I am no art expert... wiki's all to blame

Just wanted to clarify, I did not make up the word "lowbrow". This is what Wiki defines Lowbrow as describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. Artist like Mark Ryden (the scary girl print YY has at home), James Jean, Gary baseman, Glenn barr and many others would lie in this category.

As for fantastic contemporary art, it is also a category made famous by artist like Frank Frazetta and many other illustrators that focuses on fantasy and sci-fi art. This category features more of the art produced for the industry, thus more illustrator than fine artist related.

i think it would be very hard to compare lowbrow artists work, for example, Amy sol vs Audrey. Completely different style. But both are still japanese manga related. Obviously Tina prefers the erotic elements of Audrey's work more. And i enjoy the cuteness of the work Amy sol creates within her surreal pieces.

But when it comes to buying work, i would prefer James Jean's work and not Audrey or Amy. I so wish that i could fly to New York just for his exhibition next year.... sigh.....

Todd Lockwood

Todd Lockwood is the master in digital work for fantastic/sci-fi art. I've got two of his prints and my fav is the one he did for some tattoo people, War of Angels. Though done digitally, the details are amazing. Would have been really painful if this was a real tattoo. I just found one of his newer landscape-ee work and thought it is fantastic, Quofum (below). I love the color, the lighting how the forest is dense, but still colorful and appealing.

I think ultimately, i still love fantastic contemporary-themed art than low-brow art.

Amy Sol

Someone different in style from Audrey. Though very cartoon-y and looks digital, her work is done with watercolor and mix of other medium. She also works on wood grained/bamboo. I love how her work is so dreamy. And her little pandas are my fav.

So... who is hotter?

Audrey Kawasaki (Jap) or Amy sol (Korean)

Audrey Kawasaki is so HOT!

Audrey just released a new print on her website today. I have been planning for this day for the past weekend, setting up timers, leaving memos on my phone. I was going to get this print for my sister. Although it is not something i usually spend my money on, but i think Audrey's work is very interesting. Erotic. Manga. Anyway, i went online at work 25 mins before 1 pm (6pm 16th November LA). Granted my work internet was a little slow, but 20 seconds later, i clicked purchase... this is what i got.... " Sorry sold out" !!!!! in less than 20 sec this girl sold 115 prints. talk about HOT!

13Orphans all ready

It has been a while since i received this painting and with all the problems with it, i finally got it framed. This time i brought it to a gallery to be framed, Charles Hewitt at Darlinghurst. Apparently, some moist paper and iron will be sufficient to fix the bend on the painting. Anyway, here it is.. Thirteen Orphans, a book by Jane lindskold, and cover art by the very talented Sam Weber.

I Hate Students

Yes.. as the title suggests. The student i had has left/finished his time with me. One important thing to remember before accepting a student, no matter how long he/she will be there, if they say " i will work very hard, please accept me". DONT believe them. The one i had, worked ok. Just didnt like listening to me. Thinks he's so smart. But at the end, he ruined most of the experiments and had to use my own samples. He contaminated culture, mixed up samples during PCR setup, RNA of all samples were degraded... Finally, had to use my samples, finished the last bit with pretty picture and left.

My boss and I thought that i should be reading the report he will be submitting and teach him how to write in the "medical science" way, and i did. But after 4 drafts, he did not seem to be making effort to make the changes that i have suggested, so i had to write 95% of the text and give him ideas for discussion (which he refuses to adopt). I think he had enough of me and wrote "I am flat out for the next two weeks with other assignments, so i think i can take it from here. I will definitely acknowledge OCR for all the work".... Blah blah....

Fantastic student of mine

More Sam Weber

The painting Sam promised me as a compensation is finally here. This was the painting that i wanted to buy initially because i liked the constantine look of "daniel" in the painting and plus it was cheaper than the one i bought eventually. I guess in a way it all worked out. Though i am still disappointed that my "thirteen orphans" painting was damaged, i feel that i have been compensated sufficiently by Sam. The painting looks fantastic still, but the size was a little disappointing compared to 13 orphans. But all in all a great ending for me. Yeah! now i just have to frame it.

My Own Student

Hehe... i have been organising to take this work placement student from Sydney for the last week and YES! he will be coming and working under me for about 3 months. Yes yes... i know you guys said not to waste my time on a lousy student who will not be here enough to generate any data. But it will be good for me if i eventually get more students... hey, maybe i will become a lecturer or something. I will be going to a "supervising students" course, so i will be a good teacher.... haha....
will update on what happens.

Birthday present for ME!

It has been about one year since i bought myself a nice painting. I stumbled upon this relatively new artist who is very influenced by asian/japanese styly painting. I found one of the paintings he had up for auction for "Microvisions" and it was amazing (at least to me). I was planning to bid on it, but for that little painting, the final price was $1100+. way too high for a small 5 x 7 inch painting. But it was definitely very nice and i can see that he might be the next james jean. So i had a look at his stuff, oh by the way he is Sam Weber, and found that he also got a gold book award in Spectrum and has received many awards through his career, so far. I decided to contact him about his artwork for sale and found that his award winning piece "Thirteen Orphans" is still for sale and decided to get it from him (after very very serious considerations). He has been very nice, arranged everything by Fedex, prompt with responding.

BUT! the disappointment came when the painting arrived. Somehow, the painting was dented/creased on the centre right of the painting. Sob sob........ then i found that the insurance was seriously under the actual value, which makes claiming anything from Fedex troublesome. I contacted him about this and the GOOD thing is, he took all the blame and is willing to compensate for it. Yeah! Now he is sending me another piece (i chose another art over partial refunds or prints), called "Daniel in the lions den". Yeah! two pieces of art from a great artist. Now i just have to get it all framed. Anyway, here it is.

Cirque du Soleil: Drallion

Another year has passed and Cirque du Soleil is here again. Though i didnt plan on going this year, seeing that i have been to their show so many times, i thought i have had enough. But since tracy asked, i thought, why not? Better not break the tradition.

This time it is Dralion. So we all went expecting the whole performance to be more asian than ever. We got the usual, bendy girls, jumping chinese little men, girl twirling around in long silky towel. One funny thing is all three of us was so bored with one of the performance, we all dozed off a little. Just a little. But there is one memorable one, they had a few of the acrobats on a trampoline. That was good. Anyway, i really dont think i wanna go anymore. Too much circus!!

No one is reading.... but i dont care

It has been more than six months since the last update and many things have happened since. I left westmead from linda's group and moved back to ORC to work with carl. In between i had my first 3 weeks of nothing to do since undergrad. It feels great!

I started work since 2nd of June, leaving behind the good people at westmead. I came back and found that my original table has been buried under a pile of crap of a phD student who doesnt come to work. Pathetic!

Things have been slow, as usual. I hope i did not make the wrong choice. only time will tell

Alan's New Place

Alan just bought a new place and i will be crashing with him in his one bedder for a while. I was really afraid that all our crap isnt going to fit in the new place but it all worked out quite well after we dumped a whole lot of crap from the old place. i've got the picts for the place before we moved in and alan has the picts for after all the furniture is moved in. Now if you want to look at the after picts go to the side bar and click on alan's blog --------------------------------------->
Oh! HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.