Grant Lin

It's the Final Week

2012-12-09T21:12:00.002-08:00

Art 14, a ceramic class at UC Berkeley, ended three days ago. I wished there were more criticism and suggestions for improvement on the work I made this semester. The instructor seemed satisfied with what I have done in his class and gave me a firm handshake before he left.

I do not really know how I feel about the class. I appreciate the class a lot, and like what we have done throughout the semester. That's probably the only thing I can confidently say about this class for now.

It's finals week, and I am studying in the ceramic studio.

Going back to Taiwan on the 17th.

Maybe I should start writing again.

I do not know who's reading this blog, but I know some people are. That's what the google stat thingy tells me at the very least.

2012-10-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

Since when did I stop updating this blog? I can not remember clearly. The date on the blog is not very accurate and helpful for solving this concern that I have. I have also been thinking less about art lately even though I am still making art. I guess, in a way, I treasure my creations less and less each day. I accepted the fact that they are all going to decay one day or another. I decided to spend less time doing the prideful staring-at-my-own-creation-for-hours and spend more time on people. I know that I just need to continue on art making.

I made this piece during the summer. It was done in Illustrator.

Random Illustration

2011-09-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

If I were to only remember parts of my life that I forgot, and to forget things that I remembered, would I still be the same person?

Reworked Illustration

2011-09-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

I added details and coloring to this unfinished piece that I began since my senior year in high school. The original assignment is "the opposite". The concept behind this piece is the contradiction between appearance and personality. The red devil is enslaved by the angel who accuses the devil of guilt. It is a piece that challenges the preconceptions of human mind and the often mistaking imagery that we take for granted.

Study of Faces

2011-08-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

These two are quick drawings I did when I was in Taiwan. Each took around 20-30 minutes. I used faces that contain emotions one has while praying as my subjects. The outlines are done by color pencils with an emphasis of graphite. The background is filled with black crayon, symbolic of a child-like drawing that is simple, yet meaningful.

Pastel, color pencil, graphite.

Final Concentration Profolio

2011-05-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

Art Show_ Kriewall-Haehl Gallery

2011-03-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures of my first personal art show. It was fun working with space and setting up the show. The process was tiring but somehow it worked out pretty good. Most art are open for sale.
Unfortunately, one piece of my art work broke due to its fragility... =(

It broke somehow.

Borders

2011-03-09T21:18:00.000-08:00

Art show is starting on 14th March at PAC! I will start preparing on Sunday so hopefully I can finish it during class on Monday...

I: 18" X 24"

16" X 22"

II: 18" X 24"

15" X 15"

III: 18" X 24"

Lin Style Jumba-Cheesecake (Improvisation with Strawberry CC and Godiva)

2011-02-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

Finished Piece

As requested, I made my signature cheesecake once again. This time I had a little fun experimenting different things. First, I precisely measured the amount of sugar used with the US-cup system instead of measuring in grams (which I didn't do previously anyways lol). Second, I used two kinds of cheese. One was strawberry flavored cream cheese; the other one was Neufchatel cheese (later mixed with shaved chocolate), which, according to its label, has one-third less fat compared to cream cheese (pretty good huh, plus it didn't affect the taste at all). I semi-mixed the two together at the end (before baking), and the taste turned out to be pretty exciting. Third, I used a small cake-mold my cousin bought a while ago, which made the cheesecake cookie-like. Lastly, I used gelatin and banana slice to decorate the cake and took the pictures with my aunt and uncle's camera since I left mine in the dorm...

Experimentation =]

The recipe is pretty similar to the one I used last time. Refer to this article "Lin Style Cheesecake"posted last August (whoa, time flies).

Left: Strwbry Cream Cheese/ Right: Neufchatel

Main Cake Prior to Baking

Fresh-out-the-oven; you're not supposed to eat it yet lol.

Reworked Self Portrait

2011-01-31T23:58:00.000-08:00

The color pencil part was done a while ago, but somehow I picked up the sketchbook today and reworked it a little bit.

like our shadows
our wishes lengthen as our sun declines
-E. Young

#6 Lantern

2011-01-24T21:45:00.000-08:00

......after the final addition. The photo was taken in my closet, the only place where I can hang it in my dorm room.

#6 Work in Progress_ a Wingless Lantern

2011-01-20T22:36:00.000-08:00

Looks like a crumbling tower

The concept is an inspiration from visiting the shipyard in San Francisco, where artists have their own sort of studio and space to work in. The piece is still at its "wingless" mode. But hopefully, it will grow its wing by the end of next week and will be ready to fly. I built a prototype out of green paper before the execution. However, it is now kind of different from the original design in terms of the patterns and the additional riveted ring. The "wings" are going to grow from the side of the riveted ring, and will hopefully contribute to the emission/ reflection of light at a different level. I'm still considering whether to hang this piece eventually or not.

Interior, a bottom plate will be added later

That polished side has a reflection

Candle Holder #5_ Work in Progress

2010-12-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

For this one I am trying to finish it without any soldering and without any riveting. The concept is basically that you can take apart the different sub-pieces with hand pretty easily (like a puzzle!) and yet, mean while, the piece can stand on it's own when assembled. This particular piece is almost finished. The only part that I'm not sure about yet is how (/with what) I am going to support the pieces without taking the essence of it. Hopefully I will finished this one before Christmas break.

Burst

2010-12-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog, but as usual I'm still working on metals, sketches, and other sculptural ideas. During the weekends, me and my friends had a little fun with the sparklers :). I use my digital camera from a while ago, not a fancy one at all. There are some interesting pictures that I think are worth showing. The last one somehow gives me a feeling of a spirit of some kind. Hmm.

Drawing on Fabric

2010-11-09T23:35:00.000-08:00

Somehow I felt like drawing and using brushes the other day. There wasn't any reference, but if I am to point out an inspiration it'd be Jakub Kujawa. I need practices in terms of how to use the brushes. For this one I use two brushes plus sharpie and pencil. I kind of like how it came out although I can study the structure of the face more. The painting is done on a piece of fabric.

Candle Holder #4

2010-11-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

Media: nickel, copper, brass.

The design turns out to be different from the original prototype, but I actually like this form better than the original one. Soldering this time was a interesting process since in order to solder the dome onto the cube I had to do it upside down so that the position would be held more secure.

Some other recent works:

Decision_Work in Progress

2010-10-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

5-sided, not soldered yet

Hi every one! Yeah so this project has been delayed a little bit since a lot of things are taking place recently. This piece particularly is based on the prototype mentioned in the last, last article. The two tube-like pieces on the side are NOT SOLDERED since I don't know what I really want for this piece yet (also the piece in the front is probably not going to be that big). Plus there is very likely going to be a third piece of tube to make the piece more balance and to activate the space more.
So one decision I'm trying to make is whether or not I should leave the color like that when it's oxidized (indicated in the picture) or that when it's polished. They give very distinct feelings and I'm deciding whether one will work better than the other.

4-sided, oxidized

The original plan was to polish every thing, and paint the entire internal space red (and maybe adding string?), making the piece modern-looking. The thing is that the original design did not have the patterns on the sides, which now make it less industrial. I'd probably solder the last part of the cube first and then decided which one is more sculptural at last.

another view, polished

Any suggestion?

Previous Works_ 3D

2010-10-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

These are the some of the previous finished, 3-dimensional works that I have done over the past year and a half. I added watermarks so that hopefully the images wouldn't be pirated =].

Pewter+brass+nickel+patina, 1-inch tall

Copper+spray+patina, 4-inch tall; 5-inch wide?

Aluminum+brass, 2.5-inch wide

Bronze+patina, 7-inch tall

Sculpey+acrylic+model magic, 5-inch tall

Brass, 5-inch tall

Candle Holder_ Work in Progress(Opposites attract)

2010-10-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

Messy desktop...

Just few days ago I finished my third piece of candle holder that centers around the notion of fire and its aura of meditation. I still need to figure out a day to photograph these with a better camera. Regardless, I'm starting to work on the design of the next candle holder (the cubic one) I'm going to build.

Its shadow resembles some sort of creature...

Scorpion?

Likewise, I created a prototype before actually deciding what to make so that I can get a sense about what the final product would look like structurally in three dimensional space and also in picture. The size of the prototype shown in the picture, however, is probably not going to be the actual size because of the short supply of nickel. Sometimes it is pretty hard to come up with a good alternative since the metals are pretty limited in the studio. The design is simple compared to the last one. Yet it really emphasizes on precision and measurement, which may be crucial while soldering.

Prototype

A easy way to eliminate the challenge of soldering can be using the folding machine to create a cube. Only concern is that the resulted cube would not be sharp-edged and that the structure might not be as precise as soldering six "puzzles" together.

In terms of material use, some part of the nickel might have to be substituted by copper simply because there is no supply of nickel in the studio, so we'll see......

5 Days Weekends

2010-10-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

A little bit of experiment on photoshop wasn't a bad idea. I am doing just fine lately. This drawing was one of my sketch book pieces. It reminds me of the Africans associated with the slave trade in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Priory had a 5-day break for the senior because of the all-school-testing day. Sometimes it is pretty good to be a senior...

Work in Progress_ Figure

2010-09-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

It looks different now...

This is the UNFINISHED second assignment for AP Studio Art that is due next Monday. I was really kind of struggling to make a sculpture based on a live model; ultimately, this is not a direction that I am going to make my theme for the concentration. The clay I used is Sculpey, which basically doesn't dry until you bake it with an oven. This has both benefits and disadvantages. On one hand you don't have to worry about finishing your sculpture in certain amount of time; yet on the other hand, it gets frustrating because you don't really want to make a giant sculpture out of Sculpey and because Sculpey is kind of hard to sculpt in reality. I don't remember myself having any lessons on this before, but it is always interesting to try new things whether or not I would end up liking them...

hmm schoolwork is becoming intenser... and test days are pretty close too..

Before the second live-model-based face was added

First Assignment_ Candle Stick

2010-09-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

This is the final product of the little pieces of copper I showed in the previous article. I was really rushing through the process of getting it done so a lot of details can be improved both technically and design-wise...... Anyways, there it is.

There was something specific I was going to say but I sort of forgot. Nevertheless life has been great these days. Thanks for every one in my life! Cheesy but it's absolutely sincere...

the shadow!

Model Magic?_ Work in Progress

2010-09-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for the bad quality...

We have a three-day weekends this week because of Labor Day. Nothing much is going on; still the same old everyday life at priory dorm. I don't know what you would call these little creatures I made out of boredom. Some called them tadpoles. and others... ... well, something else. These are made out of kid's modeling clay literally called "Model Magic". It has a very funny texture and dries out very, very slow. It is also very soft in a sense that it changes shape so easily even a finger slightly resting on top of it would make a mark. I didn't clean my hand very well before I started molding so they got a little bit messy. I might do some painting on them after they are dried (the instruction says that it might take 3 days for the material to do so), so we'll see.

Adding color and metal sticks?

I haven't come up with a good concentration theme yet; major reason is that the inspirations I have seems to differ from one another (I don't know how to put it another way lol)

Works in Progress_ Sketchbooks and First Assignment

2010-08-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

School has started since a week ago. Pretty much all my classes are settling down. Although still kind of not used to getting up so early every day, I'm doing fine in general.

So these two copper pieces are meant to be part of my assignment for AP Studio Art that is due next Wednesday, September 8th. Originally the assignment was titled "shoe", but since I have these two pieces (which were intended to be shoe-looking objects and failed to), I'll probably make something different. Since I started, I've realized that sculpture pro-folio is really not an easy task to do...

As for the sketchbook, we were assigned to draw/make something about "opposite". Some of the pictures shown here aren't really related to that, but the one with the angel and demon is related. These are works that are still "being processed" and should be finished very soon.

Sketch for the opposite

Blue marker, very messy and hastily done

Part of my summer doodles, on a back of a note pad

Back from Las Vegas_ Summer Ended :O

2010-08-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

I spent the last three days before moving into the dorm with my cousins, aunties, and my mom at Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It's been a lot of fun. We went to Santa Monica Beach at LA; it was really hot but we got to enjoy the pleasantly cold water and the comfy sunbath afterwards. After having dinner at 鹿鼎記 (though it was actually called "Duck House") and staying at Comfort INN for a night, we left LA for Las Vegas.

Double-Peace Sign at Santa Monica

We didn't really do much at Los Angeles. Other than Santa Monica Beach, we also visited China/ Chinese Theater, where celebrities' hands and shoes impressions were left on the concrete floor. It was a lot hotter than bay area, but staying at the beach made everything a lot nicer.

This was my second time in Vegas. Nothing really has changed since last time I was there. Well but I now can really appreciate the ceiling installed glass art-works at the hotel Bellagio and the intense amount of work the artists put into the installation. We watched a show titled Viva Elvis at a fairly new hotel Aria. It was more like a tribute than a circus show compared to Cirque Du Soleil's other performances (at least to the only other one I saw, KA). But still it was a really fun and mind-blowing experience.

Glass Installation at Bellagio

School is starting in two days and apparently not many people are ready for it. It seems like it would be another tough year since college application has already started and my class schedule is also getting busier.

Eddie Murphy!