Art blog #16 AKA the last one

What? It's May already? Senior year has been soooooo crazy that I actually never realize how time has passed! Think about this for a second: we all started out at the beginning of the year thinking that this would be the longest year of our high school career, but now, graduation is only weeks away! Oh gosh senior year...perhaps high school is just like what I said in my rap for the talent show: "This is High School, you barely know what you're doing." That is, until you are about to graduate, then you start to reflect on what you have in these past four years. And for me, well, let's just say that I have not attended one school dance in these past four years. I know, that's sad, and that's why I am going to prom this year. On the question of who am I going to ask to prom? That's a secret. Ha. Actually, no, I don't think I want to ask anyone since the guy always has to pay for everything, and I hate spending money...especially on girls, no offense. But maybe, I don't know. Anyways, I guess one point about writing this blog is to make us reflect on our year, our final year in Lakeridge, that is art related right?

I think art this year has made a tromendous change on me. Looking at my first art work and my last one this year is kind of crazy. Sometimes I ask myself, did I really do this? I like drawing and all, but I never thought I would enjoy spray painting and making graphic-type art this much. I guess I finally found what I am really intersted in on the subject of art. I used to dislike art when I was younger because all the teachers would tell me what to draw and tell me how to draw it. They never let us create our own ideas and our own images. This year, however, finally gave me this challenge. I thought of my own ideas and created my own pieces. And throughout this whole process, I started to developed my own style. If you have not noticed, or have not listened to McBride talking about my change throughout the year, I practically changed everything about my style. I used to draw things that is restricted, and had a really traditional way of drawing. But after discovering other forms of art, especially street art, which encourages artists to have their own styles, I started trying other forms of art. And I loved it! Well, Then this new style of art become increasingly interesting to me and I just started producing these new kinds of artwork.

Well, this year was fun. I did say that I disliked having art classes, but I never said I hate art. I always love art and making artwork satisfy me. Maybe I will never become an artist, since my mind is set on science and engineering, but art will always be in me. It is the form of expression that no one will fully understand but the artists themselves. This year was great. Thanks everyone for all the support and criticism for me, and thanks Ms. McBride for putting up with the man table this whole year.
MAN TABLE 4 LIFE! And ART 4 LIFE! Also Huskies FTW!

Art blog #15

What a week it is! Well, last week was just full of rain and...well..rain. Go Oregon! Because if this rain we had to cancel most of our tennis matches. And we only finished like three or four matches out of...well..a lot! AND districts is only several weeks away! Which means that we need to finish all those matches before districts! Oh my god! So much to do! But this week will be sunny though, so we can play a lot. Anyways, I will be going to LA on Tuesday and Wednesday to visit occidental college..that will be fun right? Oh right our last two concentration pieces are due on Friday. We should have a day off and the reason being too much sun or something like that. El o el. Chen is out. Peace!

Art blog #14

Summary of my week: This week was full of agony and despair.
Basically, it's the end of the quarter and all the assignments had to be in and everything else is going on and tennis is starting and...and..well good luck Michael to work your behind off to try to get everything done in time. Thanks school, I love you too.

Art blog #13

13 is a good number..as they say.
Spring break is over and, well, have I done a lot? don't think so...oh I kind of did my APH research paper. well..kind of haha. And I did go onto the mountain and slept in the room where President Roosevelt slept in when he visited Timberline Lodge. I shred for a few days..as they say, and you know, chill on the mountain. Although I did get hit on the back with my friend's snowboard and has a bump on my back now..painful. Well, I can't blame him, I stopped too suddenly anyways. uhh..i worked on my art work..well kind of. Work is overrated anyways. I also watched Avatar: the last airbender, and a LOT of them! If you don't know or don't watch that show, you are clearly missing out. It is probably the best show ever made! good.
Life is good..kind of.

see ya!


word of the blog: 暑假

Art blog #12

So I basically wasted last weekend and have done absolutely nothing..I guess. I tried to start my concentration pieces, but I need more inspiration and new inspiration! Well I remembered I took a picture of my being a rapper for the talent show, and thought that I could mash up a new Asian face with this new culture I'm in. Which brings me to my talent show performance! I performed in the taker show in case you guys don't know..I do have a link for the video but I'm too lazy to post it up. So go search it!
Well as you all know, Japan is in a deep crisis right now. Let's just hope for the best for Japan. People say that this earthquake might push them back ten more years, and their economy is going backwards again. Let's pray for Japan and hope that they are fine. Stay strong Japan!

Art blog #11

This is the 11th art blog! Well, one exciting new from me is that I'm performing in the talent show! Well, it was a stupid "bet" I made on facebook....didn't realize how much people wanted to embarrass me on stage. Oh well, it can probably boost my popularity anyways, not like I need a boost or something. Umm...I probably do... Anyways, come watch me on Friday if you want to see a bad rap performance made by me and my crew. I need more people to be on stage with me, and more importantly to have crew name. I might have taken this rap and gangster thing too seriously, but oh well, it's still fun. Also spring sports is starting and I'm really excited! This is my last year playing tennis for Lakeridge and hopefully we do well this year. Need to make this the best year. Also, go support our sports teams! Well, not really tennis since no one really comes to our games anyways. We did win the league last year....just sayin'. Anyways, go Pacer sports and ART!! We are awesome! yay!






word of the blog (have not done this for a while):運動

Art blog #10

So last week was kind of a chaos for me. I actually have no idea what happened last week. I made a lot if stencils and played with spray paint a lot ad that's probably the most exciting hung I have done last week.hmm...also I went volunteering with Lucas for scholastic. I remember we have to hang up a 3D art work that's made out of clay and has tO hung from a metal bar. Since we didn't know how to tie boyscout ties with those fishing strings that person gave us, we tied it with a lot of wires. It was sketch. I think that was my week and my last weekend. Good days.

Art blog #9

Soo.....here is my weekend:

thanks a lot!

Art blog #8

So finals week is next week, and I have not studied at all. Good luck Michael. Too much is going on with my life right now and I can barely accomplish anything in the weekend. Plus, I am sick. Not feeling too well, and all I can do is rest and hope for the best. I think I have rattled on enough right now and should go back to what I was doing.... Yay manliness. Great weekend...I guess. I love art!


Word of the Blog: 網頁

Art blog #7

Soo....Our vacation has ended, and I have just landed. I don't know what I have done this winter break, but I know that I had fun. I visited all my friends and family in Taiwan, and...you know...had fun and do all those great stuff with them. But I didn't go clubbing, one of the biggest mistakes I have made this winter break. Oh well....I finished my blog update anyways.





Word of the blog: 新年快樂

Unofficial Art blog

I know you all want some weird smile from me...so here is a creepy/weird/awekward smile from me with the Green Gates Nursury's owner who is also my tutor. Ok...yay! Since this is an unofficial update, no word of the blog in case you have been following it and have been reading my blog, which is not in most of your cases. Ha.


wow I need a haircut..

Art blog #6

Soo...sixth blog update I guess? ok...so this has been a long week for me. Well, for most of us I guess. But I finally got through this week, and I'm pretty happy about that, although I'm still not looking forward to the next two full weeks. Well, better to live in the present than think too much abouthte past right? Ok. Good. Life is good as they say.
To be honest, I have no idea what I have done this week again. This is kind of sad since I have said this kind of thing again. I did finish that "demeaning" paper proposal for Dr. Hoppes, and managed to finished two more applications for college. Some accomplishements I guess? They are for USC and UC Berkeley. I don't even know if I'm going to get in. Sad. Not good.
Well today was actually pretty exciting for me. Well, for Andrew and me to be exact, but since he has done this before, I will exclude him out of this (sorry Andrew..haha). This is the first year for me to mentor and coach elemtary school kids in lego robotics and have them participate in the FLL tournaments. It was really fun actually to see the kids grow overtime and learn as they go. And it was also fun for me to just hang out with those kids after school sometimes and just have them do robotics. Well, today was the tournament and our team won the robot design award, which was really exciting for me, becuase I never expected that. Oh well, robotics is over, so I guess I will move on with my life then. I will definitly miss those kids some days though as they have been a pretty big part of my school year now. Thanks to all those participants and parents and especially Mr. Haymann for making this happen and gave me a great experience in both teaching and robotics. Well..it's almost 12. Soo..I need to hit the hay as they say.
Good night!

Word of the blog:機械

Art blog #5

So this update started at 11:45 AM. This is so amazing how much I have not done for the past few days. Seriously, I have no idea what I have done this week. So basically, two colleges' apps are due next week on Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st. And I don't think that I have done much on those applications. Concentration review is coming up, and I have just started to revise most of my summer pieces since they are all my concentration pieces, but they all looked too similar. On one of my pieces, I think I will cut it out and put it on a cardboard and still keep the texts by simply transferring other texts on the cardboard. Any thoughts on that idea?
So Thanksgiving is coming up. The time of the year where we all get to be fat and basically eat the whole day. For the guys, we will just play video games and watch football..maybe? For the girls...well I have no idea what you girls will do...so yea. What are you guys and gals going to do for this Thanksgiving? As you all also know, Winter Break is coming up three weeks after this Thanksgiving break. Let's hope that there are some snow here this year! Sadly, I'm going back to Taiwan again this winter, but I really do hope for some snow this year. I'm excited since this is my last winter as a high schooler! And winter break also means new years! I guess new years is all about the "partyin' and smashin'" as they say. This year has been a good year, and next year will be even better.
As you might have noticed now, I have been going on and on about some "BS," as they say, in this blog update, but I need to do somehthing to pass my time. Thanks for even reading this though..haha.
Have a good day!
This blog update ended at 8:20 PM...accomplishment?

Word of the blog:生命

Art blog #4

Suprisingly, I'm doing this blog update at 7pm! Suprise! This week has been great for me..except not that all exciting. I have been doing collabrative art pieces with Staines and they look actually pretty awesome! you guys shuold check them out, but we might not want to show them to you guys..mwuahahaha!! Well those small pieces of doodle are not related to our concentration at all, so I don't know if it's even worth it to show them to the general public. They are probably count as side projects titled "just for fun" or "just for kicks" as they say for us. It will be cool if our concentration could be collaborative art works by two students. Really cool. But apparently AP graders want the person's own voice, not two (even thuogh they only spend like a second on each portfolios...pshh..). Ok, back to what I was saying. Wait what was I talking about?

Okay so this week was fun for me in a sense that I finally finish my standardized tests as in SATII's. I did the chemistry test and the chinese with listening. No offense, but that Chinese test is probably the easiest test I have ever done, including the ones I have taken in my elementary school. I finished the test with 15 minutes left over, so I just slept (what a good thing to do on tests!). I immediately got a pay back from sleeping during the chinese test: I barely finished my chemistry test in time. But it was fine, I still finished it...yay! so that is my weekend! not all that exciting right? But it is for me since it is the last of the standardized tests! Go Michael!

word of the blog:認真

Art blog #3

Soo...an update ye? I guess I'm almost done with my self-portrait. The only thing I need right now is to transfer a huge amount of texts onto the piece, but maybe it was because the ink our printer uses is too expensive or some stupid complicated chemical formula they used so that people cannot "reprint" the printed text, no matter what I tried, I cannot get the texts onto my piece. Seriously, I tried most of things possible including the Blender McBride lend me, paint thinner, and even gasoline (yea, that made my house stink since it was raining the whole day today and I have to do that indoors). Well, the conclusion my mom and i came up with is that the ink we have is too hard to break down. So I will try other printers like those in school (because I know they use those cheap laser printers haha). Hopefully tomorrow will be a more successful day for me. Oh! And about that hat thing? Crap...My idea is kind of weird and...well, wierd. I don't think it is creative enough, and I believe it will cost most of my time this week...I mean I spent two whole days on it! *cough cough.
Our pirate-picture-taking is coming up! But...I don't have anything to wear!! Help? Anyone? Please?

Oh one more thing, I will put up my self-portrait soon, but people will also see it in class since we will all present our artwork or at least put it up against the window.


Word of the blog: 文章

Art blog #2

So...we need a blog update and talk about what have we been up to lately. So here I am, in front of my computer, at 12:30 AM, thinking about what I should write in this blog.
 Lets talk procrastination.
It's a great word, but not a good thing to do I guess. I just finished my APH notebook and memorized the outlines we wrote for the test tomorrow, well, I mean technically today. Now my mom is pissed at me by staying up so late because I procrastinated throughout the weekend. I did not exactly procrastinated throughout the weekend, actually. I did some applications for college and I am almost done with those stupid applications. Why do we have to fill out so many things when the collge is only going to look at your scores and stuff? That just does not make any sense! Anyways, back to the topic. Procrastination can be both good and bad afterall. It is good at first since you feel relaxed and did not have to do anything, but when it comes to the work, you feel like...crap. You race through the assignments and try your best to stay on task while trying to get as much sleep as possible for the next day. Well, it gives you some adrenaline rush anyways for those "adrenaline druggies" out there.
So basically, I procrastinated this weekend to do this APH notebook and prepare for the test tomorrow, and maybe not getting much sleep too for tomorrow. I'm done procrastinating, maybe. Good night life!


word of the blog:作業

Art Blog #1

Sunday night, 9:22 PM, and I just started to do this art blog thing we have to do every week. Will I call this procrastinating and waiting till the last minute? Maybe. I usually don't go to sleep until at least eleven o'clock even though I say to myself everyday that I will go to bed at ten. Well, that is my objective everyday, but I fail that objective every single day. Good for me? Ha.

Okay, enough of my nihilism, on to art. I will like to take you into a little journey of how I chose my concentration this year. Well, first of all, one big thing you really need to know about me is that I am asian, and that I am proud of my race (even though I make racist jokes all the time). Consequently, I like to reflect that in my art projects. For example, I drew a social commentary piece called "How to Identify Asians" last year (notice the horrible grammer). For reference, http://lhs.loswego.k12.or.us/z-mcbrides/Art%203/social/10/index.htm here is the picture on Ms. McB's page. Also I like to make my art works as asian as possible, so I can state a voice and show my style on my pieces of art work.

So this summer I went to my art teacher's studio thinking about what I should do for my concentration.  I know that I will do something REALLY asain and reflects my own culture, because that's me. For all those people who know me, I have a brother who took this class a while ago and did his concentration on Taiwanese color, so I know I cannot do that again since it will just be copying his idea. I went through books and books from my art teacher just to have an idea of my concentration. I initially thought of the 12 zodiac signs in Chiese culture, but I scratched it since it was not completely my idea (I actually got the idea out of one of the books). Without an idea and frustrated, I took some books and paper home trying to figure it out.

Then one day while walking on the streets of Taipei, a temple fair (廟會) was going on. Something clicked in my head. I stayed there and watched the fair as it went on, and I saw this:

then something REALLY clicked in my head. I said to myself: why don't I do something like this? So I raced home and took out the papers and some pictures I found in the books and started drawing. I thought: well I cannot just draw the whole thing since it will just be copying, so why not just the head and the hat to show their power and complexity of their figures? So I quickly finished one, and really liked the idea and continued on to the others. Sadly I don't have the pictures of my processes on these art works. Bummer. I finished a total of eight of them, and you can see them if you want during art periods. That's it, that's my story of my adventure to finding my concentration.

I know this is a lot to read, but this might be the only long post you might get from me this year. Thanks for reading.

Oh, and since none of you can read Chinese, I am going to write a word in chinese in each of blogs I make this year just to (maybe) tick you guys off. You can guess or just ask me in class the next day if you are dying to know what that word means.

Word of the Blog: 藝術