unDer Control

Telephone is a big control nowadays. It controls activities and changes mood at the same time :-)

Daun / Leaf

Inspire Me Thursday: Open Challenge

I still have problem with uploading pictures in Blogger so I use this slideshow instead.

I was challenged to try a new medium. It’s perfect because I have a leaf I fetched from my Papua supplier’s trash bin in Kuta – Bali. It was half burned. I slipped it in between papers for a few weeks till it dries.

The leaf gives me idea to picture a Javanese lady who uses banana leaf or any large leaf to shade self from sun, even from rain. The lady wears Javanese outfit -- typical outfit worn in kampong.

Enjoy the large red daun!

DNA Dina

Today is my Sis birthday. I made the collage based on her picture I found in Mama's album in my last trip to Malang.

She had long wavy thick hair and was always braided. I cannot guess how old she was..

I like her smile!

I cannot see my reflection..

Leave it behind!

It’s nice to dream to have a nice body. But that’s not real. Let’s put the dream behind..

Kekenyangan / Too Full

This chair is special. “Sitting Bull” is designed by a Swedish designer.

I picture myself sitting in the chair. It must be cozy nice. The lady pictures my feeling these days.. FULL! Even a cup of coffee could make me feel full and ‘big’…

Get Set

one business is over
new issue is waiting
get ready get set

Hide-n-Seek

Illustration Friday: Play

shadows

shadows & light
bring dynamic
reveal the cloud

..don't have to be perfect to be perfect.

Again, I studied how to cut like Matisse -- no curvy cut. It is not easy. I keep the head curvy and it looks nice with slightly 'sharp' body.

My effort and the slogan of the champagne get along well...

All for Art

Studio Friday: Desert Island


This week challenge is really challenging. We have to imagine to live in a desert island where we are allowed to bring only three items from our studio.

If I could, my three items would be: laptop computer so I can blog and get connected with loved ones, digital camera so I can share my visual experience, and PDA which I don’t really need if I have the computer. But of course I cannot take all those three. No WiFi in desert island so.. drop the idea!

I turn to traditional equipments to ‘art survive’ in desert island. First, I need the lantern to help me busy after dark. Then scissors and/or knife to make artwork with whatever I find in the island. It could be leaves, wood, or anything. My art could be a collage on leaves or 3-D artwork like installation. After stunning surroundings: a white beach, magnificent trees, waterfalls, no poisonous insect on it (as promised by Tine); creating artwork is all we would do :-)

Other Element

celebration of art
should be timeless
without brake

Detaching

Time to search
Way to find
Like to think

Matisse

I found my Henri Matisse small book this morning. I browsed and mesmerized by his work. Matisse always reminded me of impressionism, I forgot that his cut-outs work is naïve. Even maestro made collage!

Here is to Matisse with Mongolian horsemen back, watching wrestling match in the northern province of Arhangai.

R o c k e t

I admired fashion designer’s work. The idea, the creation, and the way to present the work to its fans. It’s a lot of work and time consumed.

I dress Arthur Mitchell, dancer, with designer’s work. Arm cuff by Fendi, top by Cavalli, skirts by D&G and McQueen, handbag by Fendi, and boots by Gaultier.

Haiga: Smile

I asked a friend to share me a haiku so I can practice to make a Haiga. Haiga is an illustration of a haiku as an artistic expression of the spirit of the haiku’s feeling. Or, an illustration that complements and responds to the haiku.

Haiku is small poetry form with about eight to twelve words in three short lines. This poem can say important things about how we feel about what we see around us. Haiku was invented hundreds of years ago in Japan.

My friend is in holiday. I guess this is the feeling. I hope I have captured the feeling right. The pink and blue dogs, the favorite red chair, and the misplaced palm trees (the place looks like treeless savanna).

Smile!

Blu Spotlight

Studio Friday: Your Creativity Roots


Your creativity roots. It took me more than five days to think about what to create. I was in travel that I could not print my father’s, my root, picture. Even then I did not have idea how to ‘present’ the picture.

I’m lucky this evening. I printed pictures of Papa and me cropped from a family picture back in 1970s. We are small family, only my big sis and me, four of us. I got my art from Papa side. Many family members from his side become professional artists (painting and sculpting).

My sister is also good with her hands (cooking, crocheting, golfing?), none of us do art professionally. I have ‘eyes’ for art to select art objects for my two art shops. I felt enough until recently I thought I wanted to create art myself. Blucolage is the start.

Romanza

Illustration Friday: Capture


Capture the moment..

Time Out

Inspire Me Thursday: Black & White



Again, it’s about life of a woman. She dreams to have “time out”.

Cold Ubud

I’m in Ubud now. It was cold when I came yesterday afternoon. I felt freezing although sun was bright.

I felt like going pale white standing by the blue swimming pool in front of my room. I wore thicker top and jeans (and had pashmina on the left hand) when went to have dinner in the evening.

In the background is clipping from ad newspaper about places I often went: Indian Delites (Indian resto), Jazz Café, and Café des Artistes.

Indonesia is celebrating its Independence Day in August and Ubud will hold Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in September.

It’s all about Ubud.

Strange Slogan

Again, this is product of an ad magazine in Bali. This magazine is full of noise, shouts out loud, and.. has strange slogan!

S t a r

This is my first cutter-cut drawing on paper. It’s not easy to do. I had to hold the paper very firm, also the cutter, to get nice steady lines. As I did on bathroom mirror in my hotel bedroom, cutting was tougher :-)

Enjoy Bintang (= star) beer!

Bali On The Move

I clipped this piece from an ad magazine I got from Made’s Warung, Seminyak. There is a lot of ad magazines, thick, good printing, and free.

I went thru all pages which all about fun in Bali. I could feel the beat, the life, but.. looking at the streets and shops? Empty. Bali is quiet this summer.

Thursday again?

Inspire Me Thursday: Music (non-visual art form)


Again, this collage is ‘product’ of my visit to my hometown. IMT theme is music (non-visual art form). Music connects me to a piano in my childhood home. It reminds me of my Thursdays 35 years ago :-)

I started to have piano lesson at home when I was 5 years old. I was so small that I needed a little black wooden stool for foot step. The lesson was once a week – every Thursday – at 16:00 for one hour. The tutor was a young short man that.. I didn’t really like.

I didn’t enjoy my Thursday afternoon for sure. I tried to find reason not to have lesson but hardly to get one. I had to get up from nap around 15:30 and got ready. Ugh..

I had the lesson for eight years, I recall. I stopped after I entered high school. What I got from those eight year? I can play piano – classical – but I do not excel. Later Mama told me that I should not have started too early, no passion from inside. Still, I’m glad that I can play now and surely will take piano lesson again in the future. With passion and no more…

Thursday again?

Yu Sih

Illustration Friday: Clean


“Clean” is not an easy theme. I could only think about soap suds and things related. I didn’t have ideas till I saw Yu Sih (Yu = big sister) passed the room. Aha! She is perfect model for my “clean” theme.

I’m visiting Mama in my hometown, Malang, now. Yu Sih is Mama’s helper. She worked for my Grandma for over ten years till Grandma passed away in 1996. So up to now, she has worked with the family more than twenty years.

She helps Mama in the kitchen, in the garden, and cleaning the house. I cut 1993 magazine I found in Mama’s library. I used detergent ad as background with washing machine picture. I fixed fridge and Anthurium flower n leaf pictures. Mama collects Anthurium.

Yu Sih cleans..

Navigate Your Day

The other day NIE told me that she made sculpture about two ladies on dining table but both are busy with cellphone, even one with two cellphones. NIE is disturbed by the new phenomenon where people are more connected to cellphone than to the real people around. She is right.

This collage was inspired by NIE. I pictured PEN, myself, and RIT. NIE is not in the picture, she was hardly on cellphone.

PEN needs glasses to read text, I usually checked text discreetly (under table or inside handbag), and RIT needs glasses and holds cellphone very close to eyes to read well.

That’s how we navigate our day!

Where is the gamelan?

Studio Friday: Music To My Ears!


This is the sounds that fill the empty spaces while I’m in studio during the day time. Drilling, hammering, tile cutting, truck downloading,… My next door neighbor is building a new house.

I wish I could hear gamelan instead…

Summer Girls

Get connected!

I did cubism in this artwork. No bend cutting, all straight and sharp. I wanted to see whether I was able to capture the image well using this style. Curvy lines are nice and more human, but straight cut could do nice too.

Get connected!