Project "What I Eat"- What I ate in Cayman Island

I would like to talk about my concept today before I show you images of what I ate .

I have been using printmaking as one of my primary medium in my art making for a long time. I also have been teaching printmaking classes last seven years at the University of Nevada Reno. While I was using the medium and teaching,  I was thinking about how Printmaking/ Print media has been used not only in the field of art, but also in our society. 

South Koreans went through a though uprising to gain democracy until early 1990th. Printmaking took a very important role as a tool to spread out news and communicate each other because the mainstream media was controlled by the government during the uprising period. People were making images and fliers to communicate with each other to know what was going on. MoMA in NYC had an exhibition called "People's Art" early 90th if I remember correctly. 

I was looking at how Egypt was going through their uprising. It was very interesting to notice that they were using social network to communicated each other during that time. It is a very big different change from 20th to 21h Century that our communication method has been changed from printing to internet based. So I started to think these social networks as a new communication tool for human in the new generation.  

I have been using Instagram for a while. At first, I thought that was such a stupid idea and would never use it. Soon later, I noticed a lot of my friends started to using and then I started using it as well. A very cool thing about Instagram is that you can be connected to all these people in the world through photos. I don't know at least a half of my followers on my Instagram but we regularly communicate each other on Instagram. When I post a photo, people on Instagram can see it. It is a new way to spread out images and ideas and to communicate! 

Another thing I noticed was that people post their selfies and photos of foods they eat! When did we care so much about how our foods look before? There were magazines for foods but it has not been this popular before internet and social network. I was also posting some photos of foods I was eating when either I was having a great meal out with friends or visually nice looking meals that I cook. Then, I started to wonder what if I make a drawing project about what I eat and post a drawing everyday on Instagram. Instead of printing multiple images, Instagram puts my works and a number of people, who are living in different places and time, can see my drawing at at the same time. This is an advanced way of spreading out multiple images, yet conceptually very linked to the idea of printing multiples.

 So, here I am working on my drawings about what I eat. I recently went to Grand Cayman for my vacation during the spring break. As usual, I took all the photos of what I was eating and thought I would make drawings there. Oh well, it was a vacation after all and I did not do anything but enjoy the island. When I came back though, I got back to my studio and pumped out some drawings and have been posting drawings everyday. Here are what I ate while I was in Cayman Island.

 Nobody lived in the island until Spaniards came. Pirates lived there and made rums to export and make money for a while. So, there is not really farms or industry there except for rum factories. As all the foods are imported, they were quite expensive. But seafoods there.... oh my god, that was simply amazing. We went to an Italian restaurant and the shrimp dish was amazing!

 We went to the Seven Miles Beach and had lunch. It was yummy!!!!

I am mostly vegan and gluten free but had to be a bit flexible while I was traveling to enjoy. I had mostly seafood and a bit of cheese but no meat at all. This is meatball spaghetti that my friend had. Although I did not try, I made a drawing because it was visually so amazing.

 Of course, I had some rum cocktails. They were not greedy about giving rum in your drinks. You will feel once you have these guys. So watch out!

 This is what I ate on an evening. The grilled fish was absolutely amazing.

 Jeff, My friend's dad asked me if I ever went to an Aussie restaurant. I said I only had been to Outback Steak House. He laughed because it was an American owned restaurant and the guy actually has never been to Australia! So, I went to an Australian restaurant in Grand Cayman for the first time. I did not try but my friend ordered Kangaroo kabob and sausage. Adrianne said the sausage was great. Of course, I liked the way it looked, haha.

And she ordered fillet mignon for main course.

                                          And I had grilled Mahi-mahi and shrimps with mashed potatoes.

 Another great meal that I had was Cajun lobster in Cayman style. The lobster was cooked so well with the cajun sauce and the vegetables and black bean rice was great. My mouth gets watery even to think about it, haha.

This was one of my lunch I had in George Town. This is the last piece I made from foods I ate in Cayman Island. From coming week, I started to draw things I eat in my normal life. I originally thought about 100 days of what I eat. I have had about 30 days down now. I will see what I want to do after 100 days. This might continue or I might move to something else. Stay in tuned how my project goes!

Adventure in Cayman Island

This was one of the best vacations I have ever had! My best friend, Adrianne, from grad school in Long Beach,  invited to Cayman, where her parents live during the spring break. The island is located south of Cuba. I actually did not know about the island until her parents moved.  If you are a Korean citizen without US or Canadian permanent resident card, you would need a visa to visit. I did not think Koreans would need it since Cayman is a part of Britain but you would run into a trouble if you have a Korean passport without visa. 

 Since I live in the west coast of US, it was a long way to get to Cayman. I had to fly to LAX and then Dullas, Washington DC to get a flight to Cayman. Guess what, of course, my flight got delayed in LAX and  missed the flight in DC. I had to go to another airport in DC to go to Miami to get a flight. After a long time, I finally arrived in Cayman!!! It is me the next day in Cayman. It was worth going through all the drama! Here is my adventure begins!

 Cayman sunset was so beautiful. We would go to restaurants in the evening to see sunset and eat some yummy seafoods. My next blog will be about food I ate in Cayman. Therefore, I am not posting any photos of foods here.

 My buddy Adrianne is the best ever. She organized everything for me in this trip. So, I  did not have to think too much but enjoy this beautiful island. She looked at the schedule of of cruise ships in town to see when the town gets too crowded. She found out there were 7 ships one day, which would mean the island would be filled with tourists! So, we decided to go to a botanical garden on the island. I met this guy there.

 One morning. We went for a horse riding. My horse's name was Fantasy and she was a tough horse. I had several horse riding lessons. So Nolan who was the horse owner gave me a bit tough gal. We walked around the coast line. Then, we took our saddles off and started riding horses with bareback. God, it was amazing but hard. We went into the water and my friend's horse started making noise. How funny! It was such an experience.

Another thing I explored was under the sea!! I snorkeled first time in my life and that opened a new world to me! There was a whole another world underneath the water. We snorkeled around Reef, where there were many corals. Humans destroyed so many corals by touching them. I learned human oil kills corals. So, if you ever get to see corals, just enjoy looking but never ever touch.

 The ocean was just amazing. I have never seen this beautiful color of the ocean before.

 I went to see stingrays to say hello. They are so used to humans and know we are not going to hurt them. So, they come very close to us and swam around. They are almost like pets. Some stingrays posed for me to take photos.

While I was taking a photo of stingrays, a fish does photo bomb!

 In my last day in Cayman, we went to Rumpoint and did more snorkeling. Beautiful fish. I said hi to all of them.

There were some trumpet fish. I loved how they looked! I bet this experience will influence my art near future.

 Rampant was great! Nobody lived in this island until Spanish came in. Then, pirates used to live here and made rums to sell. They probably shipped all the rum out from this spot. It was very beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing vacation. Again, coming back was horrifying. I had 14 hours layover, which made me so exhausted. I tanned good and rested well.

It was like a dream but this reminds me that it was not a dream but true. I look at this and smile. As I said, I will posted "What I eat" in Cayman next time. It is coming very soon!

New Drawing Project "What I Eat"

After my show "The Human Shop" in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, I went through some post exhibition depression as usual. I was happy that the show went well but at the same time, I was very sad it was over. I did not do anything for a month. Spring semester started a week after my show was over so that I was preoccupied with school work. 

I slowly started working on some creatures as usual and felt really sick of everything I did before.  I wanted to start working on some new artwork but did not know what. Also, it was quite painful to go back to studio practice after taking a break for a month.  Suddenly started to think about drawing everything I eat while I was eating peanut butter cup chocolates!

 At first, I started to draw almond milk I alway drink in the morning, peanut butter cup chocolate, some onion leftovers.

 That is how my project "What I Eat" started. I was doing this just for fun. Then, I started to think this project as drawing challenge, which means that I would draw what I eat one everyday.

 This is grilled peppers at Old Granite Street Eatery that I ate last Friday.

 Here is my very first drawing.

 This is my typical meal looks like. I eat brown rice with beans and some side dishes.

 Sometimes, pasta with a glass of red wine.

I wanted to draw sushi so I went to eat and take pictures to draw, haha. What a great excuse, ugh?

I can't draw anything when I have to do school work. So, I do two or three drawings so I don't feel bad when I can't work in the studio. I still feel I make one drawing a day. I am thinking to do this for 100 days and see how it will end. I have done 15 so far. Please keep checking on my blog and see how my drawing progress!!!

The Human Shop at SNAP!

I had my solo exhibition " The Human Shop" from Jan 10 until Feb 14 at Snap in Edmonton, Albert, Canada. It was freezing cold( about -22f, purr) but I went there prepared. I had a pair of boots that could protect my feet up to -44f, hahaha!

Here is some images of my show.

 I used two walls to hang these guys. I showed some of them at 1078Gallery in Chico, California. I added additional 50 pieces and made total of 100!!!

 I also used plastic containers that was shipped from Seoul S.Korea.

 I am pretty content how the show went. The installation was somewhat closed what I was imagined in my head and the space was perfect for it.

 The exhibition was reviewed at Edmonton Journal. The writer wrote a nice review and I see the image of my exhibition other newspapers in other region of Canada!

 This is called "Plastic Surgery". I made this one in Gualan China at the end of 2013 while I was in sabbatical. I turned them into cards and finally got to show them in Edmonton!!

This is called "Heads" I actually finished sewing all of them just last week :).
There are many things to say but I would like to show images. Let my art speaks itself!!!

First solo exhibition at 1078 gallery

It has been almost two months since I got back from my a year traveling. While I was away, I had to move to a new place, which I absolutely love. School started in late August and it was, I have to say, rather hard at the beginning. Regarless, I push myself to make work for this show and am pretty happy with the outcome.

Here is the gallery after installation. I had about 40 stuffed creatues, 80-90( I did not count exactly how many) heads in plastic boxes, a big drwaing, and framed small prints and drwaings. 

This is a shot from the other side of the gallery. 1078 gallery is located in dowtown Chico, a beautiful small town/ city in North of San Francisco. I showed some of old work of mine that were made from 2009 to 2011 to show the transition of my work. Some of my latest work, the Humanshop and Humanity Bites were shown as main pieces of the show.

This is a close up shot.

I have never installed my work in this way. It was challenging at the beginning but turned out to be super fun! 

I had Somebody made shelves for me, then I painted them with some polkadots.

Each creature has each shelf. The wall of the gallery is 65 feets so that it is extremly challenging to take photos as a whole. In the mean time,  I had fun taking some close up shots.

Many people came for the opening and I enjoyed talking to people who came. Unfortuntately, I was so busy taking puctures. There were some Korean students from California State University Chico who brought beatiful flowers. 

The day after the opening, I had a waterless lithography workshop at CSU Chico. Students made some amazing artwork at the workshop.