Nothing Has Changed

The digital art on the left features blue and dark magenta. I made it about 6 years ago.

Cut to this cartoon panel that I made a few months ago. Unintentionally, the exact same colors.

I love my magenta / burgundy. Tastes don't changed much. One time, I was lounging around at home with a burgundy-colored shirt on. Then I went to get dressed for the mall, and felt like wearing burgundy pants. Then at the mall, I decided to buy burgundy lipstick. So I came home wearing varying clashing shades of burgundy from head to toe. This was just a few months ago.

What can I say.

More Galaxy Themes

The concept for this painting was inspired by the Pixar short, "Day & Night". It is an incredibly sweet story and a very aesthetically unique concept.

The really fun part of this painting was making clouds with sponge technique and making stars with splatter technique. I try to learn a new technique each painting -- and am thankful that acrylic is mildly forgiving. The ability to fix and fix again is the only reason I don't scrap every painting I make.

As you can see, I'm still using tape to make shapes and haven't gotten quite confident with freehand by this point (which was around October 2019). Soon, soon, I venture to do more than just straight lines.

Additionally, I hadn't gotten the galaxy theme out of my system yet, but after this painting, I decided to stop with the galaxy stuff and get some new ideas.

I used professional grade paint for the first time on the Night sections, after I got fed up with 
layering cheap paint many times for proper opacity. 

First Real Project

Painting is only worth the time if I find a concept I'm really excited about. Usually, ideas start with something that I like in general. Then I improve the concept several times until it becomes so awesome that I have to create it.

I really love brainstorming at night, because I come up with a lot of fantastic ideas. But then, without fail, I wake up and find that only about 20% of the ideas are actually decent. Pre-sleep alpha waves are like my LSD.

With this painting, I knew I wanted to do galaxy colors, and the gradient concept added the uniqueness I wanted.

An unexpected result of the gradient was that it made execution ten times more complicated. Triangles had to be pretty small for a smooth fade. However small triangles in random patterns looked wonky and jarring, so I had to adjust each tape line over and over until it looked right.

Despite the time-consuming and onerous effort, I love how it turned out and I'm very proud of it.

It's hard to tell, but the yellow bits are metallic gold paint.

A Personalized Space

Something I love about working from home is being in my own space.

After years of working in different offices, sitting on lumpy chairs and using chipped furniture, being in a room surrounded by my own decor makes a huge difference.


The key principle for interior decorating is to pick a prevailing style, but to include 20% of materials from other styles. I haven't done a super job of that at large, but came up with the piece below to bring in different textures.

It took some time to decide on each bottle. I think the ball bearings (third bottle) looks a bit too heavy. Rose gold ball bearings would have worked better, if those exist. However, I like it overall and am especially happy with the dried cornflower and patterned pins, which are high quality finds from etsy.

Reviving This Blog

Hello. It is 2020. We have been quarantined for 8 weeks. It's time to revive this blog.

I've been making a lot of art. I don't share it all on Instagram, because I don't want a profile of 10 consecutive paintings. Additionally, the design process is really fun and interesting for me to talk about, and yet my sisters cannot listen to another word from me. So I need a new outlet...

New watermark Almost exactly 4 years after abandoning this travel blog, I'm fixing the broken links and giving it a second life for art stuff. Somehow, this blog platform is even more outdated than before and my old email subscription engine broke. You can subscribe again here or in the left bar -- and you'll get post notifications in a pretty, new email template.

Revisiting this old blog, I still like the design a lot. However, some of my old writing is super cringe. So be kind, and maybe don't judge old posts. And I'll be kind to myself too, because I'm 90% sure this post is going to be cringe-inducing in a couple years as well. Or way sooner!

That's all! Welcome back, us!

If you're interested in more rambles about what's transpired over the break...

Before I abandoned it in 2016, this blog was a creative outlet that helped me find some balance to an all-consuming new job. When I got busier, I stopped investing the 10-15+ hours it took to create each post. But along the way, I also lost touch with a huge piece of creativity in my life, and forgot the joy of obsessing over side projects purely for the fun of it.

This time last year, I took a long vacation from work and stumbled into acrylic painting. When I picked up a creative hobby again, it was like opening a cupboard of favorite snacks that you had forgotten about. That's simply not done!

Now, being in a different place in my life, art means something different than before. More than ever, I need it as a way to stretch my mind, think non-linearly and embrace that there's no perfect standard. I am still low-level anxious to finish each painting as quickly and as close to my vision as possible, but I'm working on finding ways to enjoy each part of the process as well. I hope you enjoy going through this creative process with me, if anyone out there has more patience to listen than my poor quarantine buddies!

Faith

Modern Nomad - Reclaiming My Zone

Virtual guest, I'm sharing a look into my hotel room: specifically the bathroom counter and my corresponding posse of toiletry supplies, which take up a fifth of my suitcase and are typically the first things I care to unpack.

Here on the right, you can see a life-sized replica of my setup at home, engineered for optimal hotel-living convenience. You may not think of it, but a primary concern with hotel rooms is finding a mirror with good lighting. That's why, once I've figured out my mirror arrangement, I tend to stay at the same hotel week to week. Of course, I also like to do this because the hotel staff start to recognize me, but even more than that, I start to recognize them.

I'm pondering whether it's more objectionable or less that I use almost every one of these items in the picture on the daily, albeit in quick succession in the mornings. Things aren't always laid out this way (remotely neatly), especially since I'm rarely blessed with this many drinking glasses to be repurposed as containers. However, I do consistently pack everything that I use when I’m at home, so there’s no living simple on the road for me.

This is all too true when I start to bring duplicate items like face wash – one for the main trip and another for trips within trips. Would these then be called travel-travel products? Products for travel when you're already on travel? I am aware that all of this is considerably high maintenance. In my very feeble defense, maintaining my ideal personal care process helps me feel normal and well-functioning wherever I go.

Speaking of heavy packing, there was a period of time recently when I was travelling so much that it became necessary to bring an extra suitcase of clothing to keep at the hotel. The two suitcases together essentially became my rolling closet. Given that 70% of my usual wardrobe was with me in those suitcases, I was functionally dumping out my entire closet every single week when I unpacked at the hotel and three days later, reorganized and placed everything back in. The interesting thing was that I needed clothing for very different climates, so I simultaneously had heavy gloves and spring dresses in my suitcases. Anyone looking inside them may be led to believe that I was running away from home and that I grabbed everything I could in a mad dash, including an electric blanket. I’m surprised it all fit, to be honest.

Even without varying climate considerations, my packing mentality should explain why I always have a full carry-on regardless of whether it’s for one night or four – and goodness knows that we're checking a bag if it's longer.

Like a Camel - Tucson, AZ (Part 1)

On the penultimate weekend of my project out West, I went on another solo travel trip – this time to the great state of the cactus. Actually, that title may be a toss-up between Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, and Texas, so to clarify, I did indeed go to Arizona.

Though Tucson seems like a random choice and also difficult to spell, it was selected based on the reasonable points conversion rates for free hotel nights. Who would guess that the points required for hotels in Phoenix and Seattle are outrageously exorbitant, on par with some resort spas in Hawaii.

Tucson is a great option, but perhaps not shockingly, it's even more dry than Salt Lake City which seems almost impossible to my East coast self. Otherwise, it was a delightful, relaxing place to spend a weekend and according to my Uber driver, elderly people agree with me as they regularly move from neighboring states to Tucson upon retirement to treat every day like a Saturday for the rest of their lives.

As it happened, I spent much of my weekend working remotely but managed to dedicate one full day to exploring and necessarily drinking water in equal measure.

In the late morning on my day off, I visited a popular zoo that contained an impressive array of animals, several of which I had never seen before which was quite cool. I know I’m not alone in my reservations and uncertainty about the concept of zoos – in my case, it’s no doubt due to ignorance in both directions, both on considerations supporting and against it. However for now, I'll defer further discussion and just recognize that I appreciate all kinds of amazing animals.

Roll film.

Feeding a giraffe and finding peacocks that roam the grounds freely. Both creatures disproportionately long.

Saw these inhabitants among others like capybaras, anteaters, panthers, and some unknown thing in the water that everyone was inexplicably trying to spot. I also just realized that the ring around the rhino's eye was possibly applied to protect the little dude from the sun. A gigantic creature.

Animals – very awesome.

(continued in Desert Stop)

Desert Stop - Tucson, AZ (Part 2)

(continued from Like a Camel)

Then, in the late afternoon, I took a short hike through a national park desert in search for attractive cacti and perhaps also a stroke of creative inspiration as one does in deserts. I didn’t make much headway on either front, but I did observe that saguaro cacti are often misshapen and rather deviant from the classic image. (Also, it’s pronounced sa-wa-ro, with a silent g.)

I ended up spotting a good one on the drive-through portion of the park – a single good one out of hundreds of saguaros, collectively summing up to thousands of years of growth. One lone shoot matches the archetypal shape that is supposed to represent them all. Alternately, Arizona produces wonky cacti and other deserts around the globe are more consistent with the aesthetics. The jury's still out on that.

On this drive-through trail, I also encountered a fellow solo traveler, a middle-aged man on a motorcycle. He asked me to take a picture of him sitting on his bike in front of a sunset and then offered to take my picture in return.

The Good Saguaro

The exchange is unassuming and brief but I react internally a bit. This man, by making this request, indicates a relinquishment of the guise of self-sufficiency, which is very much not in the spirit of embracing aloneness, my diehard modus operandi and foundational assumption when I travel on my own. Still, this part of the matter is not so bad. It's minorly uncouth but not objectionable to go around asking people to take your photo as I certainly rely on strangers for directions and recommendations sometimes. I find that picture-taking is one step more personal, in that a level of openness is required to be the subject of a one-person shot. However, I also realize that I may not have the best gauge for interpersonal distance as I sometimes don't even ask friends to hold my belongings for me when I need more than two hands.

The further issue, when my dismay really starts to heighten, is that I was also companionless in this situation so the random tourist and I had this characteristic in common, which is in fact the likely reason why I was asked for the favor. Now you see that I have been identified as a compatriot against my will and feel that without much intent, I have tacitly agreed to the presumption that solo travelers have an automatic bond based on being solo and that we should implicitly help each other – a perspective that continues to violate the premise of being alone.

Then, when you think that it couldn't possibly get worse, this person offered to return the favor to take a picture for me, which I certainly didn’t request. Interpreted generously, this compounds all of the aforementioned offenses and then some.

Of course my response is to take some great pictures of what he wanted and then politely decline the return offer, before, on second thought, changing my mind and agreeing because after all, it was free. So now I have pictures of myself taken from farther than an arm’s length away, to show for this five minute ordeal and the more significant reverberating introspection. Thus concludes my current, slightly exaggerated thoughts on independence, companionship, and coexistence with fellow mankind, vaguely.

In a thinly-related side story, I was in Central Park with a friend last month and was stopped by a tourist who appeared to be European, requesting to have his picture taken. There he stood, in front of the lake with a panel of downtown skyscrapers in the background and to my intrigue, started posing like a classic hero on a magazine cover, back straight, slightly angled, and looking into the distance. It was delightfully on point and shamelessly distingué.

At any rate, to round out my day in Arizona, I took a stroll through downtown for dinner, and this approximately covered all there was left to see in Tucson (with the exception of a museum that housed live desert animals, which I unfortunately had no time for). Tucson is and feels like quite a small town as even the hub tended on the quiet side. However, I found the place to be intuitively comfortable (abstractly, not physically) in the short time that I spent there and my only two mild complaints are the small airport and the muchas ubiquitous Mexican-themed food.

    

Destination ice cream is becoming a theme on this blog. I don’t know why, as it's not a theme for me at home. However, when presented with flavors like carrot cake and banana nut, how could you not.

Itinerary items referenced: Reid Park Zoo, Saguaro National Park Rincon Mountain District, HUB Ice Cream Factory
Additional recommended restaurant: The B-Line

Downhill from Here - Park City, UT

When someone tells you they are going to Utah or a similar mountainous state, the default is to ask whether they ski. In turn, on the receiving end of this question, if you have exclusively skied on the East coast at a moderate dabbler level, I recommend your answer to be a regretful but sound no. I speak from personal experience.

The only thing I have to say is that the mountains of the Basin and Range region – they ain’t playin. A casual terminology drop from the 4^th grade US geography curriculum – and briefly we reflect on all the elementary school information that we never really needed to know.

The slopes on the West side of our country are steeper, longer, and way more beautiful, to the point that photos can’t begin to capture. But let's not gloss over the emphasis on steeper. The weekend I was there also happened to be a fairly warm and slightly slushy winter lull which translates to added challenge for the amateur skier. Or maybe that's just my excuse – you can decide.

As someone who gravitates away from rollercoasters and similar thrill-seeking activities, I can safely say that I overcame adversity those couple days on the mountains. In spite of this or maybe because of it, I regard the entire experience to be super fun and I did manage to sharpen some skiing skills when I wasn't inching down sideways trying not to fall. Final words for those with a similar threshold to mine, if you ever visit the same resort, I recommend starting on the Base Area side of Park City and save Canyons Village for day two.

Marked Tentative

Do layovers count towards the places I’ve visited? I physically saw with my own eyes the plots of land in Minneapolis albeit from a few thousand feet up in the plane. However I could tell from that height, it was a good place for moose to wander and people to hum Home on the Range. I’m about 15% sure that this counts as having visited.

I've laid over in Seattle as well. On that occasion, I did leave the airport and stay overnight, but the hotel was within a ten minute radius and well outside of downtown. Still, I did experience that it wasn't raining and that the metropolitan gave off a good vibe. I’m hovering around 35% that this one counts towards the universal log of places I’ve been. I'm going to table this and mark the states of Minnesota and Washington down with an *asterisk for now.

An Immersive Transport Experience - San Francisco, CA (Part 2)

In tandem with the unique character of the neighborhoods, San Francisco also carries the undertones of a technological hub. Along with the rest of the tech echelon, Uber and Lyft headquarters are both located in San Francisco, which is something I wish I knew before my unsuccessful attempt to coordinate recovery of a peacoat left in an Uber. (Frankly, it's almost a given that I forget about the coat all weekend because I didn't need it in the warmth of San Francisco February.)

At any rate, while rider apps and the SF public transportation system are generally convenient, my friend and I wanted to rent a car for Saturday to cross the Golden Gate and Bay bridges (the view was totally worth it). And thus so, we chanced upon a bright red Mustang rental car, costing me a minimal upgrade fee because the rental service had no other available cars left on the lot.

Perfectly honestly and probably predictably, this "fortuitous" change of events tripped my instinctive risk averseness and instantly induced a wariness towards assuming responsibility for this next-level, very-valuable species of car. Not your stock rental Ford Focus.

The investigative questions to the counter agent and the ensuing cost-benefit analysis went like this: No, it doesn’t use substantially more gas. No, it’s not manual. Yes, sports cars are not as fully covered under insurance as regular cars. Yes, I’ve read studies on flashy cars being pulled over more often. However, this would make a great story to my coworkers next week and I'll take every opportunity to reinforce my identity as a cautiously adventurous person.

Thus I came to rent a sportscar in sunny California and was pleasantly surprised to find that driving it doesn't take much of an adjustment curve. The acceleration is impressively effortless. Turn radius is a little poor, exacerbating my fear of scratching it against parking garage polse, coupled with the fact that its gigantically wide in general. On the other hand, not only are there seat warmers but also seat coolers. After some curious inspection, we also realized that the Mustang logo light projection on the ground aside the car was coming from under the side mirrors which lit up every time we entered and exited this machine of modern invention.

I do think that I’m more wary now of driving nicer cars, after taking a good spin and realizing correspondingly that you pay for Amazing in dollars and also in elevated stress levels. I felt that throughout the rental period, I half loved the drive and half held my breath with paranoia over the possibility of damage or trouble. This is a particularly counterintuitive state of mind for me given my inherent flippancy towards caring for belongs, which after all, exist to serve me and not the other way around.

Even so, it was pretty cool and I find that San Francisco is an undeniable force of a metropolis: encompassing the intersections of aggressive variety, creative flourish, technological genius, active outdoors haven, and West Coast city feel. I've already started a going checklist of unexplored activities for the next time I return, which come to think of it, I’ve also compiled for every other location I've visited lately.