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Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

JAV130 Spring 2016

Evolution of Legs

Evolution of Legs

JAV130 Spring 2016

Feng Huang Ching Han Chan

Feng Huang Ching Han Chan

JAV130 Spring 2016

During the months of July and August, when I returned home, I began painting silhouettes and found a liking in their graphic form. I have always loved graphic design and have wanted to experiment and develop my skills more. Through the summer, I continued to explore the graphic nature of silhouettes as well as proceeded to work on my dexterity in digital media. Near the end of the summer, I regained my love for fashion design and sewed a new dress from scratch. 

As second year began, I entered into three visual arts studio courses. VIS205 Drawing and Experimentation, VIS206 Print Media I, and VIS220 Experimental Painting and Practice, spanned from September 2016-December 2016. I learned a lot of different techniques throughout each of these courses, and began to understand myself as an artist more deeply. Additionally I feel that I began to explore subjects and mediums that are more sophisticated than my past style.

VIS205 Drawing and Experimentation was my favourite course of the studios that I was enrolled in. Through this course I explored the many different mediums and pushed my technical skills in illustration. My first piece stemmed from the theme of Shadows. Annemarie 1948, was a detailed sketch of the ruins of Germany following a bombing during the second world war. This image was taken from the movie The Book Thief. Similar to the protagonist's story, my Oma (german grandmother) had grown up in Hamberg in the 30's and 40's when the war was taking place. I wanted to depict a scene that she could have experienced and crop it inside "the shadow of Germany." This piece is supposed to represent her past; an event that is behind her but still apart of her, like a shadow. 

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My second piece was based around the theme of Mapping. Migration of Ancestry is a paper cut displaying three generations from my family tree. Each silhouette represents one individual shown through the shape of the silhouette, the currency, the value and the positioning. The silhouettes are of the district/city/state in which the individual grew up in. The currency represents the country that the individual grew up in. The value shows the generation each individual stems from. And finally, the positioning of the silhouettes are in the shape of a family tree, therefore revealing who each individuals are. During the project I played with the irony of value and the movement of my family across the world. I chose to put the men on the left and the women on the right. From top to bottom and left to right these are the individuals displayed:

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My father's father, from Kansas State.

My father's mother, from Hamberg, Germany.

My mother's father, from Hong Kong Island.

My father's mother, also from Hong Kong Island.

In the second row, my father, from Missouri State.

My mother, from Hong Kong Island.

And in the final row, myself, from the city of West Vancouver.

My third piece was centred around the theme of Boundaries. A Lineage is a series of eleven wood carvings displaying ten generations of Timmons men and their wives. Through this project I explored the boundaries of family and life. Compromised of eleven balsa tiles, each reveal the birth and death date of each set of parents. I chose these individuals by beginning with my father, and identifying his father, grandfather, great grandfather and so on. As a result, I was able to show a lineage of Timmons men and their wives going back eleven generations. Following my other projects, I wanted to continue exploring my family tree. Through a website developed by my cousins, I was able to track down members of my family going back to the 1700s. Although I was able to find most of the birth and death dates, some I was unable to find. For the dates that are unknown, I fill the space with four zeroes. For dates that have not occurred (death dates) I leave the space un-carved. From youngest to oldest and top to bottom of each of the tiles, these are the birth and death dates:

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______________ (____-____)

Kelcy Timmons (1997-____)

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Thomas Holmes Timmons (1958-____)

Clara Ching Han Chan (1965-____)

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John Herbert Timmons (1935-2009)

Annemarie Clausen (1937-____)

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Holmes Fletcher Timmons (1913-1971)

Evelyn Barness (0000-0000)

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Herbert Fletcher Timmons (1882-1935)

Viney Mae Andrew (1888-1972)

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Thomas Holmes Timmons (1841-1914)

Mary Elizabeth Booth (1852-1885)

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William Timmons (1799-1877)

Mary Butler Cato (1805-1879)

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Abijah Timmons (1773-1827)

Mary Sabra Turner (1773-1855)

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Nehemiah Timmons (0000-1793)

Thamar Wingate (0000-0000)

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Thomas Timmons (0000-1768)

Sarah Truitt (0000-0000)

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John Timmons (1682-1771)

Sarah _______ (1685-0000)

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William Timmons (0000-1707)

Priscilla ________ (0000-0000

My fourth and final piece for this course was a piece called Dream Box. This theatrical series of 5 black and white surrealist drawings on canvas illustrate a dream in which I had experienced years ago. This dream consisted of animated human senses in a strange carnival like surrealist landscape. I used this as inspiration to create this installation. Originally supposed to be hanging, I wanted the piece to envelope the viewer as if they were in the dream as well; I did this by putting drawings on all 5 sides of the interior of the box. I was inspired by two main streams during this project: The surrealist digital work of Marcel Caram and my own personal sketches from previous years. By combining these two styles I was able to capture a sleek and contemporary drawing. Each sense is in a scenery that compliments its strengths as a sense. For Hearing, I wanted to ears to emulate hot air balloons to show how sound seems to float effortlessly through the air and originates from all directions. For Taste, I morphed laughing mouths into chess pieces on a board illustrating how taste is game where you discover your likes and dislikes. For Sight, I transformed the eyes into flowers representing how sight gives us he privilege of knowing colour. ForTouch, I drew two hands on an optical illusion background: one hand realistic and the other broken down into its basic forms. I did this to show how touch gives us the ability to understand shape and form. Finally for Smell, arguable the most important sense, I illustrated as a backwards clock. Smell is our strongest sense for recalling our past. Additionally I looked into the origin of time and clocks and discovered that the Egyptians had invented the sun dial and water clock to measure time. I include Ra's eye, the sun god, in the back of the clock to show its origination. 

Dream Box
Dream Box
Dream Box
Dream Box
Dream Box
Dream Box
Dream Box
Dream Box
Dream Box

VIS206 Print Media I was one of my trickier courses in 2016. Print making is a very complex and specific process with requires a great intention to detail and procedure. Additionally having nimble fingers and extreme control over the carving tools is another important factor when increasing the intricacy of the print. This control is also important when working with the two different plate materials: wood and lino. This is what we were asked to experiment with during our first project. 

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My first piece for VIS206 was called Representation. For this project we were tasked with creating a black and white diptych, forcing us to focus on the carvings themselves and how to interact with each other. Based off of Rainer Wehinger's visual representation of György Ligeti's electronic composition Artikulation, I created a visual representation of my own design based off of a electronically composed score the song All In My Head by Fifth Harmony. The image on the left is a print of the different levels of the score shown in waves instead of bars. The image on the right is the visual representation I created of notation that I believed resembled the sounds made by each instrument. 

My second piece was in honour of my late grandfather and was titled Fishing For A Philatelist. We were assigned to make a multilayered colour print in our desired plate medium. My subject for this piece was of the symbolism of Koi fish. Koi fish have very spiritual meanings depending on their colour. They generally symbolize good fortune, success and prosperity. The Kumonryu Koi fish is a white bodied fish with black spots and symbolizes life changes and transformations. As a philatelist, my grandfather understandably did not achieve much success in his career. As the 7 year anniversary of his death approached I wanted to spiritually send him great wealth and a career transformation for his after life. After creating my assigned renditions, I burned one of the prints as if it was joss paper to transfer my good wishes to him. I quite enjoyed carving this piece, however I finished the work more pleased with my carving itself instead of the prints. During this course I struggled with creating multiple identical renditions; this was specifically difficult during this piece. 

My final project for my the course was called Katrina's Triad. The task for this project was to create a multi-layered print and use one of the advanced techniques that we had learned in class. I chose to create a print with 2 layers: one in ink and one embossed. For my subject matter, I decided to look at the Hurricane Katrina's path pattern across the United States; I then made carvings of 3 stages of the hurricane based on aerial weather maps. This was my embossed layer. My first layer was of silhouettes of survivors that were featured on front page headlines on the days following the hurricane. These individuals are from 3 different headlines covering the event in local New Orleans newspapers.  

VIS220 Painting Contemporary introduced me to many new and interesting techniques and mediums. Although it was difficult because I find painting tricky at times, I found this course overall very enjoyable and informative. I tend to lean toward graphic paintings and avoid blending and realism, however I learned to experiment with new tools and eventually became accustomed to several new styles of painting. During this course we worked on different pieces which included palette work, collage, exaggerated texture, and use of different mediums like gel gloss and crackle paint. 

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My third piece was called The Lost Beauty of Childhood Reading. The assignment required a combination of painting and collage work. I decided to use used children's books to create a nostalgic piece which represented the beauty of early 2000's illustrations. This piece includes illustrations from Cat and the Hat, the Little Critters series, Winnie the Pooh, the Bereinstain Bears series, Robert Munsch books, Carebears, The Little Mermaid, Franklin, the Teeny Witch series, The Magic School Bus, Amelia Bedelia, the Mr. Men series and illustrations from nursery rhymes. I chose story books from the 90s and early 2000s, because I wanted the content to resonate with my audience during my critique. I tried to avoid illustrations that transitioned into television, but still wanted to keep the classics. I wanted the final piece to appear as a thinking cloud from Winnie the Pooh's own Christopher Robin in the bottom right hand corner.

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Trio; Anxiety
Trio; Explosion
Trio; Emptiness

2016

So far 2016 has been remarkable. I began my second semester at university and continued to make all kinds of art in my first Visual Arts studio course: JAV130 Visual Strategies. This year I began to venture into the world of digital media. Previously I have never enjoyed the idea of creating digital art because I personally felt it to be static, however I realized this year that digital art can be very refined. During the beginning of 2016 I have learned some of the basics of the Adobe Software programs such Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. During this training process at Beyondbranding in Connecticut, I was able to create a deck displaying a brand and clothing line in which I entirely invented, designed and executed for a presentation, myself.  

LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck
LÃœX Deck

During a 6 week internship with Beyondbranding through the months of May and June, I worked as a trainee and fully executed a               multi-disciplined project in which I designed a clothing brand. I was tasked with researching and developing a concept, choosing a name and creating a timeless brand mark, designing a cohesive line of clothing related to my research, writing and developing taglines and text for my presentation, creating ads that would successful display my product, and, creating and displaying this work through the use of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. 

 

Lüx is a brand marketed to young, male, streetwear enthusiasts. However, the twist is that all Lüx clothing has a safety feature integrated into each graphic design that glows when exposed to artificial light. The Lüx brand was specifically designed to prevent pedestrian involved traffic accidents as well as be a popular graphic streetwear brand for men. These slides are parts of the project's final deck:  

monroe.
presley.
IMG_5162
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A Lineage
A Lineage
A Lineage
A Lineage

My first piece was a Self-Directed project called SuperKamiokande. This assignment had no assigned theme or requirements. I decided to breach my comfort zone and tackle a concept that was scientific and artistic. In another class I had been taking at the time, Astronomy The Sun and Its Neighbours, we had learned about neutrinos. When viewing the sun through neutrinos, in the specific Japanese telescope the SuperKamiokande, the image appeared pixelated. I wanted to depict the image of the sun in this view. 

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For my final piece in VIS220, I wanted to make a piece that included a lot of texture and conceptual meaning. This piece is called Trio. It is a series of mood paintings based off of a particularly difficult time in my life in February 2015. It illustrates the emotion in which I endured through colour, texture and direction of the strokes. This piece is in a series of 3 seperate canvases to represent the 3 seperate stages of the  

narrative. I used colours in which I believed identified with the feelings that I was trying to express: pink and orange for anxiety, dark blue and purple for deep sadness, and greenish greys for emptiness. The direction of the strokes also adds to the narrative: a rise that leads to a climax that eventually falls into a hole of no escape. Although the subject matter is dark, this piece outlines an extremely rough time in my life and it is a raw representation of a part of me that will always be affected.

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