count.
I've also got new cards finished!

And big thanks to Alan Cook for taking photos of the items in the store.

the zine

2010-11-09T23:13:00.000-08:00

I finally finish my first zine! Ready to deliver to local comic stores.
I've only hand made 8 copies. I'm already start on another zine if I have more free time after work. Each comic is about 24 pages long, about 4 x 4 inch sized.

MORE!!!! I'll make more later in the month.

Canadian Five

2010-11-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

I was on the train and there was a Canadian five dollar bill on the ground. I can't believe nobody picked it up. If its an American five dollar bill then it wouldn't even be on the ground in the first place. Money is money!
As of today the Canadian dollar is almost and perhaps the same currency exchange as the American.

this morning

2010-10-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm finally recovering from a cold. I'm so sick of butternut squash soup.

dear reckless driver

2010-08-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

As you read this it is posted around town.

olympic forests

2010-08-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

July, was my busy busy summer month. I almost forgot that I have a blog. I went backpacking with friends. Did some long distance bike rides around the columbia river gorge, did more yard work. I did finish this print, inspired from the trip.

I went backpacking at the Olympic National Forest. It has the mossy rainforest, snowy mountain, and wild coastal terrain on the west coast of Washington state. Its not just beautiful but its also the largest rainforest in North America. It has beautiful haystack rock formations. About 1 hour away from the coast you got waterfalls, glaciers, and high divides of mountain. Mt. Olympus is the highest peak and we were lucky enough to see it up close. Though, our attempt to get to the seven lakes basin and the high divides failed. Due to the fact that one local forest ranger told us that most of the snow has melted. When we got up there, not only the snow have not melted, but it flooded out few of the bridges so we had to hike through glacier cold swift water. The mountain was so cold, like 45 degrees in July. And then at the coast it was about 80 degrees. The famous Hoh Rainforest was so hot and humid, it was 90 degrees. We literally experienced three different climate in one week. It was also our first long backpacking trip. Chaos! Our filter got clogged few times due to the high sediments of the river. I couldn't sleep one of the night 'cause a skunk wouldn't leave us alone. I think we slept at his or her home turf. And after 4 days of no shower, I couldn't handle the stench I had to jump into a icy cold pond. We did see wild beautiful nature, met a hot male forest ranger, and witness two baby elk breast feeding from a faun.

Here are some photos from the trip.

Some photos are courtesy of my friends who took them.

Right now I'm busy catching up with the zine project I'm doing with Vi. I also have a print work in progress.

happy birthday boyfriend

2010-06-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last month I went to a concert, tons of fun. In the mist of the crowd I see a lady with a table against the wall, a little candle light dimmed the sign "Dino Tarot", I was like... oh man... I have to do this! $3 dino tarot reading, of course, I am in. I sat down, barely could hear her since the music was really loud. I had my fate and career read. her table was setup really weird, like it was a record player, with the lid open with a circle cut out. So you put your head through this tight circle and looks down at the dinos on this grass field. She had a flash light strapped onto her forehead, and she would use it to guide you through the reading.

At one point, I was reaching for my cash on the table, but I was concentrating on her as well. I reached for my money and accidentally pierced myself on one of the sharper edged dino figures, and I bumped the table and everything fell apart. Embarrassing!
So I've been working hard on this music video, and I finally have all the sets done, here are two of the sets I built last week. This week I'm kind of taking it easy; go back to work on a new painting.

Another side project I have been working on is my greeting cards. I took the challenge to create and try to sell greeting cards. I made like 12 prototypes and so far it almost sold out in one local store. So I'm going to see if I can distribute them in few more other stores. Actually, I had them printed in LA. I couldn't find a cheaper printer in Portland, at least not yet.

backpacking

2010-06-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

For Memorial weekend Shad and I went backpacking. It was our first ever backpacking trip. We got up a bit late, 8am, to start the hike in the Columbia Gorge's Eagle Creek Trail. The trail is about 6.5m long into the Tunnel Falls, where you can walk behind the 3m waterfall tunnel. And it was magnificent! Along the Eagle Creek there were cliffs and moss all over the rocks. Even though it rained through the second day, the mountain was beautiful with all the mists and fog. The trail was so busy on the first day, but the second morning it was more empty. All you can hear is the rolling water, waterfall, birds, and your own breath. It was pretty cool. There weren't that many bugs since it was raining every few minutes. I rather have few drizzles of rain than a crowd of flies and mosquitoes.

Here are some photos from our trip.

sad

2010-05-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

The other day I biked home and saw a crow eating a dead squirrel right in the Intel parking lot lawn. It was plucking the fur out of the rodent's tail. Just last week I saw this dead squirrel painted over with the no pass lane yellow line. I wonder if it died before the paint or it was trampled over by the line drawing vehicle.

The mystery continues!

You have beautiful eyes

2010-05-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I was taking the train home, a coworker just happens to be riding the same cargo with me. While we were talking, this guy sitting next to him wouldn't stop staring at me. He was literally smiling wide and beaming at me. I noticed him on the corner of my eyes, but I was like... whatever, its Portland. Then he interrupted our conversation, leaned in and loudly said to me "You have beautiful eyes!" I was taken by surprise and said panicky "oh, thanks." Everyone on the train heard it! And I can hear few people giggling. I tried ignore the awkward situation, so we went back to our conversation. The guy continues to stare at me and even made a side comment to the guy sitting next to him about how beautiful my eyes and facial features are, "His skin is naturally tan, so beautiful." AWKWARD!!!!! Why would you say that to a stranger sitting next to you?! Eventually, a mom came in the train with her carriage, so he let her sit and took the opportunity to stand between us. Oh man. He then started asking about my ethnicity, where I am from, how I have a nice build, blah blah blah, I was like... this is the longest 30 minute train ride ever. Thankfully my coworker was there, it would've been even more awkward if I was alone. Right when I was putting on my bike helmet to leave, he said "You are leaving me, beautiful?" I responded with "I have to go home."

Shoot, he ended up asking where I live! I said "Northeast Portland." Which is vague. In the end, I'm glad he didn't ask for my number. I would've given him a fake one. At least he was friendly, not hostile, and he wasn't a gargoyle.

I secretly thought, "I'm turning 28, still got it!"

On a separate note, I've been working on this local band's music video. There has been a delay since the winter, but its summer so I'm resurrecting the project. This is a miniature of the first part of the film. The final version will be life size, the big mountain will be about 10 foot high.

shiny blue poison

2010-05-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

So I was driving to work on Monday. Very unusual. Except I had to return a projector and a dvd player to a friend, and I didn't want to ride my bike with it around town. On the way home from work, I stopped by a local gas station to get gas. I only refill the gas tank like once a month, so I am always shocked with the gas prices. $3 a gallon!? Yakes, I remember last month was like $2.25 Whatever! Embarrassingly, my car wouldn't start the moment the gas attendant filled up my car. Thankfully, he was nice enough to come back and helped me jump start the car. I guess there were some shiny blue dusty corrosion on my engine. Gathered from months of cold winter. So nothing major. He said he is going to come back with a towel to wipe it clean for me. Stupidly, I tried blowing it away with my breath. I inhaled in the dust right after the first blow. ARGH! I had blue dust all over inside my mouth. It tasted like gasoline.

Man. I don't know anything about cars. Maybe I should take a car class like I've taken a bike frame building class. I seriously don't understand how most people drive to work everyday, it is such a hassle and headache. Auto insurance is so expensive too. Maybe I should just sell my car and buy that awesome local fold out bike I saw at the recent bicycle show. One for shad and one for me.

Dude! That's my chai!

2010-05-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

This happened to me this morning. I took two sips of my chai latte, and then...

The train was running late so I wanted to stop by the bank. Not only I lost my chai but the bank was closed. Mr. homeless man, have yourself a good morning.

Cost of a chai latte, $2.80

bad marathon

2010-05-05T15:49:00.001-07:00

This pass weekend, I did the Vancouver BC marathon. It was my third race at that city. The race is really hard since a lot of high slope elevations are escalated to the end. And I've been training through winter, which is really hard for me to run outdoor in the cold. Not to mention I'm trying to beat my record. That Sunday morning, Vancouver was pouring rain, cold (45degrees), and a bit windy. Because of the rain, a lot of runners were getting chafing.

I saw so many men with bleeding nipples. Thank goodness I have the habit of bandaging my nipples before a race. But what I didn't expect is my short to chafe my down under. My short acted like a wet knife slicing through my inner thigh skin for 3.5 hour straight. In the end, I didn't gain or lose time on my record. I'm upset 'cause if it weren't for the wet short, I would've done really well. I slowed down because of it.

Right now not only I can't walk but I have to work with both of my legs far apart. Just so the chafe wound can heal and be disinfected. This is the worst marathon experience I've ever had in 4 years. I kind of wish I can just heal fast and do another race next month just so I can proof myself that I can do better.

Robert Downey Jr.

2010-04-28T16:46:00.001-07:00

Not too long ago, I was swimming in the gym. Doing my usual training for the triathlon. This guy was smiling at me while I was swimming, but I don't smile at the gym. I am trying to breath! So I went into the sauna to clear all the salt and chlorine. The same guy was there, okay, he is not a gargoyle. He started asking me about movies. I mentioned that I work in the movie business. Some how we ended up in the conversation about how we both have the hot for Robert Downey Jr. I left the sauna and go shower. Awkwardly, the guy, popped right in front of me and asked me out for a cup of coffee. I panicked and said not now. I am naked! Why would you ask me out while I'm naked! He said he will ask for my email next time we meet. Now I avoid going to the gym early.

Everyday at the gym is an adventure.

Meanwhile, Graham Annable, a coworker, he drew this. Its me carrying Julian to the gym during lunch. I have a big Australian leather backpack bag, big enough to fit a child. Except, I drove my car that day.

concert last night

2010-04-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

I was at the Yeasayer concert last night, and if you know Yeasayer they put on a fun and crazy show. They used to open for MGMT.
The audience was really loud and sweaty and smelly. In the crowd I see this girl who is just tapping her shoes away to the beat. She was like a statue.

Maybe she was intensely listening to the music.

red kitty

2010-04-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I was digging holes for the bamboo poles. Suddenly, a red kitty sneaked up behind me and freaked me out. The red kitty had no tag, so its probably a neighborhood feral cat. It let me pet it and hung around for a while. I had this empty cup of chai tea, so I filled it up with water and gave it to the kitty. The kitty literally smelled it and then toppled it over with its paw.

It then took a nap right next to the strawberry patch. Rude kitty.

first spring show

2010-04-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weekends I've been doing yard work. yeah, YARD WORK! My mom would be pissed to hear that I'm voluntarily doing yard work, since I hated yard work when I was a kid. I pulled weed, cleaned up a hunk part of the side walk grass and planted in some wild thyme and succulents. My vegetable patch has grown so much that I think the dandelions and arugula are ready to pick next week. My boyfriend bought some tomato and broccoli to grow. I planted strawberry starters next to a rhubarb root, hm... strawberry rhubarb pie!!!! I seriously can't wait to start eating out of the garden. Recently I've been designing greeting cards, hopefully to sell them in the summer. One of them is a "miss you" card: an oreo cookie waving goodbye to a glass of milk. Sounds pretty stupid, but the drawing looks cute.

I've got a new print finished this pass weekend. Its going to be on display at the Olympic Commerce Center gallery on SE 1st and Washington in Portland, go check it out at the opening this Thursday night! I hope someone buys it!

Here are some photos from my Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal trip last month. I wish Portland has more interesting buildings like these.

Toronto & Montreal tour

2010-03-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

I haven't been drawing much lately. Super bad. I know, no excuse! We just moved to a new place with a new neighborhood. I started doing yard work for the first time in my life. I've always wanted to grow vegetables. I planted these mustard seeds and beet seeds. Earlier this week few of the seeds germinated and now I see sprouts. Bright yellowish green leaves! I'm so happy. I did all my research on farming and it has paid off. Its probably one of the most satisfy feeling I've had in a while. Soon I'll have snow peas, basil, charmomile flower, and shallots. I am so inspired that I got other resident's permission to plant wild pacific nw roses all around a giant cedar. Spring! Finally is here! While I'm doing all these plant talk, I've drawn up some sketches as well.

Two galleries I've been talking to are interest in the wood paintings, so I've got to get things going. I even bought a sander!!!! So I can sand my own wood plates now. No more renting. Btw, did I also mention I've got a garage to do my wood work???? I also got really inspired listening to Zooey Deschanel's voice (band, SHE&HIM). I started doing some random sketches on the train.

I block out the writing, its a short film idea I'm working on.
Here's Zooey and M. Ward from the band.

I then realized, a great colour combo to go with this painting will be Nadav Kander's photography.

He did a whole album of the Obama Administration for the New York Times. His portraits are really taunting, they look like paintings themselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/2009-inauguration-gallery/index.html

I have to admit something, I've actually felt kind of down lately. I graduated from Calarts with a lot of excitement and anxiety. I wanted a good job, I don't believe in dream job, 'cause my dream job is not to work. But aside from a job I truly wanted to continue to do my own work. From making my own short film; to create more art pieces. Its been kind of hard to motivate myself. Half of the time I get home fairly tired, cook dinner for my love, then read or doodle if I have time. I've tried many things to keep myself inspired. I make an effort not to let my job influence my style. Maybe that's why some of my painting look a bit unconventional to some people. I want to draw things I can't draw at my job. I also make an effort to take advantage of the nature here in the pacific nw. I make tons of nature trips and bike tours. Experiment with vintage camera and photography, hopefully to see colour different. One of my New York City friend used to make fun of my work. He said that most of the Calarts student have the same style and ecstatic. That angular and well constructed character design, with Mary Blair-esque colour palate, ends with a splat of one colour background of negative space. I felt really generalized and stereotyped as an artist. I don't want to see myself as just another cookie cutter product for the animation industry engine. So I do my best to draw and make short films that are different. I don't know if I'm there yet but I'll keep trying. Like any cheesy film moral message, I just have to be true to myself. Does that ramble make any sense? Man, I've even thought of just quitting the entire film scene. And go sign up for that job in British Columbia to become a forest ranger and rescuer. Just draw and protect the trees all day. I went as far as printing and filling out the application form.

Meanwhile, we are going to Toronto and Montreal next week! I missed my family in Christmas, this is a make up trip. I hope there is snow!

Hiking

2010-03-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

I finally have something to update!!! I was just getting over a crazy cold for the past week. Though I did go hiking a lot in February, in the rain, the columbia river gorge is very beautiful in the rain. Its all misty and muddy. The best thing I like about it is the lack of tourist. The forest was pretty much empty, except you see few hiking addicts or forest rangers here and there. I forgot how beautiful Oregon is in the winter. From that experience I kind of started doing some sketches for an idea. I've also been looking at a lot of paintings by the Canadian impressionists, mostly the Group of Seven. Another artist I discovered by accident while surfing in the library is the american painter, Kent Rockwell. He is kind of unknown to a lot of people due to the fact he was accused of communism in the McCarthy period. I think he eventually is embraced by the soviet union, but he spent most of his days in upstate New York. He is famous for his paintings of Greenland and northern islands of Canada, like Newfoundland. I've always wanted to visit Newfoundland, maybe next summer.

And I'll post the sketches as soon I get my scanner working.

No Art, but some photos

2010-01-19T17:17:00.000-08:00

I have a good explanation why I haven't post any art lately, mostly 'cause I've been going on endless adventures. First of all, I moved to my own new place. I didn't have to purge as much this time, but that doesn't mean my boyfriend didn't need to purge his stuff. So we spent hours cleaning, moving, packing, unpacking, and learning how to paint walls and trims professionally (thank to my friend Hazel!) If not for Lady Gaga I wouldn't be having fun painting the wall.
Second, I spent 12 days biking along the coast of California highway 1. Two friends and I started in San Francisco, biked about 650m to San Diego in 10 days total. It was beautiful, transformed my life, and killed my body. A car almost hit me in LA (new years eve, drunks) so I spranged my wrist hitting and falling over a curb. It still hurts after 3 weeks. I had this funny sun glasses tan on my face for like 2 weeks. I gain 5lb, all muscles gathered up around my ass. If you ever feel like you want some soul searching trip, I highly recommend biking the highway 1, though, do it with caution and take your time. We kind of killed ourselves. Not checking on the elevation map, we thought 75m a day would be fine, no, it was not fine. Every morning we wake up at 6am, bike out by 7am, few stops along the way, including 1 hour stop for lunch at 1pm, and still don't make it to the hotel or hostel before dark. Since it is winter so it gets dark by 5pm. We had to bike in the dark for about 1-2 hours. It was really dangerous but beautiful to bike in the complete darkness, and all we can hear is the ocean wave on our right, the mountain coyotes on our left, and the frogs trying to cross the highway. Even after all the obstacles, I want to go another bike tour. But with more planning, and time for me to maybe sit and draw the view.
DAY 01:

DAY 02:

DAY 03:

DAY 04:

DAY 05:

DAY 06:

DAY 07:

DAY 08:

DAY 09:

DAY 10-12:

You might wonder why there are less photos of the southern california... well, they were just not as pretty as the northern california big sur area. I hate to say it but... the whole beach surfer city scape is really boring compare to what I experienced in the mountain coast.
Next year, Oregon Coast!!!! Much harder!!!! And prettier!
Some photos are borrowed courtesy of other riders

Fantastic Mr. Fox is fantastic!!!!

2009-12-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

I, absolutely, loved and can't stop thinking, about, wes anderson's, fantastic mr. fox.

I watched it the second time just last night and it was still resigning in my mind. I can't stop replaying the movie. I enjoyed every second of it. I've been pretty bored of the recent animated movies I've seen in the past few years. Fantastic Mr. Fox definitely have gotten me more excited or excited again on animation. I think I'm falling more in love with stop motion. I'm glad I work at a studio that focuses on stop motion. Though I'm trained in 2d animation, I would like to try out on stop motion tests once some of the animators have time for me. I bet some people did not like the movie, and they probably don't like wes anderson's previous films. But I personally loved it and thought of watching it the third time. I think few of my favourite scenes were the interactions between Ash and Kristofferson. It reminded my brother and myself. I also love the wolf scene, that quiet moment with the music build up caught me breathless.

The animation only bothered me the first 1 minute of the film. The style of the animation fits the design like a perfect tux. I remember the audience laughed at the part when mr. fox and felicity fox sneaking through the squab farm. I don't remember the last time an animated film made the audience giggled like that. I don't giggle, I smiled.

Go see the film! And remember, if it weren't for those fantastic animators, designers, and set dressers, Mr. Anderson wouldn't have been able to make this film.
Here's a good review on the New York Times

Never updates, but I did this time.

2009-11-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

I am not lazy. I've been BUSY! My life has been full of craziness and ambitious attempts, and I'm very tired. I went to APE (Alternative Press Expo) 2 weekends ago, attempting to sell some of my prints. I didn't sell much, actually, I sold almost nothing. I sold like 8 prints out of 100 I've printed. When I got home and explained to my boyfriend how much I've sold, I can't help it but started to laugh at my pathetic experience. I've only been to a comic convention once, five years ago at comic con in San Diego. As much I'm a geek and nerd (As a proof, ask me a star trek question and I'll answer you more than you need to know), I just don't feel like I fit in that world of comics and cartoon illustrations. Overall, the experience is awfully discouraging. I was stuck in a building while San Francisco is sunny with wonders and parties and places I want to see. Though I did see people I have only known online. Everyone is polite and friendly, more than their online persona. I don't think I'll do this comic convention type of thing again. It just wasn't worth my time. I might go to check out a convention if I get a free pass, but spending my vacation time in a building not selling your own art... feels... failure. Hahahaha!
And San Francisco is beautiful. I got to stay with my lovely gay couple (how can it not be SF without the gays), they treated me so well to the food and sights. I want to go back! I also jogged the 12m circle trail around the Golden Gate Park. I did get lost at some point, but my iphone saved me. I didn't get to visit the science museum, sad, nor bike across the golden gate bridge, sad, nor get to see the seals. But I did party in this bar and danced until they closed. We also rode a vintage streetcar, quite dangerous, and got to eat fancy dinners every night.
Here are some San Francisco photos.

And here're some photos from my last NYC trip.

And here are some more character drawings I did.

And I think I'm done with these character designs. Moving onto something else more interesting.

Pinarello

2009-09-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Boys and girls. I went missing for a long time. I went on vacation in New York, Boston and Provincetown. I came back all sad and wish I was still on the sandy beach of Cape Cod. Ideally it would've been more delightful if I had brought my new Pinarello bike. Oh my Pinarello... I love my new bike. I did a few rides with it up to Sauvie Island (a huge farmland island north of Portland in the Columbia River), and I found out 40 mile is kind of my limit at bicycling. I'll need some training to do more miles in a day. Maybe it has to do with my marathon training the day before a ride.

Also, I'm coming to APE! Alternative Press Expo, part of the comic con events. It will be held in San Francisco on October 17-18 (Saturday and Sunday). I got a table to share with Lorelay Bove. So if you are coming to the expo, please drop by to say hi, and I might make you a cocktail. But keep that under the security radar.

I think I really slacked off on my after work productivity. My bf has been taking me on bike rides and I just can't resist. I've also been reading a lot. Really bad, I haven't touched the music video for a while and haven't opened my sketchbook for 2 weeks. All in all I finally finished my new painting last night.

I know what you are thinking... the hell is going on here?! I would like to explain it but I rather not. You be the judge. I did get bored of painting mountains. My friend, Erik Fountain, did a drawing inspired from my last painting. I think its fantastic and wanted to share it with the public. I had a great laugh.

enough said!

And here are some photos from my trip.

Some photos are taken by my friend Kim, who drank so many PBRs with me.

Je suis fatigue.

2009-07-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

I showed my last painting to few folks around and seems like I got a fairly good response. I'm going to work on more of them, as a series perhaps. Maybe I'll put it in a solo show I might have in September here in Portland. Not 100% sure yet. But meanwhile I did more character sketches and came up three more characters.

The middle guy is inspired by this bicycle clothing brand called Rapha. They are kind of the "high end" wear for cyclists. I think its mostly because their product does look good, not tacky and typical.
The last few weekends I did a lot of field trips. I went camping on the Oregon coast, hike in the Columbia River gorge, and other adventures in Portland.

I also plan to go to Boston and Cape Cod in end of August. I can't wait! Beach, seafood, ... more beach. The best clam chowder I've ever had is in Provincetown. Yes, suck it Seattle.

bears

2009-06-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

I almost hugged a bear!!!!

Well, I didn't almost, but I did see a wild bear few feet away. Last month I was up in Jasper and Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. My friends and I were planning to do a backpack camping trip, but it was too cold at night to do tent camping. We ended up staying in a hostel and a forest lodge. I wish I'm still there. Snow didn't completely melt yet, this is late May. There were also a lot of bear and predator warnings, 'cause its spring and they all just woke up from their long winter naps. I had to buy a bear whistle for precaution, and we did encounter a bear but we were in my car. Anyways, here are some photos from the trip. They look so vintage 'cause of my 60s yashica mat LM camera.

With all that hiking and tons of stuff I had to catch up when I got back... I can't help to do paintings and drawings. So I've got tons of artwork to post later in the month. But for now, this is the latest. I've also cleared out my harddrive for more space, so I can work in bigger format without crashing my computer.

and some sketches leading up to the painting

Ever since I got back I have strong urges to go hiking. Thank goodness Portland is close by mountainous terrains. I went to the Columbia River Gorge yesterday and hiked onto top of the Hamilton Mountain to get a glimpse of the gorge. The upcoming July 4th weekend I plan to make a trip up to Mount St. Helens to do the 12mile hike. I really hope I encounter sheep or wild goats. Though... that's how you get ticks. Did I mention I found ticks on my neck during the Banff trip? They looked like ladybugs, not that gross.

MOTHERFUCKERS

2009-05-28T01:40:00.000-07:00

I locked my bike outside of my apartment for one evening. I got home around midnight... an old man was there doing something next to my bike. I thought he was pumping his bike... an invisible bike perhaps. I didn't check. I went inside and realized what was going one, ran outside, TOO LATE. The mother fucker has stolen both of my bike wheels. I feel violated. I want to beat the shit out of the guy's gut and wear his sphincter for shoes. Then, I will kick his nuts until they are rotten like dried up cherries. My bike is everything to me. I commute everyday with it. I do my grocery with it. I basically can't live without my bike. I can't believe someone would steal it. And its not even some amazing wheel, but I did just replace the tires few months ago... expensive tires for the winter. MOTHER FUCKER. I can almost feel sympathy for anyone but a bicycle thief... that's like... the ultimate sin in my book. If I ever see that fucker again, I'm going to not only beat him up. I'm going to bike over his fuck'n hands and he will never steal ever again.

This is not my bike. Just an example of the devastation. My bike is actually ten thousand times better than this. And both wheels are stolen. Stolen by a worthless piece of shit.

working with amalia for 6 hours

2009-05-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

WOW, Ed is posting on his blog twice in a month!?

Last weekend I worked with Amalia Levari on a 24 hour film. She wrote a story and I made it into something stupid. A lot of people don't think it makes any sense, but I think it is quiet clear of what's going on. Anyways, enjoy!

Mom from Edward Juan on Vimeo.

And I'll have to say so far I'm pretty impressed with the Calarts character animation freshman year this year. Too bad I didn't attend the Producers show but from what I've seen online, its pretty great. Good job Calarts!

music video

2009-05-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Its finally summer in Portland! Even though my heater never worked since I moved into my new apartment... now I don't have a good reason to tell my landlord to fix the heater. Anyways, I did some more character designs below. I've been doodling a lot of people on the street in my neighborhood, and that influenced in my drawings.

I've also taken the challenge to direct a short live action music video for a local band. That is actually going fairly slow but things are happening. This past weekend Vi and I shot some footage for a green screen test. The band's name is called Jared Mees and the Grown Children, locally formed with some of the best people I know. You can check out their myspace page myspace.com/jaredmees Below are some of the storyboards I was working on.

And here're some designs for the costume.

Its all going to be live action with some additional stop motion and stage matte painting. Its a very low budget project, but I really want to do something on the weekends and after work hours. So far I've received helps from left and right. It will be a great collaboration! Anyways, here are few more holga photos to keep this post more interesting.

cheers.

EAT & SING

2009-04-10T15:03:00.000-07:00

This past week has been so sunny in Portland, I can't wait for the ground to dry and have picnics. So this Saturday is the opening for a joint show I'm participating. The show is held at Lunar Boy Gallery in Astoria, Oregon. A coastal town on the west coast. Its also where they shot The Goonies. Below are some of the pieces I did. I did total of like 15 pieces, I'm exhausted.

Here're some of the digital prints I did.

As you can see, its a bird themed show. Anyways, I'll show some photos from my visit to Astoria in the next post. I plan to bring my holga. Speaking of Holga, here're some more photos from the past and last week.

I love how this came out, I used a really low speed film too.

Moi

C'est Steel Bridge

a doxon waiting for owner.

A school furnace, this is where the swifts sleep during migration.

double exposure on a rainy day.

cheers.

Good times

2009-03-20T17:52:00.001-07:00

Its been pretty insane at Laika, working my ass off the past few days. And then my marathon training has gotten intense. And then I've got this music video to direct. And then I've got this gallery show in April. I'm so dead! I love it, the drama. Too bad my boyfriend has to deal with all my whining and complains. And I still find time to do this 24 hour film, its below.

I also got my new scanner replaced. Bad idea of ordering it at amazon.com bah! But Canon was nice enough to sent me a new scanner, as long i sent back the old one. Here are some of the lovely holga scans I did. Look how clear they came out!

A typical Victorian house near my apartment.

The Pearl, Portland.

Vi @ Portland.

Kim @ Portland.

Fremont Bridge, Portland.

Near a friend's store/studio.

People lining up to see Obama during the primary.

Near my apartment.

A dog on the waterfront.

A really old negative I found. Taken last summer.

Beautiful houses in downtown Toronto.

Toronto, see me taking the photo from the reflection? I'm on my brother's bike.

Brigette and Sean in LA.

Palm tree in Los Feliz Village, LA.

My friend Jules talking to some attractive stranger at the Hollywood Farmer's Market.

Bell apple pickers.

Coconut trees at my parent's house in Taiwan.

Buildings in Taipei are really ugly.

Well, its the weekend and I'll be going to a friend's concert. Unpacking at my new apartment, cleaning my old apartment. Painting, drawing, and hopefully practice my accordion. Cheers!

I'm moving again!

2009-03-03T02:05:00.000-08:00

My roommate is in London working freelance on stop motion gigs, and she isn't coming back until the summer... that means... I gotta MOVE! My apartment is pretty big and awesome, I can pay for it, but right now I prefer to save money. It is the recession, but next week I could be spending $500 on a Mjolk bag... I hope I'm ont abusing my retail therapy points. So I got more of my holga photos developed and scanned. I just bought a new scanner though earlier this pass weekend. I am still trying to figure out how to scan negatives properly. But the holga photos below are scanned with my ghetto 4 year old scanner.

Here are some Taiwan photos. This is the beach where my brother and I surfed amongst rocky corals... dangerous!

Those are bell apples, unique to the island of Taiwan. They taste so good. Not too sweet, crunchy like an apple, but juicy like a watermelon. Ruby pink! Apparently my hometown is famous for bell apples and seafood restaurants and surfing. What a combo!

Coconut trees lined up around my parent's house.

And some of the Portland photos I took last summer, I finally had them developed.

I scanned this one with my new scanner. See how it kinda blurred? I'm still trying to solve that problem.

So I've been pretty laid back at work, busy but without pressure. Since Coraline is doing well on the market (made $16.5m on opening weekend, film costed $80m) everyone at laika is secured with their jobs. I am working on their next productions, and hopefully they will get greenlit faster now due to Coraline's success. So thank you if you watched the film! If you haven't, go see it. Either you like it or not, you have to admit the craftsmanship is historical and unique. Meanwhile, I'm busy as hell outside of work. I've taken the great opportunity to direct a music video for a local band called Jared Mees and the Grown Children. I did some early initial storyboards and character sketches. The band leader is pretty happy with the idea. Right now I am working on flushing out more ideas and organize a calendar of deadlines. Making sure it gets completed. And I just got the news today, I'm doing a joint gallery with two other Laika peers. The gallery is located in Astoria, Oregon (where they shot Goonies), its called Lunarboy Gallery. The show is in early April, I'll have more details later. The show is sort of an Audubon Society show. That means I'll be painting a lot of birds. I am going to be busy. Meanwhile, I did this painting below after all of those fashionista character designs. This is just an idea after I read the story of Endymion, a semi-romantic Greek mythology. Its not really romantic, 'cause... it involves... undesirable sex... and its pretty unusual. Just wikipedia or google it.

Holga photos

2009-02-19T02:03:00.000-08:00

Its been a long month. I got really sick two weeks ago, and still had to show up to work due to unexpected deadlines. Then just as I was feeling better, I visited LA last weekend, a much needed vacation I might say. I stayed with my friend Brigette and Sean and Jules. Ate out a lot, mostly around the west hollywood and los feliz/silver lake area. I also partied, hanged out with Lorelay until 2am. We went to the Griffith Park Observatory. I had 3200 and 800 speed Holga films. We'll see how that develops out. In the mean time, I did another set of character designs. The guy on the right is inspired by Dev Patel, from Slumbdog Millionaire. He's so cute! The character is also holding a Pendelton designed blanket.

And I printed them on velvet print, they look so nice hanged!

Here're some of the Holga photos I took while I was in Taiwan.

A tiny shrine across the street from my parent's home.

Chickens at the nursery.

My mom posing with her chickens.

That's a score board for a soccer stadium.

See the tiny puppy?

That's my dad driving one of his trucks. It smelled like chicken dungs.

I hate biking in the cold.

2009-01-27T01:08:00.000-08:00

That's right! I hate biking in the cold! I bike everyday to work and my feet freeze. Even though I wear my leather boots or my desert boots, my feet still freeze. My boyfriend thinks I'm cold blooded. He complains about how my fingers are always cold. I also finally sealed up my bedroom window, so no heat will escape my room. So I bought my tickets to LA for February. I can't wait to get away from this cold, even if its only going to be a weekend. Also, has everyone seen the coraline trailer yet? Friends in LA and NYC all got to see the Coraline posters too. I work at Laika and I've only seen one poster... which is the one that's on the laika website. There's not a single poster ad in Portland... or maybe I'm blind. I heard one of the poster changes when you drive by it. That sounds cool. I just hope Coraline does well... my job might depend on the fate of that film. So I've been doing a lot of cafe drawings the last few weekends. I started this routine of every Saturday morning biking down to the big Powell's bookstore, grab a copy of the new yorker and a cup of soy chai, read and draw the people outside. The bookstore has a coffee shop with large window walls. And its on a busy intersection, perfect for me to sketch the locals and tourists. You can always tell the smokers and skinnier folks are the locals. So I got excited with some of the clothes I saw people were wearing. I biked home and started some sketches and colored them.

Here's a page from my sketchbook.

Few weeks ago few friends and I got kinda drunk after dinner, so we hanged out at this dessert wine bar until I was sober enough to drive home. We ended up drawing. The top is my boyfriend, below are Kim and Julian.

Julian did some funny drawing of me. My favourite is the second one, where I look like I'm possessed.

St. Valentine Day Cards

2009-01-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

On the day of inauguration of President Barack H. Obama, I bought a pair of new neon green undie. Okay, so that's not so shocking... since I own a lively colorful underwear wardrobe. Just imagine, I'm a walking hidden rainbow. Perhaps that was too much information to expose on my blog, but you should know by now that I have no shame and full of pride.
Anyways, I designed few St. Valentine's Day card for Tender Loving Empire, but they are available all over Portland. Only two of my designs got made it out the printer.

I like this one better than the tree design, but it didn't make it for the cut.

Here they are live, with the other cards.

I don't know if they are available online. Anyways, YES WE CAN!

Happy new year!

2009-01-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

New painting!

Wow, its already 2009. I've got few new year resolutions. First, I need to save more money. I go out way too much. Second, I gotta get back into Pilate. I stopped when winter hits Portland... the rain sometimes is a bit too much for me. I hate biking to the gym in heavy rain.
So I was in Taiwan visiting for the first time in 15 years. It was a definite culture shock and extreme nostalgia experience. I had tons of fun hanging out with my cousins and grandparent. Since my parents live in the south near the beach, I spent a lot of time eating seafood, running along the ocean, and surfing. While Portland is snowed in, I'm surfing on a white sand beach and eating clams. Nice!

Hong Kong and Taiwan

2008-12-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

I'll be gone for two weeks from this pacific northwest winter. I'm flying to Taiwan on Friday and won't be back until the day after Christmas. I'm going to spent a lot of days at the beach, eating, jogging on the sand, relaxing pretty much. I can't wait! it will be fun. It will be my first over sea trip in 15 years. Yeah... 15 hours of flight, not looking forward to it at all. I've packed my knitting kit and books and dvds. I'll keep myself entertained the entire flight. Or else I might pop a pill or two to put me to sleep. At least I'll be flying with my siblings. Before I go and connect with my pirate ancestry, here are some more wooden pieces I did in the past week. I finally got the cheery wood cut at a local hardware store. They are small, ranging from 3x6 to 4x4 inches. I've got large wooden logs sitting in my apartment, waiting to be cut... and they are really heavy. I just hope the wood doesn't crack. I tried keep them as dry as possible in the winter rain. And a side note, all of the stuff you see in this post are going to New York City. They will be displayed at a boutique store in the Lower East Side, called Szeki Jewerly. They will be up for display after Christmas. They will be for sale there. So if you want to purchase one, you'll have to contact them.

And here're some panels I've come up with while looking at some of my friend's national geographics.

I'm cooking up new ideas for my next paintings. No, not wood paintings. Digital or plain guache on matte paper.

Here's a photo of the Sezki Jewerly Boutique.

Winter plans

2008-12-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

Last night I dream that snow fell on Portland. When I woke up, the city is sunny and no rain in sight. It might have been that I was knitting before bed. Though I was getting frustrated trying to figured out a pattern. I spent my thanksgiving weekend with two European friends from San Francisco. They were really impressed with my tour guide of Portland. We biked, ate breakfast, walked, ate some more, and went to a concert, then ate some more. I don't remember there was a moment I wasn't hungry. They were really impressed with the food quality and variety in Portland, that's if you like European cuisine. I think we ordered bread with rillete (pate) at least at every meal. We also got dessert, and man... who knew chestnut de creme/flan can be orgasmic. We mostly talked about food and cooking half of the time. They recommended me some dishes I have to try, like Oeufs Poches au Vin (wine marinated egg) and Gratin Dauphinois (Potato Gratin, Burgundian peasant dish). They also told me the authentic way of making Ratatouille (southern France style). And I think we drank like at least one or two bottles of wine each day. I also got to practice my Français avec mon visiteurs. Mon Français est très infantile. Before Thanksgiving I had time to whip up some more wood paintings. Now I'm done with these scrap woods, finally I have the chance to play with my freshly cross cut wood logs.
And, I'm leaving for Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2 weeks. It will be my first flight to Asia in 15 years. The trip will be interesting. I'm frightened.

Bicycle

2008-11-16T01:26:00.000-08:00

So I spent my Saturday evening and night working on a 24hour film, I did it in about 6 to 8 hours. I barely got it done by midnight and submitted to the blog. Check out other films! Here's mine. Its inspired by the movie I saw few days ago, "Let the Right One In" (Låt den rätte komma in).

BICYCLE

24 hour film started at Calarts. I've never participated, but it was a character animation student organized film festival, happens once a year. Anyone at Calarts was able to participate, and you have to make a film in 24 hours. I remember each festival was just as long as a feature film, that's the great amount of participants. Its a great way to exercise your film making skill.

2 Days after the US election.

2008-11-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

I need to post this. Obama won! But Californian Proposition 8 might pass. They are still counting the 3-4 million absentee ballot. I will be mighty pissed if Prop 8 pass, you selfish bigotry conservative bastards. Californians, please don't disappoint me. To entertain and educate you about Prop 8, watch some of the videos made by my friends, gays and straights.

PSA made by Adrian Molina

clip by Dimitri Frazao

invertebrates

2008-11-02T23:04:00.000-08:00

So... Halloween was Friday... I was up until 3am again, and then a friend called me at 4am. Hahaha! If I hadn't change into my PJ I would've gone out again. So I dressed up as a colossal squid. Then went to a bar, had calamari for dinner. Headed over to a house party, dancing up and down until 3am. Time passed by so fast! We were pretty loud and I was scared the cops might show up. I wish my friend Julian dressed up as a whale. We could've fight in some sort of titanic proportion. Anyways, coincidentally last week I did a painting that also involves another invertebrate. I spent a lot of time on the details.

And here're some photos from the party.

So Rain has finally arrived in Portland. That means... cold, freezing rain, and a lot more indoor hibernation. Which means I'll be more productive without distraction. Perhaps I'll update a lot more.

Btw, there's an article online written about a joint gallery show I was participating in Portland. http://www.shift.jp.org/en/archives/2008/10/laika.html cheers!

An update!? WOW!

2008-10-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know what Brigette is thinking right now. Ed finally fuck'n updated his blog. Its about time I know. I'm sorry. Half of the september I was caught up with intense marathon training, and the effort paid off at the October Portland Marathon. I shaved off 19 minutes from my previous record in Vancouver, BC. I've got 35 minutes to go until I get qualified for the Boston Marathon. Crossing my finger I can break my record again. So right after the marathon I flew to New York City and partied hard. I ran in central park with friends. I spent way too much money on clothes. I almost passed out at the lower east side. I helped babysitting a friend's dog. A lot happened in one week. Then I flew back to Portland, pretty much collapsed at work and at home. I finally recovered from jet lag and sleep deprivation. So now I'm back with energy. I get right back into painting and working on a new print. I did two more wood paintings.

I also found a place in a warehouse that carries year old drift woods. I'm going to pick some up and paint a forest or something... We'll see if I can do that in the cold on my balcony. On top of all this, guess what I'm doing? Sewing my new Halloween costume. I am going to be an invertebrate... creature, I'll pose the complete costume in my next post.

Here're some photos from nyc.
playing with dogs at washington square park

outside of a bar

near east Houston St.

near friend's apartment

Post Labor Days

2008-09-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

Bad news! I'm not going to APE con. Apparently my application never arrived the comic con office. I didn't get mail confirmation 'cause I've never had problem with USPS. I'm thinking... maybe USPS did lose my mail for the first time in 5 years, or else APE con organizers lost my application. Ack. ACK! Thank goodness I didn't buy plane tickets to San Francisco. I was so pissed on Friday when I found out, I decided to get drunk at the concert. I met new people, a guy bought me a vodka shot, my friend's band was great, I also met a fan of my work, vomitted on the side of my bedroom, had raw vegan parfait the next morning. It all happened between 11pm to 10am. yakes. And I've got a 10k race tomorrow morning. I feel like a rock star.
Anyways, I've been working on doing a painting with the Guan Yin goddess. And I've been reading a lot about whales since I recently quit my Greenpeace membership. So I did some sketches and came up with this painting idea.

So instead of San Francisco I might make a week trip to New York and possibly Montreal. I need a Fall vacation when I didn't take one in the summer.

I went camping

2008-08-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I went camping with Shad. It wasn't suppose to be a romantic getaway, but nobody else was able to make it. Most of the time we played scrabble and kayak and swam in the lake. I was practicing for the Portland sprint triathlon, but I'm not doing it. Swimming 750m non stop in a high current river (the Willamette) is just way too hard. I need at least one year of swim training. I can't imagine the olympic length which is 1 mile, 1000m. Swimming in the river is like swimming blind folded. I did a test swim and I started veering off into the middle of the river where the cruise boat goes through. That was bad. Though the river didn't smell half as horrible everyone warned me about. None of those people have swam in a city river before. I also started collecting old illustrative studies of botanical organisms. They were the original inspirations for my wood paintings. Speaking of which, I did few more paintings. I plan to sell them at APE con.

I need a vacation. I might go to Holland and Denmark next spring. That's in the plan... I'm just worried about my work visa. The Bush Admin is making this whole work visa a huge mess. Please, Obama, please win the election. We Canadians love USA, me love very long time.

silk screen summer

2008-07-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

PS: I opened up an online store. I've only got 5 items up so far. Its more of a trail out to see if anyone will buy my stuff online. In the future I'll expand it for a popular demand. If anyone has a suggestion on which print or artwork I should sell, please don't hesitate to give me feedback.

Instead of taking a summer vacation I am gonna take this opportunity to work on some new materials. I've started no this wood painting, pretty much painting as much as I could while listening to loud music like Crystal Castle or HeartRevolution. Another medium I want to get back on is silk screen printing. I've found a place to lent me time to do silk screen. Now I just need to start sketching out design and ideas. I might start with some color testing like different versions of rainbow colour twisting and turning with perspective play. I wanna try overlay color on top of each other. That's something I never got to experiment back at Calarts. APE CON is coming up and there's been talk between Lorelay Bove and I of getting a table together and sell prints and artwork. I finally got the paper work done and had it sent out but I'm not sure if we got a table. I guess we'll find out in August. Mostly I just want an excuse to go to San Francisco and party. Apparently there's this really cool bar that Lorelay told me about... eye candy site. Anyways, below is an idea I came up with while thinking of silk screen colour tests.

Here's one of the wood paintings I did last week.

Oh yeah, speaking of which the Olympic game in Beijing is coming up. My friend who works in Beijing as an English magazine editor in a publishing company, and her studio just got raided last week by the Chinese Government for illegal actions. Apparently, it is illegal in China to publish any English oriented public magazines. At least not until the Olympic is over. How about that? She's alright but shocked. I can see why a lot of people dislike the Chinese Government.

L'oiseaux; Un Moineau

2008-07-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day! It was yesterday. I was in Toronto last week and while biking around the Yorkville area I got really mesmerized by the birds and the Victorian houses. As much I love Portland sometimes I think about moving back to Toronto or Montreal and live in an old Victorian house. The only problem I had with Toronto was I couldn't find a single grocery store that sells Kombutcha. I did stop by Essence on Queens West Street and they ran out. Fresh vegan chain restaurants carry $4 Portland Kombutcha, expensive! With the 12% sales tax that's $4.25 yakes. I should cash in on my universal healthcare. With birds and Victorian houses I did some sketches. Now I'm back in Portland I couldn't stop but keep thinking about the birds so I've decided to start doing some wood panel paintings. Just experimenting with Victorian typography.

And here're some wood paintings.

Some Canadian facts... Did you know the Canada is the second biggest country in the world after Russia? And Basketball was invented by a Canadian. And yeah, we are one of the few countries that has two official languages, English and French. En sept années, j'ai appris le Français à l'école en Toronto. Oui, je peux parler et lire Français. C'est un peu dans l'écriture... avec le problème de grammaire. Pardonnez mon Français.

more wood paintings

2008-06-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm flying out to Canada tomorrow and will return next weekend. I need the vacation. I'll be in Toronto for a full week. Thank goodness my brother has a road bike that he's lending me to ride. If you are looking for me I'll be either on Church st. or Queen West area. I'll be sketching and drinking iced tea. I also redesigned my website for easier access. I guess I wasn't thinking about bandwidth uploading time.
Recently I've been looking into doing bigger wood paintings and experiment with wax and different wood stain tones. But I won't have the time to do it until I get back from my trip. So half the time in Toronto I'll anxious to paint some wood. In the meantime I try to find free time to do some smaller paintings for local shops in Portland. Here's one of them.

I'm also a bit hung over from my birthday drinks. Thanks for everyone that called me up on my birthday. I am finally over a quarter of a century old. Yakes. Maybe I should do something that's "adult".

Next first Thursday show

2008-05-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

So I scanned the panels... and I'm really not happy with them. The color is all off. This is one thing I hate about doing non-digital artworks. Its so hard to record the artwork without ruining the quality. I'm going to have a friend take photos of them. Let's hope that works out better.

The show opening is next Thursday June 4th, I don't know where and the time. Its a joint show with other artists. I don't know how many. I'll update more info by Friday once I surrender my work.

UPDATE
So the show takes place at Tender Loving Empire store, NW 18th Ave and NW Lovejoy St. in Portland, Oregon. Below is the info card. They forgot to put my name on there... but they did remember to use my artwork for the cover... ahem.

Mitt Liv Som Hund

2008-05-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Last month I rented the movie "Mitt Liv Som Hund" (My Life as a Dog) and surprisingly I enjoyed it. The 80s Swedish movie sets place in the 50s. It is about a 12-year old boy (Ingmar, awesome name) growing up in Stockholm and moving to a small rural town due to his mother's sickness. There's a subplot line about his obsession with Laika the Russian space dog and his beloved pet dog. The movie is really slow but really awesome comedic timing. At least, I thought it was funny. There's a scene that plays the Swedish version of the 1930s song "monkey stole the coconut" like at least twenty times. That really irritated me. Anyways, the film gave me the idea to do Nordic Swedish wood paintings for a gallery show next month. I've never done wood paintings and I had to experiment a bit. I wasted a few wood panels. Here's my work in progress. I'll post them once I have all of them finished sometime this week.

So a wrap up of the month. Last week I stumbled into the Obama rally at the waterfront. I was running at the waterfront early in the morning and I saw people crowding towards the great lawn. Later I realized what it was and biked down there from the gym. I didn't want to wait in the 10 block 2 hour line so I just went around the fence. Obama was like a white dot on stage. His speech of course, inspiring and very well written. He is definitely a great speaker and made me feel like I wish I could vote for him. But, I'm Canadian, vive l'Liberal Party. It was the biggest primary democratic rally yet in history.

I am also doing my first sprint triathlon next month, and that's the same Sunday as the Portland Pride weekend. I'm going to be so tired that weekend. I'm also planning a trip to Toronto next month, and possibly New York in September. I originally was suppose to make a trip to Amsterdam and Copenhagen this summer. But I didn't know if I was going to get my work visa on time to travel out of the country. Now I know I do! Which now the ticket is $500 more expensive. ARGH!

Ira Glass Live

2008-05-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend is sick and I'm really scared I might have caught some germs from him. I have to run the Vancouver BC marathon this Sunday and running with the cold flu isn't exactly what I had in mind as a "challenge". But tonight we are attending the This American Life LIVE! at the Lloyld Cinema in Portland. Its only "live" 'cause Ira Glass is doing the live performance from New York with satellite broadcasting. I think the only other performance that uses this technology is the New York MET Opera. Anyways, we are really excited since we both listens to This American Life like opium addicts. Though, I have to say I'm really addicted to CBC and BBC Documentary Radio.

So I was cleaning my apartment and I realized I had more art books than I have. I thought I sold most of my books to Powells Bookstore. Anyways, I was looking at Byzantine art portrayals of saints holding churches or buildings before the Christ. I felt that is a really strong metaphor image. Somehow that reminded me of the painting called Salomé by Gustave Moreau. I love the color. I came up with this...

I wanted to add Turkish and Inuit flower pattern, but I felt it would be too distracting from the characters in the painting.

BTW, here's a flash animation they showed at the This American Life LIVE show in UCLA that I went with Diana. It will give you an idea what the radio show is about.

Post it at concert

2008-04-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

I got my wisdom teeth pulled out last weekend and it still aches. Especially when I run it aches like hell. I get so annoyed with it. The painkiller doesn't really work since I would just fall asleep. I hope my mouth heals before the Vancouver Marathon, which is on the first weekend of May, in two weeks. Oh my gosh, it will be really miserable if I have to run with an aching pain on my right cheek. Anyways, last night at Rilo Kiley concert I did some post it drawings with my friend Kimmer. I think both of us were a bit drunk from vodka cocktails.

I also found a place to do my silk screening. I want to experiment with enlargement of my drawing with some color pattern.

and another note. For those of you haven't seen the new Bjork music video of her song Wanderlust. I can't help it but think there're some similar theme in most of my work and the music video. That Icelandic, Greenland, Northwest Territory, Ellesmere Island, Inuit, Arctic, Pacific Northwest theme. I used to spite her music, but until my freshman year at Calarts only I started appreciating her work.

If you want a higher resolution, check this out.
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2008/04/bjork_wanderlust_2d_video

Seventy Degrees

2008-04-12T18:18:00.001-07:00

Its seventy degrees in Portland. Can you believe it? Summer has finally come to Portland! I can't believe how hot it is outside. I brought out a Sangria mix and had it at a local park with my boyfriend. Its hot enough that I was sun tanning. Right now I'm drinking a vegan white russian while drawing and sewing a costume. Anyways, I'm working on small paintings for a up coming June show at Tender Loving Empire (NW 18th and NW Lovejoy). My prints are currently on sale at the store. If you are interest in buying any of my print you can buy it through me or indirectly through the store. I do get more money if you buy it straight from me. Just email me at edwardjuan@gmail.com
Here's a painting I did for part of the June show.

I finally went on my first bike expedition since I can remember from last summer. I biked over to the east side of the town with few friends. We got a vegan coconut white cake at Sweet Pea Company and then biked across the bridge before the rain returns. Its too bad that the weather is going back to raining for the next few days. Supposely this has been an abnormal lengthy winter. I'm crossing my finger for the long summer that I long deserve.
PS: Did I mention that my visa is worked out! I am doing the Vancouver Marathon next month and then I'll be traveling to Toronto and Montreal in June.
PSS: Here're some polaroid pictures I took while Lorelay, Dimitri, and Neyssa paid me a visit.

those damn fowls

2008-03-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

For about a week now its official spring in Portland! The entire city is blooming with flowers and new tree sprout leaves and wow, just beautiful! Its something I missed when I lived in LA. This is the spring that I missed on the east coast. I didn't know you can experience the same thing in the pacific northwest. Everyday is sunny, with some clouds carrying some sprinkle shower, and then leave with a rainbow behind. It is also St. Patrick's day this coming week, and I'm running in the 15k Shamrock Run in Portland. All I know is at the end of the race there's free beer! So while watching the rain and the birds migrating and the recent catalogue of Hommes magazine, I was struck with the idea of painting something that taste like spring. Or at least, spring water... I am really bad explaining my art and ideas.

See that blue with the hot pink/magenta color? Blame the tree next door outside of my apartment window. A giant tree that is blooming with pink flowers. Giant pink flowers the size of your fist. Its so pretty that people on the street would stop by and take pictures of it or with it. My landlady complains about how the flower buds is making a mess on the sidewalk.
Once I get my new camera I will sent you a photo of this tree. Its beautiful.
Oh yeah, I am getting a permanent art space over at a small comic/craft/indie/local/cute store in the area called Tender Loving Empire. Its on NW 17th ave and NW Lovejoy. Its a really small shop but they've got the goods too. With some original prints from Jordan Crane and Craig Thompson. Yeah, I know, another indie hang out in PDX. I hate to say how annoying that could be but I love it. HA!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

2008-02-25T17:44:00.001-08:00

The SE Artwalk is next weekend. Come see my work at the Corner Street Cafe.

Little Beirut is my home.

2008-02-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

So the other day I just found out Portland's nick name is Little Beirut. Due to the uproar that people cause every time Bush senior or junior tried to visit the town. I love that name, Little Beirut, sounds cute. I might name my blog that. My friend Kim and I also recently discovered this band called Beirut (talk about coincident!), beautiful music. A nice vocal with great mixture of Bohemian and marching band jazz style to it.

My friend at work is also playing in a band called "days", with another band that is from work, called "soft tags". Come check it out! indie styled good night this saturday 9pm at The Bitter End bar over on Burnside and 20th ave. Also, the SE Artwalk of Portland is coming up in March 1st and 2nd (Saturday & Sunday). I'll be getting my first debut of my own gallery space in Portland. I can't wait! It is a bit informal but please do show up anyways. I'll be there mostly on Saturday and Sunday morning from 10am to 1pm. My friend will be helping me with the curating from 1pm to 5pm. Its gonna be shown at the Clinton Street Cafe. Here's one of the piece I'm working on.

I'm also involved in another group show in Astoria, Oregon, at the Lunar Boy Gallery. This time I will be attending the opening. Also, when I was in Toronto I met this guy named Jeremy Laing. He is an amazing fashion designer based in Toronto. He told me how he is filmed by some website that is documenting his spring collection designs. I was like... yeah, whatever, sure. And then later I found it through some blog. Yet again, I am a fool. His designs are amazing, beautiful, and definitely sophiscated and high end. I'm embarrassed to doubt him.

He's the guy on the right. Serves me right to judge someone else before really knowing who they are.

Riding the Hermes... and Pari.

2008-01-15T00:07:00.000-08:00

Its year 2008, I'm 25, out and about. So last year I did my first marathon, LA and Seattle (I won't be running LA this year, due to schedule conflict). I graduated with a BFA. I have a job. I learned to knit and purl. I got trashed with my brother for the first time. I own two bikes, Hermes and Pari. I am still a vegetarian. I learned how to skateboard with basic skills, to get around without falling. I finally got my website revamped, ridingthehermes.com
Some jerk took edwardjuan.com when I forgot to pay for my host service. And during that period of 1 month when my host is holding hostage of my account; someone bought it before I could. People! Don't forget to pay your bills on time.
So to start off my new year, I got informed from the SE Portland Artist association that I'm approved to participate a huge gallery sale and opening on first weekend of May. I'm gonna be busy the next few weeks to develop my inuit/canadian/northwest pacific/contemporary/storytelling/eastern asian cultured ideas. You know, those Inuit inspired folkish paintings I draw. So I'm coming up with more ideas. That means a lot of walking around with a sketchbook and biking around town and thinking a lot. I kinda want to touch base on the texture of fir and pine. Its really cold in Portland, so making a trip up to the mountain will be hard. Here's something I randomly come up with after eating at a vegan restaurant called the Nutshell in the NE area.

My friend Julian and Kim have been really inspiring to me lately. When we made our Halloween costumes we had so much fun that we thought of a short film idea base on that experience. We are thinking of doing a short film of just random monsters battling it out in a city. We are looking for an excuse to make more monster costumes and possibly the pleasure of stomping on city models and animated stop-mo characters.
Oh, and I constantly got sick throughout December and first week of January. That's another reason I didn't update my blog. I had nothing to show! Except sketchbook sketches, but those are boring. I rather show something more interesting. Like this, my new york friend Chaiwen got photographed by the New York Magazine, Look Book team. I think she will be featured in the next year's Look Book issue.

Portraits

2007-12-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Its winter in Portland! Rain, few snow, Pea coat, scarf, winter cap, high tops, gloves, and hot chocolate. I had to install fender on my bike... Did I mention I bought a new bike? Now I have two bikes. My first bike, Hermes, yes, my boyfriend named it for me. I told him I wanted to name it Mercury or something along speed in the Greek or Roman mythology, he said Hermes is cuter. Though it can sound like herpes if you say it real fast. I named my new bike, Peri, he's a race bike with low handle bar. He is also much lighter, that means I can go faster on him. I name Peri after the the Persian name for angels. Anyways, my Seattle Marathon was fantastic. I beat my LA marathon record by 1 minute. I really thought I was falling behind, but I guess I run better in colder weather. It was still a torture though. I don't recommend it to everyone. I was disappointed that Seattle only has bus public transportation, no street car or train or subway whatsoever (except the lame monorail that only has one stop). I've been working on some gallery work for this up coming show in downtown Portland. In the mean time I wanted to get back on my gouache paint, so I did some color test with portraits of my friends and peers. Here are few.... and more to come!

I'm also working on my website, revamping it with a different name. Edwardjuan.com is stolen by some jerk. I'll let you know once I have everything running again. I haven't write HTML and javascript in such a long time. So it may take me a while.

Oh yeah! I'm going home, Toronto, for Christmas! Its been about a year since I saw my family. So if anyone is gonna be in town (Mr. Tom Knott and Jon Klassen???) please don't hesitate to give me a call. We'll pick up a drink at the Green Room or hang out at the Kensington Market. I miss Toronto!
Also I got to hang out few times with Chantelle (Brigette's sister) and her boy, Dylan, here's their cute website.

day of the dead

2007-11-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late update! I've been really busy. I went to New York last month for a week attempting to enter the Canadian border. I lost my passport (and got a new one now!) so I couldn't risk of border security shit. Knowing the US government being such an ass about it right now, so I rather not risk of rejecting an entry back to the States. I am having tons of problem applying for a work permit. Apparently the foreign worker law is constantly changing. Overall, I did have a lot of fun in New York. Most of the time I hanged out in chelsea and west village near where I stayed, my friend's apartment. So I spent my Halloween week partying and making costumes. You can check out more of my costume pictures from Julian's blog.

I also got involved in a day of the dead show over northwest at a gallery in Astoria, Oregon. That's where they shot The Goonies. Here's my piece. I am very unhappy with it, creatively it is lame 'cause I rushed it.

I also missed my boyfriend a whole lot when I was away in New York. He goes to Portland State University and I work 9-6 everyday. This whole new career life plus relationship romance life is new to me, actually, both of us. So we are both learning life together. The best part of a boyfriend is that he bakes me vegan dessert. At my arrival of the airport, he brought a self-baked vegan apple pie. That totally beats the jacket I got him from Soho. I had to redeem myself to cook him tapa and taking him out on romantic dinners. If you think that's cheesy? Last time we biked together we did the whole biking and french kissing at the same time Kodak moment thing. My friend thought it was cute, but I don't know about the hobo that we almost hit.
Oh yeah, I can't wait to see Persepolis once it comes to Portland. I hear good reviews from people at Ottawa and Cannes.

Glasses

2007-09-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

So I finally got glasses! I found the frame at Decades Vintage in downtown Portland. I love them. They reminded me of Buddy Holly.

So I'm having a lot of fun at work ever since Stef Choi moved back to Laika. We just giggle and talk and draw. Reminds me of the good Calarts days.
And I was looking at some Buddha goddess (Motherly Matriarch) paintings from Taiwan. I got inspired. Kinda mix in some Inuit folk art.

Also, Lorelay Bove and my film are mentioned in the Animation Magazine September 2007 issue. Here's a scan of it.

I'm also visiting New York City on the first week of October, and stopping by Toronto for few days to do the marathon there.

Holga Photos

2007-09-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've been taking pictures with my Holga and it is hard to get a good picture when the sun isn't out. I do have flash on my Holga, but that's only good for closeup. I think only 2 out of 10 pictures came out clear. Some are just too dark and some are too over exposed. Here're some to entertain you.

And some recent sketches I did hanging out with Julian.

More to come!

Studio space

2007-09-05T23:50:00.000-07:00

So me and a friend, Julian Narino, are thinking of setting up a studio space in the pearl art district of portland. We are going to use it to do silk screen printing, sewing, painting, stop motion animation, basically a place for us to work on our side projects. Portland is big on self-publishing comics and zines. We also plan to convert it into a gallery space for First Thursday NW gallery opening night. We can get local bands to play for the opening. Anyways, I've been working on a series of "bike accident" pieces for a small gallery space. Hopefully I'll have it done on time by the next thursday night opening.

I've also been playing with my Holga, I'll show those on the next post. And here are some random photos. Doug Fir, really awesome indie concerts. I think Wolf Parade is playing there this sunday.

And Paradox Cafe, one of my favourite vegan joint. A real good diner on SE Belmont.

Here's me at Voodoo Donut, a hole in the wall, vegan donuts. Kinda of a trashy stop by after a good night of fun.

Here's my friend Vivienne visiting from Atlanta, at Clyde Common. My new found favourite high end restaurant.

Alexis and I at Crush bar, good drinks but lame crowd. It was like a meat locker.

Viv gave me flowers for letting her staying at my apartment. They are pretty.

I also miss my friends. I am not alone in Portland but most of the people I know are back down in Los Angeles area. I don't want to live in LA but I want to live close by my friends. sigh. Also, Calarts start classes on Monday. I still feel weird that I'm not a student anymore. I am a career man.

Slow Club

2007-08-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

I'm finally settling down in Portland, Oregon. I flew back down to LA, got all of my junk from Los Feliz drove up to stay with Lorelay Bove for a day. Then hooked up my car onto a truck (warning: I never drove a truck in my life!) and I took off to Portland. A two day trip. I stopped by Sacramento, checked out the downtown area and partied hardcore at a club until 2am. Ate a nice vegan breakfast next morning, then drove and drove until I got to Portland around 7pm. I met up with a friend who is visiting me from Savannah and got dinner at this swanky restaurant next to Ace Hotel. *breath* tons of crap happened! So now I'm finally relaxing a bit. I can't wait for labor day weekend. I also joined the gym and started swimming. So... aside from all the craziness I found time to do some album idea designs for this indie UK band I love called Slow Club. They are taking entries and I just thought it will be fun to participate. Its fun just to draw something random and listening to your favourite songs.

Check out their music at http://myspace.com/slowclub

And Rilo Kiley is plaing next Friday! Anyone going?

Film Festivals

2007-07-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so, this happened! My web host service expired last week and for some reason I can't reach my host service coordinator or supervisor or techni whatever. I just registered my host on another server company, but I still don't have the right to my original domain name. So if anyone wants to see my site you'll have to go through this URL: http://69.89.31.95/~edwardju

On other note! My film is being screened at the Animation Block Party in new york this weekend. It also got into the Nicktoon Festival, which will be televised sometime in August. Moreover, Kim Slate ("home") and my film both got into the Taiwan Int. Animation Festival. I guess I won't be attending any of these festivals since I'm no where near any of them. And I missed Platform right before I moved to Portland. I did go to the rooftop screening at Hotel Deluxe in Portland for Westland. I think next thursday they are showing The Killing, directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is a very small audience compare to the Forever Hollywood cemetery screening. Anyways, here's something I came up with while eating in the Pioneer Square.

I hope I get some sort of work visa before the Toronto Marathon, or else I can't run in that event. Which...I will be really upset.

Northwest Balooza

2007-07-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry for the late update everyone! I had to move to Portland right the way and now I'm finally settling in. I started at Laika right the way and I had hardly any time to unpack. I finally upgraded my friend's bike with a basket and all. I don't have my car so I had to borrow it for my main source of transportation. Besides, cyclists are hot and hip in Portland. So now I'm officially not a student. I am a "career" man. Oh boy. That means responsibilities and tax and rent and blah blah blah. It is a lot ot take in. Someone call me the whambulance. Here're some sketches I did on my free time in Portland. I promise a better post next time.

Now that I have money, it means concert going time! I'm going to see Rufus Wainwright next tuesday, Bishop Allen the week after, and The Ladybug Transistor the week after. Oh yeah, F'n Rilo Kiley is coming in September to Portland! HARDCORE!

Another cute hip indy Portland summer

2007-06-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

My emotions are been played and contradicted constantly throughout the week. So after the Pixar "scandalous" internship that put me in disappointment, I panicked to find another job to support myself in the summer. Like many of my friends' comforting words, "you are meant for better things to come." Well, guess what? I am going to Laika in Portland and work there as a visual development artist. Hm... what's the appropriate word here to describe my enthusiaism? F*CK'N HELL YEAH! Last summer I worked at Laika and I had one of the greatest time of my life. I love Portland! It is probably my favourite city in the US. Just as awesome as New York City. Thank the Lord almighty!!!! I can't believe I am going to live in Portland again... for a limited time. But still, it is going to be awesome! I'll be there at the cus end of the Platform festival and leave just in time to attend the Disney Apprenticeship program.
Anyways, I was talking to my friend Jojo and we got into the subject of American Apparel undies (for those you know me, don't be surprised!). When I was jogging the other day I saw a mama deer and a baby deer chilling out near Brand park in Glendale. I literally almost ran into them. It was scary, I didn't want to freak out Bambi. So these two random events gave me a vision...

On the side I'm working on few pitch ideas with super writer friend Amolia. It is indy, cute, and its got color.

Silverlake?

2007-06-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

I got an email from Pixar and they stated that my internship position has already planned to be replaced. So my summer is now up for job vacancy. I don't start the Disney apprenticeship until end of August. I gotta find some sort of income to support myself this summer. On the other note, my apartment near calarts is just about to end its lease. I've found an amazing apartment in Silverlake. I plan to move in around early July. I hope no one takes it before me! On my free time I've been drawing and painting a lot more. I'm also doing some reading. I just finished reading Adam Gopnik's "From Paris to the Moon". Now I'm reading a hilarious memoir by Dan Savage, "The Commitment". Anyways, I plan to go check out the Tofu Festival at little tokyo. I am also attending the outfest to check out the documentary, Red Without Blue. I'm going to try and take advantage of the Forever Hollywood cemetery screening. I think they are screening The Haunting this Saturday.

Work Permit Disaster!!!!

2007-06-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

So what kind of trouble did I get myself into this week? Well, I drove up to Pixar with few friends who are also doing the Pixar internship with me. At the end of our first day I get a call from the Pixar foreign affair office (i think that's what it is called). Voila! I can't work or intern at Pixar 'cause I don't have my work permit card yet. For all I know my work permit has already processed but I haven't receive the actual card yet. And everyone knows how fast and efficient the governmental civil service is in this country. So then I had to drive back down to LA and stay with a friend in Glendale, while I sit around and wait for any sort of update of my work permit. It is a pain! I need that internship income! So I'm taking advantage of my waiting period exploring possible future living area. So far I'm interest in areas of Los Feliz, Hollywood in the area of 3rd St. and Beverly or Melrose. Affordable but still got energy on the street. Its just got to live up to my experience at Portland last year. I also got back into painting again, digitally. My gouache and acrylic paints are stored away. So here's something I was doing to warm up. I also want to get into decorative pattern and textile design.

Wish me good luck on getting my work permit... in time!

Short short!

2007-05-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Everything has finally settled down. I graduated from Calarts, my family came and left, I am going to Pixar for the summer art internship, and then coming back down to LA to do the Disney Feature Animation art apprenticeship in the fall. My life is set for the next 8 months! I also finally uploaded my film, Jose Y Maria, on youtube. My next two weeks consist of visiting Portland and chill out there for few days. I'm going to be staying at my friend's apartment in NW area and take his bike to explore the city. I'm also going to a bouch of El Rey and Henry Fonda theatre concerts. Voxtrot, CSS, Architecture in Helsinki, Hot Chip, and The Pipettes... that's if they don't conflict with my internship. I also bought my first artbook since last summer, Gregory Crewdson's Twilight. I wish the book is bigger so I can enjoy the details.

I'm also going to do the San Francisco halfmarathon and the SF 10K Pride Run. Come cheer for me!

And a little treat for everyone. Me and few friends went to Disneyland the week after we finished our film. I rent out a super8 camera and Sean Jimenez took it on a whirl of our trip. We look like we are from the 60s!

WWII Soldiers

2007-04-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Since I finished my film I've been helping people out finishing their film. I'm looking forward to the open show, which is this coming Friday 8pm in the cafe of Calarts. It is a seven hour show of all the character animation department films. I hope all the best films are shown on the first few tapes, I don't know if I can stay up that late. Here're some designs I did after watching Band of Brothers. Good show!

I need a vacation... after I finish my portfolio and job search. Wish me good luck!

Jose Y Maria

2007-04-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

I'm done with my film! My last and fourth year film. The deadline is not until next Monday so I'm helping out few friends to color and edit their film. I'm also busy working on my portfolio and the swovarski project. I just discovered a Bjork music video on her son "Oceania", and wow, its got crystal written all over it. A group of us are making posters to advertise the Open Show (where they are screening seven hours of character animation student films - HARDCORE!), and post them all over the school. Here's my poster for my film.

Check out Lorelay's site, she's done with her film too. We were like... running a marathon, to see who finishes first. HARDCORE! HARD-CORE!!!!!!

Swarovski & Film Deadline

2007-04-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

So films are due in 2 weeks, but I've been counting down two months ago. I finally got my animation all animated, scanned and colored. Now is the editing, compositing, and sound editing part. Its gonna take me to the end of the deadline. I plan to finish it at least 2 days early, just so I can show it to few of my peers to see if any minor changes I have to make in the last two days. Small changes in editing and timing can make a huge difference! Here's a color guide I made for my film.

Sorry, that's the closest thing to a finish look of my film.

And then the Swarovski project that me and few seniors/juniors are working on the past few months. Basically the Swarovski company came to Calarts looking for students to design story-streamlined crystal-related products. "Put character and story into the crystal figurines", according to the representatives. So here's one of my illustration ideas for a crystallized greek myth idea. Its a start! I'll post more stuff next week if I don't go insane.

Back to work, sigh, I can't wait to graduate.

Santa Barbara Mission Fool'n

2007-03-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

So everyone's been super stressing out at calarts 'cause of our films are due in 3 weeks. Everyone is freaking out and getting all touchy. Luckily, our film Brigette is back in her home, Santa Barbara (Carpinteria) last weekend, so we decided to pay her a visit. The ocean and the beach and all, but the best fun we had was at the mission. We basically just fooled around the tiny forest near the cemetery. We wrestled, did cart wheels, bruce lee moves, climbing tress, rolling on the grass, prancing the field, picking flowers, ...etc. Oh yeah, and here's something I was designing for the Sworvaski crystal company.

and now the photos... couple of people said we look like an indy band, how awesome is that?

I think we need to be called The Treehuggers or something obscure like Snake Whores. And our first single would be called Mission to Santa Barbara.

BACK TO WORK!!!!
Btw, photos were taken by me, brigette, lorelay and sean. matt was too busy fix'n his hair.

LA Marathon!

2007-03-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

So I did the LA Marathon 07! I finished my first marathon ever! My body has recovered from the pain and numbness. Now I gotta train for the Disneyland Halfmarathon and the Toronto Marathon in the coming fall. I didn't get any chafing 'cause I prepared with vaseline and ahem... nevermind! The only unbareable pain I felt during the marathon was urinating became a hassle and sharping pain. My time was 4hour19mins, that's about 9min per mile.

So time for some designs! Shane and Shannon came by the last two weeks to do a small seminar on character design or design in animation in general. We had to design characters from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dicken. I wish I had spent more time playing with the design, but I found time to do it between dinner and bedtime.

I think my Scrooge design is the worst. I should've gave him less hair.

Films are due in about 50 days. Im not even half way done animating my film. Its time to crack down on the slacking!

Prep time

2007-02-25T09:58:00.000-08:00

Well, the marathon is next sunday 7am. I'll be there 2 hours early just so I can prep up and get my bib number. If anyone feels like coming to cheer me on (I'll probably finish between 11am-noon), the finish line is on flower st. between 6th and 5th street. That's downtown LA, near USC I think... You can take the 5 south and then west on pasadena freeway(i think that's 210?) or you can take the hollywood freeway (170 to 101) all the way south and get on the pasadena fwy. The marathon starts next to the 170 on Cahuenga Blvd intersecting Lankershim Blvd. I think its where Ventura Blvd merges into Cahuenga. I'm not sure. Its around Studio City. I think!!! Anyways, the map is on www.lamarathon.com
Just thinking about this makes my hands sweat. Time for some sketches!

Wish me good luck!

Film due in 2 months

2007-02-20T11:34:00.000-08:00

Holy crap! Films are due in TWO FREAK'n MONTHS!!! Time to cramp and freak out and break down. I've been going through some emotional rollercoaster the past few days. This year is definitely my most drama year. I sound like a girl! And now... some backgrounds, real boring backgrounds.

Wow! Egg carton, so exciting!!!!!

Calarts cubical... and... there's someone climbing it.

I also went to see Camera Obscura performing at the El Rey. It was super cool! Scottish accents are so cute. The concert started off a bit mellow, I mean, you can' really dance and start a mosh pit with Camera Obscura. But the energy definitely picked it up half way through, they rocked out at the end. The new castle beer might have helped it too.

Last weekend we had two drinking parties in a row. I hope I didn't damange my kidney. most of the time I was mellow and calm, I didn't drink much either. Remember, I had some emotional crap to take care of.

There's me talking to Ashley K. Doesn't her name sound like a celebrity.

Look at the drinks!!!

Brigette acking.
I promise my next post will be more cheerful and entertaining. The LA marathon is also coming up! Watch out for me amongst the other 10,000 runners. Yes, time to get myself killed!

Film Layouts

2007-01-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I update this sad blog. So I got back from New York and Toronto, immediately I'm crammed with film and school work. Egah! I hope I can finish my last film at Calarts. Here're some background layout...

The film is about 3:30min long. And time for some nyc pics!

Random bike art project near Delancey and Houston.

Quantum Leap... my favourite vegan restaurant! SO GOOD!

My friend Chaiwen at Max Brenner on 2nd Ave.

At some random thai restaurant on upper west side.

Teany, awesome tea shop founded by Moby in Lower East Side.

Wish me good luck on completing my film. I'll need it!