Introduction Love is not just one thing but can have many explanations and meanings. Love is not only about a relationship between two people but also about cherishing and enojying aspects of life. This is a book to explain what love means to me. This is an idea I hope to explore within my illustrations shown throughout this book. This book contains my illustrations about different types of “love� and I hope it can encourage other people to be more positive wihtin their lives. At the same time, inspire others to value all aspects of life and love.
Content Love I : Timeless
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Love II : Childhood
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Love III : Love
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Love IIII : Strive
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Love V : Bacteria
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Love VI : Self-belief
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Love VII : Tradition
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Love VIII : Favourite
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Love IX : Challenge
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Love X : Freedom
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Love XI : Renascence
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Love XII : Retribution
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Love I : Timeless I’m sure that every person can be aware that life is short and you must make the most of the time you are given. With this in mind I decided to created an illustration dedicated to the idea of the fragility and the importance of our short lives. I wanted to represent this concept with a clockface as it is easily recognisable and easy to undestand. I think it is important for us to realise how quickly life can pass us by. I hope that by generating this illustration I can inspire people to think carefully about the choices they make and how the choices can effect their lives. Life is short, enjoy every single minute you owned.
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Love II : Childhood When thinking about my childhood and being born in a small village, it reminds me of my love for nature and purity. I happen to love my childhood a lot, there is too much hapiness which flows from my heart. Fishing, flying kites, looking for Mangosteen and eating it straight away, there are lot of images that surface within my mind which can be hard to explain. Using images which depict these memories is one way which can be a much easier explanation and also can created an instant message. During the creation of this image, the idea I had in mind was one of enjoying and loving your life no matter what happens or what your life may have been like in the past.
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Love III : Love This image, to me, represents all kinds of love between all kinds people. I think each and every type of love should be respected as long as each relationship is sincere and full of happiness. Whoever you choose to love in life is not important, what is important is that love is built upon respect, happiness and sincerity. If you cherish all these things within love then it can be successful.
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Love IIII : Strive I like to look back what i have done before which can inspire me to tell more stories through my illustration. One of my artwork which is a big fish but created using many of eye shapes. The eye is one of my favourite materials to use in my illustrations. For me, when you are looking at a person’s eyes, you can feel what is he or she thinking. One day, I was in my back garden, within which there is a big tree. I looked at the tree and started to imagine all the leaves as people, it occured to me that if each person was to be looking at the same thing, they would each see a different view from a different perspective. In this illustration there are 73 eyes which represent 73 people each with a different character. Some who are not willing to strive for their love might easily fail to find it. I believe that there is no perfect view, no matter which position you are in, with the correct frame of mind you can easily find what you need.
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Love V : Bacteria Like many people I’m sure, In my mind sometimes starts to think about the impossible, invisble and even the ridiculous. As I was walking near my house I was looking at a wall and suddenly a light bulb flickered in my brain. Love is complicated, its hard to understand in some circumstances. Sometimes just because you don’t understand or are not thinking about it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. When i was looking at the wall started to imagine all the bacteria that could be living on the wall and wondered about if they were busy falling in love. Images like this often pop in and out of my mind, but this thought in particular inspired me to create this piece of work.
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Love VI : Self-belief Everyone has someone that he or she admires, it can be their own parents, an idol, sport star etc. For me, that person is Faye Wong who I have loved since i was teenager. It started by listening her music, then i read some articles about her. She is one of the most successful Asian pop stars and has sold more than 10 million albums.However, back to normal life; she is just a normal person who has 2 daughters. One of her daughters was born a few years ago and it was found that she has a cleft palate. For a lot of people, this disease always let them down and seem “weird”. The reason Faye inspired me is that she doesn’t feel her daughter is different, of course, she sent her to the hospital for surgery. Something which she had said in her TV interview impressed me, “I don’t think my daughter looks different, she is just gorgeous”. This illustration is literally inpired by her. As long as you are confident with yourself, no matter what you look like, you can still be pretty. There are some things we can not choose in our life, but surely you can choose the life you want to live. Love what god gave to you and try to enjoy and be positive. Negative thinking wont make things get better.
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Love VII : Tradition For this piece of work i didn’t have a particular story in mind, although i was inspired by memories of spending time with my family when i was child. The idea i wanted to develop within this artwork was one of tradition, purtiy and a cultural environment. The image shows a traditonal malaysian house, similar in style to the one I grew up in. Behind this is a ladder covered in vines, this and the leaves at the bottom of the page represent the village were we lived. The figures around the house depict my brothers and sisters. The heart shaped moon symbolises us playing through the night as we were so happy. I think it is important, especially in the world today, to remember tradition; which is why i wanted to show the image of a traditional Malaysian house. In the modern world technology and money have advanced us into a new age of modern housing and buildings. This new world can sometimes encourage greed, i feel that remembering your culture and traditions is more important now than before, due to the ever new technological and economical advances.
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Love VIII: Favourite I hadn’t watch NBA for a while, a man call Jeremy Lin caught my eye and drew me back to the game with his miracle and enrouragement story which inspired me for this illustration. Jeremy Lin, graduated from Harvard University, at which university he studied economics and sociology. During his time at university Jeremy Lin played for the college basketball team as team captain and lead the team to become champions. After graduating from university, Lin joined the NBA, and signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, however solely as a bench player. It wasn’t until Lin joined with the New York Knicks he gained recognition for his skills. “Love what you love to do”, this is something that inpired me to create this piece of work. Jeremy Lin’s story inspired me to continue with what i love to do even if sometimes i am not successful or things may not go according to plan. If you just continue to love and enjoy what you do you will end up being successful.
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Love IX : Challange Upon watching the movie ‘127 hours’ i began to think and reflect upon many different ideas. This movie is a true story about a man call Aron Ralston. In 2003, he had gone hiking, alone, near Robbers Roost. However while Ralston was climbing down a narrow slot in Bluejohn Canyon, a boulder became dislodged, crushing Ralston’s right forearm and pinning it against the wall. For five and a half days, he struggled to get free until he was forced to do the unthinkable. Using a blunt knife from his multi-tool, he began amputating his arm. The story this movie made me think that sometimes you need to give up something to get further in life, be it a better career, a healthy relationship or simply to keep yourself alive. There is no doubt, you will face some problems or get hurt in the process. What I try to explain in this piece of work is, always love to take the challenge because escape will never get the thing done. The picture shows an orange ball as it journeys through the mountains. The journey is long and hard and the ball experiences many injuries along the way, but like Aaron, due to pereverance is eventually successfull in reaching his goal.
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Love X : Freedom Freedom is one of the most complicated meanings for myself. I still can’t clearly explain what it is, however it can relate to whatever situation you may find yourself in. I’m was born into a traditional family. Within a family like this it is hard to find or receive “freedom”. When I look at Butterfly fly away after being a caterpillar, I can feel how happy they are. They can fly wherever they want, however, they need a pair of strong wings, without it, you can fly nowhere. This thought is explained within this illustration , if you want freedom them you must work hard to find the path to take. Once you can find the correct path you can ‘fly’ wherever you want to and obtain your own freedom.
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Love XI : Renascence This illustration was ispired by Easter and Faye Wong’s concert which had a theme behind each section. Her concert was devided into five sections including the Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and the last, Renascence. This inspired me to think about the mistakes that everyone will make during their lifetime. I feel that as long as people face up to their mistakes, deal with them and learn from the experience you can start again and move on with life. Everyone deserve for a chance to start with a clean slate.
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Love XII : Retribution Natural disasters are some of the things we never want to encounter. A tsunami, Earthquakes, Volcano Eruptions, Floods etc happen more and more in last few years and have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The recent Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami killed more than ten thousand people, and caused the explosion of nuclear plant releasing harmful radiation which could seriously affect the health of humans. Was the nuclear plant explosion really down to man? I personally want to answer this in my illustration “Retribution”. “What if... it’s your baby?” I’m sure any parent would be devastated to find out their baby had been affected by radiation. With in mind it is important for humans to begin using less high risk alternatives. When thinking about these ideas and problems I feel stongly that humans should look into the cause and effect of each concept before taking action.
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Summary I hope that by reading this book and looking upon the illustrations within it, the reader can take away a sense of belonging, love and encouragement. My ambition is that these illustrations and explanations of their meanings can inspire the reader to think again about their own concept of love and make room in their lives for more than one meaning. My goal that by creating illustrations about my ideas of love I can open the eyes of the reader and get them to evaluate their own ideas of love and perhaps even encoporate a few of my own.