Mar 27, 2023

I’m focusing more on freelancing at the moment and experimenting a bit more with running social media accounts. One of my favourite artists, merajay, is a handmade ➕ illustration blogger whose customer base comes from social media platforms as well as offline markets, and she regularly sells handmade items and is open for submissions in terms of illustration. I think it’s important to have a consistent and ongoing style when running social accounts, and being unusual is the key to getting an audience in the first place.

The next important thing might be keep updating, not just updating my own work, but retweeting or recommending something on a similar theme is also part of the interaction, for example posting the process when making works, can creates a memory and a sense of engagement with your audience to witness the creation of your work, I think it is a kind of companionship and connection between the author and the audience.

I think it’s also helpful to attend offline exhibitions because the venue or art curator will be there and they can see your work directly, perhaps as an opportunity, but also as a way to meet other artists.

Feb 6, 2023

In terms of presenting works, I was more inspired by ‘ABRAHAM ABRAHAM SARAH SARAH’ and ‘Momentary Monument – The Library’. The first is a film work, but not just playing it, it is presented like a physical work that is placed into a space where the viewer has to walk around or turn around to see the full work, which I think creates a sense of participation and makes the viewer feel like they are inside the film through the use of space. The latter, on the other hand, allows the viewer to participate in an interventionist way, where they take a part of the artwork away from it, and it’s as if a wonderful connection is established, where the viewer constitutes the work and the work constitutes the viewer.

But I also had the problem of feeling a cultural divide; Qiu Zhijie’s work and the text were relatively familiar to me, but if I had to understand the culture behind ‘ABRAHAM ABRAHAM SARAH SARAH’ it would be a more difficult thing to do. How to choose between the narrative of the work and its contextual culture is something I need to think about.

 

Feb 5, 2023

I love bones

Jan 22, 2023

I would like my work throughout the year to be based on a theme of dreams. I have named it ‘The Wishbone Garden’， which is about love, fragility and the beauty of death. I would like to explore the relationship between body and spirit in a surreal way and hope to create a series of works to form a world of dreams which can be felt and touched by the audiences. (try to create a connection)

Professional skills.
I hope that my elective ‘digital craft’ will be able to lead me to learn 3d modelling software such as blender. I love crafting, I’m good at working with materials and making but I’m terribly bad at software, and I hope to acquire more modern skills this term.

 

Technical/creative skills.
I am working on pyrography skills, which is the burning of wood to draw patterns.

At the same time I want to work with various media to convey soft emotions (or textures).

In the last term, I did a series of illustrations using pastels and I will continue to explore this technique, while I am very interested in ceramics and this term’s elective gives me the opportunity to work with the medium of glass, which I hope to combine to make interesting work.

Aims.
In terms of creating, I always want my works to be something that conveys emotion and can be able to become a series.
This year I need to do more thinking about my career, at the moment, I would really like to freelance in illustrative crafts and tattooing, so I will be trying to add some thought to my painting that is suitable for tattooing flash, trying to save up some patterns and practising handpoke. (ahhh! So many things to do)

 

 

 

 

Jan 22, 2023

 

I think this artist has created a great connection between the handicrafts and the illustrations. Firstly the colours of the two respond to each other, secondly, she painted Venus on ceramic, and the illustration is also a female/body related theme, together with the thin lines, the handicraft and the illustration form a series of works. Also, on the subject of women, ceramics and clay are interesting and related materials. Clay has a fragile but life-giving beauty.

Apart from the art market, I think some art magazines or small exhibitions might be potential customers for her.

Jan 21, 2023