Know Thyself

I bought a new ipod touch last week and I just wanted to write a review of this device for others who are considering to buy this!

For me, it is a perfect device for me; I could listen to music, watch movies, internet surf, read books  etc.

You could say it is a very fascinating toy. that can technically to anything.

I had no time to waste after I bought this thing, studying day and night what this can actually do so much.

The display of music and other icons are really well designed!

Now for the cons….

Mine is 8G so I sometimes got frusstrated when I was over the limit T^T

I also thought that it would have been nicer if the touch sense was more accurate; I was irritated when I pressed the wrong buttons and had to go back to do it all over again!

Overall, I recommend people to buy it definitely!

8G is enough (I used to have 40G and I never filled a quarter of the limit

I went to Tokyo, Japan for a Senior trip!

For one day, we hung around Sibuya and went to Bukamura Art Center to see some of contemporary japane art; however, we ended up observing 20th century pieces like Picasso, Paul Klee, Miro, etc. I actually had a good time studying modern art in the past, because it was my very first time looking at Picasso’s works. I could clearly see the changes and the development of Cubism going on in his work d(from 1850~1930). I loved the edgy outlines and the use of mat colors.

I also was mesmerized by Tanguy’s works. I never knew about the artist till then.

His use of smooth texture and curved lines was amazing contrast to other works of cubism. It was quite a surprise that there was someone in the period who avoided cubism movement! His artworks reminded me of Asian art somehow (a little).

The color was tremendous, nothing compared to this copy from online!

Overall, I loved the exhibition. I got to know more about the art movement of Cubism and Surrealism.

“Untitled”

Jennifer Jin

Media: Glue, black glue, watercolor

This is Frank!

Our AP Art class works on observational drawing every week and this time our class got the skeleton, which we now call it “Frank.”

At first, I drew what I saw and ended up with distorted Frank

It was much easier when I marked the proportions first.

During the class, we learned that our shoulder length is the length of three heads put together and a foot is as long as the length of out ar from elbow to the wrist.

The skeleton I drew from a photography and from observational drawing look totally different;

the observational drawing looks much more realistic and alive-looking! I kind of understand now why colleges ask us to draw observational drawings!!

Can’t wait to upload my completed Frank on Canva-paper

(We just got materials from the states and Canva-paper is my favorite )

I went to Korea International Art Fair that ended in August and it was my first time ever to see contemporary artists’ works. I was so excited to see weird and crazy stuff!! At the entrance, there were displays of Korean artists’ artworks and I could see they used both European and Oriental materials, which is very familiar to what I am doing right now There were two artists I was most interested at: Balsamo Vincenzo and Riva Denis. They were both Italian artists. What I liked about Balsamo Vincenzo was that he sort of had similar style to Picasso and Kilmpt. What he did was he had cubic shapes of people and he colored them by having layers of different colors in different shapes; he had repetitions of tiny squares and then he painted dots on top of it. His pieces were subtle but eye-catching. On the other hand, Riva Denis’s artworks are not as intricate as Balsamo Vincenzo, but he has his unique style of creating transcental work. Because it was sort of abstract, I could not figure out what his intention was but his use of color was strong and I especially liked his used of white line on top of red. Even though red is the color that is more attractive than white, white was more attractive this time, which I think it is a really good technique.

Balsamo Vincenzo’s “Scuola romana”

There were tons of materials I never heard of and thought of!!! They used bubble wrappers (?), lacquer, acrylic palette, white-out, mirrors, sewing stitches, etc. After seeing some of the pieces that were made by these wacky materials, I was so motivated to do art like at the spot! One of the Japanese artists, Shinji Ohmaki, used white-out on top of acrylic palette and even though both of them were white, the texture of white-out distinguished what drawing he did onthe palette. He had series of them put together like tiles and his beautiful drawings of flowers really made me feel like I am looking at snow. In addition, his piece was gigantic, which impressed me even more. I really want to do an artwork that is a meter high!!!!!!

Shinji Ohmaki “Crystal“

Another factor that impressed me was that Korean artists were not getting behind other international artists! Whenever I thought of Korean artist before, I thought of ordinary technical paintings or drawings because art students in Korea learn skills and techniques and only use those techniqeus that they’ve learned. However, in the art fair, I saw some really fascinating pieces such as stitches sewed onto canvas-like materials to make shapes of clothes and used collages from megazines and he painted lightly on top of the megazines.

I imagined myself of displaying my artwork International Art Fair someday in the future. I felt like I have to get going really fast diligently in order to come up with awesome ideas! After all, creation comes from experiments and it takes long time to invent something. My sketch book is getting busy now~ haha

I am a senior and I am on the verge of blasting my head off.

urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I will talk no more.

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I recently watched a documentary on a Great Woman in Korean History. Na, Hye-suk was the first woman ever in Korea who painted in western style. She was born in the period where there still was male superiority. She was raised in a wealthy family and so she didn’t have any difficulties financially. Her father forced her to marry quickly but she refused and earned money on her own by tutoring young kids so that she could go to school. Later, she married a guy when she was 24 but she never stopped writing and painting. She worked and worked….. then she was trumbled by her pregnancy.

She kept a journal and wrote in detail what she felt. In her journal, she wrote against the men how women are looked only as man’s property that produces babies. She abhored the fact women could not stand on the same level as that of men. When her first child was born, she couldn’t concentrate on her artwork because she couldn’t sleep at night after night, looking after the crying baby. She described her baby as a “devil” in her journal, which is a great surprise to hear from a mother. After having several children, she learned to love her children. She also learned how to be a mother and a painter simultaneously. She was respected as an artist and so her husband was respected by others thanks to his wife.

They traveled to Paris and stayed there for several months. For the first time, she was not repressed by Confucian idea and so she was able to concentrate on her work more rigorously. However, she had an affair with another guy and she got divorced. Left alone without anyone beside her, she continued working as an artist and received many prizes. However, after she painted a naked woman, she was no longer revered by the society. She was even neglected by women though she protested for women’s rights. She moved to Paris and studied further more; however, she became ill after her house, full of her artwork, was burned by fire. She painted and painted till her death.

Her works are not impressive but her boldness and revolutionary mind really impresses me deeply. She tried new things but Korea was so conservative at that time that she was neglected and was mocked by others as a crazy woman. Thank God I was born in 21st century!! I can draw anything without any restrictions. Out of all, drawing humans are realled complicated but really exciting at the same time. There are so many ways we can create pathos just by drawing any facial expressions or poses of naked humans. Nudity can be just nudity, but it can represent something that is beyond; for instance, it can be showing unarmedness if a naked body is drawn in a war field. That person is totally unarmed and this message can be clearly conveyed to the viewers because this is in exaggerative manner.

Recently, there happened to be several Korean celebrities who committed suicide. This is becoming the hot topic of the year because a few celebrities have already committed suicide last year and since then, it is now seen common. The reason they killed themselves were very simple; they were having depression from reading on-line negative comments about them how they had so many plastic surgeries and how they used lobbies to be promoted better than others. The recent death of a celeb occurred right after another; the rumor says that the female celeb used gangs to get money back from the other celeb who borrowed big amount of money (who died before her). I partially give trust to the rumor because the female celeb had two children she had to take care of. She also had more traumatic incidents before like beaten off by her husband before getting divorced. It seems to me that she died so that she can maintain the rumor just a “rumor”.

Anyway, my whole point is is it always good to have rights to speak freely what we want? This all happened because we write whatever we want to say. If we indicate our names on line when we leave our comments people would be more careful what they write on-line. In this way, we can reduce comments that hurts other people. However, I doubt that this is going to be the ultimate solution. Do you think there is a solution to this problem? If so, what would you do if you were working in the House?

Picture: http://spn.chosun.com/site/data/img_dir/2008/10/07/2008100700532_0.jpg

I can’t believe I am a senior already… When we all started passing our yearbooks around, I began to realize we’ll be seniors really soon… I’ve been waiting for this moment to come when I was like freshman and time flies so quickly! Now that the senior year is right in my face, I am scared in a way that my college application might go wrong… Think about it. In five months I am going to send college aps to colleges and I would have to wait for the results till my finger nails are all bitten off. haha I guess I can’t polish my finger nails for the prom. Another thing is that I need to take responsibility now!!! I am not a child anymore and I really have to think about my future… I can no longer wine as much as I did this year and I can’t act like a child in front of the under-classmen.

BUT we do have seniority now!!! We have previleges at school!!! For some reason, teachers treat us nicer when we are older; maybe it is because they can trust us now Though I am going to be pressured by all college ap stuff for the 1st semester, 2nd semester is going to be GREAT!! I know that I cannot procrastinate in completing homework but at least we seniors have time to hang out every weekend!!!! I can’t even remember when I hung out the last time with my friends!!! During junior year, I basically had no life! I’ll never come back to junior year, thank God.

I really REALLY feel bad for those who are going to be juniors next year… I think it depends how many APs you take and how much time you put in preparing for SAT. The junior year… I think people are making the year harder for themselves (from my experience). When I look back at my junior year, it wasn’t too deadly. I mean, there were some moments when I wanted to just give up but I was able to survive. The reason I was struggling was because I couldn’t relieve my stress and thought of everything too hard. What I am trying to say is that the junior year is going to be OK if people think positively and enjoy! The rising juniors who are reading this would probably say, “easy for you to say!” I don’t know but people realize the value of the time when it is in the past.

S E N I O R

These five letters make me both happy and sad.

I am happy that I am almost DONE with worrying about my GPA and extra activities I do

and I am sad that I have to say good bye to those I’ve known for more than 2 years.

I was really sad saying good bye to the seniors after the graduation and I bet I am going to cry a liter of tears when I graduate… 

I think it is a bit too early to think about graduation of 09′. 

So let me enjoy this moment for NOW  

This is a foreigner who is residing in Korea, supporting the candle light movement.

American supporting Candle Light Movement