joannaliangart

[joannaliangart]

my final for the graphic novel illustration class I took this semester!! feat. Bluebell Littleears' first time meeting Wicker...

I would love to make Bluebell's story a full comic someday!!! So this was a great way to get a feel for how it would be to draw a lotta these comic pages

oh and! I made the font from my own handwriting using calligraphr! I was really struggling with finding a font I like, and tbh while this is p good it'd be nice to find a font I can use that is actually properly designed lol but! i dunno the more time I spend away from it I think the more I'm liking it

commission info || ko-fi (tip jar)

[joannaliangart]

character design assignment for my graphic novel illustration class! Everyone say hi to Wicker!!!! he's gonna be part of the Bluebell Littleears universe!

yall know i LOVE drawing expressions hehe I had a lotta fun with this C:

commission info || ko-fi (tip jar)

[joannaliangart]

'title page' assignment for my graphic novel illustration class! At this point in the semester I was itching for some text and panels haha so I incorporated the title into the last panel C:

feat. my beloved Candle Light and her mother Hazel! and Sergeant Green. Zahrati means 'my flower' in arabic; or at least that's my intention anyway, google gave me some conflicting answers (so if anyone knows arabic and wants to confirm or deny I'd appreciate the knowledge! Hazel speaks egyptian arabic specifically, if that's important info)

also I tried lettering this in affinity designer (equivalent to adobe illustrator) as I heard that was a typical professional comic process; I'm glad I tried it but in another assignment I did the lettering right in clip studio paint and that went much easier and felt I had more control over the speech bubble shapes... But augh i just wish CSP would come out with a spell check feature!!! I like typing the text right into the program orz

commission info || ko-fi (tip jar)

[joannaliangart]

He tore Hummingbird into a thousand pieces. But each piece... ...turned into a new hummingbird.

'Picture book spread' assignment for my graphic novel illustration class! Text is from the Condor's Wife story, specifically the version from Yoshi Yoshitani's Beneath the Moon: Fairy Tales, Myths, and Divine Stories from Around the World ^^

I like to think of this spread as one in a children's book that would teach readers about animal species in South America (especially hummingbirds, of course!) I made the Pink Throated Brilliant our protagonist, and in this theoretical full picture book I imagine that they're just fully green at the beginning, until they get their pink throat from the condor at this point in the story :')

I had a lot of fun with this!! I actually initially wasn't looking forward to this assignment because I was more interested in the 'graphic novel/comics' part of this class (it's technically called a 'narrative illustration' class, so this was our first assignment), but I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

I did research on what species of hummingbirds could be found in the area around Peru, as well as the habitats of those hummingbirds and Andean condors! I got most of the hummingbirds from this list on Hummingbird Central. I didn't know there were so many hummingbird species!! Sword-billed might be my fav but they're really all so lovely

also got some real good feedback on this one about my typography; in my inital version of this piece the text was much larger and pink; im always too worried ppl won't notice the text but i was really disliking how it looked. My prof said the text reminded them of a poster too much, and after looking at other picture books for reference i realized the text in those are often really very understated and with smaller font!! and it suddenly clicked a little better when i thought back about when my prof had been talking about the importance of image over text in children's picture books and how they're often read to them by adults (I'm a big words enjoyer and sometimes I lose sight of image for the sake of text haha) so I changed it to this and while it's not 100% to my liking I think it's much better than my first version so I'm happy :)

commission info || ko-fi (tip jar)

here's the Condor's Wife story from Beneath the Moon by Yoshi Yoshitani!:

and here's my old version of this assignment with the big poster looking text lol:

[joannaliangart]

Hello! this blog is an attempt to categorize all* the art I've ever done! (more details on that below the bullet points)

It's still a bit of a work in progress with uploading previous work; once I'm done with that I'll start linking this tumblr on my various other social media probably maybe lol

#Tagging system:

(all art is also tagged with their title+year of creation. you could use tumblr's archive view to sort by year, but at the start of this blog I was uploading a bunch of old art a lil out of order so that won't really work for most work made before 2024 lol)

Mediums

acrylic

animation

artist books

books (also see: zines / artist books)

comics

craft (ie kinda like more functional than conceptual, e.g. earrings or bowls)

digital

etching

gouache

illustration

linocut

markers

mixed media

photography

plants (when I use. dried plants etc in my work)

poetry

print (ie printed matter)

printmaking (also see linocut / etching)

risograph

storyboarding

textiles (includes if I paint on fabric)

video

watercolour

zines

Categories/context

amv

apple (my cat lol)

commissions

doodle sheet

fanart

fursona

ib art (also see: uni)

map part

me (also see: fursona / moss)

moss

oc (notably: bluebell littleears / candle light / caligo)

peppermint-moss (youtube videos/commission work will have this tag)

plein air

process (ie sharing thoughts on concept/creation process)

scribbles (ie doodles/quick work)

sketchbook

studies

uni

update later (a tag just for me; posts I want to write more on/add new photos onto later when i have the time)

wip (work in progress photos)

More blog context:

"but Joanna, you already have another art blog and an instagram and a portfolio website where you post art!" Yes I know I have also been agonizing over this lmao. I've been just kinda thinking that man I make art for SUCH different audiences sometimes and I've finally relented to the necessity of dividing that art up into different accounts and places in order to give my work more clarity to those different audiences. BUT for ME I'd love to have one place where I can kinda just see everything and talk about all my work existing together... So this is what that blog is! It's All* My Art. I do love archiving and organizing things haha

This blog will also be the place I share my thoughts and process about a piece! Really going into the more traditional idea of "blogging" with this one boys

(*all is not quite accurate because for work made before 2018/19ish I'm just choosing what I think was significant to me/interesting in my journey. also *all except for I'll probably only put digital art that i feel is significant on this blog. see my peppermint-moss blog for a comprehensive look at all my digital art/animation and wips)

OTHER ART ACCOUNTS:

@peppermint-moss (tumblr + youtube) 🌸 digital art, animation videos, fanart 🌸 also see: digital art commission website (which are attached to the peppermint-moss name!)

@ joannaliang.art (instagram) 🎨 zines, artist books, some comics..... 🎨 more "visual art world" kind of things because most people who follow me there are from my university/similar spaces. a more 'polished' surface level look at my practice. (the place where I'd say things like 'my artistic practice...' and 'conceptually speaking my intentions for the piece were...' and whatever else lol)

portfolio website 🌱 the thing I'd send for applications/fancy people asking to see more of my work

this blog 💐 an attempt at a holistic catalogue of all of those things! + sharing my process/thoughts on my art

[joannaliangart]

A LIST OF THINGS I CAN’T REMEMBER (2024) 6.5 x 6.4 in 23 page case bound book and handmade pastepaper. Papercut art and poetry

The “list” includes things of the mundane, humorous, and heavy. At its core, this book asks what exactly is worth trying to hold onto in your memory. Whether because of its trivial or traumatizing nature, is it ever better to forget?

---

not sure if this is called papercut art? I'd been referring to it as 'paper art' in my mind but googling that leads to a lot of like, folded/oragami stuff too

final project for my praxis class in 3rd year! Got a good reception towards it during crit which was lovely C:

god this project took fucking FOREVER, I'm glad I did it because it turned out almost exactly how I pictured it but my goodness gracious AUGH it was a lil rough. I'd be working on this thing literally ALL day from morning till Very Late into the night for SEVERAL days straight to meet deadline it was kinda crazy. My floor was covered in a fuck ton of pastepaper I'd made and my finger was getting callused from holding the x-acto knife so frequently orz 23 pages of papercut images AND papercut words?? whhooweee

Watching a full playthrough of in stars in time is what kept me company during those long long days and nights haha, tis a very potent memory I have now (which now that the whole project-making ordeal is over is a p fun memory lol; isat is v v good)

some thoughts about this piece I jotted down in preparation for crit day:

A list of things I can’t remember my intention was to gather a list of mundane unimportant things as well as more like sad or poetically troubling things to disrupt it throughout. At the end it says “if I want to remember these things” because that is also something that I don’t remember, and it’s kind of the crux of the whole piece as this book at its core is about what kind of things are worth trying to hold into in your memory. 

That last page had black text because it’s the hardest to remember or think about, and as such it’s meant to be hard to read/make out clearly. 

The wavy black on the spine area is supposed to be like an encroaching darkness of forgetting lol

used pastepaper to make paper art trying to take advantage of the textures and colours I can make with pastepaper

+crit day installation! There were no white plinths left just this bright pink one?? But I was like. Actually that might fit the vibe lol and I think it did C: made the whole piece pop

For the assignment requirements we had to choose something from one of the special collections we visited, and I chose Janet Kellett's beautiful Qualicum Blue. And was also sooo grateful that googling it brought me to a whole website of theirs that had info on its creation. It's what got me into the rabbit hole of pastepaper and hoo boy! making it was a wholleee process haha; here's the slides I made for when we had to present our material research:

I did a WHOLE bunch of experiments; I really wanted to know what I could and could not do with pastepaper and I'm glad I pushed the material so much in the amount of time we had to complete this part of the project. My prof was surprised at how many experiments I did haha

+fun fact: I asked my prof if they could recommend me a place to source black paper for my book, and they sent me to what looked like such a weird sketchy on the edge of town looking place lmao But it was all good they were like a mass producer of paper or smth and they had a lil storefront? in their warehouse selling what I assume were leftover batches in smaller quantities; that was p fun and! Now I know where I can find paper

Also I got some remarks that the papercut art reminded people of The Very Hungry Caterpillar C:

[joannaliangart]

Earrings I made this summer! I'd been on the lookout for fun earrings to buy whenever I went to anywhere that'd be selling trinkets, but I'm very picky with my earrings... So I was like. Hey I should just make my own!!!

btw the fish ones are based on this incredible fish plushie I got from a thrift store made by a local artist in Steveston, as the tag it came with said. But the artist's name wasn't on it so I don't know who specifically made them... So the fish design isn't my original idea I just loveee this lil plush so much I had to turn him into earrings!!

They all turned out pretty fuckin good I love them so much GOD it took so long but it was so worth it I have SO much fun wearing these... There are polymer clay ones and shrink plastic ones; I used pencil crayons to colour the shrink plastic and put UV resin over them (which was so spooky lol I hate the idea of working with resin and I did my best to be safe working with it orz The resin finish does feel soooo nice tho I'm glad I did it) and then set them out in the hot summer sun for a day or two to cure.

wip photos:

Sketching out earring ideas (+some doodles of Candle Light in the corner lol):

polymer clay wip +linking the fruity one:

I have a bunch of chains and jump rings from old unwanted jewelry I took apart, which was perfect for adding additional details and beads etc. Earring hooks I got a few years ago from when I was making earrings to sell at the student art sale (+bonus you can see the lil fish plushie those earrings are based on haha)

I really love earrings with lil dangly trinkets, I want to feel like a bunch of keychains!! It's grounding and nice (sometimes its sensorily too much for me lol but I usually just vibe check in the morning to see if I'm feeling up to wearing one with a lot of jangly bits and that works fine. plus I can just take em off if needed whatevs)

For the shrink plastic I drew the designs digitally first n printed them out so I could trace them onto the plastic.

+bonus a v shitty video I took of the nasturtium shrink plastic one in the oven (its v fun to watch it curl. too bad the lil toaster oven window is so dirty lol)

[joannaliangart]

a life(,) you know(?) (2022) photography, series of 20

A series dedicated to intimacy. Found in community gardens, golden light, and human beings.

individual titles: golden ribbon tree decorated with new leaves || kaleidoscope home || a sweeter checklist garden shed side || autumn flowers and compost lending hands a pair of gardening glasses || a pair of gardening scissors neighbours || Fruit Tree Project's Sharing Farm garden || the Carriere garden Cindy and Linda's garden || for October || little wallflower let's go through the garden || secret passageway || to pull up a chair history of the garden bathtub || we will never stop looking at sunsets

---

My favourite photography series!! lending hands is still my absolute favourite. a pair of gardening glasses+a pair of gardening scissors I'm also p fond of C:

This was made for my second year photography class, I believe it was our first digital photography assignment, around the theme of "intimate life".

A lot of people tend to get confused about the title lol which is totally fair enough. It essentially can be read in 4 different ways with slightly different meanings, though they're all kinda about wishing for something better:

a life, you know? (as if saying to someone)

a life, you know (same as above but different inflection)

a life you know? (as if unsure about the familiarity of the life)

a life you know (a life that is familiar to you)

The whole time while taking the photos I was listening to the Rolodex album by the French Cassettes. Set the mood so perfectly I had such a beautiful time taking photos... Though it was getting a little trickier as the sun was setting haha. I went out to get that golden hour lighting, so there wasn't much time before it was getting too dark.

that last photo's title is inspired by one of my art history foundation year profs talking about photography and how there's so many photos of sunsets and we don't need anymore lol; it was in relation to some art piece that had a bunch of photos of sunsets I don't recall its title... Yeah but when I heard that I was like. bitch I've seen so many sunsets and I stop to look every single time. It's a little hard to see in the photo I think, but I took the photo when I spotted a parent and their kid tucked away together watching the sunset. So lovely and sweet...

+Here's me printing them with the school's printers lol. So slow... creepin

[joannaliangart]

air dry clay/wire earrings I made for myself in February 2021 (I don't wear them a whole lot nowadays but! Occasionally I do especially the umbrella/raincloud combo)

[joannaliangart]

some miscellaneous paintings of flowers I made in July 2022 (I believe it was primarily to test out the new himi gouache I got!)

wip photos (+a photo of the sweetpeas I was painting! They were freshly picked from my garden and smelled v nice and looked so pretty):

[joannaliangart]

Arts in the Garden 2023

In 2023 I was an exhibitor in North Van Arts' Arts in the Garden! Quite a bit of my work used plant materials and/or had themes around the environment/climate crisis, and in fact my ib art exhibition was originally conceived as being curated outdoors! So I was very excited to apply and very excited to have been able to show my work in this way!

The theme for the garden I was in was "Warm", and there were 2 other visual artists exhibiting with me, Donna Giruad and Thiseni Kristhorubadu! (who was actually a coworker and classmate of mine at the time, and it was complete coincidence we both applied for this event AND ended up in the same garden haha)

I also hosted a workshop as part of the event, making plant-collage books! which I pressed and dried a bunch of flowers/leaves for +brought other supplies. also made a lil how-to-fold a 1 page zine guide with lil drawn visuals! Was pretty popular with kids (one of my gluesticks and highlighters were destroyed lmao):

Artworks featured:

Rediscovery

Nests series: build a home and Flee The Nest

from the a life(,) you know(?) series: lending hands and a sweeter checklist

What Remains series

please return

2 dreams about disaster

Hazelnuts grow on trees

I also got news interviewed for this event!! Which is still wild to me haha v exciting; the news ppl came in while another artist and I were doing a first visit to the garden and figuring out where we wanted to place our pieces. I felt so rigid n tense during most of the interview orz but the interviewer was very nice and patient! Such a short clip was used in the video but I'm kinda glad for it haha I think they chose a good bit to include (out of all the who-knows-whatever-else i said lmao I truly can't remember) look at how cool and official I look what the heck man (cough back when my instagram handle was peppermint_moss lol):

Also I think I wrote waaayy too fucking much for my artist bio orz girlie you don't need to write that much askdlgh

The garden we were in was actually the one farthest away from me lmao and it was my first time driving on what I call a big boy spooky highway orz Was pretty daunting especially needing to drive there and back Twice for the 2 day event whooo man it was kinda stressful ;0; But I'm glad I did it! (Here's how a look at all my art n stuff packed in the car trunk ready to go):

Here's a few more photos I took of my pieces in the garden (I like how the dappled sunlight through the trees looks in these...)

[joannaliangart]

Human Nature (2021), my ib art solo exhibition! About using plants and nature as metaphors to symbolize human emotion and spirit.

It's quaint and patch-work looking haha but that's what makes it sweet to me. I know the photos are really shitty but they're the only ones I could find???? And they were like. crunched up lil screenshots of the original photos (so it's like. why didn't I just save the original photo file instead of taking screenshots?? who knows lol)

exhibition title was conceived of pretty early on into my ib art class, after I heard the song Give it Up by I Fight Dragons. "give it up for human nature!" ah I love how they sing that line...

My thesis in my curatorial rationale was:

"Human Nature explores the wavering personal connections we have and their impact on emotion, by drawing parallels to plants, animals, and the environment. My exhibition was influenced by the symbolic ways I noticed nature mirrored human life, and my experiences with how losing and finding connection with myself and others have affected me."

My art class had a garage door opening to the outside of the school, and I'd always wanted Human Nature to be located outdoors in some way. My original idea was somewhere else out on school grounds, but I think I wasn't allowed to do it there or smth?? Or maybe I think it was that I couldn't figure out where to display/hang certain pieces there (I think Rediscovery was the problem child cause he was so big lol)

I asked my teacher if I could use the garage door and they said yes! I think they were excited about it because it was a new kinda unconventional idea just because I think that garage door never fuckin gets opened lmao; day to day we'd just treat the thing as a second wall haha

This way we could also hang Rediscovery and something worth flying for on the bars of the garage door!! I went up on the tall ladder and wrangled with a lot of fishing line and wire lmao (here's the hanging of something worth flying for:)

Rediscovery looked SO fuckin good suspended with the breeze coming in and gently rippling the fabric AUGH it was perfect just how I wanted it ;w; I wish I took a video of it I don't think I did...

Here's me figuring out the projection of Unwanted; seeing which fabric colour worked better etc:

some random pics I took of please return (on the wall like an actual clock would be):

Also Yes Fruitless Longing was under the table because (ah here's how I wrote about it in my curatorial rationale:)

"Fruitless Longing similarly explores how the perceptions of others (or lack thereof) affects someone. It hides underneath the left table, shying from judgements and expectations. However, its lights only glow brighter in the dark— a fruitless attempt. The viewer has to crouch to get a good look at it, like coaxing a scared child out."

+bonus my embrace series was displayed in the nearby community centre as part of my art teacher looking into a space for her art class(es) to show some of our art if I recall correctly ^^

Artworks featured:

Rediscovery

something worth flying for

Wild Blood

Nests series: Flee The Nest and build a home

Unwanted

Uncertain Home

please return

embrace series

[joannaliangart]

Some things I made during the 3 day wheel-throwing class I attended back in 2023!

After my very disappointing ceramics class in which no wheel throwing was taught lol, I registered for a short wheel-throwing class with a friend! The class ended up being very small with just one other person so 3 students in total. Twas cozy and lovely!

These are the first things I've ever wheel-thrown, oh man it is tricky to get the clay to stop wiggling haha

For that second white+blue one (cough it has big warrior cats starclan vibes lmao), I was painting it with underglaze and ended up pressing too hard on a thin spot and it poked a dang hole into it :(( Augh I was so sad because that one was turning out to be my favourite with its fun ridges n compact lil shape and I was looking forward to drinking tea out of it... But it worked out because now I use it to hold my wires n stuff next to my bed, so I get to see it with its new function every day C:

+bonus this one was one my friend made and they were gonna toss it but I wanted to keep it so I'm the one who decorated it; its currently used as one of the water bowls for my cat haha:

+here's a pic of the white and blue one being used to hold my wires n stuff:

Sometimes I wish I did more ceramics but hoo boy I don't think I have the stomach for the amount of work and resources you need to put into it... But I think I would like it as an occasional hobby thing! The workload is big but the rewards (functional dishware Or fun little guy Or both) are so great...

[joannaliangart]

Cat and Fish ceramics (2022) slipcast salt and pepper shakers, spoons, and bowl/mugs

---

General concept/theme with these is that the cat spoon goes fishing in whatever beverage/soup you put in the mug! And the salt/pepper shakers is the cat licking their lips satisfied with their caught fish hehe

Process details + photos under the cut:

made for my 2nd year ceramics class; Which was such. a pain. in the fucking. ass. Like good things came out of it but the amount of really draining work this class put me through was ROUGH

its also the time I got literally the sickest I've ever been, during a time where I had to be coming into the studio to work every single weekday just to meet deadlines. My cough did not go away for so long and when it did, a few months later it even came back for a while (only popping up near nighttime??) Until it seemed to finally completely resolve itself after like a YEAR. I'm 95% sure it was covid tbh... The test came back negative but I didn't trust those lil at home test guys very much considering how many variations were flying around orz ugh

This ceramics class was also a bummer because I went into it expecting to do at least some wheel throwing (as was on the course description...) But it was all slipcasting and plaster mould making and! I hated it!!! Don't get me wrong slipcasting is v cool, I just hated Doing it lol its hard fuckin work and working with plaster stressed me out orz

But! The nice thing about a ceramics class is you get some fun objects out of it which I always love...

Here's my sketches/ideation:

oh yeah also made some test tiles which was our v first assignment; used these throughout to test underglazes/glazes/colour combos:

Salt n pepper shaker maquettes! testing out two different designs:

Plaster mouldmaking my beloathed (salt/pepper shaker, Bowl, and Spoon+mug handle):

Slipcast the boys; drying before bisque. I'd have to redefine the details on the shakers and mug by hand because they weren't super visible right out of the moulds:

a Bunch o colour/glaze tests:

Also ran into a pretty major issue with the spoons... I 100% should have been putting a little hole in the top of the spoon handle so I could fire it via having it hang suspended in the kiln. Eventually I started poking holes by hand into the spoons, But having overlooked that from the beginning I had a good amount of spoons that were too dry to have a hole poked into and with the deadline so close... (and even with some new spoons I fucked up and broke a few spoons when I tried to poke holes augh) the techs in the studio said they could put em on lil stilts and fire them that way. And I thought ok that sounds good! But... I didn't realize I'd have to be sanding the lil bit of metal from the stilts off from where it gets stuck to the glaze... :((

(see that spoon on the far right with the hole on top? that's the ideal orz)

So I had to take like a diamond tip grinder sander thing and sand that off, but it was very difficult and unpleasant and loud and still left some grey blemishes. And I was still so worried that usability-wise, you'd put the dang spoon in your mouth and feel a sharp bit of metal cut the inside of your very delicate gums :((

Yeah so this whole class and all its projects were a big ordeal for me orz but at least I got some fun salt n pepper shakers out of it (I use the brown/white cat shaker to hold my cinnamon sugar now hehe)

Also storage was an issue, I had to get a locker space just for this class. I'd be cramming all my guys into my locker; kinda funny to open my locker and see a bunch of lil guys lmao:

I ended up giving 4 of my friends a mug and salt/pepper shaker combo each for Christmas that year! I hope they still use them lol but I'm not sure? The sad thing is that my own two mugs I had in my kitchen cupboard have. fucking vanished????? my parents say they don't know where they went n I literally have no idea either and it fucking sucks (if one goes missing it's like fine that sucks. But both of them?? What the fuck happened). I still have like two bowls (ie no handles) in my closet at least but those were the ones that I'm not sure were food safe lol

[joannaliangart]

and, hold (2024) series of 3 books made from walnut shell, hazelnut shell, and scarlet runner bean pod. woodcut prints and poetry.

About the wonderful magic, hope, and love that is a seed.

---

Was introduced to the fun and beauty that is those lil diy Staples stamps back in my democratic multiples class, and was happy at the chance to use the one I bought haha. Was a little tedious putting in all the lil letters for each word, but stamping it was sooo satisfying

this ones cute and fun! Enjoyed carving the lil bean stamp C: I just used some scrap wood, it was kinda. a struggle lol And was my first time trying to make a woodcut but they turned out not bad I think

partly inspired by the word Encased, with its various definitions being:

be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea, quality, or feeling).

provide (a spirit) with a physical form.

include or contain (something) as a constituent part.

Twas the first project I made for my art+text studio course!

[joannaliangart]

Last Name (2023) 4.5 x 7” 25 page saddle-stitched book. 4-colour risograph cover, laser printed pages. Digital illustration and poetry.

documentation photos above taken by Ashley Cheng (@/0922s9 on instagram) and edited by me.

Last name is an illustrated poem. I rarely make work about my relationship with family because it always feels too fraught to draw inspiration from, but in this one instance I felt I could make art from it. My feelings around this piece and its subject are still complicated; so in an effort to be broad but accurate, I’ll say that Last Name is about not knowing what you inherit from blood.

---

Whoo man. One of the pieces that weighs heavier in my heart than most cause the subject is more of a currently ongoing thing. I always really liked this poem though its one of my favourites despite its subject matter, and I was glad to turn it into a visual art project. twas my final project for a 3rd year illustration class

Might upload all the digital illustrations of the pages someday but I want to make some new editions of the zine first! Tis another piece I'd like to sell n get out there in the world; I have like 18 copies or smth right now but to be so honest most of them are pretty fucked up lmao I did not do a great job binding these orz

Really love how the cover turned out! I was very specific with my paper choice; there's this beautiful paper (I think its name was Stardust White) with lil coloured specks in it that I bought from my school's riso studio specifically for this project and I adoreee how it turned out. My first time doing a 4 colour riso print too! Still feels very ambitious to me haha

A bit of linguistic context (yep I was playin around with the tension/differences between Chinese and English language; how v cool of me):

Chinese names have the surname come first; so while my English name is Joanna Liang, my Chinese name is Liang Shu Ran. So when I say 'last name' in English it refers to my surname, But theres a disconnect/inconsistency when literally translated, because the surname does not come last in Chinese.

This disconnect in what "last name" means serves as the conceptual centrepoint in this zine, representing the disconnect in culture, language, and family. In fact, in the title page, I translate the zine's title to Chinese (the 5 characters on the right of the phone):

Which, to give an accurate connotative translation back to English, would mean something like "final name" or "the very last name". (fitting again, considering I don't want children but that's a whoooooolleee other fuckin can of worms lmao)

In that title page, to the left of the phone is my Chinese name. But I've formatted it the English way, with the surname last: "Shu Ran Liang". And at the bottom, my English name formatted the Chinese way: Liang Joanna, with the title "translated" underneath as "first name" (so it still refers to my surname in this reversed formatting).

It's all kinda convoluted and complicated, which was intentional because that confusing and difficult to navigate path to understanding is precisely my experience with this particular aspect of my life.

+bonus here's this satisfying clean cut stack of pages ooooo *chefs kiss* Big stack cutter my beloved I'm gonna miss it when I leave uni it just so fun to use

+sweet things: when I was showing my mock-up with the roughs in class, one of my classmates said "that's beautiful" and pointed to the spread on page 21-22, with the fireworks exploding out of the panel frames. That was nice, cause I really like that spread too

[joannaliangart]

delivery for the ship of theseus! (2023) 25 page loose leaf book (incased via handmade envelope). Laser-printed screenshots and black-out poetry.

Delivery for the ship of Theseus! Is a collection of black-out poetry made from screenshots of my digital spaces: emails, calendars, notes, etc, from a variety of points in my life. A lot of these emails are from 2020, a time where my personal digital life suddenly increased drastically due to the pandemic. But I’ve also included emails from the farther past, such as an email letter I wrote to my future self when I was still in elementary school in 2016, that even just through blackout poetry reveals a large difference in tone and personality in my younger self, especially because 10 year old me used emails much more conversationally and mostly just with friends. Soulellis describes the infrathin the gap between two things as they transition/pass into one another. Delivery for the ship of Theseus! is all about the inbetween of changing, whether from a past self to a future self, or from text to degraded image, all archived in private personal spaces that are digital.

---

final project for my humanities art and text seminar class! Partly inspired by this piece by @/septemberart

I was so worried I was gonna reveal sensitive info because the sharpie wasn't opaque enough or smth lmao So I literally took whiteout and THEN did black paint marker over it haha; was fun doin blackout poetry!

text + artist inspiration (as per the class assignment requirements lol. I wrote a whole essay but here's the abridged summary I wrote for the presentation slideshow component we had to do):

"Text: Performing publishing: Infrathin tales from the printed web by Paul Soulellis Artwork/artist: SCREEN_ by Ada Wright Potter I have used Paul Soulellis’ idea of the infrathin of digital to print (and back again), Ada Wight Potter’s art project SCREEN_ that looks at email as a private and personal space, and the ship of Theseus thought experiment to explore how digital personal spaces like emails can reveal how someone changes over time. How much of someone has to change until they are someone different entirely? How much does a text have to be degraded until they are illegible, read only as an image, not words? What is ‘read’ in the digital space as a text, versus an image icon or symbol (e.g. The ‘i’ icon to symbolize a button to click for more information)? By creating blackout poetry I had to ask myself what ‘counted’ as a readable piece of text a lot."