BKK Unzine Issue 13

Theme: Your Best

Published: 1st September 2021

Escape to My World

I have painted this artwork in 2018 and it was supposed to be displayed on our forthcoming art exhibition in December 2018. The artwork shows me as an artist in my art room, painting my favorite artist “Frida Kahlo”. The paintings that can be seen in the background are real paintings of mine. I suppose it’s one of my best paintings because it sold a few days after I have posted it on social media. The artwork never made it to the planned exhibition because it was sold before the exhibition. It was hard for me to let it go because the painting is very personal to me but as the buyer insisted to buy it and she was in a rush to take it with her to Germany, so I sold it to her. She said, this painting means a lot to her, which assured me that the painting is in good hands.

Untitled

Someone commissioned this piece and I had a really hard time finding inspiration initially. Somehow in between city life, lockdowns, and stress, I didn’t feel like painting and I just had this sense that I really needed to connect with nature again, and like many people, I started getting a lot of house plants which spiraled into a full-on obsession with ferns- which inspired this painting- and it made me feel close to nature again, even if it was in my small green oasis at home.

Frozen

This piece is in celebration of women’s month. It is also a practice study of ice, previously I did a similar piece with water.

Also Happy 1st year anniversary to BKKunzine!

Huh?

This is my best drawing, so far anyway. It’s the latest in a series of pen line drawings I have been challenging myself in the hopes of learning to commit to my mark making. Letting go of pencil has been difficult, however I feel like I’m getting to a point where I am starting to balance the immediacy and impact of pen drawing with a subtly and vulnerability in my chosen subjects.

The Original Artwork de Moi (February 2013)

My drawing started from fashion illustration. After sometimes by working with too much with graphic design I somehow forgot how to write and draw clothes properly so I came up with “naked hairy tiny girls” (as I don’t need to put the proper clothes on them).

I want to speak up about female body to some people that “hey, body hair is natural and it should be normal if female choose to have it”. As you can see, my short girl has her “hair” and the “chosen areas”. I had fun putting all the fine lines with many sizes of Pigma pens.

This summer, 2021, various paintings of my imaginary character “Maro Dori” (noble bird from 1,000 years ago) were exhibited in Sapporo, Hokkaido. This painting of Maro Dori in snowy owl’s form is probably my best. It shines divinely and elegantly in the dark, wishing for the harmony of natural world……

Klenian’s Bots

I think this is one of my best, maybe not the best but the best was already published in BKK Unzine previously. This art is a mix of 3d fractal art, conventional 3D and 2D Fractal art. It was a break through for me on this style of fractal art but was very hard to work on due to the computational ressources needed, for every adjustment I made I had to wait so long to see if corrected or not as my graphic card was on it’s knees. Rendering took very long time too. Integrating the bots in the 3d fractal world wasn’t easy too due to the fractal not being a solid mesh.

For the story beside this fractal here is a brief explanation of Wikipedia: “The Vision of Felix Klein is a geometry book written by David Mumford, Caroline Series and David Wright, and published by Cambridge University Press in 2002. The book explores the patterns created by iterating conformal maps of the complex plane called Möbius transformations, and their connections with symmetry and self-similarity. These patterns were glimpsed by German mathematician Felix Klein, but modern computer graphics allows them to be fully visualised and explored in detail.”

I just happened to populate the klenian’s world with some bots during my exploration;-)

Wizard’s Lab

I drew this when I was 15 years old. Today I am 32 and I still think this one is my best one. I still needed years of practice, but my imagination and creativity were certainly at their peak. I do not believe I can create such a work like this again.

I drew this based on a story that I wrote, which was called “Black, White, and Red.” It is a murder mystery in a fantasy setting. The main character, a knight and personal bodyguard to the king, is assigned to find and arrest the murderer of the sister of a powerful lord. The eccentric necromancer who lives in the town helps the knight solve the case but soon finds himself in the dungeon. Now the knight needs to find the real killer before this intimidating, but obviously, good-hearted necro is hanged.

The picture is a flashback to the story. It shows what happened before the story begins and is an attempt to foreshadow who is the killer. From left to right, the three wizards are the necromancer, the apprentice wizard of the castle, and the head wizard of the castle. And the mysterious white lady looking at them by the door is the victim.

Parasites

April 2020, the first week of Bkk lockdown. Pencil, paper.

Seems like Earth is pretty much sick of us ???

Minimal

This is a new limited print titled ‘Minimal’. It will be released on Sept 14 as a limited run of 20.

It is titled ‘Minimal’ as a reminder that sometimes less is more. This saying is often associated with German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He used it when referring to the desirability of less visual clutter in buildings and homes. You can take his saying however you wish, and apply it to your home, art, life, relationships etc.

Sometimes all you need is a single palm tree to make you happy in the concrete jungle.

Cactus Friends: The First and the Best Painting for me

I have been thinking quite a lot to select one painting for “Your Best”. I chose this “Cactus Friends” as my best one because it changed my life.

From young age, I used to doodle something on my diary or empty space of my notebook but I didn’t consider sketching seriously. While I lived in Thailand, I attended a sketching meet up organised by Triplet Art Group following my close friend’s recommendation. Cactus Friends was the first one that I did during this sketching meet up. While I was sketching this, I enjoyed the time very much and felt calmness and happiness.

Starting from this, I like sketching more and more and joined sketching meet up regularly. “Practice makes perfect” applied to my painting skills. Moreover, I made new friends and explored many interesting places for plein air sketching. Sketching has filled my life in Thailand with beautiful memories.

I left Thailand and was back to Korea last year but sketching is still one of my favorite things. Thesedays, I started to do other types of arts such as pottery and printing. Even though Cactus Friends look a little bit clumsy, it is the best one for me as it triggered art journey.

Blue Jay

This issue’s submission calls for submitting what the participants think is ‘your best’. This may not be the best piece of artwork I’ve done, but I had the best time painting this. I did this during a botanical and bird watercolour workshop and the instructor who taught us was amazing, patiently teaching us the meticulous techniques of observation and painting to achieve life-life representation of wildlife. What made that time my best experience was that the day was spent painting with my good friends and fellow amateur artists and after the long and fun day, we all had chicken and beer and finished the day on a fun note. This piece of artwork was a result of of the best painting workshop I’ve attended; those days of attending art workshops seemed so long ago but I hope we can all do that soon.

Is Yet To Come

‘Is Yet To Come’ was the immediate thought that crossed my mind when saw the theme of this months’ edition. A friend told me about it and it really urged me to contribute somehow.

I cannot consider this work as ‘The Best/My Best’ I’ve ever done. In fact, it isn’t. Not at all. I rather seems to be ‘The Unfinished’, something on the move.

I chose a carton box as my canvas, which also serves as a metaphor; together with the announcement ‘Is Yet To Come’ it reflects the current phase of my life: Things are changing, on the move – circumstances are not at its best right now, but …it is yet to come. : *

¨Heading Home¨

Acrylic on Canvas, 100 x 120cm

Thank you BKK UNZINE Team and congratulations for this 1st anniversary. I am sure this Anniversary Edition is YOUR BEST so far. Excellent job! 

Now I am specifically curious to see YOUR BEST art work, dear fellow artists. Next week, month, year, …. there will be another BEST, and so on. We know.

MY BEST doesn’t exist, but I am happy to share this painting with you which I am never tired of looking at. It’s the only one I would not give away, for sentimental reasons, obviously not for the painting skills & techniques applied. It makes me feel calm and warm. Nothing complicated or confrontational in the painting. Somebody driving home. Today´s work is done and dusk is falling soon. Probably a nice song on the radio or just the noise from the wet road and the trees left & right. Heading home, back to the people we miss and need. That´s good.

REACH

I drew this last May 2020. REACH is one of my contributions to a COVID19 Art Auction. The proceeds went to help the communities affected by the COVID19 pandemic (especially the LGBTQI communities who lost their jobs).

The good intention of helping is internal. But the act of helping is mostly done through our hands. One of the best ways to reach is to give and receive help. May this piece be a constant reminder to the new owner that he or she lent a hand when it was most needed, and he or she should feel good about it.

Kintsugi

Kintsugi also known as kintsukuroi (金繕い, “golden repair”) is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.

You probably don’t expect other people to be perfect. You may in fact appreciate when people expose their vulnerabilities, show old wounds or admit mistakes. It’s evidence that we’re all fallible, that we heal and grow, that we survive blows to the ego or to our reputations or health and can live to tell the tale. Exposing vulnerabilities, by admitting errors, creates intimacy and trust in relationships, and fosters mutual understanding.

Everything you do — good, beautiful, bad, ugly — can serve as a (life) lesson, even if it’s one you would never want to repeat again. Actually, mistakes can be the most important and effective experiences of all. And can be shared truthfully with those in need and that would deserve to learn that wisdom.

Things may fall apart. That’s life. But if you’re wise, you can use every scrap, patch yourself up, and keep going. That’s the essence of resourcefulness, resilience, persistence.

(Andrea Mantovani – Kintsugi & the Art of Repair: Life is what makes us Sept. 19, 2019)

Mandala Art

Philosophy and Comics

I believe this to be my best because I was able to get the comedic timing I wanted and I was able to combine two of the things I love the most: comics and philosophy.