...art is a by-product of the experience of being with yourself, of living within patience. -- Robert Beer

28.9.06

SP: Multi-facets Woman



This is my first commissioned artwork. My good friend END happily challenged me to make a collage for her best friend, SP, who lives in Bali. I took the challenge. I finished the work this morning, 24.9.06, but can only show the work after the birthday on the 27th.

I started from zero. It happened that I got an idea about a style to picture life of a woman the night before (shown in artwork below). As I only met SP once, very shortly, and talked about nothing but her work; I know nothing about her. The style suits the idea of ‘describing’ her in an artwork.

I interviewed END for hours about SP. I noted down some thirty aspects about SP. I knew, END had no clue about what I was going to do with the information. She must have thought that I would cut body of a woman with many hands depicting her interests :-) Yes, this woman is.. a multi-facets woman.

Let me help you to ‘read’ the 16 symbols in the collage:

She designs accessories using fine silver and semi precious stone.
She is a web designer, likes to wear sleeveless top, and smokes a lot.
She enjoys coloring hair.
She is a speedy driver.
She designs batik-clothing including kebaya.
She likes horror movie with blood, not just scary scene.
She dives, as professional I guess.
She takes time to put on make-up.
She concerns about her body therefore she is a weight watcher.
She likes salad.
She likes dogs and now owns an all-white dog.
She is crazy about coffee.
She likes photography, so I guess she is also crazy about anything digital.
Peace is her life mission.
She writes short stories.
She is born in pig year.

After a long list of her interests, can you imagine how she looks like? She is a tiny lady with high energy who does not like people who underestimate her capability. Very understandable. She has big engine inside.

Happy birthday SP! Wonderful woman you are..

As of my first client END, she texted me “Client pertama puazzzz!!”

Pheeeww…

Plug Into Ubud Art

Studio Friday: TOOT YOUR OWN HORN... LOUD!


I’m born in a family where many relatives are professional artists. I shared about my family in Your Creativity Roots challenge – Blu Spotlight.

I run two art shops in Jakarta and Ubud – center of art in Bali. That’s canal of my art, through my eyes. I only started to make collage three months ago. I like this form of art. It suits my ‘span of attention’ and time. I’m thinking to do more serious collage using stuffs I found in junk shop or.. my house. I have started but stopped after five artworks. Please check my
tresor trové.

Today I’m leaving for Ubud to participate in Ubud Writers and Readers Festival for five days. I would plug into Ubud art..

26.9.06

Prescription


Materials: a page from Oprah and Nature's Bounty ad.

Friends show evidence.


I made this piece with END in mind. END, a girl who enjoys Asu and Asem with good girl-friends who show her 'evidence'.

May she find her perfect fit soon.. :-)

Materials: Lee and Prescriptives ads.

23.9.06

I see it anywhere..

Illustration Friday: Phobia


The topic is challenging. It took me an overnight to think about how to express phobia. I Googled the word and found a very long list of name. Uuh.. It's not easy to differ 'fear' and 'phobia' because phobia can go as detail too.

This afternoon I decided to grab some. Here:

Chorophobia- Fear of dancing.
Chromophobia or Chromatophobia- Fear of colors.
Chronophobia- Fear of time.
Cibophobia- Fear of food (Sitophobia, Sitiophobia)

Now it's easier for me to express someone's fear. When we fear of something, we feel like we 'see' our fear anywhere. In a plate of food, under the plate, as napkins, among the veggies,.. Haunting. It's all over!!

Materials: D&G, Landsend, Storm, Ameriprise ads and a page from Oprah.

20.9.06

P r i a


Materials: Hallmark Cards, Power Bar, Nabisco, Bausch & Lomb ads, and pages from Oprah.

17.9.06

v e r s u s


Material: Claussen pickles ad and other.

Mothering Now

Illustration Friday: Change


Mothering in new ways..

Materials: pages from Oprah's May 2006 features.

16.9.06

I start an art journal!! Yay!!

"Mix a little foolishness with your prudence:
It's good to be silly at the right moment."
-Horace, Roman poet and satirist

front page


first page of today


first writing of today


finally i decided to start an art journal today. i got the kick from keri smith's blog. i spent half day reading her writing which 'pushed' me in many ways to do more art from daily life.

i also like her writing about
'how to be a guerilla artist'. that is going to be my next project for sure.

so i'm very happy now. i have black-page-book to start my art journey. i make collage, i write longhand, and i sketch. another commitment to meet every day.

material: oprah's september 2005 calendar.

15.9.06

We are waiting.


Materials: Boca Foods and other ads.

13.9.06

Bouquet of Life

Studio Friday: A Floral Treat


I like flower arranging. I like to mix flowers with a lot of leaves and fruits. I add 'sign of life' in my collage bouquet. You can find hands (of course), frying pan, tees, a bangle and a little human on top.

Real flower arranging is easy, I know when to stop. In collage, I had to look at it again and again because material is abundant.. I didn't know when to stop!

Here, please enjoy my stop then!

Materials: Clinique and Palmolive ads and pages from Elle Decor.

12.9.06

Bangle Girl


Materials: pages from Oprah magazine and Pfizer ad.

11.9.06

curiosity kills you


I spent almost whole day fiddling around with Skype settings. Skype didn't recognize the internet connection. I gave up. I uninstalled the program but haven't re-installed yet. I need rest from thinking about it.

Materials: a page from Oprah magazines; Pfizer, Otsuka America, Best Buy and Baskin-Robbins ads.

10.9.06

Bees

Illustration Friday: Farm




This is my first work in diptych. The pages are pale. I need to retouch the colors more because both pages don't look sharp.

For the time being, please enjoy my farm with bees!

Materials: pages from Oprah magazine March 2006; Burt's Bees, Friskies, and Best Buy ads.

8.9.06

7.9.06

do no evil

6.9.06

B l u e


Deep
Overarching
Outside nature
Color the flowers

it's all inside

Studio Friday: Tools of the Trade


Hm.. My tools are common. Pencil, tracing paper, scissors, cutter, glue, and magazines to chop up. What a boring artwork could be..

I thought about ‘bigger’ tools then. The most important tools to create art. It’s everybody’s tools!

First is head.. with all the brain and ideas. Then heart that works all the time to keep the idea alive. Finally, eyes that move for us to help realizing the artwork.

And what happens with the bone.. Ya. It has contribution too. Many artists suffer from back pain so I decided to include bones as one of the tools.

Enjoy OUR tools!

5.9.06

4.9.06

I'm In Between

Cookie Monster

2.9.06

The 100th Art Post

Inspire Me Thursday: Inspired by Design



Nice challenge. Different.

I was inspired by the composition of a page. Each section has different color but in the same hue. I intended to make similar but in loud colors. I collected colored page with text, not plain. But then of course, the composition became different because I could not always find the right size. I went on. I finished the colorful page but then… it looked better sideways for my sketch idea.

I created this artwork to mark The 100th Art Post of blucolage. I have made five 3-D artworks and 95 collages (including: one digital collage, two collages featured in IMT, and one collaboration work). I found the number only this morning. I was surprised to see how productive I am in
13 weeks.

Back to the theme, I realized that I have been ‘away’ from the inspiring design but I put it as part of developing an inspiration…

Pool of Sameness

Illustration Friday: Safe


It's not an easy challenge. Safe.

I picture myself being saved from 'the pool of sameness'. Getting out there, I feel safe.

1.9.06

Contra Botero


Observing my collages, a good friend reminded me that 'man prefers to see slimmer woman'. I argued. For art, 'fuller' woman is more interesting. It has 'shape' and stronger aura. Remember Botero's work? He explains his use of obese figures and forms as such: "An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it."

Aha!

By the way, I challenged myself to do slim model this evening. It's hard to be satisfied with my work. I cut here, cut there,... before too long the lady has taken three packages of slimming therapy. Grr..

I try to rationalize the 'difficulties'. People have 'expectations'; the right size of waist, breast, arms, tummy,... It has to be proportionate to be called 'nice slim'. And after we get the right proportion, we only have Barbie doll. Plain human without 'beauty'.

That's my justification of my obese figures I love as model :-)

Mona Lisa by Botero, 1977, oil on canvas, 183 x 166 cm

Go Lean

Selamat pagi..


Good morning September!!

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