Broken Hourglass

In this piece, I wanted to show how time is running out for the environment. There are several issues that negatively affects the natural world and these are due to human actions. Humans are tearing down large masses of forests to create new space for huge buildings to be built on. I really liked how tho turned out because I am not very skilled in watercolor, yet I believe I painted the scene well. I decided to add a dripping effect on the bottom and top of the piece to create a feeling of an incomplete piece and it adds to the composition. It creates a sort of mystery to the piece which I like. I chose to do watercolor because I want to develop my artistic abilities and broaden my skills.

She is the Tree

For this project, I chose to paint a well-known environmentalist who lived in a large tree for two years. Julia Hill is very inspiring to me and I admire her for standing up against media on her living habits in the tree. She stayed in this tree and did everything possible in it and did not leave it for two years. People would send her resources but she did not step off of the tree. I chose to represent her as the tree because in those two years, she had grown very attached to it and thus had "become" the tree. I chose to use watercolor again for this project because it is loose and not as thick as oil paint or acrylic. I drew lines on her to emphasize the tree aspect of the piece but left her face slightly untouched except to enhance her eyes. I like how this piece turned out because it is different from what I usually do for my works.

Habitat

 

My end of the year project reflects my concern on the environment. Again, I chose to look at Malaysia and decided to paint two orang-utans. The orang-utan's are a significant ape race in Malaysia and I also have a personal experience with them from my time living in Malaysia. In this piece, I chose to paint these apes on a wooden board so I could experiment with media a bit more. I found that painting on this board gave a slight texture, however the oil paint ended up masking some of the texture. I painted the orang-utan to be hanging on a branch. However, I painted an old industrial building but created it in a way so it resembles a tree. The "branch" the ape is holding onto is actually a pipe. Lastly, I added physical object to the piece, such as screws, bolts and leaves to bring out a three-dimensional effect and also exhibit how the industrial world is affecting the natural world. While creating this piece, I found it difficult to screw each object onto the wooden board and also adding nails into the board. But I am happy with the result of the project.

London: Fabricated

For this project, I decided to explore media and use different material to make the finished product. For this project, I wanted to use cloth material in the background to create texture and then paint over it. I chose to look at artist Sigmar Polke because he has works that have to do with mixed media and thus I chose to create this piece. I chose to paint the Big Beg with the Tower Bridge because those are two factors that define England, or more specifically, London. I visited London during our Spring Break and I was inspired to paint the large monuments. Not only did I use cloth material to create the background, but I also used small random objects that I found around my house to make the piece a bit more interesting since it is already a mixed media piece. Again, I stuck to using my usual color palette of cool colors and chose cloths that were mainly blue but also had a certain texture to them. I enjoyed this project. However, it took a very long time to finish.

Pink and Purple

For this project, we were given the honor to have workshops with two designers from Ruzz Gahara. The artists presented their batik work in their line and gave up tips and rules in batik making. They also presented their different lines which revolved around seasons and how they make these batik patterns to appeal to their audience. We were given the task of creating a design that we would later trace onto with wax on top of a cloth. In the middle of my batik, I decided to copy my central design three times, and then using the designers pre made stamps to make the border of the batik. 

I really enjoyed this project because, again, it delved into my cultural background of being Malaysian and its' values. The work took a very long time and it was sometimes hard to work with because we did not have a hard surface under our batiks to paint on. Thus the ink would run to a place we didn't want it to. However, I real liked this project and it allowed me to explore my color range [since I sully use dark or cool colors]. 

Masked by Industry

For this project, I chose to look at industrialization again. This looks back into my Extended Essay and also in past works. We were given the chance to make a mask so I decided to look into my home country and I had the idea of looking at the national kite, called the Wau. This kite has an interesting shape. For the mask, I created the wau kite shape, but I made the bottom section into a mask by using plaster. Furthermore, to create the shapes that makes the kite shape, I used soft cardboard and plastered them into the form I wanted them to be. 

My idea for what I painted on the kite is linked to industrialization. Since the top section of the mask is larger, I decided to paint a scene. This scene displays a woman dancing in front of the sun, branches and leaves. The woman is created out of industrial gears which are painted both red, to represent rust, and grey. The woman is dancing to represent how reckless humans are in building industry. In addition, since the top section of the mask is an eye-like shape, the sun is the iris and pupil. The sun, in some cultures, is a symbol of God or life. Thus, the fact that the leaves are covering the woman, God does not see what is happening on Earth. 

I really like this project because I was able to touch base on several ideas and my cultural background. 

Dragonlines Series

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The plastic slide that is carved

The printmaking unit we had was very long and tedious but I enjoyed it out of most of the projects I did. The period of exploring different inks, papers and textures in addition to creating an idea for our prints took a very long time. However, in the end, it was worth it. I was very happy with how my prints turned out in addition to how my design turned out. The choice of papers and the coloured backgrounds was overwhelming in addition to also having different "rules" to each paper. I would really like to do printmaking again because it requires a lot of small details and attention to create a beautiful piece.