airplanes, pineapples, and websites!

Been meaning to share this the last couple weeks but kept putting it off. I guess I've just been too shy. I've never really shared anything too personal on the blog before. Never know how much to share, in fear of boring people, or in fear of my blog turning into something I hadn't intended. But, I have a lil story to share and I think/hope this post will be appropriate. So here goes.
Well, from a quasi-beginning....my mother moved my sister and I to hawaii before I started high school, she and all of her side of the family being from there.

I am 5th generation of my family hawaii-grown. My grandma's grandparents were on the first ship of immigrants to Hawaii from Puerto Rico.

[This is mi abuela hermosa, as Miss Puerto Rico-Hawaii. I just love these pictures.]
My sisters and I were raised on the west side of Oahu in Waianae.
I attended high school there.

[This is the view from the football field bleachers. Yes, the school's right on the beach. Lucky yeah?).
And I attended the University of Hawaii college system, for art/animation.
One year, I passed by a bulletin board at school and saw a flyer for a design contest put on by Disney. I was extreeemely excited about it and entered as an individual. It was the Walt Disney Imagineering Competition, and U.H. happened to be one of the schools that participated in it nationally. So I wrote my own movie idea and built a theme park concept based upon it, with pitch boards, a storybook, a model, and other props.
After weeks of waiting on-edge, a very large envelope was delivered to me at work with a Disney return address. (Receiving an envelope like this, addressed to me personally, was the greatest feeling).
I opened it in front of all my coworkers and customers.

I had been chosen as a national finalist and would be flown to LA for 5 days to pitch my ideas, receive portfolio feedback, network, get behind-the-scenes tours of Imagineering, go to the parks, etc etc. I cried like a baby in front of everyone. :) So, I went, and I tied for 2nd place Nationally, in the individual category.

[me with the 2 big bosses]

And to top it all, I was honored they sat me next to Disney legend, Mr. John Hench, at the reception dinner.

He was such a lovely man and told me stories of he and Walt and his experiences at Disney all through dinner (and cheesecake dessert). I couldn't help but take his table nametag after it was over....

Too bad i was chicken to ask him to sign it for me.

The entire contest and trip were one of the greatest experiences of my life and one of my proudest achievements. It reconfirmed what I always wanted to do 'when i grow up,' and made me want to work even harder.

The next year the movie Lilo & Stitch came out, and I took my lil sisters to see it in the theater. I didn't know what it would be about, other than it was set in Hawaii and I loved how beautiful the watercolor backgrounds were. It turned out that the premise really hit home to me, as my family had been having similar turmoils, and being that I watched it with my sisters, it meant even more.


It was at that point, well within that year, that I made my mind up to try my luck on the mainland. I wanted to move where it seemed would be more opportunities and I could gain experience in the field I wanted so much to be in. Not just for myself, but with my family, especially my sisters, in mind.
So, I moved to L.A. a couple years ago.

Moving was exhilarating...

and terrifying.
-It took me about 6 months to build up the courage to drive on any freeway (on Oahu, there are about 3. In L.A, thousands!) AND not to mention the homesickess...family, friends, the beach,......food.

But I have been lucky enough to meet some of the most amazing people and talented artists, and have built some incredible relationships. That in itself is priceless to me. Along the way, I've been lucky to work on some of the coolest projects I could've only dreamed about years ago.
Which leads me to this introduction and the point of this now novel-length post! In some odd/crazy/amazing twist of fate, I was introduced to the creator/director/writer of Lilo & Stitch, Chris Sanders. I'm excited to announce his new website, and very proud to be a part of it.


When I got the opportunity to help on this project, I was in denial. Then I did a cartwheel. And then I was in denial. And did another cartwheel.
I am just remembering the little girl in Waianae who dreamed of such an opportunity.

And thought it would be nice to share (and freak out my sisters at the same time). I'm just sentimental and thankful...
The End!
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

Hi

Just a quick hello to internet land! I've been so distracted from posting here this summer. -It is time for me to dust off the cobwebs and put up some fresh goodness! Lots of news and things to share, so I will be posting again very very soon.
To get things rolling again, here's a lil design I did, "unraveling," for an upcoming t-shirt line....

Power in Numbers Benefit Show

These are my entires for the P.I.N. show at Nucleus Gallery, opening May 18th - 28th (I'll post up a flyer with more info soon). All entries for the show are 5x7" and will be sold from $50-100, proceeds will be going to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. I wanted to do a set of drawings or paintings that go together, and had the idea of royal face cards as these silly characters. The paper is tea-stained to give it an aged look, and I kept it limited colors of red, yellow and black as you would normally see on cards. I kinda want to play poker while watching Alice in Wonderland now....

New Identity

This is so funny, I've been dying to post it. Good buddy and amazing artist Vince Musacchia says this is what he sees when he sees my icon. It's disturbing/odd/cute and I absolutely love it! I may just have to change my icon to this (and see if anyone notices...that doesnt read my blog) Thanks Vince.

Trash to Treasure

The 2nd show hosted by ISM this month is tonight; the project is transforming something second-hand into something new. I chose to reinvent a couple old purses I found in my good ol' neighborhood thrift store.
And here they are...
Under Lock & Key

Something's Fishy [front side]

[back side]

Who wouldn't want fishies, and a hook and worm on their purse? I know I do.

Here's the flyer. Rich Tuzon did an amazing piece, on a ukulele (which I hope he'll post on his blog today), and when we dropped of our stuff at the gallery, got to see some other clever reinventions other artists did. I think it'll be worth checking out, especially if you're in the area.

The Flight

This is a piece I did for the "Friends of ISM" show a couple of weeks ago. The branches are cut strips of paper and each bird is on a ripped piece of arches, pinned to the canvas backing. It was a lot of fun for me to do and I think I'll be doing a series of these based on this ripped & pinned concept.

Here is a closeup of some of the pinned birds.

And a closeup of the lone bird taking it's flight.

More SF

Sketchbook pages from my last trip up....

(This one's for Stephane Kardos)


This bar was our last stop before heading to the airport to go home.

Yosemite Sketches

from a ways back, finally got them scanned in. I can't wait to go back again.

updates!

2007 just began and already so many changes and things going on. It's been nerve-wracking but exciting. I just started a new job about 2 weeks ago, after over 2 years at my previous one. It was time for me to make a change and move onto something new. Funny thing is, it seems I got closest with my now ex-coworkers as I was leaving. It made it all the more difficult to leave. One of my friends there (who I'll refer to as Bean) made me this sweet lil going away card I had to share. So cute!! It was in perfect timing with Chinese New Year too.
In other news, I was in two group shows back to back earlier this month. One was "After These Messages" at Nucleus Gallery. The show was an opportunity to reinvent and explore some of the saturday morning cartoons we grew up with. So much material on that subject. I chose to do the Smurfs, and here are my pieces: Schtrumpt Village, and Deep in the Forest. The show is up until Mar 6 if you want to check it out in person, or you can view it online at the Nucleus website.





The Untitled Love Project organized by ISM Community., is a project where each artist explores a heartbreak from their past. I stepped out of the box on this one by not doing a 'lovers' relationship piece, but focused on a different kind of heartbreak. This was super difficult and super different from what I normally do, and I feel soooo nervous and exposed by putting it out there, but nonetheless here is my piece entitled "Losing my Mother."



There will be more phases to the Untitled Love Project, including a website and I believe a book to be published later in the year or in '08, so I'm sure I'll be posting more about that later on. This show is still up at J Flynn Gallery in Costa Mesa until next weekend. I highly recommend checking it out if you can, the works are really beautiful.

Ok, and lastly for today! Late notice, but my friend Heather Chavez is a part of this show happening tonight in Silverlake. The concept for it sounds really cool:


Wow that was a long post. I need a nap now.

Gin Walla the man servant

I got a couple sketches in at the drawing club this past week. His expressions were great. I like yellow these days.

French Fashion

San Francisco Sketches

These are from a couple of months ago. I lub that city.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for visiting my Advent Calendar, and for all the nice emails I received about it, I truly appreciate it. (I finally just finished it up, phew!). You can still check it out here, and I will most likely leave it as a permanent feature on my site (at least until next year) because it was quite an undertaking for me. :)
As a lil New Year's gift, here are links to my 2007 calendar. Feel free to download, print and color as you wish. Hope you enjoy. Happy New Year!

Click here for PDF

Click here for ZIP

Illustration Friday: "Mask"

I think this works for the theme? I imagine all the grumpy faces I pass in the day to have elf ears and Santa hats.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl #12

Here are my sketches from this past Sat. A group of us rode the metro train to Union Station in L.A.

We walked across the street to Olvero street where we met up with around 30 other sketchcrawlers. Of course the first drawing I had to do was of the fake (or stuffed?) donkey. And then of the gigantimous tree with other sketchcrawlers underneath drawing away.

This is a little juice/smoothie stand with some Christmas decorations (digital color added later).

These old men were part of a pack of guitarists on a break outside one of the crowded restaurants.

I couldn't not draw these 2.

And these are miscellaneous people I tried to capture as they walked around.

All in all it was a fun time. There was a lot going on there, with a lot of people and even performers in the park. The food (AND CHURROS) were soooo good. I just wish I went out of my shell and talked to more crawlers. -Always my problem. Anyway, thanks again to Alina for organizing once again.

Avila Beach

This was done in the car as it lightly rained and I was freezing cold, on a drive back to LA from Monterey last year. The scenery was so dramatic and grey. I remember as we pulled out of our parking space and started to drive again the sun started to peak out creating the most beautiful rays and rainbows over the water.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl #11

Originally started by Enrico Casarosa, it's a day for artists to get together and basically tour their city and do nothing but draw. (Check out the sketchcrawl website & forums). It happened yesterday, and we had a turn-out of almost 40 people here in Pasadena. It was fun; a beautiful hot day and got to meet some cool new people.
We all met up outside of Johnny Rockets in Old Town. I began the day by doodling birds. Why? I don't know.

Then we walked over to city hall.

And many of us ended the day in the afternoon at the Paseo.

These were all done in my teensy lil 4x4" sketchbook. Lotso fun; can't wait for the next one.

The Hobo

I tried something different with this week's drawing club sketches; Since John Tucker is SO great at storytelling through his poses, I decided to make a little movie of my sketches. It's done in Flash, so you may need a player if you don't have one; and apologies if it takes long to load (it really shouldn't). It's a silly little thing, but I hope you enjoy. Click HERE!