Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Closer to my journey - China and Japan Prep

More good news was delivered to be via email today, with the disclaimer of pending final approval from SDSU...

I have been selected as the 2009 Fu Scholar!

What does that mean? It means I win a scholarship for $1000 from Scholars Without Borders donated by the Charles Wei-Sun Fu Foundation to help fund my upcoming study tour of Japan and China. To read more about my special trip, check out this post.

I am, again, humbled and honored to receive something so special. Add this to my Mortar Board acceptance, and we have a super start to the week! I cannot wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me.

Speaking of tomorrow, we have the meeting for the Japan and China study tour tomorrow, which should be fun. I hope we will get the itinerary, since I am dying to plan my art making accordingly.

In preparation for my adventure, I was thinking of preparing some travel-friendly substrates and/or journals to write and collage in, but I am not sure where to start. Maybe I can print out maps of where we are going and glue them into the pages to have an instant background. Nothing is scarier than a blank page. Any suggestions on what I should bring to create on-the-spot art and memories?

Thanks again for letting me share my accomplishments with you. For all of you who are waiting patiently for me to get back to talking about art, I have a new encaustic painting series completed and I am working on getting photos up for it. They are not your typical encaustic paintings, but I hope you will find them intriguing. Until then, help me out with answering my "Your Turn" challenge question.

Your turn: How do you get prepared for an art related trip? Do you prepare substrates before hand so they are ready? What are the bare minimum supplies you would take for this kind of adventure? Love to hear your ideas!

Keep creating and leaping for your creative dreams! ~ Jaime

5 comments:

  1. Jaime! I'm so happy for you. You're a compelling person! (BTW, thank you for your comment on my blog; it was so valid). This trip sounds wonderful!

    Anyway, I'll try to help you regarding your art travel journey. It depends on what your medium is, but I have an efficient "art travel kit" that really works for me. It's been to London, Venezuela, Bahama, Jamaica & Mexico. Whether on a cruise ship, airplane, or hanging out at a cafe, I had my most essential art tools near me at all times. I'll try to blog some photos and share a list of contents (another blog reader was asking, as well).

    Have a great day!

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  2. Hi Jaime. Congratulations! Much deserved recognition! When I have traveled, I prefer the blank page, so that I am not locked into concepts that predated the actual experience. But I bring plenty of glue sticks and a small scissor, so that maps and any other local ephemera (pieces from the local newspapers etc) can be torn or cut up and be a substrate or collage material. The colored pencils that become water color with the touch of a brush a few drops of water are great! Can't wait to see the posting of your experiences!

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  3. My mediums are sculptural materials and encaustics, which don't fit with 2-D journaling. I do have some 5 minute putty that I am going to take to use to make impressions of statues. It is great stuff. Otherwise, I was thinking watercolor pencils? I am also trying to decide between the pocket cheap camera or my big but better camera. All these details and I haven't even started on the main point of the trip! Thanks for your help and the kudos!

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  4. Wonderful news about receiving the scholarship, Jaime! Congratulations!
    I do not have much useful advise to offer as to art & travel...and will wait eagerly for Gina Lee to give us some pointers!
    Take care,
    Thea

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  5. I got some nice moleskine journals yesterday to use for the trip. I am going to copy my notes and itinerary into the first few pages just to break the "preciousness" of the book. Looks like we will have more free time Japan than China, so I am going to copy those city maps into the journal too.

    Waiting patently for Gina's travel kit idea. I know I am going to stock up on camera batteries, memory sticks, watercolor pencils.

    Thanks!

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