LNY 2023 🐇

Jan 22, 2023

Worked till around 11pm on Friday before closing the studio for an extended LNY holidays. Managed to finish the annual 100 Blessings (百福) art project at home the next day on LNY’s eve. Feel relieved and satisfied to have taken up this challenge and completed it in just a little over a week!

My rewards started coming in one by one as my friends started receiving the postcard fai-chuns and happily shared photos of them together with their LNY decorations. I believe there’s still value in physical objects crafted by hand and delivered slowly via mail. It beats receiving hundreds of stickers via WhatsApp in my opinion.

The 100 Blessings art project exhausted much of my energy this past week. Worked late in the studio on most nights in order to squeeze time to meet and catch-up with a couple old friends for dinner on Tue. Also managed to see the much acclaimed First Slam Dunk with fellowship friends on Wed. evening, it did not disappoint.

It’s a little disappointing, however, that I couldn’t squeeze enough time to do cleanup at home and get a much needed haircut before the holidays. I can honestly say that I’ve already done my best to use the scarce time I had before the early LNY holidays, any minor work left unfinished will have to wait till I finish with a long overdue project over this extended LNY holidays!

Sketch… Sunday Service

Jan 22, 2023

100 Blessings (百福)

Jan 15, 2023

CNY will be very early this year. With the scarce time, I was debating whether to do the 100 Blessings (百福} art project again this year. I had many positive feedbacks from friends receiving the hand drawn postcard fai-chuns last year, some even framed it like precious artworks. And when I was visiting friends in Canada in the summer, some still had it prominently displayed in their homes! With this flattering encouragement from friends, I decided to accept the challenge and take on this tedious yet rewarding art project again this year!

Collaborated with the same paper artist again this year. Her workshop’s rent was raised considerably by the landlord at the start of the year, so I accepted her request to raise the price of the handmade paper. I immediately got to work after picking up the paper from her on Wed. Worked till late at night in the studio from Wed. to Sat. Finished drawing about half of the 100 postcards and had the first batch of greetings sent off to friends in Canada and US. I think I should have enough time this week to finish the remaining postcards before closing the studio for CNY holidays.

Besides the postcards, I also managed to finish writing the fai-chuns for my parents and my sister this afternoon, it’s an annual exercise for my family since I started learning Chinese calligraphy in 2016. CNY seems like the only time of the year when learning Chinese calligraphy seems useful.

Time will be extra scarce this week, hopefully I can still find time to do some cleanup at home and get a haircut before CNY holiday starts. Add oil! 💪🏻

Sketch… Sunday Service

Jan 15, 2023

Deep Work

Jan 8, 2023

After the government finally abandoned the useless vaccine pass restrictions near the end of 2022, I began using the public library system again. Just when I was in the process of making new year resolutions and planning my work for the new year, I borrowed and read a very useful book that was added to my reading list a long time ago.

The book reminded me of how wasteful I had been in using my time on “shallow work” instead of dedicating more time and effort on “deep work” that’s more difficult but at the same time potentially more meaningful and rewarding. I think I’ll achieve new heights of my stagnant career this year if I can follow some of the suggestions in the book such as working deeply, embrace boredom, quit social networks, drain shallow works, etc. Interestingly enough, I’ve already started to act on some of the suggestions before reading the book, this includes limiting my time spent on social networks and mindless web surfing and isolating myself at home in long stretches of time to work on projects. Will see if I can make breakthroughs in my work this year as I try to adopt this new approach of working more deeply.

May God guide me and bless my work this year, let me use the gift He has given me to serve others, as faithful steward of His grace in various forms. 🙏🏻

Sketch… Sunday Service

Jan 8, 2023

New Year Holidays

Jan 2, 2023

The New Year holiday was rather dull and quiet. Went to get my fourth vaccination shot on Friday (30th) around noon. Afterwards, I went back to the studio to do some work before joining my annual high school friends gathering in the evening. The bivalent vaccine shot had familiar side effects as previous shots and I slept rather poorly that night.

Thought about resting at home the next day (31st), but I reluctantly headed out in the afternoon to shop for the sole purpose of using up the credit card’s cash dollars. Dropped by the studio after shopping before heading home. Managed to finish up the last of my Inktober52 cartoons just before crowds started cheering on the street for the arrival of 2023.

Had the opportunity to rest finally on New Year’s Day. Besides the usual online Sunday service in the morning, I skipped the usual afternoon painting session and evening dinner at my parents place (my dad caught covid last week 😢, but fortunately only had minor symptoms).

Went out for lunch with a few UW friends today. Besides the couple of meetups with friends, I spent most of my time watching shows on Netflix this New Year holidays. Binge watched all the movies and TV series that interested me. Feels like I’m now ready to get back to work for what looks to be a busy Jan. before the CNY holiday starts. Add oil!! 💪🏻🙏🏻

Sketch… Sunday Service

Jan 1, 2023

Holiday Season Begins

Dec 25, 2022

The holiday season had started. It began with Winter solstice on Thur., Christmas today, New Year coming Sunday, and CNY on Jan 22nd.

Had Winter solstice lunch with my calligraphy class on Thur. Turned down my mom to go home for dinner because our family already celebrated in advance last Sun. This Christmas weekend felt more or less the same as other weekends. Went for my running practice on Christmas Eve, the park was more quiet than usual, and I ran for about 10K. Christmas Day today started with an earlier Sunday Service, I continued to do it remotely at home. Spent the afternoon to continue painting my endangered animal caricatures series. At night, I went back to my parents’ place to dine with them as usual. It was like any other Sunday.

Have been busy catching up on the Inktober52 cartoons in the past couple of weeks. Drew a piece of cartoon almost everyday. Happy to have finally caught up yesterday, now left with just 2 more prompts to finish up before the year ends!

Sketch… Sunday Service

Dec 25, 2022
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