Dragon Boat Painting

Here's my caption for the piece:

"As an immigrant in the fast paced America, it’s becoming harder and harder to stay connected to the Khmer culture. That’s why it’s so important for Khmers to come together and help each other keep the connection strong. Similar to the dragon boat needing all of it’s paddlers to move together to race for the goal, our culture needs every Khmer to stay dedicated to preserving our culture."

During the 2009 Khmer New Year celebration, I heard an announcement looking for artists to paint something about our Khmer culture because the municipality is having an APA Heritage Month Exhibit from late April to late May, and there was a segment about Khmer and Cambodia. SO! I jumped right to it. Although I got really short notice, I finished it in 3 days, which shows through because there are many things that I could improve on. In any case, I was able to get it in on time, and it was up in the 3rd floor lobby of the Seattle Municipal Tower for about 2 or 3 weeks. I was HAPPY!!!  This is the first time my art has gone up any where outside of school!! I submitted a short bio of myself and the piece and everything! Sadly, I was unable to attend the reception because of class, but my piece on a public exhibit is pretty darn cool! Also, I submitted this piece for a publication in my university called the Matrix. The issue's theme was "Identity & Culture" so I thought this was perfect!

I need to take a moment to say a special thank you to my high school art teacher, Ms. D! She's so amazing! She hasn't been my art teacher since high school (which at the time of this painting was 2 years past), but she was still very willing to help me with my art when I needed it!! Also, thanks to my friends for all the support and encouragement in those 3 stressful days! They had to deal a lot with my crankiness and frustrations.

All in all, this was an exciting piece for me. I was very passionate about dragon boat racing, so the subject matter was very personal. In addition, this was the first time my piece was shown outside of a school environment. However, I do wish I had more time with it to work on hand studies, body proportions, siting poses, etc. Plus, it would be nice if the people on the boat had life jackets! >_<

I hope you enjoyed reading about this painting. Until next time!!

<3 Kara

Welcome to Be Lured!

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for visiting.

I am just a normal girl who loves artsy things. I noticed that I love painting and drawing in high school (shout out to IB art!) and started exploring photography in college as a hobby. Although I enjoyed art very much, I didn't have the time and means to pursue it too much until recently (yay for my supportive husband). So beware that I am no professional artist, and I have no academic background in art or photography from an actual art school.

I hope to share with you all my experiments and works from the past as well as current projects so that you can see a bit of my artistic development. I will show primarily drawings, paintings, and photos, but I also love making cards, so you'll be seeing some of those. It's a lot to gather in one place, but it's a reflection of my development. I just like experimenting with different mediums and hopefully I end up creating something that people can enjoy.

Since this is just the beginning, please be patient as I populate this blog with all sorts of wonderful things. Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think, or if there is some suggestions you may have.

Also, don't forget to like my page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/BeLured
There you will be able to see some works I've put together for easy viewing. I am working to put detailed descriptions of each piece, so if some are blank and you want to know more, check back soon! Furthermore, please say a quick hello if you make it to Be Lured on Facebook and let me know what you think!

With that said, here's something to hold you over until my next post:

 

I've put together a collage of four separate pieces for easy viewing. This was an assignment in IB art, called art movement study where I was to research different styles of movements in art history and pick four that I would like to demonstrate using the same subject. In this case I chose cubism, realism, impressionism, and surrealism as my four styles of art movements and my subject was a baby. The baby was actually a picture I saw in a magazine and I fell in love with it. I drew it in my art journal, and then went to work! Cubism baby is in acrylic paint, realism baby is in conte crayon, impressionism baby is in watercolor, and surrealism baby is in acrylic paint. 

Fun fact: after I finished all four, I realized that I had signed them for reading the wrong way hehe

I hope you've enjoyed Be Lured. Please leave a comment and don't forget to come back soon!

<3 Kara

About Me

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for visiting my little space in cyber-land.

I love artsy and crafty things! I've always liked drawing and painting but never had the opportunity to experiment and actually do anything until high school. My high school has a comprehensive program where students could opt in for what's called an International Baccalaureate diploma. In this program there are certain courses and a number of subjects you must take. I chose IB art as one of my electives, and I loved it so much that I tested for it in advanced category instead of standard.

My time in IB art was such a learning experience to me. There were lots of successes paired with failures, but that's how it goes. I found that I love researching, painting, and experimenting with different mediums and styles. My knowledge, approach and perspective evolved over time, and somewhere towards the end of the program, I found that my subject matter revolved around babies. This is most likely influenced by my beloved baby sister, who was always at my side.I even took her to tennis practice sometimes =D

In college, my focus was all in classes, tennis, organizations on campus and also work. I always wanted to paint, but with everything going on, painting just took too much time. I could squeeze a drawing in here and there, but not really painting. The one time I actually got to painting, I was so rushed and pressed for time that I wasn't fully satisfied with my piece. It was pretty natural that my interests shifted to photography, since I could take pictures way faster than waiting for paint to dry. Literally! So I took a photography class offered an my university, loved it and my aunt gifted me with a fancy DSLR for practice. I have a friend who is very passionate about photography and we actually teamed up to do a photography business proposal competition. That was so much fun that we actually did a couple wedding shoots together, with me as his assistant. But I still wanted to draw and paint! So, during my senior year of college, I took an intro to drawing class. In IB art, the curriculum was what you make of it. We had mandatory projects and pieces to produce, but what we wanted to learn we sought out. So I never had formal guidance on drawing specifically. This drawing class taught me so much and I realized I love art way too much to let it slip away.

Now, I am married to my wonderful and supportive husband, Patrick (aka "Sugar Patty" or "Patty Cakes"). Woohoo! Proud army wife! After our wedding, we've moved to San Antonio and are schedule to move again soon! Needless to say, no one wants to hire someone to train only for them to quit soon. But on a positive note, I have the time and means to pursue my art! Yay! My super supportive husband has definitely invested in my supplies and art space. This is so great and important to me because I have my station set up. I can have breakfast and walk over to my area and start painting if I wanted to because everything is there! In addition to drawing and painting supplies, he's also invested in my supplies for my crafty projects, like card making. Isn't he wonderful? Thanks babe!

With that said, I want to thank you again for investing some of your precious time here! I hope you like what you see, and believe me, I plan on showing lots of fun things!

<3 Kara