Artist Inspiration - Lee Kow Fong

I first knew who Lee Kow Fong (Taiwanese) was after visiting his exhibition at the Singapore Arts House. The exhibition is titled "The Colour of Silence", or 《静声》, by artist Lee Kow Fong. The main message that he presented to the audience is in the form of a question, which is "If silence were a color, what color would it be?"

Examples of his works

Why he inspires me

1. Lee Kow Fong uses watercolour most often in his works.

I love how watercolour gives such a light and fresh feeling compared to acrylic and oils, which give a very thick and rich texture. Watercolour gives everything a very beautiful finish, and I think the watercolour paints work very well with his designs. Watercolour is also very hard to control, because of its watery texture that tends to bleed. Layering watercolour paints on top of each other is very challenging too, as the colour you applied before that may mix with the next color because of the large amount of water present. Thus I admire Lee Kow Fong a lot for daring to work with watercolor in so many of his works.

2. He is very creative

The combination of the subject matters are so unexpected and interesting. How can a girl have tree branches that resemble reindeer horns growing out of her head? How can birds perch on top of each other on a girl's head, while she makes a phone call in the midst of a cornfield, where the plants are taller than her? I love how unique Lee Kow Fong is, and how he manages to pull everything together with his unique and special arrangement of subject matter.

3. He dares to work with cartoons

Nowadays, no one dares to work with cartoons. Many think that this is of lower class and not as outstanding as painting realistically. In the cartoon industry, one either makes it or breaks it. If one makes it, he becomes famous like Walt Disney or Doctor Seuss, but there are many other artists who paint in a cartoon-like style and stay unknown. Thus no one dares to draw cartoons, as they are scared that they may fail. I think that Lee Kow Fong having most of his works done in a cartoon-style is very brave of him. Furthermore, the exhibition I attended was his first solo exhibition containing his first few works, which shows how he dared to take the first step to paint in a cartoon-like manner.


How he inspires me

After viewing his exhibition, I became less afraid to do watercolour works. Personally, I love watercolour and do much better in it than oils or acrylic. However, for practical assignments, almost everyone uses acrylic and oils, and this leaves me feeling very insecure, as I'm afraid to use watercolour when everyone is doing something different. After seeing how he uses watercolour for almost all of his works, I decided that I should not be shy or insecure about using watercolour, and I have been using watercolour much more often since viewing his exhibition.

I do not really know many artists who work with cartoons. When I saw his works, I got very excited, as I have always been drawing cartoons since young. I really want to work with cartoons, but with all my classmates around me painting in realistic styles, I did not dare to work with cartoons, as I was afraid my teachers would mark me down. However, seeing one artist produce so many pieces of work that are filled with cartoons inspired me to start trying to work with cartoons for school assignments. In the end, I ended up having children as my target audience for my coursework, and every single one of my animal containers are done in a cartoon style. It is thanks to Lee Kow Fong that I got the courage to work with cartoons.


Lee Kow Fong has become one of my favourite artists, and has also given me inspiration for my coursework. His watercolour works are so beautiful that I feel inspired to paint with watercolour as often as possible. The recent anime and cartoons I draw in my own free time are all painted with watercolour, as I love the finish that watercolour gives. If not for Lee Kow Fong, I would not bother painting my drawings. I am very glad I visited Lee Kow Fong's exhibition.

Artist Inspiration - Mary O'Malley

Mary O'Malley has been a great help to my coursework. Miss Xie, one of my AEP teachers, helped me to discover the works of Mary O'Malley in the midst of my coursework. I have a deep respect of Mary O'Malley, as she is so patient and dedicated to her ceramic works. Whenever I look at her works, I instantly feel energy sweeping through me that makes me want to create better works. I feel inspired by her.


Examples of her work

Link to more of Mary O'Malley's works: http://www.maryomalleyceramics.com/bottom-feeders.html

Why she inspires me

1. She is so patient and dedicated
The texture of her works are extremely challenging. Such as the holes in the tentacles, and the bumps surrounding the holes. The barnacles with the small pipes sticking out also look very difficult, as the pipes looks so delicate, as if they may break if too much pressure is applied. To achieve such beautiful yet realistic work is so tough, and yet she has done it. The process of making the clay and combing it with the ceramics must require a lot of patience, and I needed a lot of patience in my works and coursework, so I am inspired.

2. She has coolest and most interesting ideas ever
Who thinks of combining clay and ceramics in such a way? As if the sea creatures are creeping across the cups, saucers and teapots. And who thinks of such a combination of sea creatures? Mixing starfish with barnacles and tentacles is very unique and may be seen as weird by those who have not seen her works. But after looking at Mary O'Malley's works, I have been transfixed by the way the sea creatures come alive together, silently creeping across the ceramics and waving their tentacles.

3. She is very skilled in her work
Her works are of such high quality, and are so realistic. Her high level of skills make me feel like working harder to improve my own skills in clay making. If she can do it, I can do it too. Of course not as good as her, since I lack training and am not especially talented in this area. But at least I feel the energy to put in my best effort by looking at her works.


How she has inspired me

In my coursework, I am working with clay, and my theme is also sea creatures, just like her. However, my target audience is for children, unlike hers, which is most probably adults. While I transform animals into containers, Mary O'Malley has combined animals and containers. I worked with other animals though. We have a lot of similarities in the above, and I feel this is how she has inspired me.


All in all, I really like Mary O'Malley's clay and ceramics works, as I feel that she has put in her own unique touch to the clay, which has made them 'come alive' on the ceramics. I feel inspired and empowered by her to put in the best effort I can.