Atelier Talk: August Atelier Update and Updating the Atelier

 

Dear Friends,

This summer has been passing like a short dream or a storm for me.

There have been emotional ups and downs for me but mostly I have been well focused and working in my studio a lot. Sometimes, I wish I am more careless and easy going, but I believe my humanness is an important essence in my work that makes you and me feel and experience, question, or see different perspectives of something important.

I have also been learning so many things through people around me and through things I encounter. It is surprising how we constantly bump into something new while continuing our daily living. It is not like new encounters while traveling, but it's certainly new. Just this month I have encountered many things: Something about addiction, something about trust, something about drugs, something strange about human imperfections, a few things about governments, verbal and non verbal communication through my animal families, something about family relationships and many more (fun) things directly not human related.

For instance, How would you explain, or what is your understanding on why global warming can make islands in danger of disappearing over the coming decades? I always thought about the arctic ice melting as the reason, but never really realized something else until recently about a very simple factor that we learn in our elementary school... anyway, that was a big bang in my brain. The water expands by temperature changing.

Recently, I have been dreaming a lot. This past few months I had significantly less dreams but it seems like dreams are coming back to my life.

About my paintings in the atelier this month,
I have been working on two window paintings that I want to finish around the end of the month. They have been occupying my mind and I have been thinking about them day and night.

One window has brown shades and it is about historic recurrence,or repetition in general that happens in our life. Another window has pink shades and it is about the human body and the ownership. They have very different looks. One is simple and nostalgic, and another one is decorative and full of symbols. A friend who I shared progress with said that they complement each other. That is interesting, two paintings born at the same time, and I agree. I am curious how people react to them, what they see or not see in these new works. If anyone would feel something when they see it.

There are more progress window paitings and other progress work (and more new ideas) which seem more than enough for me to be occupied this year.

a note to myself I wrote sometime this month

One of my recent projects in the atelier (besides making art) has been to reduce objects. It is a slow process but every month I have been reducing something in my studio.
One of my big projects on atelier update has been to reduce the furnitures.

I have been also doing deep cleaning of my painting tools little by little, my painting tools, paint tubes and brushes and so on. Last week, my paint scraper was cleaned up for the first time this year. I didn't replace the blade but it looks much better now without the dry paints. I like how my tools look constantly used, but I love to see them like new again.

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For art outside my studio, I visited two museums this month.
One of them was the MoMA museum where I went to see Henri Matisse's The Red Studio exhibition, and last week I visited Guggenheim for their current exhibitions. Guggenheim is little far compared to other museums and I tend to visit less for that reason. But sometimes I miss the beautiful spiral architecture.
Matisse inspired me or encouraged me to think about my future art studio. It has been something I always knew someday I want to have, but I haven't really planned or drawn it out. More than his paintings in the show, I was very happy to see his atelier plan he drew when he made his own studio. So it was a fruitful visit for me.

I may post some photo archives for these visits in a separate blog.

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Large hybiscus blooming in my neighbor.

Last Thursday, I made a short trip to the Guggenheim Museum to refresh my mind. Sometimes when I think too much about my progress painting, I get lost with too many possibilities. But through years of making, I learned that for the most of time the initial idea is the best.

Preparation of new surfaces for study paintings. Picture from first layer of ground. 

Sometimes, I erase the progress I have made for my canvas. Sometimes it is hours of work I have made on a canvas that I have to let go and cancel to create a new art. Although I do have a big hesitation to erase my effort, I am here knowing I am the only person who can do this. It is how my work has its final shape that is truly one of a kind. It is only myself who can convince and encourage me to do so, and since that is my work style I see it as part of my important duty as an artist who is the only one person on this planet who makes my work.

It's like going back to the past because I am making it and bringing it back to, not exactly but close to the previous look to start over, but I know it is the future.

Just a few days ago, I had to erase an entire day's progress for a painting which I have a deadline toward the end of the month. It is a firm deadline, and I am doing my best to finish them, but I know if they really need more time, I could always choose to give them more time. Yet I also know that opportunities are like leaves falling from trees.

I hope your rest of August will be as beautiful as it could be.

My bunny melting in my studio corner