From the Collage Sketchbook

Hello friends!

I recently organized my desktop files and came across some things I never shared. Let’s take a stroll!

Do you have a twin that’s not actually a twin?

People used to call me a bungeoppang (붕어빵), which is an affectionate way to say that I am my mother’s twin. Bungeoppang (붕어빵) is a Korean fish-shaped sweet bread. You use fish molds to make them, so you end up with a little school of identical fishies filled with red bean. People always mistake me for my mom, and I was thinking about that when I made this collage.

While looking through black and white photos of my grandma, I spotted windows and tiny people in the background and cut them all out. I paired them with cloud-like marks made by my toddler.

I have been obsessed with windows lately. They keep showing up in my collages and sketches. I’ve also been feeling stuck and bound to routines. Maybe I need a vacation. Freedom, I crave you!

Watercolor tests on a piece of paper —> a collage —> an animation.

This was my first time combining collage and animation and wooooo the process felt intuitive and fun and freeing. I’ll definitely be trying this again. (P.S. That’s a Bluey book I’m reading.)

I like to scan my collage papers before I cut them up. Just in case I want to use them digitally. Collaging is turning me into a hoarder!

I love the surprise element of gelli printing. Highly recommend adding a drop of metallic silver to your prints. It adds that ooh-la-la feel. But the shine gets lost in scanning, booooo.

Before I go,

• A poem I wrote for the (toddler) mother-artists - Longing.

• I am really into reading (and attempting to write) prose poems these days. Send me your favorite prose poems! I love this one: What I Think About When Someone Uses “Pussy” as a Synonym for “Weak”.

• “There are times when intense determination is the move — when I must become the magnifying glass that can focus the rays of the sun to a single point. But it is a move, not a permanent state of being.”

Thank you for reading!