This is dedicated to anyone who still firmly cherishes the little kid in he or she, hibernating it might be but still alive and breathing at least, like baby breath or candle light, frail and forgotten. I was at a Picture Book seminar yesterday; one of the speakers Sally Rippin( an Australian Children’s Book writer/illustrator) did a wonderful job. It was inspirational listening to her and there is something in her speech that really strikes a chord. As a kid, we were great at expressing ourselves, we used to sing loudly, out of tune maybe but that did not stop us from enjoying singing; we used to dance wildly, for no particular reason most of the time, we just moved our body to the rhythm of happiness; we used to draw and scribble practically on any surfaces we could reach, be it the floor, the wall or the kitchen cabinet, we drew the sun, the star, the tree, the 5-petal flower and of course matchstick boy and girl, the whole world was then our drawing paper. We used to have endless burst of creativity, we were natural born artists in a way and no one could deny that. But strange enough, as we grew older, most of us just simply gave up the passport to creative freedom and stopped enjoying the fun. Why is this so? Have you ever asked yourself this question: why have I stopped drawing or singing or dancing or making handicrafts such as a birthday card like I used to? Does one have to be gifted in order to engage in such creative doing? I definitely do not think so. It’s not a question of whether you can but more whether you want to. We can all draw, that is something I strongly believe in.
The only warmth you feel
Comes from the
Handshake
With yourself
留一点温度
给自己
在极端的静寂中
你与身影
不离不弃
I think I'm suffering from Demophobia, or to use an even more bombastic term if that's not scary enough-- Enochiophobia. Well, it definitely means I'm having a certain type of phobia, but what could that be exactly? To put it more simply, I'm having a fear of crowd. I'll feel uneasy and insecure and even suffocating whenever I need to squeeze my way through a huge crowd and a place flooded with strangers just give me terrible headache. I hate crowded place, the ear-piercing noise, the mind-numbing shadows, the unbearable heat of human bodies shuffling and rubbing against one another, I would definitely blank out if don’t find my way out in time. That’s why I dislike new school term, when the whole campus is over-run by energetic students, and the quiet air-con foodcourt which used to be my favourite hangout is brutally turned into a wet market, flooded with saliva and sweat. But what can I do? This is only the very first day of the semester, there’re still 4 more months to go before the next long break.
But it’s not surprising that I’m having crowd phobia. Come to think of it, it’s no wonder that most of my illustrations seldom feature more than a lonesome soul. I think that’s the real me, I’ve subconsciously expressed my yielding in my drawings, or even my words. Seriously, I would rather embrace my own shadow than to be drowned in a sea of strangers.
I’m very Chinese at heart; I mean I would think, speak and write spontaneously in Chinese without doubt if given a chance. And I’m glad with that, in fact I’m glad that I have found at least one language for self-expression. Not all people have that. Many, though bilingual, but when comes to writing, found themselves lost with words. I might not be as expressive in English, but at least I try. Being Chinese at heart, I’m deeply influenced by Buddhist culture, thus I’m a believer in fate. Fate composes beautiful stories in life, especially at the most unexpected juncture; it springs wonderful surprises that warm one’s heart. I received an email this morning from a long-lost AEP classmate all the way from
This entry is for all whose life has crossed path with mine in one way or another; I might not have exactly known or met you before, but I’m sure we are predestined to be acquaintance. Thanks for sharing my passion and pursue in illustration all these while. And thanks to fate which has brought us all together on this little dreamland of mine farfaraway.
PS：the attached drawing is a trail digital collage I did earlier. Though not meant specifically for this blog entry, but it does subconciously depict my quest for a dreamland, maybe far far away.
The full moon
pressing down onto
a wilderness of
entangled thoughts
一轮明月
载不动万缕思绪
倾泻而成
剪不断遍野凄清
Loneliness… What could that be? I'm now into creating digital collage mixing old photos and hand-rendered illustrations. It's a rather tedious and at times confusing process as compared to solely hand-drawing, involving digitally cutting out the required forms and shapes and creating layers upon layers meticulously till one loses track almost completely. It involves quite a bit of precision and lots of patience. But the exploration is definitely fun and worthwhile; one can start off with just a sketchy idea and end up with a final composition totally different. In other words, I'll never get to know exactly how my picture would look like, I'm in control and yet not so. Luck plays a crucial role in a way, depending largely on the raw materials (photos or other printed stuffs) you can find, and how these can mix-and -match together .To put it in a very Chinese way of saying: leave the decision to fate. I just play along, making adjustment here and there, and let the picture blooms on its own. And that’s the most intriguing part of digital collage illustration.
Posts
All Comments
