Milk & Cookies

Milk & Cookies

8" x 10"

Acrylic On Wood Panel 

2013

"Milk & Cookies" was created for a Krampus themed group show hosted by Copro Gallery in December 2013. In case you're not familiar, while Santa distributed gifts to the "good" children, Krampus distributed punishment to the "bad" ones.
Upon further consideration of this relationship, I wanted to believe that Krampus and Santa were truly partners/colleagues for Christmas. Of course these characters are opposites of each other, but at the end of the day, they also need each other. I perceive them as being two sides of the same coin, and as such, this would mean Krampus would share in the spoils of Christmas, ie. "Cookies & Milk".
This painting ended up being the first in a series I'm hoping to explore in the future. Where most of my paintings are built around a simple formula:"light" characters in "dark" situations, "Cookies & Milk" reverses the formula, inserting a "dark" character" in a "light" situation.

Post It Show 9

On December 2013, I participated in Giant Robot's annual Post It Note Show (number 9). For this show, I started by thinking about how I used post it notes. What I realized was that I mostly used them as grocery lists. From there I illustrated six items I normally purchase when I go grocery shopping.

 

The week after the opening of Post It Show 9, Giant Robot decided to host a second opening since a bunch of artists were late with their contributions. I used this opportunity to create a second set. Sticking with the food theme, I chose to create a series inspired by my love of coffee.
For my coffee series, I decided to feature an animal that I consider the opposite of what coffee stands for: the Sloth.

 

Cocari

Christmas night 2010, my family and I sit down to what is becoming one of our wintery tradition: Dinner at Cocari, a "Korean BBQ" AND "Hot Pot / Shabu Shabu" dining experience. What makes this place extra cool is the wall of refrigerators that you walk up to and choose what you want to eat. Another plate of marinated beef? Why not?
Anyways, my sister and I get a kick out of this place, and so after properly stuffing ourselves, we start talking about making this our "Xmas place". The conversation then evolves into getting something "Cocari" related tattooed. I'm not sure what Kim had in mind, but I suggested that I would draw out the idea.
The cast iron BBQ / Shabu Shabu grill is actually shaped like a flower. I thought I would start by borrowing from Buddhist ideology, who celebrate the lily as a beautiful flower that grows from the muck. I complimented my cast iron lily with a Chinese women based on a handful of period style watercolors I looked up of empresses and/or goddesses.
The end result so amuses me that I wanted to share.
Enjoy.