Tumbling Tumbling

It's now been officially three weeks and a half since I've come home to New Jersey, but to be honest it feels like much longer, even though each individual day seems to pass super quickly. I've settled into a routine at home (after rolling around and doing nothing the first week.) In the mornings I crawl out of bed at exactly 8:10, slap on some clothes, and am out the door by 8:15 (sometimes 8:14!!) to walk with my mom and sister to the local elementary school. Seeing all the little kids with their oversized backpacks is so cute. Essentially a bunch of backpacks with little legs running around haha. To my surprise, my mom is quite socially outgoing now, enthusiastically greeting everyone we see and making small talk with the neighbors. It's kind of inspiring for awkward, anti-social Sonya (I even made some small talk :o). Anyway, during the day I usually do some job hunting, sketching, and have been doing quite a bit of cooking! It's exciting to be back in the kitchen at home where everything is so clean and beautiful, but I actually miss my shitty apartment kitchen at the same time (crazy I know) but college life seems so long ago somehow. Unfortunately I injured my hip somehow about a month or so ago, so I've been extremely inactive besides for taking walks. I can literally feel the little muscle I do have wasting away and being replaced by something much squishier. I really hope my hip hurries up and heals because I want to dance again *__* I keep telling myself I'll go to the doctor's... but it's slowly getting better so I also keep telling myself to wait it out. Oh well, we shall see. 

After the first week or so, I was really discouraged and sort of let myself dig myself into a hole. It's easy to feel insecure or talentless when everyone around you has their immediate future planned out, but idk I've always been a bit different and last minute, so I've decided to stop beating myself up and take my time simultaneously applying to places and building my portfolio. Funnily enough, because of that, my productivity has actually increased dramatically... I guess I'm doing things alright then :) I'm still nervous that I haven't found anything yet, but some places have started taking interest in my work and asking me questions, so that's always a good sign! 

Some of my cooking adventures: Fried shrimp with broccoli, Father's Day breakfast, Spicy grilled eggplant, and chicken katsu curry! 

I went to visit Eric in Philly for a weekend! We spent the first night walking around and bumped into this cool plane installation - it's an actual war plane that's been turned into a green house of sorts (the inside is filled with cool shelving and potted plants!) On Saturday we went to the historic district and browsed all the cool old shops that were filled with centuries-old art and literature. We also went to a really delicious ice cream parlor called the Franklin Fountain - the ice cream was great and they give you a pretty generous serving inside of a Chinese takeout box... fusion I guess. 

So on Saturday, I saw a flier in a shop window advertising the Science Behind Pixar exhibit at the Franklin Institute... YES OH MY GOD. I immediately decided that was what we had to do on Sunday. Originally this exhibit had been at the Museum of Science back up in Boston, but for some terribly odd reason, I never got the chance to go (aka lazy) and it packed up and moved. I was devastated. BUT NO LONGER. What a find *__*

We spent Sunday afternoon happily browsing through the exhibit :) Nothing was crazy or groundbreaking (it was designed for children I think...) but I had a lot of fun with all the interactive stations and listening to the different video interviews, and I think Eric learned a bunch of stuff! 

TERAKAWA. We ate there on the first night and it was so good that we made the trek to Chinatown on the third night for my last dinner in Philly! The ramen was delicious, but my favorite was actually the karaage curry and the pork cheek bao with the fried dough. *___* Good lord. The best part is that although it's super packed, the wait wasn't too bad!

So the next weekend, Eric came to New York to hang with some friends, so I joined them during the day on Saturday! We went to the MoMA so here is a nice transition collage of a cool 50's rock poster wall at the MoMa and a Monster's Inc. wall that was part of the Pixar exhibit. 

Some cool Japanese architecture models, a 3D painted surface that I really liked when I visited the MoMa 3 years ago and I found again, and literally a can of shit. #art 

Here's some of the more exciting food I ate so far: I finally tried a sushi burrito! Took a train to Philly with Courtney that weekend (she had errands to run) so we got to catch up! The catching up was great, the sushi burrito was pretty good but not amazing because it was stuffed with a bunch of dry tasting vegetables. Next was some delicious tsukemen I got at Toto Ramen the day I went to NYC. To be honest I'm not a huge fan of toto so I wasn't expecting much BUT GOD DAMN it was actually really good! It had sort of a rich smokey undertone and the noodles were perfect *__* next up is a panini I got at a random cafe near a place my mom dragged me to go shopping - the chicken was a bit dry, but not bad. Lastly is a beautiful platter of raw vegetables and beautiful rib eye - the delicious lunch special at the Little Lamb Mongolian Hotpot! 

Weee family time :) I got my dad cool clip on lenses for his iphone, so here's us testing out the wide lens at Father's Day Five Guys lunch lol. After that, we went to go see Finding Dory which was absolutely stunning. How does Pixar keep on getting better? I'll find out one day when I work for them >:D Anyway, there's my dad posing with a cardboard cutout of the Big Friendly Giant at the movie theater lol. My mom wanted to get my aunt some stuff so she dragged me out to this luxury outlet outdoor mall thing.... It literally looked like a farm of some sort, but instead of horses and hay, it had Coach and J Crew lmao. And finally my sister and I on her last day of school! Hehe so nostalgic going to my old elementary school everyday~ Even though I'm kind of bummed about the job search, I'm really glad I'm getting to spend a lot of time with my family! Once I get a job, who knows when I'll be able to do this again? :\

Originally, I was actually going to write a couple huge paragraphs about my art-related thoughts, but I think I'll save myself the typing for now. I'm sure it will come up more in-depth in future posts! But the short story is that I've been thinking a lot about questions relating to style, originality, time, and technique. For a while I've noticed that I don't really have a very distinctive style. Or rather, I tend to draw differently depending on the medium (traditional or digital? Brush pen or ball point pen?) and depending on the subject matter (drawing from life vs. drawing from imagination). I think it's only natural when a person drawings sporadically - and therefore style doesn't have the time or repetition to develop? Then there is the question of what it means to have a style. Is it preferable? It seems that most successful artists have a pretty particular style that they've settled into. I wonder if it will happen to me as well, and how much of it will be natural and how much of it will be forced. Interesting things to think about! I'll touch on the other things (and more!) as I think about them, but be prepared to hear a lot of art-related thoughts in the coming posts haha (feel free to skip over these paragraphs if they bore you LOL. Anyway, I've been drawing a lot recently to try and catch up to my "one page a day" thing (only done 61/179 so far...) so here are some of the pages!

 

Went to Kaylin's tumbling class and tried to do quick gesture drawings. IT WAS SO HARD - the little kids were bouncing and flipping and running all over the place, but it was pretty fun and kind of mentally demanding. I'll probably try it a lot more from now on! On the right is a fountain at UPenn I drew while waiting for Eric. The place was filled with birds and squirrels and I felt like I was literally Snow White or something. 

Experimenting with quick brush pen portraits and different colors on the left, and using lines more sparingly and trying out floral elements on the right.

Two sketches of my father! Left is done in ballpoint pen at a restaurant on Father's Day, and the right is done with brush pen and marker right before we took him to the airport (30 year college reunion in China! :o) I actually really love using brush pen these days because it is so damn fast and I am pretty impatient sometimes D:

Kaylin looking a little older (whoops) while reading a book on the couch. Digitally painted this one - tried to use thicker line art and experimented a bit with adding textures!

This one was actually done back in May but I wanted to post it just because of how much freaking time I spent on it. It was my first large digital painting so I was super slow, getting worked up over minuscule details that were too small to be seen anyway and not focusing enough on the composition as a whole. It came out a little flat, but I'm pretty happy with it overall! I recommend clicking on this one to enlarge it since the original is quite large and alot of the details are lost in this smaller version. It's referenced off of our apartment feat. me eating some ramen and reading an art book. Sigh that's the life *__* 

Degree Girl, Sonya

First, of course I have to start off this post with an oh my god regarding how long it's been since I last posted (gg resolution to blog once a week D:) and another oh my god regarding how much has happened in that time.  To sum it up quickly, my senior spring semester has come and gone, and I am officially an MIT alum. How crazy is that? Thanks to my amazing friends and supportive department, I was able to successfully finish my thesis project and graduate (the Department Head ended up bumping up my thesis from 12 to 15 units at the last minute because I was 3 units short of graduating...I can't believe I let that happen.) Anyway, here's a quick list of stuff that happened just so I can have the pleasure of taking a stroll down memory lane without a word-count worthy of another thesis.

FEBRUARY

• Finished choreographing my first piece for Mocha, practiced a lot more than studied and had a blast at Mocha Show. This was actually a huge month of growth for me as a dancer, not just physically, but also mentally finding my style and trying to choreograph in that style
• Attended some pretty inspirational talks given by a Pixar technical artist and one by a Disney Animation artist
• Drew a lot! Started sketching with brush pens and markers, and started attempting to digitally paint
• Turned 22 :o my friends surprised me with a yummy cake and my family sent me a wonderful care-package full of delicious Cara oranges :3 
• Finally turned in my thesis proposal that was due in December... 

MARCH

• This month was the month that had a lot of the application deadlines for all the big-name animation studios... so I spent most of my time researching, drawing, putting together portfolios, and filling out the different applications! Although I knew from the start that my chances were really low (gg no art school and not enough time spent on art in the past four years), I'm still really glad I spent the time to work on it. It was pretty frustrating grasping at straws, but I actually had so much fun doing it. Starting to find what I really want!
• Ran into a lot of snags with my thesis - felt kind of directionless and drained :\ 
• Went on a trip with Eric to L.A for spring break! Spending time in sunny California and going to Disneyland was a wonderful way to recharge and get away from stress. Aka I let myself run away for a week, but zero remorse for that one :P

APRIL

• Caught up in my video class since I had all but forgotten about that class
• Re-did my main portfolio and started compiling lists of companies to reach out to
• Banged out my design for my thesis installation (shoutout to James for last minute structural consulting), bought all $200 worth of materials from home depot and moved it to my studio (an endeavor that took over 4 hours - shoutout to Hong, Eric, Matt, and Rick), and built the whole damn thing (shoutout to Dabin, James, Eric, Minerva, and Weiwei) in less than 4 days. When I say that I wouldn't have graduated without my amazing friends, I was not lying *___*

MAY

• Exhibited my thesis installation in Lobby 10! The support from the community was absolutely incredible and moving @__@ 
• Went to Senior Ball! Which was tbh a little overrated for all the effort that went into it... but I enjoyed dressing up and walking around the beautiful Boston Public Library nevertheless
• Had my final prod week for ADT and performed at my final two shows! The final showcase was very exciting! I choreographed Mansae, co-choreographed a boiz dance with Weilian, and was in Minerva's dance. I even went out on a limb and did a traditional couples dance with Eric and was in my friend's Heelies dance. Yes, I just said Heelies dance (and I was terrified for my life the whole time). All in all... I HAD A BLAST. I think one of the most exciting things though, was just seeing how far ADT has come in the last 4 years. It makes me feel all warm inside to know that I played a role in helping to shape part of this great group huehue :3  
• Pulled a wonderful all-nighter right after the last ADT show in preparation for my thesis defense/presentation that was the following morning, got through the defense, had a minor post-presentation breakdown, took a nap, and woke up feeling fucking fantastic >:D
• Wrote my thesis, printed the damn thing out, slapped a cover page on it, and TURNED IT IN. 
• Started a fun dance project with Minerva titled Project #ADTfeels where we did quick covers (learn, stage, and film all in one go!) with several people in ADT [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
• Went on a 3 day trip to NYC with senior friends! Did a lot of walking, ate some great food (and lots of boba :o) visited places I've never been to before, and did some cool stuff!
• Experienced Senior Week! Went F1 Racing WHICH WAS AWESOME o___o. Like Need for Speed (but in real life!) Also went to Six Flags where I changed my opinion of rollercoasters from metal-death-traps to terrifying-but-fun-rides. We also dressed up and went to the Top of the Hub and I even went to a club in the States for the first time :o It was actually a lot of fun until I got a drink spilled all over me lol. 

JUNE (so far)

• Minerva and I finished our ADT dance project which culminated in a final video of us dancing all the songs we've ever choreographed :') It was a lot of fun and a great way to wrap up our college dance lives with each other. I am going to miss dancing with her and everyone else so much @__@ It's also kind of crazy how much of my life I've invested in dance during college. I wonder if I'm going to keep up with it where ever I end up?
• I GRADUATED. This is definitely the biggest bullet point in this whole damn post or maybe in any post I've ever written on this blog. The feeling is kind of complex- there's relief, pride, disbelief, fear, nostalgia, freedom, optimism, and who knows what else, but I think the ultimate culmination of everything is joy. It's hard to describe. I'm just pleasantly amazed that I got through it all! That, I believe, is an accomplishment in itself. 

Oops I ended up writing more than I wanted for recap. I actually wanted to also talk about other things in this post, but I think that would make it way too long. Instead I'm gonna dump some photos and captions to wrap up this post. :) I'll blog very very soon about more current things!

Winter snow and ice. Boston winters are harsh but beautiful *__*

Cannot believe I am 22! Thank you friends :3

Sunset at Venice Beach

Owner and dog playing fetch in the Charles River - taken on a photowalk with Eunice :)

Cool art installations at the LACMA

Best tsukemen I've had in the States at Tsujita in LA @__@ Yes it deserved to be included among these photos.

A painting from Monet's Rouen Cathedral series on the left and a painting of the Disney castle on the right. Similar no?

Had a wonderful time at Disney / LA with this one <3

Photo of my installation taken by Sarah at 7am for good lighting conditions haha

A close up :)

Friends lounging on my grass triangles in Lobby 10!

My very handsome Senior Ball date and I in what I call the Color Room! I brought him here after our first date over a year and a half ago - time sure does pass quickly *__*

To commemorate our many exciting home-cooked meals, smoothies, and mealtime photos with our wobbly table. Also as homage to wonderful, comfortable apartment life <3

Meta photo of a photo taken last semester for my final photo class next to our lightbulb

My cute dance wearing our cute costumes :3 I'm really gonna miss these people, many of which have been by my side ever since I became a choreographer in ADT. *__*

Heh heh Me and Weilian's suave boiz. Gonna miss the troll practices :\ They're all grown up now *__*

Stripes day on our New York senior trip!

My cap and DIPLOMA. Pulled my last all-nighter at MIT to paint that damn thing haha (featuring my girl/spirit animal(?) Mim), but it was worth it! Also, I was the second person to graduate out of my class of over 1000 people (not including the class President and Vice President) Perks of being in the Architecture department :) 

My beautiful supporters who came up to Boston to watch me graduate :D

My dad graduated too! Thanks to this guy for pushing me academically throughout my younger years. We fought a lot (I got my short temper from him I swear) but looking back, he really sacrificed a lot of his time to sit down with me and explain physics/math to me over and over, even when I told him he definitely could not be right LOL stupid Sonya.

This one came up to Boston just to annoy me as usual <3

Yay family :) The reason I could attend MIT in the first place. Already gave a shout out to my dad, but props to my mom for being extra strict and terrifying during my high school years lol. It must've been hard to deal with rebellious Sonya, but somehow she managed ^^; 

Celebratory dinner with friends and family and friends' families at one of my favorite places to eat! Shabu for daysssss

My wall that carries the visual memories I've accumulated over the past 4 years! Gonna miss this thing and our wonderfully messy, quirky apartment <3