One4One - a group juried exhibition at Maple Ridge Art Gallery

Wastebasket 2 Go, mixed media 2008

My recent mixed media sculpture, Wastebasket 2 Go, is now on display at Maple Ridge Gallery, located at 11944 Haney Place, Maple Ridge. It was selected for One 4 One, a group juried exhibition organized by Maple Ridge Gallery. The subtext of the title One 4 One intends to convery that there is "one piece of art for everyone." This exhibit is being held from October 25 to December 6, 2008.

http://www.theactmapleridge.org/

BY THE BOOK - Creative Interactions with Literature

Port Moody Art Center

(photos by Jason V. , from Alcuin Society's photostream)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alcuinsociety/sets/72157608575191827/

BY THE BOOK : Creative Interactions with Literature has been on display in the month of October 2008 at the Port Moody Library, City Hall and the Port Moody Art Center. This show was organized by Artist Circle of ArtsConnect, the Tri-City Arts Council, in order to celebrate Canadian Library Month, and enhance creative interactions with books. Path to Maturity, 3-D mixed media sculpture was exhibited at Port Moody Art Centre during October.

www.nathania.com/bythebook.html

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Melting Monument

While I was waiting the candles for my first candle wax artwork, Celebration of Maturity, to melt down, I created another artwork called Melting Monument which is an abstract form of monument for melting icebergs. I created an iceberg structure with chicken wire and then placed approximately 15 white candle sticks in the small gaps between the wires. As the candles in the structure melt down, they created a huge island of candle wax as if to symbolize the melting ice due to global warming. With this particular artwork, I could capture the current stage of life of an iceberg at the North Pole. The candle residue also created some interesting and intriguing patterns on chicken wire. Also, I hope the hollowness of its structure cautions the viewers that we as the members of society need to protect our nature and preserve it well so that our future generation can enjoy its beauty.
Also, I realized about the importance and preciousness of preserving nature. I learned a valuable message that once we have destroyed it, we can not bring it back.

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Celebration of Maturity

I have created two pieces of artwork that represent the life cycle of human and nature, incorporating candle wax as a medium, which also has a strong message of time passing in itself. As the candles melt they create icicles of wax, constantly shifting and totally changing in shape. Seeing an art work by Barbara Nasto, I immediately found myself emotionally moved by the three dimensional texture and the organic patterns from liquid candle wax residue. The first piece of wax sculpture, called Celebration of Maturity is my own interpretation of a big birthday cake for celebrating 18 years of life using 18 candles. Each candle symbolizes each year that I have lived on earth. I have selected two clear plastic containers and a glass jar as a base for the melting candles. Moreover, the colours of the candles, mostly warm colours, represent my burning passion for art throughout my 18th years of life so far.
When creating this, my biggest challenge was to control the amount of wax on a specific desirable place for aesthetic reasons. To solve this problem, I used a lighter to have control of the wax residue falling on my work. The use of the lighter effectively sped up the progress of the melting candles. Waiting the candles to completely melt down required my patience and I felt as if I was testing my endurance. This project offered me quite time of meditation to look back at my 18 years of life and what I have been through to finally become an adult.

Repetition - 3 D

Wastebasket 2 Go

Further to my previous artwork “Waste 2 Go” visualizing my favorite drink, Milk 2 Go, the inspiration for this artwork came from a trash can from which I collected empty bottles, cans, and cups for recycling. While I usually discard these items, I want to reinterpret their value and meaning. Creating and gathering my own bottles and cans was my artistic version of the mass production and consumption around us. The disposable objects people habitually dump can be recreated as beautiful and visually pleasing structural objects. To create contemporary visual effects, I used wire mesh. The shiny metallic reflection and flashy appearance as well as see-through effect also imply our current futuristic design trend.

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Going Back to Nature (repeating multiples 0809)

This particular artwork, called “Going back to Nature” represents a log. Since I was given a limitation of materials I could use for this project of “Repetition Multiples”. I had to push myself to find the characteristics and limits of paper. In the thinking process, I focused on the origin of the abundance of office papers that we use on a daily basis for printing and work purposes. These papers are from trees in a forest and I was trying to bring fragile and flat sheets of paper back into its natural form. To make this office paper stayed, solid and firm, I started to roll sheets of papers diagonally. This method was the far most efficient and fastest way to make paper solid and rigid.
Just a few months ago, I had a chance to meet a Canadian artist, Michelle Allard, in a Buschlen Mowatt scholarship program at Arts Umbrella. Similar to this project of “Working with Many”, Michelle had numerous rolled florescent paper piled to create an illusion of hills. This gave me the source of inspiration for this project that simple objects like rolled paper can hold a very powerful aesthetic value. Her work was mostly a labour based artwork, requiring many volunteers to roll papers.
The log that I have made with hundreds of rolled papers contains age rings to recreate the essence of a cross-section of cut logs. Also, rolling hundreds of sheets by myself was a such a overwhelming experience that it took me over 10 hours to complete the project. Although numerous hours has been put into this piece of artwork in the midst of a tight schedule, I have no regrets about spending so much time on it. For the next project, “Evolving Duration Project”, I would like to create an art piece that can be made within several hours.

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