Monday, March 30, 2015

Adventure in Cayman Island

This was one of the best vacations I have ever had! My best friend, Adrianne, from grad school in Long Beach,  invited to Cayman, where her parents live during the spring break. The island is located south of Cuba. I actually did not know about the island until her parents moved.  If you are a Korean citizen without US or Canadian permanent resident card, you would need a visa to visit. I did not think Koreans would need it since Cayman is a part of Britain but you would run into a trouble if you have a Korean passport without visa. 

 Since I live in the west coast of US, it was a long way to get to Cayman. I had to fly to LAX and then Dullas, Washington DC to get a flight to Cayman. Guess what, of course, my flight got delayed in LAX and  missed the flight in DC. I had to go to another airport in DC to go to Miami to get a flight. After a long time, I finally arrived in Cayman!!! It is me the next day in Cayman. It was worth going through all the drama! Here is my adventure begins!
 Cayman sunset was so beautiful. We would go to restaurants in the evening to see sunset and eat some yummy seafoods. My next blog will be about food I ate in Cayman. Therefore, I am not posting any photos of foods here.
 My buddy Adrianne is the best ever. She organized everything for me in this trip. So, I  did not have to think too much but enjoy this beautiful island. She looked at the schedule of of cruise ships in town to see when the town gets too crowded. She found out there were 7 ships one day, which would mean the island would be filled with tourists! So, we decided to go to a botanical garden on the island. I met this guy there.
 One morning. We went for a horse riding. My horse's name was Fantasy and she was a tough horse. I had several horse riding lessons. So Nolan who was the horse owner gave me a bit tough gal. We walked around the coast line. Then, we took our saddles off and started riding horses with bareback. God, it was amazing but hard. We went into the water and my friend's horse started making noise. How funny! It was such an experience.
Another thing I explored was under the sea!! I snorkeled first time in my life and that opened a new world to me! There was a whole another world underneath the water. We snorkeled around Reef, where there were many corals. Humans destroyed so many corals by touching them. I learned human oil kills corals. So, if you ever get to see corals, just enjoy looking but never ever touch.

 The ocean was just amazing. I have never seen this beautiful color of the ocean before.
 I went to see stingrays to say hello. They are so used to humans and know we are not going to hurt them. So, they come very close to us and swam around. They are almost like pets. Some stingrays posed for me to take photos.
While I was taking a photo of stingrays, a fish does photo bomb!
 In my last day in Cayman, we went to Rumpoint and did more snorkeling. Beautiful fish. I said hi to all of them.
There were some trumpet fish. I loved how they looked! I bet this experience will influence my art near future.
 Rampant was great! Nobody lived in this island until Spanish came in. Then, pirates used to live here and made rums to sell. They probably shipped all the rum out from this spot. It was very beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing vacation. Again, coming back was horrifying. I had 14 hours layover, which made me so exhausted. I tanned good and rested well.
It was like a dream but this reminds me that it was not a dream but true. I look at this and smile. As I said, I will posted "What I eat" in Cayman next time. It is coming very soon!

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

New Drawing Project "What I Eat"


After my show "The Human Shop" in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, I went through some post exhibition depression as usual. I was happy that the show went well but at the same time, I was very sad it was over. I did not do anything for a month. Spring semester started a week after my show was over so that I was preoccupied with school work. 
I slowly started working on some creatures as usual and felt really sick of everything I did before.  I wanted to start working on some new artwork but did not know what. Also, it was quite painful to go back to studio practice after taking a break for a month.  Suddenly started to think about drawing everything I eat while I was eating peanut butter cup chocolates!
 At first, I started to draw almond milk I alway drink in the morning, peanut butter cup chocolate, some onion leftovers.
 That is how my project "What I Eat" started. I was doing this just for fun. Then, I started to think this project as drawing challenge, which means that I would draw what I eat one everyday.
 This is grilled peppers at Old Granite Street Eatery that I ate last Friday.
 Here is my very first drawing.
 This is my typical meal looks like. I eat brown rice with beans and some side dishes.
 Sometimes, pasta with a glass of red wine.
I wanted to draw sushi so I went to eat and take pictures to draw, haha. What a great excuse, ugh?

I can't draw anything when I have to do school work. So, I do two or three drawings so I don't feel bad when I can't work in the studio. I still feel I make one drawing a day. I am thinking to do this for 100 days and see how it will end. I have done 15 so far. Please keep checking on my blog and see how my drawing progress!!!