SURFACE AND SCREEN

Medium : Photoshop layering and drawing, Graphics Interchange Format
Scale : 7200x7200 pixels each
In class we were exploring remix culture, and remixing the old artwork we created. The left photo is the artwork I have created before attending MICA that I decided to create a remix for.
When I first made the piece I decided to use to make a “remix” of, I wrote for the concept description: “I am always interested in expressing inner personality, the genuine essence of an individual, and the almost disintegrating quality of the person, dripping with paint would be fit for this concept I was aiming for”. When I first encountered the marbleizing technique with hot water and oil paint, which is the technique I used for the original piece, I remember thinking ‘god, what could this technique be possibly good for?’, all confused, but I later thought that this would be perfect for capturing the chaos of inner personality. For the piece I created this time, I took the same concept but I was curious of what I, almost a year after I made the original piece, could make with the same concept but working with newly acquired set of skills.
I have created various versions of the new work, but the newly created piece is essentially a portrait layered over a marbleized color scheme. The eye area of the portrait is intentionally erased and the marbleized background peeks out in that area and other lined details in the hair and the “dripping” area. I also thought that it would be interesting if I made a moving piece which contains the process of the “erased” portions in the final piece, so I saved copies of the process psd files and created a gif showing them altogether.

Medium : Graphics Interchange Format created on Photoshop
Scale : 360x360 pixels each
Initially for the project concerning optical unconscious I wanted to make something that focused on the idea of bringing together the marginalized reactions, mainly from social media, on Trump’s election and presidency. I feel passionate about recording narratives, and for every new challenge or new trial there will be mistakes, and creating art related to politics was definitely a new challenge for me. I care about this topic so much that I couldn’t leave my mistakes go uncorrected, so I revisited this topic once more.
For final, I planned to create series of the visualized Graphic Interchange Format versions of the responses I found on social media. I planned on having far end of both the liberal and conservative narratives on the 2016 election and juxtaposing them.
It may just seem like another way of recording people's opinions but I think this is so much more than that. I believe that this is important because like once I needed desperately to hear that others are going through similar problems, it is so empowering to hear that others feel the same way and that you are not alone or isolated.

Medium : Vector Illustration template inserted in photograph, fabric collage demo
Scale : Varied, 4x7 for fabric collage
I was inspired by the traditional Korean colors and patterns. The particular colors I was interested in were the five colors that were used commonly throughout Korean history and believed to bring luck to the wearers and protect them from bad luck. These five colors were yellow, white, black, blue, and red, and each colors represent an element making up the universe(it is believed that soil, metal, water, wood, and fire, respectively, were the elements making up the universe), certain directions, multiple virtues, and seasons. For the variation colors, I was inspired by the current beauty trend in Korea called “personal colors”, which divides the color family into four major tones: spring warm tone, summer cool tone, autumn warm tone, and winter cool tones. These tones differ from each other by their difference in brightness or saturation, and using this differences I created 5 shades of the original 5 colors: original 5 colors then 4 other variations of that 5 colors that will fall under each personal color categories.
I realized that today there is a trend shifting aim from the western aesthetic ideal back to asian traditional standards. My aim for this project was to create series of products and patterns, creating a brand, which would lead for the past, anachronistic patterns and elements to make a comeback and dissolve into modern lifestyle. I wanted to break the misconception that anything traditional or somewhat “old” were always stuck in that time period and could not blend in with other modern things.
For vector illustrations for the advertisements and patterns, I took the basic pattern shapes from window frames or door frames or other fabric patterns from traditional Korean housing and put in the five colors in with variations. The last image is the complete image of all the designs I have created for this project. For the fabric piece which is like a “demo product”, I stitched together a small diamond shape consisting all five colors, and made multiple of those, then stitched them together into a big piece, then put cotton and backing fabric on the back.