Merry Sithmas

Happy holidays, everyone!

IRL Disney princess Lupita Nyong'o, who plays Maz Kanata
in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which has consumed my life,
which I'm perfectly OK with.

So far, the drawing requests I’ve had the most fun fulfilling include cartoon versions of these sculptures interacting with one another and thinking up non-traditional superheroes for a baby room. Stay tuned for more scans and/or photos. For now, keep those commissions coming!

Also, I created a Wix site and Society6 and Redbubble shops. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ‘Tis the season.

Mood

Submitted two old doodles to Threadless: “Mood” and “Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herder.” I’d love it if you could give ‘em good scores and comments. Thank you!

"Those dresses, though."

And a reminder: I’ve started accepting drawing commissions!

(Update: I’ve submitted two more and they’ve been approved for rating and commenting as well: “Summertime Sadness” and “The Good Dog.” Thanks again!

Second update: Voting’s closed!)

Drawing Commissions for the Holidays

For the first time since I was 10 years old (yep), I’m accepting drawing commissions (yay)! Tell me your requests for black and white doodles.

Spot from The Good Dinosaur channeling Dug from Up.
Here's to the loyal dogs of Pixar.

My rates, using the same advanced art terminology I used in my prime:

Cartoon: $10

Combination cartoon & realistic: $30

Realistic: $50

(So you can get an idea of what in the world I’m talking about, some examples of my personal doodles and sketches can be found at artistsonthelam.tumblr.com/tagged/scribble-sunday and instagram.com/artistsonthelam.)

How this works:

• You pick the style and make a request (e.g., “a cartoon version of me and Santa riding a herd of jellyfish through outer space”) via social media (comment on this Facebook post or reply to this tweet) or email. If your idea involves a real person, like you or a friend, include a few photos for reference.
• I [hopefully] approve your request, and you pay via PayPal.
• I create the drawing and mail it to you.

Happy holidays! (During which there will be plenty of art events to attend; see the previous post for my picks.)

11 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in December

Happy December! Here’s my Time Out Chicago list of art shows to see this month.

Last week I performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and it was great fun. The MCA blog has collected a roundup of highlights (thanks for including my tweet as one of them!) here.

And for those who celebrated, hope your Thanksgiving weekend gave you much to be thankful for! Mine consisted of affairs like my 10-year high school reunion, The Good Dinosaur (this is a PSA for everyone to go see the film, which is helmed by Pixar’s first Asian American director), and said director liking my tweets. Clearly, life’s simple joys.

“I don’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas / I’m frightened of the old ones”

I’m performing at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on Sunday! I’ve been invited to participate in Cage Unrequited, a 25-hour marathon reading of experimental composer John Cage’s influential book Silence: Lectures and Writings, organized by visual artist Pope.L, in association with the exhibition The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music 1965 to Now. (Thanks, Tempestt Hazel!) My group’s time slot is November 22, 9:54-10am.

Get out and relish the remaining weeks of autumn.

Also, congrats to my cousin Philip Ng on being cast as Bruce Lee in an upcoming film! (The link’s a throwback to summer 2013 when he took me to the infamously seedy Chungking Mansions to have, in his words, the best curry in Hong Kong.)

9 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in November

I have a new post on Time Out Chicago today: 9 art shows to see next month.

Fall in [love with] Chicago.

As suggested in an earlier post, another autumn event you can continue to attend is the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. My photos from the festivities so far can be viewed on—deep breath—Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, 500px, and Pinterest (and, uh, spoilers at a few of those for the latest episode of The Walking Dead). Besides solarise, which I still can’t stop talking about, I’d recommend starting with the exhibitions throughout the Chicago Cultural Center.

Happy Halloweekend!

The mountains are calling and I must [know childhood icon Bill Nye acknowledges my existence]

I’ve been selected as a Finalist for the National Park Service’s “Find Your Park: The Centennial Project” contest! Now, I need you to vote for my entry! Fill out the ballot here. (Winners get to attend the NPS’ 100^th birthday celebration, have people like Bill Nye the Science Guy—whose theme song was my ringtone for 5 years until I got a smartphone—turn their stories into a project, and more.)

(What I’d submitted: Inspired by my trip to Denali National Park in 2002, I drew the above when I was 15. Titled Land of the Midnight Sun, it was my first attempt at using oil pastels. My high school eventually purchased the drawing from me, and it’s still a part of their permanent art collection. Not bad for a piece in a new medium.)

Voting ends October 16 at 5pm CST. [Update: It’s been extended to Oct. 19, same time.] The limit is “1 vote per person, per email address, per day.” So vote everyday with all your addresses for the next couple weeks!

Spread the word. Thank you!

[Update 2: So, uh, I won.]

10 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in October

Happy October! The Chicago Architecture Biennial launches on Saturday, the first Chicago Museum Week starts today, and it’s Chicago Artists Month. To help you sort through it all, I’ve highlighted 10 art gallery events on Time Out Chicago. (Included is Meet Your Maker, a networking event for which I’ve been invited to be on the leadership committee.)

Luftwerk, solarise: a sea of all colors.
Garfield Park Conservatory.

As a follow-up to the previous post: The autumnal equinox opening of Luftwerk’s solarise at the Garfield Park Conservatory (pictured above) was one of my picks for last month, but—fortunately—the show runs through January 3, concurrent with the Biennial. See it!

Lastly: I made a rule for myself that I wouldn’t show the hundreds upon hundreds of postcards I’ve been getting over the years for Dreams of a City until I felt like I was completely finished with the project, but this one, which I retrieved from my P.O. box a couple days ago, was so stirring that I had to share.

During which I wore a Darkwing Duck shirt

Spencer Finch, Sunset. Expo Chicago 2015.

Follow-up to the previous post: Thanks to Expo Chicago, my last weekend of summer was filled with wonderful people, art, and food. You can view my photos from the experience—including the VIP Preview of the fair, a private collection tour, and more—on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

(Pictured above: Art you can eat! From a solar-powered ice cream truck offering soft serve in the colors of the sunset. Ah, me and ice cream. Truly the epic love story of our time.)

And today, celebrate the first day of fall by attending the opening of Luftwerk’s solarise (one of my September art picks) at the Garfield Park Conservatory and/or witnessing Chicagohenge. Enjoy the autumnal equinox!

Grammar

I’ve been invited to be a featured Instagram photographer at Expo Chicago. Thank you, Expo Chicago and Carol Fox & Associates! Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone! (And my IG for anyone who’d like to follow me there as well.)

12 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in September

This has nothing to do with the rest of the post, to be honest.

My Time Out Chicago September art pick post is live: 12 shows to see next month. (Not including Expo Chicago, which I’ll be previewing.)

Because of a comment I left on a video that popped up on my Facebook feed, I CAN DO THAT—along with the photo album of its opening—is getting a spike in traffic. (What I can’t do? Believe that crazy beautiful show was 3 years ago. Oh yeah and whistle.) As announced in the previous post, you can look forward to my next big independent curatorial project in June.

And I’ll leave you with this statement.

Age of Leo

6th birthday. (Also what I look like with short
hair and a tan. Mind-blowing, I know.)

I’ve been invited to curate an exhibition at the Zhou B Art Center. Save the date! The opening reception will be June 17, 2016. Thanks, Sergio Gomez!

Also, I noticed that I have over 1000 followers on Instagram now, and I’ve been on IG for little more than a year. Thank you, everyone!

And: Today’s my birthday!

9 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in August

I have a new post on Time Out Chicago today: 9 art shows to check out next month.

(Also, thanks to TOC, I’m going to Lollapalooza for free so I guess I’ll be seeing Sir Paul McCartney tonight. [My childhood self—this nerd who was such a music snob she refused to listen to anything but classical music and classic rock and would play the White Album on loop—is freaking out.])

Happy [early] August [a.k.a. my birth month and therefore the best month, to be honest]!

11 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in July

Here’s my Time Out Chicago post of art shows to see this month.

Other Chicago stuff:

• The Chicago Artists Group Portrait (mentioned in the previous post) was incredible. (I sat behind two dogs. Perfection.) Thanks to Jason Lazarus for masterminding it—look out for his official image around August 1!—and thanks to The Chicago Reader for featuring my snapshot from that day in Best of Chicago 2015. (Flashback to the last year The Reader had a “Best Local Visual Arts Blog” category and guess who won, thanks to the best global blog following?)

And personal stuff:

• Seriously considering using this or this as my headshot for the children’s books I’m writing and illustrating. (When I was that age, I was doodling satirical newspapers like this one. Not sure which is my favorite: the President’s “sexual affair customers,” my downright wacky Mulan parody, Dennis Rodman as a literal Worm, or Michael Jordan auditioning for the Spice Girls. Zeitgeist.)

• I started a 500px. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (And was already spotlighted on the site’s Twitter. Thank you!) Since I’m slightly more discerning with what I upload there, however, you can find more of my photos on Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

Happy July!

10 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in June

Here are my June art picks for Time Out Chicago.

In other news:

Chicago, get excited for Expo this September! A couple days ago I attended the exposition’s Gallery Announcement Celebration after which I walked into a restaurant just to take a picture and snuck onto a hotel rooftop and the enthusiasm was palpable. Until the fair arrives, you can read my past interviews with its President and Director, Tony Karman.

Chicago artists, be a part of this group portrait! June 20, in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. (While you’re there, check out the MCA’s new exhibition. Being inside a hot air balloon gave me flashbacks to Parachute Day in elementary school P.E. 90s kids unite!)

And thanks so much to Choose Chicago and Buzzfeed for featuring this photo I took of Marina City, Mashable and Conor MacNeill for featuring this photo I took of the Lincoln Park Nature Boardwalk, and Localiiz Hong Kong for featuring this photo I took of the Nan Lian Garden! (You can view more of my photos on Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest. And, to answer a question I’ve been getting lately, the camera I use is the one on my phone. I am all about sacrilege.)

Happy weekend!

9 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in May

Prairie Fire by Hua Tunan.

Flowers aren’t the only things you can look forward to seeing in May. Here are my Time Out Chicago recommendations of gallery shows worth checking out next month.

(And, in case you missed it last week, here’s my post about a new collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.)

Also, I just realized that I never wished you a happy spring [because I was in Hong Kong during the equinox], so: Happy spring!

5 highlights from the $400M collection donated to the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago.

I know, I know. In the last post I said I’d elaborate on my Hong Kong trip “in the next post.” I promise I’ll get to that within a reasonable time! (Snippets from the trip are on Twitter, and all photos are on Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest.)

But! It’s time to celebrate, art lovers. The Art Institute of Chicago will receive the largest gift of art in its 136-year history: 42 internationally recognized contemporary art masterpieces, donated by local collectors and philanthropists Stefan T. Edlis and Gael Neeson. The collection will be on permanent view in early 2016. In a new post for Time Out Chicago, I’ve picked 5 highlights.

8 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in April

Hutments by Nancy Lu Rosenheim.
(Image courtesy of Hyde Park Art Center.)

I’m back! (More about my Hong Kong trip in the next post. For now, you can look through my travel photos on Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest. I also micro-blogged on Twitter.) And so are my local art recommendations. Here’s my Time Out Chicago post of 8 gallery exhibitions to check out in April.

Journey to the West [because that’s my flight route]

Me and the Big Buddha, 1996.

I’m going to Hong Kong today! (Ah, yes, my annual Art Basel VIP visit. You can read about last year’s in “Pearl.”) I look forward to these trips no matter what, but this one has particular resonance as it’ll be the first to H.K. since fall’s protests.

For the folks back home, here are my recommendations for Chicago art gallery exhibitions to see in March.

Follow along on Instagram and Twitter!

8 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in March

Matissification by Richard Shipps. (Image courtesy of Elephant Room.)

My art picks for March are on Time Out Chicago. Enjoy your weekend!

7 artists reveal what they love—or don’t love—about Chicago

Red Touching Yellow, Red Touching Black by James Jankowiak.

My second Time Out Chicago post is up. I asked seven local artists, “What’s your favorite part about Chicago’s art scene? How does this city inspire you?” Here’s what they had to say.

9 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in February

Photo by Hyounsang Yoo. (Image courtesy of Filter Photo Festival.)

My first Time Out Chicago post is live. Happy Friday!

Time and Space

Hope you’re having a wonderful 2015 so far! (For the best of last year, check out the previous post.)

I’ve been invited to blog for Time Out Chicago. Thanks for the opportunity, TOC!

I’ve also started a series called Scribble Sunday; every Sunday I’ll post a doodle / drawing of mine—old or new—on Instagram. Follow along!