V54 artist residency students’ works review

the photo took from 16Aug, which is the beginning of final week of their stay. with some individual tutorial in-between, and another teacher commenting their works, finally, some of them changed idea (with limitation?) and some of them keep moving on with the original ideas (which I am happy to see the path and result). here I recap their works process with some reflection for my teaching experience.

Heaven’s work with the story with a friend from Italy, met when they were small. And castle sculpture representing the playground which also named as castle. the weathering decay effect he observed would apply on the castles to show the timeline that he met and disconnecting with the friend. recommending him to buy some small-scale-figure, showing the scale of castle, and also the situation of them, Heaven and his friend. think the narrative is funny and somehow romantic. hope he is ok to handle the changing of decay painting. 🙂

Sopia’s work with a canvas of V54 window’s shape and would paint the morning atmosphere, in an abstract way. Is a nice canvas, and she will use spongy to paint, I agree the spongy would be a good way in painting like fog or like…impressionism’s painting….something presenting lights.

ar 秋’s work with the melting wax, and painting in black/white, the street, representing he feels hot and melting walking around here, since so many slopes and he not knowing the transporting well. the black/white also represent his dizzy feeling. recommending he focus on the wax sculpture as that should be the main item. so far he got much idea

David’ work keep in a secret mode, hope everything’s alright…XoX

>>>no photo……-_-

Leah’s work, happy to see she keep going with her initial idea, which is quick drawing the people around Happy Valley, inviting them to post it back with sharing written on the back. when I visit Leah that day, she receiving many of the return postcards. could see how exciting she was. The next step for her is just wait for the postcard, and thinking how to display well in the exhibition, guiding people to see how she connect the community with drawing postcard.

Julie’s work using picture frame to imitate window frame, drawing classic building around happy valley. she try to use watercolour as it is soft and pretending some older times. Adding horse as happy valley got some horse walking in old days, she said. recommended she to use various size of picture frame, like from small to large. to enhance the visual impact instead of really imitating the windows. well but, she still buying same size frame….-_- anyways~

Ellis seems confusing since he got another tutorial that not supporting him to make 3D mixed media. and he is not confident to keep going on that…..so he was told to stick with his drawing skill, drawing something, still, related to his findings, birth and death, for me, I think that’s ruined the chance of staying here…well but that’s another topic that I would like to write/ record, in another chapter…or actually could be a topic for studying doctorate. yea…back to here…he’s drawing something about that, and I recommend him to break the frame with some installations, like, putting something out of the frame. to enrich the idea of birth/death…like eggs, leaves or sth else.

summer’s work is similar, at the beginning she would like to do something abstract about illustrating sounds, she already recorded and would like to use the sound wave to do the works. however, tutorial with other teacher and saying she better illustrate something real….then she draw…ladys….on each canvas, and she not feeling happy about that, she also questioned why I really need to draw that….I agree and found she is not very happy if the final work is like that…and I suggested her to make use of the exhibition wall, enlarge the “noisy” she illustrated by the mixed-media…she still a bit unhappy and hope her final work would got some excitement.

all their works are now 70-80% completed, hope to see them all satisfy the final work in the exhibition on 19Aug2021.

V54 artist residency tutorial part 2/2

continue the tutorial this morning,

Summer, one of my illustration students, she observed the environment here about street or lane is narrow, seems not as clean as where she living, Shatin (I agree this as actually Shatin is really a cleaner place as the density is lower), more car and traffic jam here. however, these would not be a very specific point to express, or not unique. Keep listening to her until she said she found a scene one day, with a foreign kid at an old traditional stationary store, playing/ screening the old toys, in which, the big contrast of new and old generation, western and east culture impress her a lot. and I am recommending her to observe more about this, e.g. contrast of old man and new store, contrast of foreigner chilling life with hongkongers’ busy life, or even contrast of traditional V54 building with some new cars parking outside, all could be a scene, painting, illustrations or photo to be developed.

Leah, same, illustration HD student of mine, she can’t say a lot deep impression at the beginning, just normal observation or what they did throughout the week. She also mentioned the guy who join V54 before, called Man, they met him on a day when ah Man setting booth to deliver origami course to the community, I asked her to record the impact about the function, like…what is community art? why he doing that? what he actually delivered. the answer is….connecting the new generations in this district, with old and traditional stuffs. and I asked her to research and think of what community art is. Somehow that show involve the community. Instead of an artist keep working on 1 artwork, community art is always welcome for all people to join. and Leah keep sharing her feeling that she like writing, the real paper and writing strokes made her feel warm and sweet. Thus I recommended her to research on writing or paper artist. and at the same time should start or think of some action to do, could be drawing of humans in the community or pets or whatever, and trying to post to herself, may involve the people she drew or else, in order to generate a funny diary or journal the connecting the dates, locations and feelings.

David, student from VAC, he said walked along the hill and picked something, would like to make/ develop something out as an artwork, he said the object could represent the district somehow. and yea, he is not willing to say what is that and I am a bit worry, worried about his direction or worried about if that object is really representing the district. However I am not forcing him to unveil that. On the other hand, I am asking him to research on natural art related to community, and also clear up the mind to think if that “object” is right on the track. if yes…could pick more, if no…please give it up.

jan vormann: dispatchwork; one of the artist I suggested David to research on, see what story behind.

so far that’s the 7 students’ progress, looking forward for next tutorial and the final work they developed.

The art journey after MA study (part 1/2)

Its been so tough to restart something again, especially needed to work for money as well as balancing the art knowledge development. I chose teaching but somehow it’s never easy to get a stable and ideal job. I’ve been working in tertiary education where I believe the environment is good for sharing my art/ design experience and knowledge, at the same time I could push myself keep learning and keep sourcing ideas, enhancing network, to get improved of myself and students. However, there’s not yet a suitable place for me and I can just keep working as part time instructor for subjects in some semesters, including visual merchandising, exhibition design, art and design foundation, interior design foundation. and I keep working for freelance whenever opportunities come out, some photo references below. And…..working full time as an education manager in a place called upcycling centre. here I will share how’re these 3 routes guiding me to somewhere and somehow I would like to round up the journey I back to Hong Kong, and hopefully, time to start a new chapter asap. and in case some artist feeling confused in life, welcome to share and discuss.

1) Freelancer

2) Part time Education

3) Full time work

First of all, freelance job, I started in 2011, working for exhibition, store vm and some graphic design (even I don’t really like to 2D). as a freelancer, job is always not stable which is sometimes there’s 3-4 projects within a month while sometimes not even 1 tiny projects in a season. is lucky that I could have some decoration projects related to environmental protection, delivering recycle, upcycle or reducing trash…

Kerry Properties X’mas Decoration 2019. A set of seat covers idea from xmas wreath. Combining wasted fabric samples to patchworks (final setup video on IG)

X’mas decoration for Open University 2018, with workshop that guiding students to make xmas ornaments by aluminium can and papers from drinks.

Ferrero X’mas booth decoration. An installation in a pop-up store of Ferrero, xmas 2017. Those golden flakes are like the wrapping of Ferrero. (Dummy video on IG)

3-year-xmas in a sequence, plus some visual merchandising projects, the OpenU and Kerry properties project are ways better that delivering repurposing of trash at the same time. I would like to keep doing commercial projects that applying eco-friendly ideas, that’s a long-term goal, and sustainable for a business development; also a way for people recognizing me, as an artist and a business.

________________________________________________

For the part time education, as I mentioned above, it’s never been easy to get a full-time position in Uni. just keep teaching as part time tutor/ instructor/ lecturer…anyway…just like mercenary troops in the war, keep waiting orders and work for that. Still, I have passion on teaching and guiding my students, I feel energetic in every class, discussing project ideas and guiding them for research. Job in a Uni motivate me a lot. here I got some photos of my class:

Graduation show of Higher Diploma in Commercial Design, Visual Merchandising Design, HKBU, one of the module that I thought the students are really spending time and works are nice, they are in group making window display for some brands, 1:1 and 1:50 store models were made:

The most challenging part for part time teaching is preparation of content and planning class structure. there’s not included in working hours tbh…but once you prepared, you could re-use next year, or update a few is fine. Usually there are 13- 15 weeks for each modules and 3 projects in each of them, 2 individual and 1 group project. within the period, keep teaching them though lecture, tutorial of projects, and practical computer skill in some modules, adding class work of computer drawings. This 3 main items would need lots of preparations.

For lecture, PowerPoint may include knowledge terms and information sourcing, as well as photo assists <<< a good photo example always need a long time to google, really. for tutorial, that is time consuming and a clear mind to do so, as students doing various topic and I need to reflect any ideas or guide them by providing art and design examples. For computer skill, I need to keep myself updated and think of any possible classwork for each time, cutting the class into pieces that student could absorb every time.

______________________________________________

to be continued…for full time work and art development