Collagraph

In this work, I went to NAFA's open house with that childhood friend. The scene in my work is actually the main entrance of Lim Hak Tai Gallery but I shifted the lights aligning the top of the entrance to form the star constellation "Leo" mirroring my courage in asking her out for the first time.
The origami animals represents the fun we had exploring NAFA while attending different workshops.

My collagraph's final. I cut pieces of mounting board into shapes of the gallery's entrance and stuck it on another mounting board to set up the scene. Next I arrange and pasted the origamis to form a proper composition. One challenge I face is that the origami papers are hard to flatten so it took quite a long time for me to put everything in place.

Collagraph: mounting board[things to note]

For collagraph, I chose to fold origami to paste on the mounting board because I like the texture of the creases and the edges gives solid line work.
Next I applied a layer of watery white glue to the board trice to make sure the origami sticks to the mounting board.
Lastly I applied shellac oil trice to keep everything in place.

Acrylic Sheet Drypoint Etching

The background of "Its been a while" was inspired by van Gogh's Starry Starry Night.
In this work, I met up with a childhood friend whom I hadn't met for 5 years at Dohby Gaut MRT station to go to NAFA's open house. I remembered she was so late that I thought I was going to have to go for the open house alone and the moment captured in my work was what I felt seeing her for the first time in half a decade; a happy feeling filling the emptiness of a void.




My Acrylic Sheet's final. I used a dry-point tool to engrave my design on the acrylic sheet. One challenge I face is that it is hard to control the dry-point tool while etching  on the sheet; hard to get a proper curve line if I hesitate to make a mark.. lesson learnt.. don't hesitate!

Drypoint Etching: CopperPlate[things to note]

 Dry-point etching copperplate

To kick off the first copperplate project, we bought an A1 copperplate from the metal vendor and cut(picture above) it into A4, ending up with 12 copperplates in total which was shared equally between myself and a classmate. We both paid about $80 each.

Drypoint Etching: Acrylic Sheet[things to note]

After completing etching on the acrylic sheet, I file and use sandpaper to smoothen the sides of the acrylic sheet to make sure that the edges are smooth. If the edges are not smooth, the acrylic sheet might cut the etching press's blanket and replacing one is $500..

Drypoint Artist Research: Yuan Qing Lu

Morning(1980)

Yuan Qinglu Born in Quzhou Hebei in 1953, Yuan Qinglu is a famous contemporary printmaking artist. He is also a professor in the Fine Arts Department of Handan college, member of the Chinese artists Association, China Association of Printmakers, Vice President of Hebei Province Printmaking Research Association.

Drypoint Artist Research: Albrecht Durer

Albrecht Durer
Albrecht Durer was a painter, printmaker and theorist of the german renaissance, born in Nuremberg, Durer established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties due to his high quality woodcut prints.







The Holy Family(19.73.51)

Produced by scratching the surface of metal with a sharp needle, the image has the character of delicate drawings Apparently conceived in an experimental mode and never completed, the print is nonetheless highly evocative. The three ghostly figures who press into the space behind the Virgin and Child-Saint John, the Magdalene, and Nicodemus.

GameStart! Year 2: A Modern Fairytale

Chosen Printmaking Theme:

A Modern Fairytale

Why have I chosen this theme?

I have chosen this theme because I love stories, especially fairytales. I'm also very inspired by Taiwanese Artist Jimmy Liao (幾米)

Jimmy is an illustrator as well as a picture book writer that uses paintings and artworks to tell stories in the form of a picture book.
He also have some of his work made into textile wallpapers for train stations in Taiwan as well as his very own museum.



Most of Jimmy's work are surreal and has references to famous artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Rene Magritte. I find his work very interesting as he has proven with his painting-turned picture book that Art is a powerful communication tool.


Alike jimmy, I would like to tell stories with my work and with the theme "A Modern Fairytale" I want to prove that fairytales does not exist solely in storybooks and that "fairytale" is something that we; as living beings can experience and live.
In my works, I used the memory of places I've been with a childhood friend that means a lot to me and surrealize the space with my thoughts and feelings at that point in time; breathing life to places like common train stations and fast food restaurants.
The works are also in time-sequence, showing the distance yet unfathomable closeness in our 10 years of friendship.

In future, I will want to hear about the life story of different people and portray their feelings and emotions in my work, who knows? Those things that we keep in our minds, things that we choose not to openly share, be it sadness or happiness, might just be relatable and helpful to others.

Ultimately, I believe people, not just artists, can inspire many.