Sparkly & Sewn

In the midst of my 'sabbatical' - trading online, spending time with my family all over Asia, studying Asian Contemporary Art and obsessively taking photographs, I decided to piece together my first jewellery and accessory collection. It is small, ridiculously colourful and kitschy, a combination of old and new and sparkly and sewn. I only made pieces that I would love to wear and if I didn't make them, I sourced them directly from the artisans who did.

I deliberately wanted the collection to be garish - begging to be touched - like brightly coloured decorations or sugared candy. I used a combination of silk, jade, hand beaten metal beads, semi precious stones and many many lengths of thread. Robin Richman, one of my favourite Chicago people currently carries the best of my collection at her store also named Robin Richman.

No Sleep For The Travelled

My apologies for my many-hour absence but I have been traveling and battling with the ensuing after effects. It is 6.28 am here, in Chicago, on a bright and rather sunny Friday morning; this would be a perfectly normal time to rise and shine had I slept through the night. But I have not, so here I am 10 hours later (my waking hour was 8.30 pm the previous night) feeling rather hungover and faintly irritated that sleep has predictably eluded me. I have no exciting photographs to post of my current condition but I promise to post some more art.

I mentioned imitation and interpretation in an earlier post and coincidentally I found the perfect piece of art to illustrate what I meant, but did such a bad job explaining. Wilson Shieh does a delightful job in paying homage to a group of artists who comfortably fit into my artists' shrine. One has to love the detail, his choice of subject and of course, once again we discover a clever artist who gives a clever name to his clever painting.

WILSON SHIEH: WORLD ARTIST FROM A TO Z

The Emperess' New Clothes

DONGWOOK LEE: NAKED

So I don't think I have ever first felt queasy and horrified, followed seconds later with an overwhelming sense of delight and admiration - at least I do not remember ever feeling the way I did when I initially saw this piece - those sensations following each other in such quick succession were new to me. I am quite certain Dongwook Lee wanted to elicit just such a reaction from at least a few amongst his audience.


The beautiful but emotionally pathetic detail on her barely 1" head is forever etched in my mind - try as I might I cannot rid my thoughts of her grotesque loveliness, because quite honestly she is both ugly and beautiful and therefore very naked.

Imitation or Interpretation?

Why do I have 3 versions of Yoshitomo Nara's 'Daydreamer' posted up on my first entry? Well, for one, his work inspires me and this is my way of paying him homage. Two, I like to narcissisticly imagine that I am the 'Daydreamer'; these are therefore my 'own' self-portraits. Three, it helps me introduce one of the reasons for writing this blog - I merely interpret and imitate the things I see, not from a lack of inspiration around me, but from a glut of it.

YOSHITOMO NARA: DAYDREAMER

I've spent the last two days trawling both auction previews and the 2009 Hong Kong Art Fair. Both of which have left me highly optimistic about the economy and highly frustrated over my lack of funds right now to pick up the best deals out there. Now is the perfect time to be not only picking up stocks/equities - well, sorry, March '09 was probably the best time for that - but also your favourite art pieces. The bubble burst with a resounding pop last November and prices have plummeted. If you have any extra $$$$ lying around and want to be delighted by a purchase day in and night out - buying art would be the thing for you. Now if I had the extra $$$$'s here's what I would choose...

HONG SHAOPEI: FOLDING THE PAINTING 44

I like this series for the simple reason that it is smart and funny. We can each interpret it in a different way - but at the end it makes us all smile or at least think. The name makes you smile, the idea that the 'heads' refer to taxidermy - gory, ghastly and yes, an art - and still manages to remain lighthearted and caricature-like is brilliant and again, makes you smile. I like Art that makes me smile and think.

Promises are made to be...

As I write this blog, I vow that:

1. I will be honest and not take the readers' comments to heart
2. I will not use exclamation marks indiscriminately and merely for dramatic effect
   
3. I will try to adhere to proper capitalization, unless under speed duress
   
4. I will not let this blog perish from my embarrassment of not being able to deal with what I have written or over the lack of web traffic
5. I will force myself to believe that I am writing this blog first for myself and then for the readers
6. I will only stop writing this blog once I cease to enjoy the process
7. I will always remember that there are smarter, better, more talented and thoughtful artists and writers out there, and I am merely an interpreter - if that
   

Good luck to me and good luck to you, the reader. Thank you for indulging me.