rats

one of my assignments in ceramics this semester was to make multiples of something without a mold. i had a thing for rats this semester, apparently. i added them into a few paintings as well, haha. sorry for the phone photos!

china

for a few weeks in this past may/june, i was EXTREMELY fortunate & travelled to china with several other students from school. for someone like me who had never even been on a plane before, it was quite an experience. it left me hungry for more traveling opportunities, & i am extremely anxious to go back to china.

we visited a few art universities in china & i was so impressed. the caliber of their work & even just their work ethic was both inspiring & embarrassing because it made me realize how much harder i should be working. i think that's where i need to be. my mom has this idea engrained in her head that i should go to graduate school in china, & i have to admit daydreaming about it as well. being there put everything in perspective for me.

ideally, i'd like to be able to go to a university in korea since i've been learning korean for nearly two years & it's my minor, buuuut i'm taking chinese next semester just in case. not that any of this is even realistic, hahah. i realize that. i'd really like it to be a reality, though. i've secretly been saving up my money & (slowly) building up my portfolio. the work that i've been doing REALLY needs to be kicked up about 1000 notches if i have any hope of being accepted.

first day in beijing! i learned i didn't travel well. i was extremely sick & stranded on that tiny boat..

i look a little jetlagged... haha. second day in beijing. i loooooved CAFA. my dream school!

798 gallery district in beijing. i'd KILL to go back there.

i can say i've actually been on the great wall of china. how cool?

hanging monasteries! not-so-fun fact: i got food poisoning shortly after leaving this place. great.

i'm grateful for having been able to visit the chinese countryside. not many foreigners leave cities like beijing.

the beautiful historical city of pingyao

local student sculpting

my absolute favorite photo taken in china

my professor slipped the guy 10 yuan so everyone could take photos of me on the donkey. thanks, professor cong!

technique

a classmate introduced me to horse hair raku & i simply MUST try it. the results are beautiful! i've read you can use things other than hair, like feathers & a few other things.

source

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dreams of joy

“Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times. Doing something once is better than seeing it a hundred times.”

-Lisa See, Dreams of Joy

nature is the best artist

i took this photo after one of my massive pet koi died. so beautiful.

i was looking through some old pictures & i came upon this.. i remember crying tears of frustration while spending many hours trying to make it, haha. i still have it! it sits on top of the fish tank i keep my frogs in.

dollar bill koi

details

regretfully, i tend not to photograph my work.. especially when it comes to my paintings. i feel like i have quite a bit of trouble capturing and transferring the feeling/overall aesthetic value of my paintings in photos. anyway, here's a washed out/camera phone quality detail of a painting i did recently. i work in acrylics, as my patience (or lack thereof) doesn't mix well with oil.

hand detail - acrylic

false bones

i completed this project a semester ago, sometime in april or may. all of the "bones" you see are ceramic, & my sculptural work is almost always this.. organic. there is a unique beauty in death, & i don't think there is anything quite as fascinating as what's left behind when something dies. i promise i'm not trying to be "deep" when i say this, haha. anything along the lines of forensics has been a love of mine since i was very young & it translates in my work. i am not interested in a deeper meaning, or an "i am an ~artist" statement when i make these things. i make them simply as i see them because that's where the beauty lies. lucky for you (perhaps) that my professor required work to be photographed that semester... as i don't even know where this piece ended up, haha.

deer - (acrylic) painted ceramic

sound

hello again

after several failed attempts at blogging, let's hope this one sticks. my name is kali, and i'm not going to waste a perfectly good post introducing myself. you will hopefully learn more about me gradually through future posts rather than half-assed and all at once now, hahah