&paintbrush

Have you ever just felt joy without worrying anything in your life?

Have you ever enjoyed just a moment?

I don’t know. I don’t think I have…unless you call that one time,

when I focus so hard on painting or drawing something, that I lose in touch with the world…

or that other time, when I was busy listening to my favorite songs, and as the beat thumped hard

against my ears, I closed my eyes and felt elevated…

That moment.

I can’t feel it anymore.

Did you ever had that moment?

Technorati Tags: kisaplit07, aplit07, kiswrites, elevate, moment, mysticism

Two Faces, Two minds
March 2007.
Acrylics

I drew this around March 2007. I was working on my AP Art pieces, and my theme was my life itself–and this piece really spoke to me after I finished it.

I don’t want to explain everything in the piece because that is not the point of a painting. I hope you get something out of this, the message that I am trying to tell you, without words or sounds.

Technorati Tags: kisaplit, aplit07, drawing, painting, AP, Art

I’m searching for that one passionate subject that I can talk and explore about without worrying about time.

I’m looking for something that, when I close my eyes I see when I sleep I dream about, and when I write, I can make a book about.

The biggest challenge is how I can get to that point, and finding out what I am really interested in. I thought I had that interest–anything to do with design, arts, and graphics–but it’s not something th at I can talk about forever and ever.

To be honest, I am just a teenager who is going through a lot of teenage things, which adults tend to ignore.

‘There are more problems out there in the world that you have to deal with, so get over it’ are their general responses.

But I think that attitudes, habits, one’s personality, and character develops during their youth, meaning what we go through as a teenager is just as important as any problems that adults face. Of course, it won’t be as hard to manage or solve as debt, income, finances, taking care of children, etc., but our problems are something that will determine how we will behave as adults.

My point here is that if I do find something really passionate about– something that I was designed to live for in this world–then wouldn’t my life as an adult be much more easier? There won’t be any late 30’s soul-searching, or, going out in the streets to beg for money, hopefully. I am not sure.

People say that life is a cruel game where nobody tells us the rules or advices. Even if there are advices, we tend not to listen to them. It depends on the decisions you make along the way, and which directions you decide to make. My decisions and directions for the last 18 years has been hectic, I must say. The road twisted and turned, there were some breaks, U-turns, and whatever other road words that might symbolize ‘hard’.

And I’m still driving down that road without directions, searching for my destination that might help me realize there’s something worth living for in this world.

photo credited to: jamie , joaobambu

Technorati Tags: kisaplit07, kiswrites07, road, searching, soul, life

My biggest fear is to wake up and realize the truth–when the denial that I set myself upon disappears, and the veil uncovers to find that I am indeed, just a moment in this vast universe. The existence of who I am will be forgotten in less than a second, and the dear hope that someone cared will be lost and I will find out that I was thrown away long time ago.

But that’s just my biggest fear…nothing else.

Photo credited to: CARLOSWEICK

Technorati Tags: kiswrites07, aplit07, aplit, fear, hope

I was looking through few blogs and came across .

This site had a new line of blankets which had traditional bedtime stories on it,
like this:

This supposedly will help you go to sleep by reading the giant letters which turns out to be your bed sheet. I thought this was a clever idea, a unique design that might interest mothers of young children.

Likewise, designers will always have to come up with new ideas, something that nobody had ever tried before. Something unique, and intriguing, that people might find useful. This bedtime ‘blanket’, honestly, doesn’t seem very practically to me. Who would actually strain their eyes to read the end of the bedsheet, and, how do you finish the story? When you get to the end of the “page”, you are supposed to change your bedsheet (there’s a series). But I would be too darn lazy to do all that. If I had the ability to design a multitasking bedtime blanket, I would have one that would warm up to my body level when I climb into bed at night. And then whenever I’m bored, I can sit up on my bed and watch digital TV (somehow) that plays on the blanket.

But then again, there’s always the plasma T.V.

Photo credited to: http://www.platform10.co.uk

Technorati Tags: kiswrites, aplit07, kisaplit07, bedtime, blanket, stories, unique, design,

Every year around this this time, people say to themselves, “I will start out fresh and clean, and live the best year every in my life.”

Or, that’s what I did for the previous 17 years (hypothesizing that I did so when I was a year old).

But this year, it was a little bit different. I didn’t think about New Year’s Resolutions, I didn’t care about what events I should attend on December 31, and I couldn’t care less about the coming year. Maybe this is because I was having my first New Years in Korea since I was nine. The setting and the mood was completely different than the United States, where I would always go to church or have a family dinner with my relatives on this day. But Korea, it’s different. You go out with your friends, maybe to a concert or to a famous restaurant, have a drink, be merry, laugh, and watch the clock strike 12:00 A.M. to shout, “Happy New Years!”.

Friends, acquaintances, and social networks are everything here in Korea. There are no outsiders once you are in a group, and you have to attend all the parties and social events that the ‘group’ imposes on you. Or maybe it’s just my life. But I’m only 18, and I’m already feeling the society’s pressure. My innocent family dinners and exchanging of gifts were gone, replaced by going down to the Han river and celebrating the New Years with fireworks and Polaroid pictures. I guess what I’m trying to say is, as we grow older, we spend less and less time with our families and with ourselves. I didn’t get to have a moment with myself, looking back how hectic 2007 was, or forming a resolution like I did for the past 10 years.

But New Year’s Resolutions always end up in a heap of garbage, at least for me. Maybe I expect too much of myself, or maybe I don’t really have the perseverance to stick through my goals. It always end up getting shoved into one of the bookshelves of mine or thrown away without a second look. So, I am not going to write a resolution this year. I’m just going to say I won’t expect too much of myself, because I know how I operate now. All I need is a little bit of motivation and a little bit of push, and maybe a hint of encouragement that I can succeed in whatever I am going to pursue. And that, is to live a life without being lazy and appreciating what I have. I don’t want to waste time like I did for the past 17 years; I actually want to use that time for the betterment of myself.

Technorati Tags: kisaplit07, aplit07, resolutions, 2008, goals

Photo credited to: jithon

General’s Family

Sunlight’s Kiss

Family of Birds

Lady in the Field of Lillies

–

Octave Ocampo. This artist caught my eyes for his optical illusionary arts. I love how the small details create bigger pieces, and once you step back and look at the art work as a whole, you see a pleasant surprise, like the “Sunlight’s Kiss”.

On Wikipedia, it says:

Ocampo is known for several works in his sometimes wryly sardonic, sometimes evocative paintings in which detailed images are intricately woven together to create larger images - the optical illusions fading back and stepping forward as you study the pieces, notice the details, and finally recognize the large scale intention.^[3]

To learn more about Octavo Ocampo, visit his official site: www.octavioocampo.com

As the days go by, I’m getting more and more interested in advertising, and how it influences people and their lives.

I was ‘blog surfing’ just recently, and found this great article called :

Design and Advertising Influences Every Part of Our Lives

by Tara, a freelance designer.

She went through step by step, starting from waking up with a clock that you chose to buy for various reasons to riding your car that definitely was influenced by advertisement.

Likewise, our lives are always bombarded by advertisements and designs. You cannot escape it, you cannot deny it…it’s ubiquitous. Like Tara, I will add on to the list of things that influences us every day.

You come back home from work…
and you see buildings with its company logos, all trying to grab your eye’s attention.
You pass numerous billboards advertising their product, either with a woman or with
a witty remark that makes you smile. You see stores with their red lights glaring back at you,
as you park your car in the parking lot of a supermarket. Of course, you chose this
convenience store because their ads bombard you in the morning on TV, newspapers, internet,
about how fresh and new their products are.

You go in to the supermarket….
and it’s an advertising heaven. You see logos, SALE signs, “20% off” signs everywhere.

From the ground to the top of the ceiling, you see canned soups from 15 different brands
all competing to be in your grocery basket. You move on to the cereal section, and see more

brands. There’s a tiger, a monkey, a leprechaun, all holding their spoons and beaming back
at you. However you chose the one that says “LOW-SUGAR, LOW-FAT” because you believe
that that will actually prevent you from obesity.

You go back home…
and set your groceries on the kitchen table, and throw your jacket on the sofa. You turn on the T.V.,
exhausted, from work and from all the positive “buy me! buy me!” words all over the place. But when
you turn on the T.V., you are instantly mesmerized in the pizza commercial that slowly lures you to the
telephone. You order a pan of large pizza, with extra cheese, and sit back to flip more channels and see
more advertisements.
——-

Wow, that was fun. If we look at all the advertisements that influence our lives, and take notice of each one of them, it would take years. All the logos that flash across our eyes, all the phrases and mottos…it’s countless. It’s amazing how advertisements has gotten so prominent in our lives.

photo credited to: roadsidepictures, dreamer7112

Technorati Tags: kisaplit07, aplit07, design, advertisement,