My project is emo.

I think this project has been a tedious but fruitful self-discovery journey. We seem to discover more of ourselves as we move away from the rational and work with the irrational and unconsciousness.

For someone who loves to be in control, the initial phase was tedious. I had to force myself to move away from my comfort zone and explore various possibility of mark marking. Unlike all the other forms of art where there were rules, principles and theories to abide, mark marking was truly 100% democratic. To get the right frame of mind, I tried to imagine myself as a young child who explores creativity with the given materials. I probably looked silly in the art room with the mad experimentation but it’s okay ‘cos I got a number of prints I really like (and some eventually became part of final work).

Meaning is what makes the difference between a child’s work and a mature work. Hence, the next step was to add meanings to these works and push them further than just mere mark marking. This was much more interesting and enjoyable as I could apply my understanding of materials to establish meanings and vary the marks created. For stronger feelings I had encountered through personal experiences, I could interweave symbolic visual elements into it, making the emotion line relateble to all while significant to me. While this stage was enjoyable it was also tricky as I kept questioning myself which of these feelings felt were real and which were not?

Yknow, sometimes feelings are induced by surrounding environment and not just that single situation alone. Perhaps something occurred and my brain tells me ‘yeah you should feel this way because it’s the social norm’ but my heart probably felt different. Sometimes my emotions could be masked because it would influence how others would perceived me if I showed my true emotions. But i’m dwelling too deep into this so… move on.

For feelings that I had initially thought that might be interesting to work with but don’t emotionally attached to it, I had to change them. (eg Jealousy)

I think the greatest take away from this project was not to be afraid of making mistakes (a life lesson I always remind myself) because sometimes mistakes may work to our advantage. It’s better to have continuous development than delayed perfection. Be bold. Take risk. Discover new marks.

I’m glad that this project end up with a great sense of satisfaction (and relief)!

All right, off I go to pack my room now.