THE ART

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Visual Communications student and Freelance Illustrator, Julienne Tan, creates delicate illustrations that evoke a feeling of quiet storytelling, removed from its surrounding environment, occupying only one corner of the pictorial space.

“This illustration is part of the Whispered series, things I will never say. I draw straight on paper with a 0.1 point pen. I draw slowly and let the picture evolve line by line. It starts with a memory, that could be as faint as a facial expression or as abstract as a song. I draw a little at a time; rushing will only break the rhythm. Every drawing is embedded with personal stories and characters, sometimes words. The above illustration is about waiting and listening.”

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

THE ART

Zheng Tianyu Isaiah or Ty, is a graphic designer who is currently taking a ‘tour’ in the Photography program at NTU. He recently published “Untitled (System)-Textbook” which was on exhibit at The Best of ADM 2008.

Untitled (System) which started off as a school project, is a series of generative art based on a system designed by Ty. Twenty-six letters of the English alphabet are translated into angled lines indicating directions. As letters form words, and words form sentences, the output serves as a new way of displaying text, and for the viewer, to enjoy the line work as art.

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From 9 May till 30 June, Club Street and Ann Siang Hill will play host to the Tiger Translate Museum, an initiative that brings art back to the people, and into the streets - literally.

Housed in the quaint shops in the Club Street precinct, the Museum will showcase works by Momorobo, fFurious, Andy Yang, Kuanth, eeshaun and Antz. All you have to do is pick up a program guide and walk into any of the participating outlets.

Tiger Translate is throwing a Museum launch party on 9 May from 6pm till 11pm, at the Park connector junction of Club Street and Ann Siang Hill. There will be “live” art by Tiger AKA, Translate Museum tours, music by popular DJs and many more exciting street happenings. Sounds fun? RSVP here.

When Rayson Tan and Joanne Lee graduated from LASALLE they went their separate ways. Rayson earns a living as a full time designer for a magazine and is working on his own fashion label in his spare time. Joanne decided to pursue her career as an illustrator. They recently decided to hook up and work on a new accessory line dubbed RibbonRabbit.

PHILOSOPHY

“RibbonRabbit inspires from the adorable critters skittering about in Mother Nature’s embrace. We pick on the structure of the animal kingdom and turn the fauna into playacting characters. Our accessories are a translation of this concept, and we mean it literally when we say RibbonRabbit creates conversation pieces. Our ‘faunal’ characters do talk, after all.”

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There You Go! is an independent effort by nine designers and fine artists, showcasing works that probe the relationship between good and evil; beauty and ugliness; love and hate; friendship and animosity. The artists will tour the facade of a shophouse at 21 Haji Lane and will offer an insightful exhibition that will strip bare life’s saintly disguise with a touch of dark humor.

“A distress signal from a mind-numbing year of robotic routines to make ends meet had declared May 1st as an official day of nationwide slacking. A group of optimistic, and sometimes eccentric, creative individuals were perfectly clean on what they did not like: too much work and too little fun. So they each worked under their own pseudonym and one shared face, and very seriously made fun art for the love of life.”

Participating artists: Kilas, Mohamad Fadzel, Ngojerk, OneTwoDelta, PrettyFreakyFantasy, Princess Gai, Sadistk, Kyun and Zig.

1st May at 21 Haji Lane from 10 am onwards. Admission is free.

THE ART

Joanne Lee did this fiery Manga-style illustration with a Micron .05 pen, adding in the red color with the aid of Photoshop.

“Easter Bunnies are usually portrayed as cute, pink things but not these two. Every single year, Jan and Jam poach eggs from gardens, scare children and dress only in red and black. Very naughty indeed. Being the detail monster that I am, I’ve had fun doing all the elaborate bits for the bunnies. This was inspired by the outlandish dressing in Harajuku and its many otaku (fans). Now, who wants punk rock bunnies next Easter? ”

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THE ART

‘Kate Moss Typortrait’ is an interesting collage piece that makes use of xeroxed fashion labels.

“Each and everyone of us has their own identity in which things around them are related as a whole. Fashion labels were used as part of my design to subtly relate what Kate Moss does for her career while looking at the image/design as a whole. Bright, fluorescent pink was chosen to bring out how I see her as person, strong and bold. The placement of each xeroxed label represents how she’s been wrongly accused and turned into a scapegoat, therefore making who Kate is presently, a state of mess.”

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Founded in January 2007 by a team of arts and graphic enthusiasts in Malaysia, Artzmania is an independent venture showcasing international creativity and culture. It is the latest platform for designers to inspire, express and share with fellow art enthusiasts, profiling diversified design.

Artzmania recently teamed up with Singapore’s StartDrawing.org for a pretty stunning e-zine titled Asian on Arts, putting the spotlight on some of the finest artists and designers from around the region. There are a whopping 43 creatives featured, and a handful are from Singapore. You can download the 452 pages of artwork here. Enjoy!

If you like art and cats, you will definitely love the work of Catmasutra’s painting duo Paul Koh and Michelle Chang, whose cat poses and positions are sure to please.

PHILOSOPHY

“Inspired and bemused by my two cats, Halo and Angel, I create an “in-between” world, filled with magic that suddenly grabs you, makes you laugh and remembers things that don’t necessarily fit neatly anywhere. In each of my paintings, the cat is my gateway to a new space that affords a momentary freedom to dream and make time stand still.”

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THE ART

Dawn Tan creates fun and fancy children’s illustrations in watercolors.

“Because of global warming, most of our beloved animal species don’t get to live on forever. And that’s really a horrible thought! I See You is a self portrait done for a children’s book, which I wrote about a year ago. At that time, there was a lot of talk about global warming and endangered animal species. So I decided to do my part as an artist, by coming up with a picture book on how climate change affects the animals, and it’s titled ‘The Big Move’. My art has always been happy and cheerful. I know it’s a big ambition, but hopefully my optimism in my art will create an awareness and make an impact one day.”

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THE ART

The brainchild of Josef Lee, Adam’s Apple offers a refreshing interpretation of the tale of Adam and Eve, with many laugh-out-loud moments. Adam’s Apple is not sacrilegious by any means, and can be best described as a story about a biblical theme infused with contemporary components.

“I have always loved short stories and wanted to do something like Tim Burton’s ‘The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy’. But it wasn’t easy to write in rhymes so I was stuck for the longest time and nothing came out of it. One day, while thinking of another story during a train ride, the phrase ‘Adam was the eldest son. In fact, he was the only one.’ suddenly popped into my mind. From that point onwards, I knew I had to do a story of Adam and Eve. The Apple idea was developed along the way and it turned out to be a surprise hit among Mac lovers. ”

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THE ART

Cherie Tan, Creative Genius at *scape and Supreme Editor of frivolous online read, mrrr, does some lovely illustrations in Indian ink. But for this fascinating, if somewhat surreal artwork titled Umbilical, she fuses Indian ink with watercolor.

“I’ve always erred towards the fantastic and macabre. Much of my art doesn’t make sense, and there is seldom deep thought behind them. Umbilical happened while I was looking at biological drawings and thinking about creative incubation. Also, it was like the last piece in the watercolor pad, so better paint something decent, right.”

Browse Cherie’s stylish portfolio for more examples of her work.

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

Melly’s new artwork is a happy mix of watercolor gnomes mounted on vintage tapestry looking fabrics.

PHILOSOPHY

Hi, I’m Melly and right now I’m obsessed with all things art and craft and handmade. I like the idea of takeaway muffins in a brown paper bag with patterns on them. As much as I enjoy drawing, now I draw to explore other ways of creating the imagery I have in my head. I choose to cut and paste and get the glue gun going. It’s nerve wrecking but more often than not, the outcome really excites me so this is my booster!

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THE ART

Ray Toh’s illustration is the visualisation of an outlandish remedy for my monumental hangover this morning. But Ray’s piece titled Fractured Thoughts is about a different type of sentiment.

“The creation of Fractured Thoughts is based on frustrations, on reaching a point in time where I feel like shooting my head off and letting my ideas run wild. You can explore so many things, at the right time and under the right circumstances, and play with the creative bulbs in your head. I don’t think there is commercial value in the theme of Fractured Thoughts, so it’s part of my personal portfolio, and I execute new ideas when time permits. The whole piece is painted in Photoshop and the name Fractured Thoughts comes from a mistake I made when I was looking for Neil Gaimen’s novel “Fragile Things”. The name got stuck in my head ever since.”

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The Pepper Project is a self–initiated artbook project by Stanley Lau aka Artgerm and Imaginary Friends Studios, and revolves around the sexy and enigmatic muse, Pepper and her friend Wanda.

Pepper was created five years ago as a recurring subject for Artgerm, to experiment with drawing and illustration styles; from Nagel-esque vectors to Ashley Wood-ish brush strokes to cartoony two dimensional Peppers and photorealistic Peppers. As Artgerm continued to experiment, he noticed that his character had gained a few fans who provided a spin on the original Pepper. These fan variations were as versatile as the fans themselves, sometimes with the only common elements being Pepper’s fiery red palette and her headphones.

The Pepper Project book will spotlight Artgerm’s original Pepper character with the addition of never before seen work. It will also showcase an exciting collection of Pepper and Wanda art by some of the industry’s top artists as well as pieces done by fans and friends.

The project’s deviantART gallery is chock full of fabulous Pepper illustrations from all over the world. I chose three entries from Singapore to run with this post.

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