I’m back!

So it’s been exactly 3 months, 1 week and 6 days since my last post- which breaks the longest offline period I’ve had since “Missing In Action” (a mere 3 weeks). DKM I was YOLOing! And to prove: I went camping in New York state by Cayuga Lake (or rather, the fam rented a cottage), won 3 arts awards and one writing award, had my artwork showcased in our school’s gallery on campus and at the Propeller Gallery, made ceramic sculptures at the Gardiner Museum, visited the OCADU 2012 graduate gallery, partied at another sweet sixteen, went camping again (this time in a tent in good old Ontario), cheered for my school team at the 24th Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival and Eye for Detail turned two years old! (Not in that order.) This adds up to a heck of a lot of blog posts that have yet to be started and might not be fully finished until October. And by then, I would have to deal with summer vacation photos, back-to-school posts, fashion week and Halloween. Well then.

Melancholy blogger’s thoughts aside, let’s focus on more timely things- happy Canada Day! Well, it was actually yesterday, but like whatever. I was busy, ok?

I love Canada and apparently, so do the designers from our neighbour down south. Here’s look 6 from Need Supply Co.’s “Coldfront” lookbook.

And here’s look 1 from Michael Kors Pre-Fall 2012 collection. I tried looking for this image in the menswear collections to search for it’s season- to no avail because the model below was a woman (Julia Nobis) and this was a womenswear collection.

(Note to androgyny: you don’t always work. I was never much for Michael Kors anyways…)

What do these outfits smell of?

Oh Canada.

The Great Dictator

Balmy weather in March (complete with shorts and tees)? Let’s commemorate another milestone of global warming with some spring fashions! Even though it’s not spring yet (the Vernal Equinox is tomorrow) and it feels like summer (with a high of 26° C/79° F in the next few days). This is bizarre. In fact, I heard the ice cream truck roll down the block just now. If this is winter, how will summer fare?

Anyways, back to spring fashions. I found this editorial in last year’s issue of FASHION Magazine (that’s literally the name of the Canadian glossy- I still find it funny to this day). Irina Lazareanu portrays your typical fashion editor in the editorial, titled “The Great Dictator”, and she does it well too. Irina is such a wonderfully dynamic model, and she’s one of the most versatile girls in the industry (the likes of Sasha Pivovarova). She can pull off tomboy, punk, ’70′s, flapper, class, bohemian, girl next door and even Gibson girl. Straight hair, long hair, short hair, waves- this girl is UNSTOPPABLE. I think she’s the only model that can have cheekbones, a sharp nose and a small pursed pout while still maintaining an endearing softness. It must be the doe eyes! The only negative side to Irina is that she won’t stand out in a crowd photo (as opposed to someone like Kate Upton or Isabeli Fontana who are both quite raw and sexual).

Okay, I’ll stop and let the photos speak for themselves. Just note how Irina takes an intake of breath during the shots, which breathes life into her poses (Tyra taught me this one!).

I love how the editorial is poking fun at the whimsies of the fashion publications industry. LOOK LOOK: here’s “Anna Wintour” (left) and “Grace Coddington” (right)!

Even though the clothes are a year old, I would love to wear some of the fresher pieces (i.e. the Jil Sander mint skirt in the third photo- just look at the origami folds!). Everything about this editorial is just perfect- the witty captions, the set and props, the extra models (and Jeanne Beker!), the lighting, the classic make-up (wing-tips, red lips, scarlet nails, light matte eyelids), the shoes, the tooth statement necklace, the cut and draping of the clothes, the juxtaposition of hard lacquers and soft beige; details galore but very to-the-point. I would’ve been beyond excited to be behind-the-scenes for this shoot and watch the art direction.

Instant Instagram

I can’t resist the allure of Instagram. Especially fashion-related Instagrams à la From Me To You, The Glamourai, Song of Style and most recently Chicmuse. And since I’m not getting a ($650) iPhone anytime soon, Imma keep at it with Picnik.  After all, Instagram is just a series of filters. And Picnik has it’s fair share of awesome effects.

Here are some heavily edited photos from another Sweet Sixteenth I was invited to. I usually don’t manipulate my photos to this extent (I prefer the raw, natural look) but party/evening photos look much better with effects. My friend decided to throw her sixteenth on top of the Royal Ontario Museum, a.k.a. the C5 Restaurant Lounge. Dat girl cray! 

To get the Instagram look, I played with Vignette (the faded black edges), Lomo-ish (black edges + warm glow), Orton-ish (soft blur) and Cross Process (yellow-green-blue-purple tint) under Effects. I also used Rounded Edges and Border under Frames.

The great thing about Picnik, as opposed to Instagram, is that you get to control how much you want each effect to take over (e.g. by sliding the Fade bar).  Also, there is a wealth of options to choose from without overwhelming users, even beginners.

Another great thing about Picnik is that it’s fast, user-friendly, and convenient, unlike Photoshop. And it’s download-free! It’ a pity that Picnik is going out of service in a month- April 19th, 2012 is it’s last day of operation! When the announcement came up, I had to read it over thrice to fully realize the doom of photo-editing for me. Does anyone know a way to save Picnik? Are there any similar photo-editing websites (besides Fotoflexer)? Please leave a comment below if you know!

Overexposed

Overexposure is just as cool as underexposure. Good exposure is so overrated. Anyhoot, here are the pieces I made/found at the Harbourfront Centre during the Jewellery workshop. Honestly, the scrap bin is amazing. And so are the letter stamps. It feels so good to just hammer those sticks unto a metal plat and seeing a perfect indent when you lift the sticks up.  

Harbourfront Centre Workshop Part 4/5

Day 4: Textiles

This is the fourth installment of my coverage of a five-day young artist’s workshop at the Harbourfront Centre that I have been invited to. Each day, a different pair of industry professionals will teach contemporary craft techniques and give brief histories on their respective mediums. Consider this my version of fashion week!

Today, we learn polychromatic (several-coloured) screen printing and embroidery! Our inspiration was ourselves- “Who I Am.” Our embroidery session was carried out while waiting for our screens to dry. Embroidery was straightforward, but complex at the same time- it was the only practice that I’ve tried before, but there was a number of very meticulous hoop-embroidery methods demonstrated.

Polychromatic screen printing involves painting an image with printing ink on a thin, translucent fabric stretched taut over a frame. After waiting for the ink to dry, the screen is flipped onto a piece of fabric or paper and a gel is spread using a squeegee over the screen. The gel, that smelled like seaweed, contained ammonia, and was nicknamed “congealed urine” was exactly as gross to touch as it is was to look at.

The resulting image, after lifting the screen off, is reversed.

I had time to complete two prints, one on canvas and the other on linen. My first print was inspired by a childhood fear that still makes me queasy today. I’m scared of polka dots. But not any old polka dot. They have to be of different sizes and colours, but flat. You see my difficulty in consuming classic Wonder Bread as a child? Thankfully, Wonder Bread changed their packaging to 3-d balls, so I no longer have to avoid the bread aisle of the supermarket. (Okay okay, I lied. That last last detail was an exaggeration.)

However, my print turned out too cute in comparison to the malicious dots and needles (yes, needles piercing dots were also involved) of my nightmares.

My second print was inspired by my love of photography. The linear rows of dots represent the sprocket holes of film. The first photo in this post is of this print in progress (with a colour invert, because it made the photo that much cooler). The holes are created with a stencil method. I hole-punched masking tape and painted on top of them so when I ripped the tape off, the ink bled through the holes and created a splotchy effect (which I didn’t plan for, but ended up loving!)

My first print is titled “Who What I Am (Afraid Of)” and my second print is titled “Who What I Am (In Love With).”

P.S. I also have problems digesting Yayoi Kusama’s work.