thisgorgeousazn’s blog

This one was the pixelated 0.5"x0.5" squared still-life of a stuffed animal (beaver), an oil tank to place turpentine or gamsol, a green block on top of an overturned lime green drawer case, and a satin pillow.

This piece was later finished (notice the left side of the painting has not been covered with the 0.5"x0.5" squares). It is not in my possession right now because it's been chosen to be placed in the First Yeat Student Spring Exhibition at my college. I don't know what date it is but if you are interested, let me know and I will post it and keep you updated.

I enjoyed this in-class assignment (4 weeks/4 class sessions) and I've never used this kind of technique to paint either. The process of painting this caused me to feel back pains from trying out different sitting positions to paint and my buttocks because I still wanted to paint during break time even though I could have given my butt a break from sitting in the chair for 3 hours straight!

In this assignment, I learned how to mix a variety of colors on my palette. Oddly, there were many times where I doubted myself in finding the right colors to produce from my palette but I did and this technique of painting a still-life taught me that each 0.5"x0.5" square has its own unique and original color from my palette. My professor complimented me throughout the class that I had the knack for mixing colors on my palette well and controlling how I paint with oils. I was really happy to hear that from my professor.

I have to be honest with you that this in class drawing assignment was a pain to do. I lost so much sleep over the weekend to complete this piece but the result, I am satisfied with.

This is a collage piece of 0.5"x0.5" squares of black and white magazines of Francisco Goya. The first part of the assignment, I had to attend the Ringling Museum to choose one piece from Goya's exhibition hall and I ended up choosing a self-portrait of him. One of my wishes is to bring this piece I made of Goya to Goya himself and have him autograph it for me. Then I plan to frame and hang it up in my room.

Even though I felt more frustrated in the process of this piece, I have to say I still had fun on the side too. FInding the exact shade and line, or shape was a pain, knowing myself, every piece of my work must be really well done. I believe that way I will be able to receive the best critiques to improve myself.

This collage was also chosen by my professor to hang up in the First Year Student Spring Exhibition.

I didn't fix/change anything to this little dude of mine but I just want to say that he is living in my mom's front yard garden of the house and he's really rusty because of the weathering being outdoors.

Remember, it's a figure in the process of attempting a handstand!

When I get the chance, I plan to spraypaint it so that it doesn't rust and look dirty. I am stuck as to what color I should paint him though, do you have any suggestions for me? I was thinking of bright colors that may attract attention such as red, green, or yellow.








Also, for the last project I did in 3D studio was making an 8ft floating vessel/boat. As I know myself, I never get along with people when I am placed within a group to execute a project so I have pictures I promise you I will upload them when I get the chance to.













I had 3 Computer Animation girls who were extremely girly about using or being around power tools. Basically, I can just sum it up as to I had cut and provided most of the supplies to keep this project alive and caught up with the schedule because none of my ideas and suggestions were accepted from the 3 of them. Since that was the case, I had to do everything on my own and when I was finally fed up with their attitude towards me, I had informed the professor about it and she came to see it herself. I was glad in the end she understood how I felt when I ranted to her about how I had been having problems with my group members. I wished I could have enjoyed this boat project alot more as I did with all my other 3D projects. The theme to my boat project with my group was The Little Mermaid's Best Friend, Flounder. The boat I made floated at least but it was difficult to row. In the end, I'm glad with the grade I received for the class, an A, the professor was on my side, she also had previous problems with them, and she knew I was telling the truth.

Besides art life, I am not working at the hair kiosk any longer just because of the fact that the owner there is not very honest and her capricious attitude is intolerable for me to stand. During school, her husband continously text messaged me to ask me to come in to work for them during school hours which I couldn't so I had promised them that I would give most of my time to helping them out during winter break. Once I gave them my scheduled dates and hours of available work, they agreed with me that my dates and hours were fine by their standards. Then, last week, they started cutting down my hours and told me alot of unreasonable excuses about how they have a 4 year old kid they can't spend time with if both of them are working and then I found out the real reason why they cut down my hours, they had a friend from Chicago to come down for winter break to stay at their house, and in order for her to live there free with my owner, she had to work at the hair kiosk. To sum it up, my owner's friend is working the hours I am supposed to be working and guess what? I'm not very happy about that. If someone asked me how to describe my owner, the best answer I can come up with is that she is a great person as an individual but working under her is a different story. Oh yes, and she refused to pay me for the last 4 hours I had worked for her and ignored my phone calls when I tried to reach her too. Then she made her husband come and talk to me to tell me that she couldn't reach me because she didn't have my phone number, which was a complete unreasonable lie because the day she cut down my hours was the days she called my phone to tell me about it.

To think positively though, now I am able to have time to apply for scholarships and see how much I can get out of financial aid to support me to stay at Ringling. It is so expensive!


For those of you that live locally in Sarasota, I have sold my watercolor paintings of still-life fruits and vegetables to the lady that owns the small art gallery in the Southgate Mall. The place is called Paradox Gallery. If you have time and are interested, please take a peek in there. Also, I have a passion for making anything I can into origami and I've made holiday ornaments out of drinking straws that are also hanging around in the gallery. And then across from the gallery is an Asian bistro and sushi restaurant where my parents work and I help out from time to time.

During my winter break, I will be hunting for scholarships and applying for them, catching up on my sleep, and doing last minute Christmas shopping for my family.

And soon to say goodbye 2007, Hello 2008! I might be posting a list of my "queer" new year resolution.

Free painting assignment. I was able to paint anything I wanted and choose any media. I chose oil just because I had just bought new pigments. I know the image looks really bright because of the camera. I don't know how to take off the flash or whatever it is but it's abstract letters filled with my name all over it. I was inspired by the ransom note I had to do in my drawing class and my sister has this bucket full of sticker letters.

Outdoor painting of my painting classroom. I had to use a palette knife to paint this and I know, it's very ugly but forgive me, this was my first time painting with a palette knife and I hope never to do it again because this was the first painting I wanted to stab. I enjoy painting buildings and landscapes but I do not like painting with a untensil that I don't feel like I have control over it. If that makes any sense whatsoever... I'd rather choose a brush over a palette knife.









This is a recent painting that was due Thursday of a transparent object and at least 4 m&m's within in the still-life. Now, my teacher's assignment requirements aren't that hard to follow but there are always people more than half of the class that do not follow his instructions and it kind of irritates him or frustrates him, it actually confuses me to think how they cannot follow easy and simple instructions.

Anyway, I chose a Melting Pot glass wine and 6 m&ms, including the wrapper/package. This was the second painting I wanted to stab because I had so much trouble making the glass look transparent. >>; I think I did a pretty good job considering the teacher believed that mine was the best and that I challenged myself by adding m&ms into the glass wine. Also, it is incomplete because I still have to add the words 'The Melting Pot' to the front of the glass wine, if any of you noticed that.

3D class, I am grouped 3 girls where we have to think of ways of building a wooden performance boat that will be able to float. That, if you want, I will take pictures of us working and a group picture of my partners. Guh, just the thought of being in a group, I really hope this time, this group will be as determined and dedicated because of all the other group assignments I've been in, I've had so much frustration and trouble.

Also in 3D, there is an event called Canstruction (http://www.canstruction.com), just to bluff, one of my ideas were chosen and will be used to build out of cans for the All Faiths Food Bank, can collecting. My idea was a stoplight and I went grocery shopping for cans too! Neat, huh?

The second painting is the beginning of a triptych piece. This is the first one that I painted. In the beginning of the semester I went to Ringling's Museum to pick out a painting and I chose Willem van Aelst's, Still-life with Dead Game. I zoomed in on the feathers of the turkey and had fun making the colors look pretty. The triptych canvases will all be the same sizes, 16" x 20". The 2nd painting will be of a photography of an orchid and the 3rd painting will be of a view looking out the window.
In 3D class, 2nd assignment, this was my first time handling and working with welding metals together. I'm absolutely in love with welding and the piece! I have to say that I'm not as afraid as I was before working with fire and metal and I had alot of fun with this project. It was called Line Gesture. Just so you know, it is a person in the process of doing a handstand. My 3D professor thought the piece looked very abstract, playful, and fun to look at. Besides the good comments I received during critique, during the process of working on this project, there were extreme stealing on other people's work and supplies. Earlier in the semester, I had made a maquette out of tie wire and I left it in the shed that the professor provided for the class and the next day when I wanted to start welding, my maquette was gone. Stupid people, stealing other people's work and credit for themselves...
Another drawing I did in class today was with charcoal sticks and an eraser. I had alot of fun with this exercise except for the part where the charcoal got under my nails and it's such a pain cleaning it out! ><; It's a pitcher sitting on top of a white foam box. My professor thought I was drawing with a really fat lead pencil and he stopped me to examine my 'pink eraser' himself to make sure I wasn't cheating on the exercise... I'm telling you, he's watching me like a hawk, it's getting sort of annoying actually that he won't just trust me that I really am following his instructions. But I've been taking his words as compliments so it helps me from getting upset or angry. ^^;

I got cute fish with a small fish tank! It's cute, I got a goldfish, male kissing fish, bumblebee, neon blue, and a neon glow fish (red orange). You can't really see the bumblebee or the neon blue fish because they're always hiding inside that temple. They love it and I love them! They're so cute!! My new pets at home, ^^; but I haven't had the time to think up of names yet so if you guys have any names for my fish, please let me know.

Well that's all the work I have for you. Sorry if it's disappointing ><; but it's all I have so far to make up for the weeks I haven't updated. Hope you guys enjoyed them. Leave comments as always, I get really happy and excited when I see a comment left in here. Makes me feel like you guys really do enjoy reading and looking at my work. ^^

Aside from classes, I have been working 3 jobs; parents' restaurant, Korean hair kiosk, and another kiosk selling orchids, Asian wind chimes, and bamboos. These places I work at are all within a small public mall. I also have been making some paintings to sell at a small art gallery inside the mall in order to help pay for my tuition at the art college I go to. These were the watercolor paintings (8" x 10") I sold to the gallery. The owner of the gallery bought each of these pieces from me for $300.


Paintings I did on my own free time, whenever I get the chance to. I plan on selling these original artworks too to the gallery so I can save the money up to pay for next semester's tuition. The one on the left is made of oil pastels and acrylic, the middle is oil pastels, and the right is watercolor.




Drawing class. I had to tape a permanent marker to the end of a yardstick and draw a classmate of my choice. Contour drawings without looking at my pad. I know, they really suck but I successfully made my classmates look really bad, haha. The other contours are of still-lifes that the professor brought in for the class. This was one of the first drawing assignments due called Transformation. I took a hard object (violin) and combined it with a soft object (hot pad to place pots on). I know, I failed to make the soft object look like a soft object...


Painting class. Color theory and painting with oils in the beginning of the semester.In the first painting, we had to apply a glob of paint on the canvas to start painting so my first painting was pretty bad- looking but the second one, I was able to sketch an outline with a brush. The second painting is an assignment called monochromatic; one color.I chose blue.I'm still working on the base of the flower vase... the green is not looking how I want it to look like on the canvas but I'll make it work somehow.

Well that's about it for the week. I'll be posting more when I get more paintings and drawings done.

Chu and Marina, get well soon!

My first drawing assignment. Last Saturday. I had to go to the Ringling Art Museum and sit there for 6 hours until the receptionist kicked me out. It was an oil painting from Willem van Aelst's Still-life with Dead Game.

There were other paintings that I could choose from but they seemed a bit dull, like portraits of people, heroic and romantic scenarios, Jesus Christ, Mary, Madonna, etc. There were few paintings of animals in the first corridor but if you walk across the courtyard and into the other side of the museum, there's a bunch of dead animal paintings but they were a bit too gory for me to observe for a long time.

I made this for my first assignment in sculpture. Everyone was amazed by it and guess what it's made out of? Drinking straws and I just sewed them together with sewing thread. Now my professor wants me to make 20 of these things for her so she can hang it around her house. ><;




Today I woke up at 8am so I would beat the crowd and do my homework at Jungle Gardens. I have to draw some gestures of at least 5 different animals and its movements. This is my second assignment for sculpture and I will be using wire to make the movements of an animal of my choice.

It was extremely hot and I think I walked into numerous spiderwebs because by the end of the day, my face and shoulders were really itchy and irritated. I didn't feel the least bit comfortable staying there anymore.

Oh, I forgot to smile... sorry.






On my break of drawing gestures of animals, I fed the turtles, coy fish, and flamingos there. Then I got hungry myself and left for the day.

I had one flamingo who's leg was tagged number 13 that kept following me when I didn't have anymore food to feed them. It followed me when I even passed the little bridge and into the other side to see the lemurs and parakeets. Then it disappeared. I'm not really sure when it left since I was too busy making gesture drawings of any animal that was moving in their cages. But it was fun for my first time ever feeding a flamingo.