Celebrating the tradition of turning a year older on New Year's Day

Every New Year's Day, my family gets together and eats dduk guk (rice cake soup).  It is believed that by eating one bowl of the soup on the first day of the new year, a year of life is gained.



Dduk guk is one of my favorite Korean soups.  It is definitely comfort food for me.  If you're wondering what the dark, greenish ingredient is in the soup, it's laver (seaweed).  Yum!



Another tradition that we celebrate on New Year's is bowing to parents and elders. Girls get dressed in traditional Korean garbs called hanboks.  The dresses tend to be quite colorful and ornate, and I've never seen two alike in our family.

As children bow to their elders (basically anyone older than them) and give well wishes for the new year, the family members in return reward them with money.  It's a tradition that the young and old look forward to in our family. 

The delicate art of paper cutouts

Seeing that I can barely cut in a straight line with scissors, I'm awed by the craftsmanship of these artists.  I love how the intricacy of paper cutouts can resemble lace- so beautiful!

Bovey Lee, Atomic Jellyfish

Peter Callesen, The Short Distance Between Time and Shadow

Chris Natrop, Landscape Blossom Pop

Nikki McClure, Culture

Artist Liz Saintsing gives vintage accessories new life

I've been a big fan of Liz Saintsing's reclaimed vintage accessory line for the past couple of years.  Based in San Francisco, Liz designs and screenprints images of birds, insects, sea creatures, and flora on vintage bags, belts, and gloves.



Her products are functional works of art.   The attention to detail in each screenprinted design is worth noting, and so is the impeccable condition of the vintage items. Currently, she's working on transferring her images onto lampshades and bedding.  I can't wait to see her new designs!

A close-up look at sea life

Yesterday, with extended family in town, we decided to take a trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  The aquarium is located in Newport, Oregon, about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Portland.  It is most famous for housing Keiko the whale (Free Willy) for a couple of years before being relocated to Iceland.  



This was my first trip to the aquarium, and I was pleasantly surprised by the facilities and exhibits.  I guess I was expecting lots of fishy smells and unsupervised children running around with starfish in their hands.  The aquarium was, in contrast, much more contemporary and well-designed than I had imagined.



In the 2+ hour visit at the aquarium, we watched feedings of sea lions and otters, strolled through a sea bird aviary, watched a short film on luminescent sea creatures, and oohed and ahhed at the many different fish and sea life in the exhibits.



Here are a few photos I took from our visit.

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is just south of the Yaquina Bay Bridge. 

My favorite part of the aquarium was the jellyfish exhibit.  I can see why artists like Yellena James are so inspired by sea life!

This is a photo of my brother-in-law in one of the acrylic tunnels.  The reflective lighting in there was fun to shoot.

Affordable Art Finds, Week Eight

For the past two months, I've been scouting out fabulous finds on original art priced at $75 or less.  This is the last of the Monday series, but I plan to post regularly on affordable art.  There are many more great works to share!



1.  I've always thought it would be fun to illustrate a children's book.  This etching from Catia Chien looks like it belongs in a story book.  Entitled "J", it's a limited edition of 10 prints.  $30.

2.  Trish Grantham is a Portland artist that painted an amazing mural in my shop a couple of years ago.  I love her recent paintings of cute creatures on old dictionary pages.  The Owl and the Elephant ($58), shown below, is painted on a page from the "M" section, which includes words like merit, merlin, mermaid, and merriment. So charming!

3. I do love polaroids, especially this original, Horizon Variations ($40), by Eduardo Martinez.

Crazy for embroidered art

I've always loved embroidered works.  Last month, I checked out a book from the library on how to embroider pillows and other small accessories.  I actually didn't get very far with any of the projects in the book, but I have been inspired to start incorporating some embroidery in my own art work. 



Here are a few contemporary embroidered works that are pretty fabulous.  Okay, I'll admit, I'm jealous.

Takashi Iwasaki, Torihatanobori, 18" x 14".

Emily Katz, my Bear, 6" diameter.

Gillian Bates, Brighton Pier, 10" x 12".

Megan Whitmarsh, Twinz Crystal, 60" x 40".

New works- "Night Lights" and "November"

For the past couple of weeks, I've been reworking two panel pieces.  Night Lights is a piece that I just completed yesterday, and it was the third time that I had painted the panel.  Originally the work was a drawing of the Space Needle on an original monotype of mine mounted on a birch panel.  In October, I painted over the drawing and created You are here (the second picture shown below).

I liked the colors in You are here, but wanted to play around with texture some more.  I ended up layering black paint over most of the painting and then using a palette knife to create the repetitive line effect.  I then coated the top of the painting with Galkyd, which created a high gloss. 



Night Lights was a fun piece to work on, and I don't think it'll see another transformation . . . any time soon that is. 

I've been drawing a lot lately with markers, too.  Sometimes I prefer working in pens because I don't have to worry about clean-up or dry time.   It's also therapeutic to sit for an hour and draw patterns. Here's an 8" x 8" drawing from this week called November.