Tag: doodle explained

This morning, I woke up. I had a strong desire to doodle. There were things on my mind I needed to articulate. That’s how I cope with things.

What I wanted to articulate was that there are two types of people. One who rationalizes and analyzes the past history, present situation, and future possible outcomes before opening doors of possibilities. The other type would not think too much and keep as many doors opened as possible. There is no right or wrong answer here. Just difference in approach.

Centered to this doddle is one giant door that leads to nine doors. Why nine? In Chinese culture, the number nine symbolizes eternity, or in this case, infinity. It forms the universe we are currently living in (hence the trees and hills).

On the right, are cards of infinite possibilities. The outcomes are unknown. They are blank. Only time will tell what they are.

On the left, the focal point is the person, standing on top of an hour glass. Time is running out. Quick, make decisions! Wrapped around the person and the hour glass is a dual-symbol. It is a question mark. The person is thinking. It is also a serpent. There are temptations and risks as the person is staring into opportunities.

Lastly, observing this doodle from left to right first is a car. It represents the modern world, reality, technology, and hence, logic. In the middle are doors, but they are also metaphors. On the right, the concept further breaks into abstraction.

It is a journey from reality into abstraction, from the known into the unknown.

I wonder if painters explain their works under normal circumstances, or let the viewers, big time critics to figure out what the artworks really mean, the inspiration that was behind the drawings.  Like Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam”.  Did he explain to the then media that the blob behind the painting of God is indeed a brain?  Or someone simply figured it out?  It would be so flattering if someone in the future ‘figures out’ my works.  For now, back to reality, some of you may wonder how I compose the drawing “Bleeding Heart and the Thread of Fate”.  If you have not seen the drawing, I hope you have a look at it before reading further.

Center to this drawing – both theme-wise and location-wise – is what you see above: a bleeding heart and a 8-shaped thread cut opened in two places.  I deliberately leave the heart hollow, and broken.  Like I wrote in the previous entry, the Chinese title is 《心中滴血紅線斷》.  That is a big drop of dripping blood you are seeing.  The thread, again, is the ‘red thread’.  In Chinese, it is the thread that binds the married couple, a thread of fate that brings the couples together in the first place.

The main subject of this drawing is a girl, with a broken heart (please refer to original drawing).  You can see a teardrop from her eye, her shoulders, and her upper body.  There are two hands by her side (check out the palm lines).  Some form of support, some form of care from her friends and family.  There are two more hands side by side with opened palms right underneath the bleeding heart.  Again, it is a form of support.  What an abstract pair of hands you may ask.  If you look closer, from the shoulders of the girl, tracing along her sides with patterns marked by the fingers, all the way to the finger patterns and the gap between the two palms at the bottom – this forms a butterfly.  I wish to convey a sense of femininity to this drawing.  Also to bring forth the concept of something so beautiful, yet temporal, time bound (butterflies don’t live long).

Previously, I mentioned that there are four faces revealed by rotation.  To help you to visualize, I have extracted the bits for each face.

Face #1 should be obvious.  That is our main subject.  Face #2 requires a bit of imagination.  Can you see the two lines of tear from the girl’s eye?

Face #3 and #4 look like distorted figures, which I have intended to in order to signify the pain of a broken heart.  There is a face, shoulders, one eye (while another one hidden in the shadow), a nose, and an opened mouth with teeth.

OK.  That is all I have.  I hope you find this write-up interesting.  Thanks for reading!

Related Entry: The Original Drawing

This one is for you, Alex.  The only person I know who is curious about the composition of my drawing “A God That Sleeps”.  For those of you who have no clue on what I am talking about, please refer to my previous entry first.

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The driver for the theme of a sleeping God is natural disaster, represented by the volcano in the center of the drawing.  Behind the volcano is an elephant.  You may not see its ears – though I did struggle to fit those into the picture and have decided against it – you should however see the trunk, the tusks, and the back (and the tail too!).  Upside down is a whale.  Elephant is the largest land animal now living; whale is the largest mammal living in sea.  Together they represent the land and the sea; the legacy of our world.  Initially, I wanted to draw the sky and the sea but have chosen the animals instead.

I am much affected by the recent news on the environmental impact due to climate change.  And that is the disaster I am trying to depict.  Later, I have added a sea turtle (the head is on the right with the eyes that have the same style as the elephant) that largely encompasses the entire drawing, for a few reasons.  First, it fits the theme of the animals and the volcano.  Second, turtle lives in both land and sea so the engulfment of the other two animals seem appropriate.  Third, I remember seeing ancient drawings that depict our ‘flat’ world as a turtle (I could be wrong!).

Within the perimeter of the volcano is a sleeping God and a man.  Only the face of God is shown, with eyes closed.  When I compose this, I have Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” in mind (on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel).  Instead of God creates man in his own image, I deliberate choose a contradiction that the two do not resemble one another, that man looks nothing like God (and God looks awfully like us!).  Also, I have recent read the latest fiction written by Piers Anthony from the Immortality series.  That reminds me of the storyline of how the Incarnations collaborate and overthrow the Office of Good – a.k.a. God – for God no longer responses to us.  Hence this composition of man attempting to awaken the sleeping God.

Another point of interest to note is that when I compose this face of God together with the elephant and the whale, I had in mind the stretching arms of God (depicted by the elephant’s trunk and the whale’s tail) as though God puts his arms behind his head, sleeping.

How can a drawing with a man and without a woman?  I love balance.  And I have deliberately space out the heads onto each one-third section of the drawing.  On the left, the turtle and the whale; in the middle, the man and God; and on the right, the woman and the elephant.

In the old days, mankind invented many ways to interact with God, to please God, and to tame God’s wrath.  And I have in mind the sacrifice of the virgin into a volcano for this purpose.  I have also decided on the 7 strands of hair.  According to the Bible, the number 7 signifies completeness, perfection.  She is not just any virgin, but a perfect one.

Can God be awaken in time before the volcano destroys the world?  No one knows.  Every entity in this drawing are waiting.

Like Alex has rightfully pointed out, buttons and zips have become a ‘trademark’ of mine.  I am obsessed with putting this ‘kinetic’ interaction into my drawings, urging the viewers to unlock the mystery within.

I have resisted writing how I compose this drawing because it may read silly (and long!).  Some may think that I am a lunatic.  But for the few curious ones, well, the composition is not at all random.  Now that I have probably said all that I should, I better … zip!  Thanks for your interest.

Related Blog Entry: Making Of “A God That Sleeps” (And The 9 Years Of Togetherness) – for the original drawing.