joannaliangart

[joannaliangart]

Here; (is the only place) (2025) 2 x 10.5” (closed), 16.5 x 10.5” (fully open), 1.375 x 16.5” (pop-out accordion segment) 16 page accordion-fold book (+23 page pop-out accordion). Risograph-printed, ink and coloured pencil illustrations and poetry.

Here; (is the only place) features riso-printed ink illustrations and poems. The book connects childhood grief with climate grief through their shared experience of losing home and being swept into a future that threatens unbelonging. Depending on how the book is held, the openings cut into the pages become doorways to frame the past (pages) or only empty space— regardless, something has disappeared.

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My last crit at ECU was for this piece!! im graduating this May my god it still hasn't really sunken in yet

I got a lot of positive feedback for this work and my live reading of it and the colours turned out even better than I could’ve hoped :']

I’ve applied to a few zine fairs including VABF, so hopefully I’ll be able to sell these there! Otherwise I’ll look into maybe an online store or smth like that (spooky but exciting)

Oughh I don't know about new favourite (There Are Good Things Yet To Bury still pops off to me lol) BUT I think it's definitely been one of my favs to work on!! in terms of process n all that C: BECAUSE!! I got to try out my new dip pens and finally use those acrylic inks (that i got in 1st year cause they were on the class materials list and then we never fuckin used em. rip but hey now here we are full circle) and do some traditional illustration!!! New territory for me and it was really fun!!

I usually stick with digital illustration for all my finished illustration work (vs my traditional sketchbook is only rlly for studies or sketches/thumbnails) but oughhh my god this might change me. this might do it LOL

Maquettes / Ideation phase

I knew I wanted to do more cool stuff with windows after TAGTYTB + at the time I recently had a dream about my childhood home again. It's something I noticed a long time ago, and all poetic metaphor aside I do literally just. only really dream about my childhood house lol, or rather do sometimes dream of other imaginary places but I NEVER dream of the current house I live in (maybe like 1-2 times that I can remember in the 8+ years I've been living here). I also wanted to do a long skinny accordion fold guy. No particular reason than it was an idea that kept sticking to me lol; + I hadn't done anything with accordion fold+windows and AH there's so much potential there because of how every single page overlaps each other with that folding method!!!

So! That was the basis for my concept, and I started to fold n scribble on scrap paper to make these maquettes. I also started numbering them which was SO helpful thank god because I think I ended up with TWENTY OR MORE maquettes by the end wagh!! But oh my god these were so helpful to make so many of I really hit on something with this one below, 1 big rectangle and 2 circle windows... It wasn't even intentional, I just cut them into the paper and then started drawing/writing, and once I reached the flipside realized that you could see the words "this is my home" on one page, above the drawing of the house which was on ANOTHER page. WHAT!! literally so cool I'm so happy that happened it literally dazzled me:

Midterm / printed maquettes aka poem writing in affinity publisher

In my final crit, one of my profs asked if 'this is what I saw in my head the whole time' in a 'wow I can't believe it looks this good congrats' kind of way LOL which is like so oof but so fair because this is what my midterm presentation looked like LMAO:

I have a LOT of analysis-type notes I wrote down in my google doc so I can remember in the future all my intentions with the poems and its a pretty LONG list. One of the main ones is how the semicolon ; operates as the symbol of being inbetween a continuation, barrier, threshold, stop, doorway... ALSO it kinda looks like a lock+door handle (!!)

Also this might've been before my midterm, but I went back to my childhood home area and ough. I'm glad I did cause I got inspiration for the illustration imagery when I saw how big the trees had gotten. I literally said out loud "oh!" aough my god. I don't know I just hadn't expected it... I think I had even noticed it a few years ago when I visited but forgot and I just. augh. Included the experience in one of the poems in this book "I looked for my grief / I looked / for disappointment [...] and still i was / startled / by the / bigness of the / trees [...] it's just such a relief / to know that something grew / up with me"

ILLUSTRATION TIME BABEY

this whole process was FULL of stress but like GOOD stress. I was on my fuckin grind dude All my text/poems/windows layout was all formatted in affinity publisher, and then I printed that out (at staples, I was gonna use the library but they couldn't print tabloid size paper rip) and just pencil sketched right on those. I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS DIGITALLY I DON'T THINK. Because it involved cutting out the windows so I could PHYSICALLY take the paper and see where the images would line up on other side. which was fun as hell

Then I took to staples again and made photocopies (so I didn't fuck up the original pencil sketch), and then traced the tabloid size + windows onto my nice paper. Also look at my setup !! We have this glass table in my house, and I had the kickass idea to put a bright light underneath as a DIY lightbox yippee!! It is however a very low table and while I had a lil stool it prob wasn't great for my back or legs lol (sidenote why are lightboxes so expensive its just a box with a light in it man)

inking time! dip pens ouh my goodness... Still trying to get used to them but they give such nice results.. I'm surprised at how much I like how the illustrations turned out tbh but I am really enjoying this kind of weaving, vignette/snapshot/overlapping almost collagey kind of vibe it has, especially with the text. Similar to the poems I also have a list of all my illustration symbolism/analysis kind of thoughts. it's a shorter list, but one of the main things on there is how I kinda in the moment ended up creating these visual rhymes: The door hinge = rollerskate wheels = moth (plucked wing) = pine cone scale; representing how things follow you from past to present in different forms, things changing but into what? I did separate layers for lines and colour, main book and pop-out accordion. The colours were fun because the acrylic inks came with a dropper and I'd drip bits of ink from real high up to get a lovely splatter !! and also used a straw to blow wet ink around all around a good time I used a sheet of plastic to protect the paper with the lineart on it from the wet ink/water going onto the colours layer. The lightbox was good but defo less effective with the colours layer because the water would warp the paper and lift it away from the table surface (so I couldn't see the lines below rip) Oh my gosh and I used pencil crayons for more texture!! forgot about that lol but it really really helped, and I did some frottage of my childhood house's key+traced its outline; I really wanted the key to be as "real"/"connected to reality" as possible (+yes once again that is a truth in the poems, I do still have it because before it was sold someone broke in and completely destroyed the door handle/lock. we assume with a crowbar.)

also my cat would sit behind me on the couch while I worked sweet creature... (ouh and I know there's Himi Gouache in that one image but I didn't use gouache lol I was considering it but didn't) I worked on the illustration every day of reading week from morning to night to get it done in time for risograph printing hoowheeee

Scanning and Prepping for Risograph Printing

I scanned my lineart and colours with my school's fancy scanner (which I'm gonna miss once i graduate augh it scans soo nicely staples scanners dont do shit for detailed scans)

I knew how to do it in photoshop already, but Managed to figure out how to split my colours so I had files for just blue, just yellow, etc. Ended up with SO MANY FILES!! i love you risograph printer even if I had to prep and print 16 files and redo 2 masters lol

I checked how all the colours looked digitally but you really can't exactly predict how risograph will look until you print it, and I was trying to extrapolate and imagine how the prints would look based on these digital mockups lol.

Lucky for me, they actually turned out BETTER and brighter than I was imagining!! Except for pop-out accordion side A, which looked wayy too busy and forest-green for my liking lol. So I had to redo the master and ended up doing NO blue colours, only blue lines which I think turned out ooo yummy tasty speaking of redoing masters, I also had to re-do the teal in the main book too because it was WAY darker than I was expecting and making the text too hard to read waaagh but I'm so very glad I fixed it because it made a world of difference in legibility. In total ended having to buy 4 new masters to redo orz

Trimming folding binding

This was kinda irritating lol .. I didn't realize I guess the stack cutter in the comd studio cuts at a bit of an angle or smth cause the size was slightly smaller than I wanted. which is a problem because I need my windows and folds to line up as precisely as possible and the slight size difference kinda fucked that up :(( but ah well. it doesn't get super in the way of experiencing the work but I'm a little miffed lol I also had to score and trim all the pop-out accordions one by one waghhhh Look at this pile orz

I'm SO glad I scored all the fold lines for these though that was so smart of me thank god because I could not have folded them without those guides holy shit it would've gotten so misaligned. AND it made it soooo satisfying to fold along a score line, like with the gentlest pressure it folds perfectly right where you need ouh chefs kiss cutting the windows is tedious sigh but!! I'm very happy with the circle cutter I bought just for this project (and for future window cutting in future projects ofc). I actually bought 2 circle cutters but the first kinda fuckin sucked when I tested it out rip. You can't see where you're cutting and it's fine for Cutting A Circle but not for when you need to cut a circle in a SPECIFIC spot like I do lol. Olfa Compass Circle Cutter for the win babey (not sponsored. is that even a thing on tumblr posts. lol) also when you grab a handful of the folded pop-out accordions it makes me feel like I'm grabbin a bunch o fun caterpillars C:

Final crit!

I was really strugling with figuring out where or how to install this thing, but thankfully my profs had booked a space that once I took a look (I'd never been in that room before lol there's still so many rooms I probably don't even know exist at ECU) ended up working really well ! I borrowed a blanket/tablecloth from my supervisor at my workplace when I was talking about my project and wanting to find a fitting tablecloth, and the pic they showed me of it was p much perfect very colourful !! yaaay thank goodness I was able to haul a plinth over to the room and set it up by the window C: natural light and near the rooftop garden, very good! And set up a bunch o chairs so people could sit while I did my reading.

The reading went very well!! I actually lol its soo funny I had practiced a bit at home and had always held the book out to my right, but on the day of I held the book to my left n as I started reading realized "oh no. unexpected flip I can't see some of the words as good" LOL but once I got to the pop-out accordion I kinda had an excuse to switch to holding it out to my right haha and it went smooth The class really liked my performance and the work overall which I'm awaughhh :'] like TAGTYTB people were really into the "choreography/architecture" of the windows, as one person described which is SUCH a good word for it o my goodness

And 5 people bought a copy!!!!!! oh my god!! tbh I thought maybe 1 or 2 ppl might but 5!! I'm not particularly close with any of them either, I'd consider like 2-3 I'm more familiar with but even then oh my gosh. awaa ;;w;; was so so lovely and gave me a lot of confidence in the piece I printed 100 copies! don't know if i should print more or not seeing as it was so successful... my energy is pretty spent now and I wanna take a while to recover lol now that the semester is winding down. But I'm gonna lose studio access to the comd risograph printer soon so i dunno... ah sigh

Now the grad show is my next big thing. my application is submitted and the due dates gone n passed, but this crit gave me the confidence n idea to do a reading of the book(s) I'm showing...... I sent an email if there's any way I could add some kind of scheduled event to my application but idk it's been a week since the due date so it might be too late to make changes rip

other fun stuff

It's now in the ECU artist book collection!!! I was so spooked by it but my profs recommended I look into it and the process was way easier and the person I emailed had the vibe like they did this all the time lol???

🎶 Music I was listening to while writing the poems to try and catch the vibes I needed:

Virgina - Boys Go To Jupiter

Claw Machine - Sloppy Jane ft. Phoebe Bridgers

Death Throes Of A Struggling Romance - (formerly Maryknoll)

Copacabana - Harvard Dn & Tonics acapella with Soloists Elio Kennedy-Yoon and Andrew Courtney

No More Birthdays - Sophie May

Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl - yeule

wish u were here - Boys Go To Jupiter

Lovers Always Lose - Boys Go To Jupiter

Ankles - Lucy Dacus

+like the whole Meet Me After Practice album - Boys Go To Jupiter LOL i love it soooooo fuckin much

[joannaliangart]

There Are Good Things Yet To Bury (2024) 7.5 x 9 in Case bound book, 84 pages. Photography and poetry.

There Are Good Things Yet To Bury features photos of community gardens and poems on climate grief, gardening, and the purpose of hope. Physically cut into many of the pages are windows, enabling fragments of images and text on the previous and following pages to be reactivated and recontextualized. The book reflects on how gardens nurture during crises, and the futures that hope can bring us.

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Final project for my VAST class this semester! Agh I really think it’s my new favourite…!!

I was actually struggling with this one for a while, I just couldn’t seem to clarify the concept in my mind clearly enough. I think it was writing the rainbow poem when things really started to pull together, which was tricky as hell making sure it was still coherent through all 7 ‘window’ pages AS WELL AS a full spread! But I truly had SO much fun writing all the poems in this book it was such a joy :’) 

This is a project that I would love love love to be made into multiples and distributed in some capacity... I don't know if traditional publishing would ever take something like this on with how many window cuts there are haha, not that I know how complicated or uncomplicated it would be (but certainly more than if 0 windows lol). The profs on my panel review mentioned that I could look into getting a grant to make multiples but hoo that still sounds kinda spooky to me awaaa

But!! Ever since my Sunlight is moonlight book with that one window cut at the end I've wanted to do more with cutting into the page and having whatever is visible through the window be recontextualized with the flip of a page AH it's so fun and so much potential for poetic play!!!

process photos/more thoughts:

These documentation photos were kinda a pain btw lmao (i mean when are they not) i'm struggle so much with themm.. I'm also trying to be more aware of how much of a poem I'm showing in these photos as I recently learned that most literary magazines etc won't accept submissions if that piece of writing is posted (ie published) online already. I think small excerpts might be okay as long as it's not the full piece???? awagh I don't know I'm still learning AND I don't even know how focused I want to be on submitting poems to magazines... But I figured probably better to keep more options open for future-me just in case...

My mid-term presentation of the project! featuring:

wip mid-term artist statement

hastily printed out photos I was thinking of using in the final book

big bunch of poems to potentially use in the final book that I picked from my poem drafts that I keep in my notes app

that red book with a circle window I made for another class (just to practice case bookbinding) as an example of a window cut into the cover

lil white book in the back that was our class' "Seeded Notebook" assignment which was essentially a moodboard for our project

a mockup that had the idea for a hidden accordion fold page (the concept being that it would spill out of the book unexpectedly while you were flipping through it)!! kinda sad I didn't have time to add that into the final but boy o boy did I run out of time lol

Did u know I was gonna put illustrations!! into the final book as well! and while I had some fun making them and using my ipad as a makeshift light table and using my new fountain pen (oough don't get me started I've been on a fountain pen kick lately)... Ultimately I felt I 1. didn't have time to include them in a resolved enough way and 2. they felt kinda outta place from the photos and poems

Some inspirations during my researchy/brainstorming phase that I got from my school's artist's book collection!:

the cover of Water, Gold, Soil by Sayler/Morris, which got me hooked on the idea of putting a photo slightly embedded into the cover (doesn't it look so good on that book!!??)

Aunt Sallie's Lament by Margaret Kaufman, featuring these wild progression of increasingly smaller pages that change how you read the poem; nothing specific I took from this book tbh but was cool to look at lol

And you know I gotta look at Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer for a book with window cuts!! I soon realized It's only printed one-sided, which meant they didn't have to worry about how it would affect any text on the verso page. Which is like, fair enough for them they had a whole NOVEL of words to deal with lmao

I made my own book cloth for this project!! sort of!! I feel like I was doing something wrong, the interfacing I got wasn't really sticking to the fabric very well at times ????? Was kinda finicky not sure if I was doing something wrong during ironing... But I got to go into the fabric store and find the exact shade of pink I wanted for the cover C:

Did 3 small cover tests too (as per assignment requirements lol but also they were kinda helpful). Takeaway was that I didn't like how test 2 and 3 looked lol

AND HERE'S ME TRYING TO FIGURE OUT AND GET IDEAS FOR WINDOW CUTS. THIS PHASE WAS ACTUALLY EXTREMELY HELFUL because at the time i was SO stuck for ideas I'm not kidding I'm was STRUGGLING throughout this entire project from a conceptual standpoint. For some reason the thesis, the bones just weren't solidified in my head, and it kinda stayed that way until almost the very end when I was formatting the poems esp the rainbow poem. But I think it clarified completely once I thought of the title, which just kinda stepped into my brain after writing one of the poems (which has the line "there are good things yet to come") and then I was like I need a book title... and my brain did a few hops and there it was LOL and I'm so happy with the title :') it captures the main theme with a lot of nuance in a pretty simple phrase which is HOO boy chefs kiss and hard to come by haha I felt very lucky

Printing was also a pain because the print techs at my school misunderstood what I was trying to do (and I'm extra salty because I was right in the first place and they made me second guess myself cause they said they needed it formatted a different way!!! But in the end I was right the first time!!!) Siigh whateevsss the silver lining was that I did notice some things I needed to fix before printing anyways... Anyways I was trying to format it their way and I fucked it all up lol I was printing a b/w mockup on my own and despairing cause I thought I was gonna have to redo all my formatting (which, with WINDOW cuts which makes every page before/after matter a LOT felt like a nightmare)

But again I was right the first time lol so crisis averteddd just a lil spike in stress levels lol

Used the digital stack cutter on my own for the first time and ohh my goodness... I love my old manual big guillotine cutter but this guy. this guy was pretty cool look at his cool line of light that tells you where the blade is gonna hit

After agonizing so much over the concept and content I was sooo happy to just be Physcially Putting The Book Together, a real turn my brain off and just do him activity yaaay

This was my fun lil set up, I was recently given this bright light stand thingy which was actually so helpful lol; I like my dim cozy room light but it's not the best for Seeing what you're doing for art stuff

So much window cutting... Yes I just freehanded all round edges lol verryy carefully.. Some alignement issues but minor enough to not affect readability ^^

For example in these first two images with the star, I just ended up cutting off the misaligned cut-lines which made the star a lil bigger lol; was trickier with a star shape like that vs like a rectangle though because of how many vertices it had, aka more opportunities to fuck up the shape

Binding time!! look at that satisfying stack oouh yummy.. Also featuring my big slab of marble that's very heavy and works great to weigh down during drying lol. Also yes I put ziplog bags between the end pages and book block to protect against glue dampness because I've gotten spooked by how damp my Hazelnuts Grow on Trees book got when clamping it lmao

Some page alignment issues with the windows after binding but nothing major :)

[joannaliangart]

by the way! I redesigned my portfolio website, check it out :) (and let me know if theres any bugs or anything that looks off lol)

[joannaliangart]

Apple with ornament (2024) acrylic painting

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Tried to edit this photo as close to how it looks irl as I could, but I still think it looks better irl haha which I suppose is a good thing in itself anyways

It's been quite a while since I did painting! I quite enjoyed it actually, got the chance to use these square brushes I was given a long time ago but never used. That silver gift bow on the right was actually very fun and satisfying to paint with square brush haha I'm surprised at how well it turned out. And it was actually a good way to study lighting on shiny objects I think i have a little better understanding of how to do that now :>

I might give apple a lil brighter of an eyeshine later but I kinda like just the blue im still undecided

Based off this photo of my cat :') its a fuzzy felt ornament he's grabbin

isn't he so sweet...

and here's some process photos:

+bonus of what apple was up to while i was painting

[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

ink

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 is 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?

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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

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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...