Painting / Pick Up Stix

Pick Up Stix, 2014.
Gouache and pencil on paper.
25 cm x 18 cm.

The events of last evening night unfolded exactly like the plotline of How Stella Got Her Groove Back, but by that I mean if painting was my Taye Diggs and my desk was Jamaica, sadly. I've been in a work funk ever since I got back form my holiday in England. As a freelancer it's easy to slide off the rails with no boss, co-workers and regular office hours to keep you in check.

Before I left I had my routine down pat, with a to-do list with time slots written out each night before I went to bed (it really helps!). But since I've been back I've been finding it almost impossible to get back on track and into painting regularly again.

I've been slowly working on my London zine, but haven't been feeling super inspired. Thankfully there's Pinterest, I was scrolling through it last night and came across an image I really like from Zimmerman's Resort 2015 lookbook and used it as a starting point for this new painting.

Fashion Illustrations for Tangram x Suki Cohen Lingerie Goes to Australia

Strawberry Milk, 2014.
Kitty N. Wong
Watercolour, gouache, pencil and ink on paper.

Turkish Bath, 2014.
Kitty N. Wong
Watercolour, pencil, ink on paper and acrylic on acetate overlay.

As Dorothy Parker once wrote, “I hate writing, I love having written.”
That's sometimes how I feel about making art, I love the process of painting, but what feels so good is having painted, something good hopefully.

Last year I made a series of illustrations for Hong Kong clothing brand Tangram's lingerie collaboration with Colombian designer Suki Cohen. The digital copies had been sent to the designers months ago and the original ink drawings sat mostly forgotten in my avalanche-like paper cupboard. I've been cleaning up and organizing in preparation for my the upcoming group exhibition, Fixation at Town Hall Gallery in Australia and I found these old ink drawings from the collaboration and decided to fix them up with some new coloured backgrounds and the dotted star pattern I've been really into painting lately.

When I was in design school, I used to have this feeling whenever I made a piece I really liked, I  was always afraid that was the best thing I would ever make, that I wouldn't be able to make anything so good ever again. I know now that's not the case, that the more I make the better I will get. But looking at these two paintings I made almost a year ago I can't help but wonder how I made these little light brushstrokes.

And so now Strawberry Milk and Turkish Bath are off to Australia for the Fixation exhibition, along with 16 other pieces. My Cat Marnell painting was even selected to be included in the event invitation! The show will be a part Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, I'm so excited and honored to be a part of it. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be included by the very wonderful curator Mardi Nowak.