The 才sai Line

Here are some T-shirt designs Jack has been working on. They will be part of his own T-shirt line 才sai which will be launched shortly. 才sai is a play of a Chinese character of Jack's name with the roman alphabets, and all designs are intended to reflect small pieces of his own playfully diabolical character. In the artist's own words, All these images plays around with first impressions and how there is always more than meets the eye.

Jack has provided a few words of his own to describe his thoughts and emotions that gave birth to the graphics:

GHOST WITH A BLADE

You have been cut! Blood drips from the wound, but how? Instead of a guardian angel, seems you may have a ghost friend that secretly cuts you, and takes pleasure from it. It is a twisted and crazy world, a city made from blood, a city the grows downwards, not up… nothing is definite and constant, everything is ever changing. Maybe i'm just feeling vulnerable at the moment, and exposed. 

BLOODY CASTLE

What at first seem like outline of a castle against a red sunset background, could also be blood dripping, however the innocent clouds and rainbow that floats away from the window, appear to suggest of innocence, a place of joy and happiness…Maybe, from the view of a some, a dracula, for example, such a place and setting is heavenly.
Everything has different viewpoints and perspectives, not everyone share the same feeling, nothing is as simple as black and white.

 COFFEE MURDER

At first glance it’s a simple cup of coffee, still hot and steaming, however on closer inspection, you notice the leg that hangs out from the cut, and the leaking which you first thought is coffee, now looks like blood pouring out of the cup… you also notice what at first seem like steam now have more details that may be spirits raising off the coffee. 

For the innocent, they could see only the coffee,
For the guilty, they see the body and the bloody...

Maybe, for the rare few, they will see a person bathing in coffee and indulging in the bath, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Jack would welcome any feedbacks, comments for further development and improvements; as well as expressions of interests to his works.

*Posted on behalf of tsai.

Drawing No.5 - Away

Drawing no.5 – Away

Roughly B4 size; Completed on 17 March 2010
Lead pencil, pastel on heavy weight paper

The past week, Jack and I have been exchanging works via email as a way of engaging peer review mainly for discussion of ideas and mutual motivation plus support. For my part, I am finding this to be an enjoyable process, and it has been interesting to share artworks with another person, and to inspire and be inspired.

What is most important to note regarding this process is that it is not the sharing of one solitary idea whereby the two of us would develop our art concurrently based on that governing idea. Instead, our approach is to begin by sharing our individual artworks to one another and from interpretation and inspiration gained from the other's piece(s) we would channel into new works of our own. This I believe is a much more conducive method of exploration of creativity and ideas without losing our own unique identity.

This drawing is inspired by another one of Jacks. His was a graphic of a castle shrouded by what seems to be a bleeding sky. Marshmallow clouds drifts across the castle top decorated by arches imitating rainbows in monotones. Bats loom in the dark keep, and one flies away from the bloody sky.

...I believe everyone sees a work of art and receives different meanings from it from one another. And I also believe one piece of art gives a different meaning and significance to each individual according to circumstances surrounding the individual during which time the work of art was experienced.--excerp from Drawing No.5 Away + some thoughts.

I saw it as something like being caged and being trapped, hence the depiction of a person with rooted to the ground on the bottom half. The root of the somber air is not depicted obviously in the drawing, however the gesture of flight, of wanting to be break free and Away suggests a longing for some kind of release and salvation.

Any feedbacks and thoughts on the drawing is very much appreciated.

- - -

To read more on thoughts surrounding this drawing, please visit www.teleporthero.com.

No.2 - Deity

No. 2 Deity
450 x 610mm; Completed on 12 November 2009
Acrylic on canvas

No. 2 Deity was conceived as a part of a concept art challenge. It was based on the song Deity (watch/listen on YouTube), by the Japanese band Dir en grey. I chose it as the song because it's just words, with no prescribed narrative but simply concepts of religion, belief, hate, disbelief, the religious, the damned, sung in Russian to a melody layered over a disemboweled Brahms composition accompanied by heavy and sinister music, to damn, or for the damned I can't be certain. 

Deity lyrics:

Головокружение
(goh-loh-voh-kroo-dzyeh-nee-eh) dizziness/vertigo
Ева Адам
(yeh-vah ah-dam) Adam/Eve
Мучение
(moo-chyeh-nee-eh) The torture
Жертва
(dzyehrt-vah) Victim
Апостол
(a-poh-stohl) The Apostle
Бог Боль
(bohg bohl) God is the pain
Родиться
(roh-dee-tsyah) To be born
Пробовать
(proh-boh-vyah-ts) To try
Кровь
(kroh-v) The blood
Ноль
(nohll) Null

For whom do we live? For whom do we breathe? For what is ones’ truth, cause, substance? Double standards, defeat, comfort, complacency, compromise, eyes wide shut. Only the mortal who gives birth to meaning in life is the now Deity...I seek to create paradise for this lifetime because I render an eternity of paradise and perfection within paradise and perfection meaningless.

...No. 2 really was the culmination of my thought processes as a reminder to honour my dreams, goals and ambition. The blood from the upheld conjoined palm is of course, symbolic of the feeding of a fetus off its mother’s uterus. And this blood pools on the ground before every drop raises to symbolically build a nation out of its’ own flesh and blood.--excerp from No.2 + A Preview

- - -

For a related post on No.2 Deity please visit www.teleporthero.com.

* Posted on behalf of Teleport Hero