4.7.07

Week in review

• 7 new designs for the clients.
• A butterfly on feet (half n half, left n right)
• finished a cutest sleeve on a equaly cute girl
• started a dragon leg sleeve on Mr. gentle giant
• started a forearm sleeve of spiders and butterfly on Mr.E

• packed, moved, unpacking attempted
• WITHDOMTOOTH REMOVED!!!!
• BONEGRAPH/ ADDED TO MY GUM!!!!

I’ve done it again. Today was a mess to say the least. Convinced that my drawing for the client whom I was supposed to tattoo today was @ the old house. One hour earlier than the normal time, I hopped on the train, swing by the house to find nothing. Well, at that point I couldn’t come home and search the boxes again. Giving in, I took burb traint to work. At this point I am sure that I have the JPEG in my external hard drive. No such luck. So my last resort, I called my dear boyfriend to bring me my home laptop. I started to freehand the design…

And this was my week…

4.1.07

Additional note to yesterdays post.

When a judge and juries examine people in court, are they or are they not to look for the truth that is to rid of incoherency in the story told. then could we say that when an artist is working on a project is also to attempt that in work? an artist at work is to represent the concept in mind to be told truthfully in a perception others will be able to believe. Working out artistic problems like proportion, perspective, color temperature, contrast, and saturation is to rid of any problems that might cause viewer including himself to think the piece does not have a good quality. Working out artistic problems is to rid of all that does not make sense visually. Sometimes, artists (exception: photo realists) refuse to change the perspective and distort, for example, a figure to avoid being untruthful to the original image presented (this case, a model), but if they are expecting viewers besides themselves and if such resist cause the piece to become not attractive, the purpose of that piece to tell the materialized concept from the artists mind has failed.

lets talk about journalists for a second. Is it journalism’s goal and purpose to tell the story untold in a truthful manner that is to say to tell the constructed opinion which was made unbiased from gathered information? How about one of our great story teller and captor a photographer Robert Capa? Has he done a great job to tell and unmask what goes on in the battle filed? The difference between photographers like him and visual artists are that it is not right for them to change the story, because then the story becomes a lie but we can. Public respond violently to a photo that has been treated and changed on Photoshop to be not suitable for publishing. Because it is a lie. 　To preserve certain moral standard in the society I think that is a healthy reaction. Though for artists when they do not work out all the issues to make sense of the piece before its presentation, it becomes a lie. Because when the idea of “representation” is not achieved and then the artist allows the piece to be presented, the artist is cheating himself from facing the truth (of art).

what happens when a musicians presents a piece that has not worked out thoroughly, when a chef serves a under cooked food, a doctor not closing up a patient properly after a surgery? They may not be completely failing to do their job because it was a mistake; and provided that they are a being with a good intention and faith they would tell themselves to do a better job after severely facing their psychological brutal and relentless inner critique. But this will prepare the musician, the chef and the doctor to be better one in the future.

I have a confession. Not all tattoos that I have done in the past are great. I have made mistakes that allow no corrections unlike those examples above. I have filled a tattoo with wrong color, i have misspelled names, done a piece that I was not good enough to do (at that point when I have just finished my apprenticeship of 3yrs and 6 month, 3yrs and 4 month ago, I did not know better what I was good enough to do.) I sincerely apologize for people who were unfortunate that I had made a huge mistake on their body permanently. I am reminded of you quite frequently by my dreams at night. I am sorry and I wish I could have done something better for you…

3.31.07

Hi guys- We have finally moved in! Thanks for checking on the progress.

It was definitely a hectic couple of days. Meantime I did enjoy almost luxurious lack of TV thoroughly for two nights and I loved every minutes of it.. It seems though still overwhelming at times to see all the items in boxes that needs to be sorted out, but the excitement tops way over that of anxiety.

I really want paint more than ever. It might be the quiet stillness this neighborhood brings. I am just so grateful of life that I have. My dear Richie, our new place, and my work which is the passion and every so often introduces meaning to my life…

Generally speaking, painting for me is to seek the truth, in other words to practice to see things in a realistic view (form, shape, temparature, depth, distance and relationship etc). Truth for me is to seek reality in things, in tangible things and abstract things, until it makes some sense to me. Objects and Concepts, as it gets transferred by medium It finally unveils Its existence in some form in front of our eyes. As the concept in my mind becomes materialized, it is finally given a truthful form as a finished project. It is finally out of my head and exists within the given material.

Art has in the past been attacked by philosophers that it is removed far from its idea as in truth. Though what they sometimes lacks to mention is its fine crafts. It has been said (forgot who has mentioned it. damn my lack of long and short term memory) that we must acknowledge presence of god when we are exposed to such beauty created by nature, and no materials created by human loses its value　in comparison. But does it really matter who has created such material so splendid that we lose ourselves just observing it and brings such joy and excitement. The concept in itself might be the honest, purest and thus truthful form it might be, but what it lacks is its actual existence. Without it to be tangible there is no way of proving what it is. And without the proof there were no expression, if there were no expression and there were no communication. then whats the reason for us to be what we are. I know the only truth that i seek can only be found in beauty of crafts in itself… quality and class never lies. It is a universal and timeless communication.

ere is a writing that i used to wish to experience someday, a long while ago (but i think i just got to…). I dedicate this to a couple of my friends.

“You don’t need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Don’t even listen, simply wait.
Don’t even wait.
Be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you.
To be unmasked, it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
-Franz Kafka

From self and its brains, a small quote

(since i could not speak for myseflf to explain about reading, here is a insert from a book)
“If a man reads a book, the decisive thing is not that it influences his opinions, and provides him with information. these are all irrelevant epiphenomena. What matters is solely the change in his brain structure that affects his disposition to act. these dispositions are indeed, the epiphenomenalist will say, of the great importance for survival: it is only here that Darwinism comes in. The subjective experiences of reading and thinking exist, but they do not play the role we usually attribute to them. Rarhter, this mistaken attribution is the result of our failure to distinguish between our experiences and the crucially important impact of our reading upon the dispositional properties of the brain structure. the subjective ecperiental aspects of our perceptions while reading do not matter; nor do the emotional aspects. All this is fortuitous, casual rather than causal.