We Eat, They Eat

We Eat, They Eat

Diptych

Gouache, acrylic and plastic bottle cap shavings on paper mounted on birch panels
12" h x 24" W
2012

The 4th from the series Red Bean Paste & Apple Pie.

The title is a play on words and a play on content. Who are 'they' and who are 'we'? The whole series is about the dietary changes I had to make as an immigrant to the US from tropical East Asia. So in that sense, 'they' could refer to the people of tropical East Asia and 'we' the people of the United States. But I also want the title to evoke the idea that 'we eat what they eat,' and in that sense 'we' refers to the people who eat the fish, the 'they' of the title.

And what are the fish eating? In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there exists the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's approximately twice the size of the state of Texas. Fish mistakenly ingest the plastic, get trapped in the plastic, or  ingest the plastic as it break down, however slowly. Then we eat the fish.

Through the different elements in the composition (the cutlassfish, the salmon, and representation of the Garbage Patch), I want this piece to be both about my personal dietary changes and the inadvertent global dietary changes. So here's how this piece started — salmon 'in the north' and cutlassfish 'in the south.' Earth in the middle, with the Pacific Ocean rimmed by Taiwan on the left, Oregon on the right, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in between.

The cutlassfish, a fish of the warmer waters of the Pacific ocean, was one of my favorites growing up in Taiwan. It was usually cut into 2" segments and pan fried. It was easy & fun to eat, just one set of bones down the middle — you put one side in your mouth and the meat slid off the bones, and you do the other side. Here in the US, many people don't like to eat fish that are long and skinny, which is always perplexing to me. But in either case, the cutlassfish is not available here, and I missed it a great deal for a long time. I still miss it; it has become very expensive in Asia, and I haven't had it in years. The salmon is, of course, practically a religion in the Pacific Northwest. It is a fish that I like, although probably not as much as I like the cutlassfish.

I decided the starfish were too bold, so I made them smaller. In the smaller size, they also remind me of the 'stars & stripes' of the US flag. The "stripes" will come later.

I love the turquoise over yellow ochre combination (that's what's making that green of the Pacific Ocean).


I mixed a blue-black (ultramarine + lamp black) and applied it over the turquoise over yellow ochre in thin layers. That's what creates the variations. The salmon & cutlassfish are finished, and I have to figure out how to get the plastic into the Garbage Patch.


I wanted to use some real plastic garbage. Various artist friends suggested different ways of getting plastic shavings off bottle caps, and in the end, I decided to start with the cheapest method first — a 10 cent cheese grater I got at the thrift shop. It worked great, although it was quite the aerobic exercise. I grated enough to make a batch of 'paint' by mixing it into some acrylic paint and GAC500. I mixed a red-black paint because I wanted it to look like a wound.

I first experimented with painting it directly onto some paper. The plastic bits wiggled around and it was difficult to control the shape. And since that would be irreversible, I decided I didn't want to paint it directly on the painting.

Next, I painted it on a sheet of plexi placed over the painting (so I could see what I was doing). I figured that I could peel this off and apply it to the painting. Here's a shot of that.


It worked great. Except when I went to peel it off, it all came off in bits & pieces. I then tried to encase the plastic bits between 2 sheets of gampi. And that made a mess. See exhibit B:


In the end, I used my original test patch that I had painted on paper, just cut into the shape that I wanted. The finished piece is the top image. The shiny spot in the middle of the ocean is paint mixed with shavings off a plastic bottle cap. And as it turns out, the lumpy-bumpy, rubbery end result also looks like a scab. That was a happy accident.

Her Love of Green Vegetables Reaches Mythical Proportions

Her Love of Green Vegetables Reaches Mythical Proportions

Diptych

Gouache and acrylic on paper mounted on birch panels
12" h x 24"
2012

The 3rd from the series Red Bean Paste and Apple Pie.

I seem to have mostly recovered from my hand injury, or at least have it under control. Since the beginning of the year, I've been spending hours a day painting, using little tiny brushes to create fine details. I had a break when I worked on The Laundry Maze, but went straight back to long days of painting after that. By mid March, I could not move my thumb, and it was painful. Then I had another break–a trip to Taiwan followed by a week of taxes, a week of helping another artist with technical stuff, and another week of kitchen remodeling stuff–before I returned to finish this painting. While I was in Taiwan, I was able to see a doctor, and my hand was taken care of. All without health insurance, and for a grand total of about $50. (Thanks mom!) Now I just have to remember to stop and move my hand around every hour or so, and do my therapy once a day. It all seems to be under control.

Ok, so some background on this piece:

Growing up in Taiwan, my favorite vegetable was the water spinach, a relative of the morning glory (another 5-petaled flower). I only had it once between 1975 (when I left Taiwan) and 1983, my first return visit. Later, when I visited Mainland China, our national guide found out that was my favorite greens, she called ahead everywhere on our itinerary, and we never failed to have water spinach on the table at every meal. And also never failed would the the local guides' remarks that I was "so easy to feed, because that's pig food!" It grows in such abundance and so easily that they feed it to the pigs.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, water spinach is not so easy to come by, but I love rainbow chard almost as much. And we all know that the unicorn goes with rainbow chard just like the water dragon goes with water spinach, but of course.

And here's how this piece started. For some reason, this reminds me of Cirque du Soleil:

Here I'm adding some water spinach leaves on stalks:

The water (a very famous body of water) and the water dragon are started:

And the dragon comes to life...?

Now I move to the other side; first the rainbow chard:

Then comes the sky and the unicorn:

And finally, the finished piece is the image at the top. There are a couple of things I might change yet, but for now, I'm setting it aside. I've started to prep the panels for the next piece. Might be able to finish attaching the paper to the boards tonight and start painting tomorrow.

Snack Attack!

Snack Attack!
Diptych
Gouache and acrylic on paper mounted on birch panels
12" h x 24"
2012

I love the corn cross section as a halo, don't you?!

This is the second from the series Red Bean Paste and Apple Pie, a project I'm doing with the help of a 2012 RACC Project Grant. It will prove to be a pretty intense year of painting—15 paintings by the end of October. My painting hand is already in a sad shape from long hours of painting for days on end. I have started to use a support glove while I'm working, and a stabilizer when I'm not working. And of course, doing hand exercises whenever I can. Hopefully, I will keep this in check. There are also enough other things going on right now that I take a day or two off from painting periodically.

So this is how this painting started—my favorite Thunderbird (Scott Tracy) riding side-saddle on a grilled corn on the cob missile, and Mr. Spock surfing in on a Pringle.



The sacred geometry design here is based on the corn (but of course) and once again the 5-petal shape of the potato flower. And while I was concentrating on painting the sacred geometry, I spilled a jar of paint on Scott Tracy. I did my best to clean it up, but the stain is permanent (and will be fixed later).



Right by the front gate of the junior high I attended in Taiwan, there was this vendor who sold freshly grilled corn on the cob (with lots of hot sauce!). He was there everyday when school let out. My friends and I would each get a corn on the cob and would eat them as we walked to our respective bus stops (absolutely contrary to what we had been taught—to never eat while walking). I would get home just in time to catch the Thunderbirds, a British puppet sci-fi show. After I came to the US, my American mom would always give me a small bowl of Pringles as a snack after I got home from high school, and I could watch Star Trek before dinner.



The finished piece is the top image.

Bamboo Mountain, Potato Hill

Bamboo Mountain, Potato Hill
Diptych
Gouache and acrylic on paper mounted on birch panels
12" h x 24" w
2012

Other than The Laundry Maze, I've also started working on my new painting project, Red Bean Paste and Apple Pie, a series of diptychs that will be exhibited in Seattle in September and in Portland in November. The first piece is Bamboo Mountain, Potato Hill, a nostalgic look at one of my favorite foods from when I was growing up in Taiwan (fresh bamboo shoots) and how much I missed it when I first moved here. Both the bamboo shoot and potato are root vegetables that are fairly inexpensive (in the proper regions), and both are very versatile in terms of culinary use.

I did not return to Taiwan for 7 years, and one of the first things my grandmother made for me was bamboo shoot soup!

Here's a shot of how it started. You can see that I'm playing with some ideas that I ended up not using (the drawing of a sprouted potato on the lower right).



The bamboo's cellular architecture and the potato flower are both 5-segmented. And I use this 5-segment structure as starting points. I'm using sacred geometry to denote many things -- the cosmos, the planet, the divider and unifier of the two sides/panels, but also to create a sense of myth and mystery. But it also gives me the pleasure of playing with patterns, which I love to do.

Here it is, fairly far along.



And the finished piece is the top photo.

The Laundry Maze gets physical

The Laundry Maze is the installation I'm doing at the Portland Building Feb 13 - March 16, 2012. There's been a lot of planning (a web survey, distributing postcard/flyer with self-stamped envelopes, connecting with ESL departments and adult literacy programs throughout the Portland area, asking friends who are immigrants, collecting shirts from friends...).

And now, things are getting physical...the first shirt has rolled off the production line!

I have gesso'ed 48 shirts (although I'm pretty sure I won't need anywhere that many; I'll probably need about 35 or so). So far, I have collected enough data pairs to sew around 2 sets of tags on each shirt. I'm also still setting up appts with ESL & literacy programs for the next few weeks. I will continue to add the tags while the installation is up. Hopefully, by the end of the installation period, I'll have 3-4 tags per shirt.

The back of each shirt will be a landscape sketch that I hope people can interpret in various ways. Each will be a sketch of mountains, rivers, and/or oceans, all natural national boundaries. But landscapes can mean so much in terms of what a 'home' is.



The front of the shirt will have tags of people's professions before and after immigration. Each pair will be stacked on top of each other; the "after" tag can only be read when you lift up the "before" tag.



The serger has been a great investment. It's handy in finishing the tags so that they won't fray as people lift up the before tags to read the after tags.

I have bought the dowels that will serve as the laundry lines, and the clothespins. I just need to finish sketching the remaining shirts, sewing/writing the remaining tags, then it's install, and the show opens!

Red Bean Paste and Apple Pie

Hey, I got my 2012 RACC Project Grant for Red Bean Paste and Apple Pie! Here's the intent for this project proposal:

"I will create a series of paintings using food as a metaphor to explore my transformation as a first-generation American. Nothing is more personal than each mouthful we put into our bodies, but what we eat and how we eat it are both seen as cultural and political indicators. I will use this duality to explore what it means to be an immigrant American by examining the changes to my diet and eating habits since immigrating to the United States. The paintings will be small format diptychs in gouache and acrylic on paper mounted on panels. This is the second of a multi-part series on immigration and migration."

I'll be starting to work on these paintings pretty much immediately. I've promised a lot of paintings, and at the speed I paint, it's gonna be a full time gig.

The first part of this multi-part series on immigration and migration is, of course, The Laundry Maze. Here's the proposal for The Laundry Maze , and here's the webpage set up for doing the survey.

You should, of course, help spread the word!

The third part is a book. It will be one-of-a-kind, and pretty big. At least as I see it in my head right now.

Yippy!

I got my grant! The grant that I was applying for back in August. Got the letter this afternoon. I only got through the first sentence, "congratulations!" before I picked up the phone and called Mike. So that was the big news for today. And I'm so over the feeling sorry for myself part.

On other fronts, picked up my stuff from City Hall, and realized that I couldn't pick up my chicken hat until tomorrow (so no chicken hat picture tonight). Finally took the serger out for some real work. I think the free fabrics (both knits) will not work, I'll need to get some other fabric for the pillow forms. Probably need a special foot for knits. I did work a project that I've been meaning to do for a while though: converted some ripped up old bath towels into washcloths.

The Random Movie tonight was The Golden Compass. There were lots of critters that talked, so of course I loved it.

In the weird stuff category—I heard from someone that I hadn't heard from since probably 1984. She read the NYT column on the gocco and googled me. It took me a little bit to figure out who she was. But the weird thing was, apparently she named her cat after me!

What a relief

Turned in all the paper work for the grant! Yes! I celebrated by going out for a long walk after I got home, and catching up on some reading. Their instructions had been so stern that the application can not be changed after the electronic submission, but while I was there, the staff person helping me had me write in new dates, new locations, and also things that I forgot. So it really was more flexible than I had figured. And she didn't say, "oh no, 2 carriage returns!"

Packed up another copy of Fatherland to send to Topeka, and sent in the itemized materials fees for the gocco class. Still need to finish unpacking from the class. I guess that will be part of tomorrow's chore.

It's what's for dinner

Why is everybody saying that? Or am I just lucky?

There I was at Marco's for lunch, reading the new Natural History that just arrived. The guy at the next table, with his back to me, was wearing a t-shirt that said "Science, it's what's for dinner." I turned the page in my Natural History, and the next article (actually a short blurb) was titled "Radiation, it's what's for dinner." Hmmm...

This was a day of running around -- making copies of my grant application (7 double sided copies, clipped together), 7 copies of my resume, picking up letters from donors, etc, etc, putting together all the supporting document to complete the application. AND, the good news -- I heard from RACC that I could write in my newly confirmed exhibition date of Nov-Dec/2008 at the library. Yay! Tomorrow, I have to burn the CD, then it's all ready for delivery.

Heard from Brea at Topeka that Fatherland had not arrived. Went to the post office to check on that, and apparently, it has disappeared into thin air. The post office has no record of it even leaving the building. There was only 1 scan on it, and that was when I dropped it off. ??

After dinner, we went out for ice cream, and went into the pet store next store to visit the rats. While we were there, a woman came in to buy a rat; she didn't even look, she just asked for the smallest one. Sadly, I knew where that little rat was going. The guy at the store just reached in and grabbed the rat by the tail, and the little guy really didn't look like he wanted to go. That was how I got my first rat actually -- she was going to be someone's dinner (rats, that's what's for dinner), but I ended up with her instead. And she was such a great little rat.

The movie tonight was Sunshine, a science-fantasy-horror movie that was rather slow moving.

Moping around (& part III of 'what I like about myself')

That's NOT the part I like about myself.

I was wrapping up the grant application today (there was the online part, which was due last Wed, and then there's all this paper work that I now have to produce, due this coming week), and discovered that the presentation portion of the project must also happen in the same grant year! And the only exhibit I had already lined up, and was listed in the application, was for the year after! Arrgh! I do have a library exhibit lined up now for end of 2008 (same grant year), but it didn't happen by last Wed. And not only that, in one of my answers, I used 2 carriage returns! (They specifically say to not use any CR's.)

So I'm DOOMED. And I'm probably marked as having 'poor grantsmanship.' They keep track of you, too. Now I'll have to change my name and move to another county under some artist protection program...

Well, all of this brings us to Part III of What I Like About Myself. Drum roll please...

10. I don't mope around for too long...really. Truly. Actually, my original entry for this was going to say "I don't waste too much time on regrets, worrying about what-might-have-beens and what-should-have beens." And it's true, for the most part. I learn my lesson, I hope, and move on. Some mistakes take a little longer to get past, but eventually I do.

OK, moving on...thanks to Gretchin, my Lovely Assistant for the gocco class, I have some photos from those 3 days. Here's a shot of the exchange that happened at the end of the class. The assignment was to make an oversized print on the B6 Print Gocco, ie, a print that is larger than the print bed size. They had different options on how to achieve that though, and some people chose to do very tight registration, while others played it pretty loose. Someone made a scroll; a couple of people made accordion books (one put hardcovers on hers too, and gocco-printed the cover paper).



On other fronts -- did a little work for Portland Open Studios blog, and reviewed documents for Print Arts Northwest. Tomorrow, I'm off to Bend.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

OK, so I finally got to the point where I pushed the Create PDF button on the grantsonline thing. And now I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for the finished pdf to come back...oh wait, there it is!

OK, had to make a couple of changes. In the original form, it was not clear that they were asking for the 9 digit zip code, and in fact, there is no room for the extra digits. But in the pdf it generated, it says 'zip code + 4'. So I've added that, and now I'm waiting, waiting, and waiting again. Aarrrgh.

I just want to get this done so I can go to bed!

This was the 2nd day of the gocco class, and I'm pretty exhausted. And now this grantsonline thing is just taking its sweet time...I want results, and I want results now!

Hooray for Carrie...

...for taking my grant proposal and making it say what I mean for it to say! It's looking a lot better. I still have more to do, but at this point, I'll just have to leave it until tomorrow night to wrap up.

Today was the first day of my Pushing the Gocco Envelope class. I got a bit of a shaky start -- got there at 9:15am, thinking that I had 45 minutes to setup, only to find that several students had already arrived! I recovered, and the rest of the day went pretty well, I think. The rest of the paper I ordered from Daniel Smith for the class finally arrived today too. (And we ARE going to start at 9am tomorrow, so I best get to bed.)

The 11th and 3/4 hour

This is it for the class...the show's going on tomorrow. Gretchin and I met at the school today and went through the facilities and computer lab. Everything's packed up and staged by the door.

Had breakthrough in the grant application's project summary section. It's finally reading a little better now. And finished the IPRC alternative gocco printiing classes descriptions. OK, best get to bed.

The 11th and half hour

Finally finished updating the class notes -- added Table of Contents sections to both the Basic Tutorial and the Advanced Topics handouts, and voila, instantly, everything appears to be so much more organized. Why didn't I think of that earlier?

And also in the Why Didn't I Think of That Earlier department -- I finally figured out how to compute the cost of inks for these classes. I always just estimated, but today, I realized that I could weight the inks before class, and again after class. And since I know how much the inks cost / oz, I can compute the total! Hey, what a revelation!

I'm mostly ready for the class at this point, just need to pack up everything and I'm set. Spent the evening working on my grant budget. Figured out the total cost of davey boards + paper + gocco supplies to produce all the prints and books; cost of the screens (custom made folding screens + plexi to hold the artwork); cost of my time (how do you figure that?). Looked at the guidelines for finishing the application, and saw that I'll need to supply a host of supporting documents too. But I have the week after Aug 15 to do those. (Oh yeah, the guildline also says you get points deducted for 'poor grantsmanship'...what a great term!)

The 11th hour...

Got some feedback for my grant application -- one person said it looked really good, another said I had a ways to go! So now what?! I'll only have this weekend to finish it, as I'm teaching all days next Mon, Tues, and Wed, and it's due on Wed at 5pm. Still haven't heard back from the retirement community, so not sure where I stand on it yet.

Good thing I hadn't taken the gocco class notes to the printers yet, I remembered today that there was a whole section that I wanted to add. Another 'oh, no!' I just took another look at the notes, and realized that I just (I mean just now) closed the file without saving the changes! I don't remember it asking me if I wanted to save it or not. Drat, drat, drat. I guess I'm just running around like a chicken without a head. Got to go re-write that new section now...

Take THAT, racoons!

Bwahahahahahaha...I got the strawberries this time, and lots and lots of it.

But sadly, that was the only thing that went right today. Found out that the papers I ordered from Daniel Smith on Tuesday morning has not yet left their warehouse! I can still hope to get them on Saturday, but Monday is probably more likely. And it better not be later than Monday. I do have some of the papers for the class already, so it's not all horrible, but it certainly could be better.

Met with the program director from the retirement center today. She sounded so enthusiastic on the phone and through email, but was a bit reserved in person. The meeting also felt a little rushed. I hope we're still going forward. It would be pretty devastating if it doesn't work out since I don't have a back up plan; and at this point, it's too late to line one up.

Ran (well, drove) to Fry's to pick up the Canon laser copier that I saw advertised in the paper the other day, and guess what, the prices were only good for Monday and Tuesday, and today, the price was double what it was.

Well, the strawberries were good. And I finished updating my class notes. Just need to give them another going-over tomorrow, and they're off to the copy shop.

Anyone wants to be my Gocco class assistant?

OCAC didn't get an assistant for me! Wah! Now I have 12 people in the class and no assistant! So, if you're reading this, and you know your way around Macs, Photoshop, and scanners, I want to talk to you! How about a free 3-day gocco class, this coming MTW, Aug 13-15?

Got some feed back from the new and improved project proposal for the grant, and it's good. Ordered papers for the OCAC class (plus 100 sheets of Rives Lightweight & 25 sheets of BFK for myself). Shipped Calypso to Australia for the exhibit. Have a meeting set up with the Program Director at Cedar Sinai Park, so things are moving along. Also, IPRC emailed to see if I would teach the advanced class there, but I rather do this experimental gocco class that I've been developing instead. I guess I'll see what they say.

Now if I can just get an assistant!

But anyhow...took the car in for its oil change yesterday and did my customary walk through Tek campus and zipped into the Cedar Hills Crossing mall to visit the little rats. But that's for later.

So a long time ago, this used to be a dumpy little mall. They dolled it all up and renamed it Cedar Hills Crossing, or something like that, and use this little frog image as their logo of sorts.



Well, I'm sorry, but this little frog and 'crossing' just don't mix! I think little frog, hop-pity hop, hop-pity hop, hop-pity hop...then, out of nowhere, zoom, zoom, zoom...well, there's the little flattened frog.

Anytime I'm anywhere near this mall, I stop by to visit the little rats. This little guy was busy cleaning her/himself the whole time I was watching. As soon as I pulled out the camera, s/he turned and faced the camera. See that cute little star on her/his forehead? And this gets better.



After I visited the rats, I stopped for lunch and pulled out Snow. I've been reading this book forever now, and I was within a few pages of finishing. And there it was, the protagonist all of a sudden mentions a charcoal colored dog with a star on his forehead.

This must be a sign...

I was right! I knew it!

Ha, got a message from Rebecca today, about the web site, saying I was right! Ha. OK, now I feel better.

On other fronts -- made good progress on the grant application (there are a ton of questions to answer, and not very many characters to write your responses in). And decided to have some folding screens made, with books attached to them. Once I get it all done on Aug 15, I'll post it here for your reading pleasures.

Aren't these pretty? Sliced sections of a baby cabbage from Eliza:

Progress on grant project

Hey, heard back from RSM (Cedars Sinai Park); they want to meet to discuss the project! And I met with Jeremy this morning to talk about exhibiting the books. Honestly, I need to think BIGGER. There I was thinking, oh, I'd make these books, and they would be in this show, and I'd invite the RSM residents, or something like that. I talked to Jeremy, and he was, OK, lets see what other artists we can pull together and do a whole thing on memory loss. And how about a performance too. And how about seeing if we can get PICA involved.

He looked at me and said, "have I totally blown your vision out of proportion?" Well, heck (this is a G-rated blog), yes! But in a most excellent way.

Started back on the writing part again this afternoon, but didn't get very far before I was sucked back into the web site.

This next week will really be crazy -- get ready for the OCAC class, and get the grant done.

Progress

Making bits of progress on all kinds of projects -- the grant application, the silk road flowers web site, and also a potential class for the Q Center in September. Here's one mockup for the silk road flowers site.