This is the latest "common art" slideshow from alcohol ink drip playing...on synthetic paper. The sharer took up alcohol ink playing in January 2021 as a way to relieve stress...and put in the last few weeks of telecommuting before heading back to campus (fully inoculated with both vaccinations and still safely masked and socially distanced), fully present both virtually and IRL.

1. Hidden Water
A beginner’s play in alcohol inks,
water color,
(non) synthetic papers,
and digital image editing…
Shalin Hai-Jew
April 2021

2. 2
Plumage

3. 3
Evanescence

4. 4
Poppy

5. 5
Scoop

6. 6
Empty Acres

7. 7
Steam Rising

8. 8
By a Thread

9. Hidden Water
• In 2020, during some of the harshest manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 /
COVID-19, many made decisions that resulted in harm to themselves
and others, even in the face of sufficient knowledge.
• Early warnings abounded. They were plentiful throughout this time.
• When people’s lives and well-being are on the line, and there is not yet a
credible biodefense, it would seem reasonable to assume that people can
apply some restraint and make small changes to their lives.
• False hope and denial and rhetoric are non-protective as a biosafety defense.
• And yet, many that I know and respect, did not take due diligence.
9

10. Hidden Water (cont.)
• At this moment, I wonder if humanity can cooperate and not go to
divisiveness (the blaming, the othering, the fractiousness, the
skepticism).
• Perhaps the sobering reality is that we are all too independent-minded.
• Perhaps there is too much complexity in the world.
• Perhaps core human needs trump biosafety.
• Perhaps mixed messaging can really do a number on people.
• Perhaps identity politics (and religious ones) can be wielded in dangerous
ways.
10

11. Hidden Water (cont.)
• One day when we wake, truly wake, the shock may be excessive.
• Was it really so hard to mask and social distance and maintain hand
hygiene to protect self and others? Was it really such a stretch?
(Apparently so.)
• Why was mass-scale change so difficult?
• Was the risk so appealing to many of all ages that they could not
resist the allure? Was the flaunting unmasked too mesmerizing?
• And yet, through these travails, there is something of hope.
11

12. Hidden Water(cont.)
• This “alcohol ink” drip playing series (in a pandemic) started in
January 2021 and is running through the present.
• Here, common art is about survival, to get through the present unbearable
moment, to a time when things are better.
• Each moment gets us closer to the other side.
• This slideshow is a coping mechanism to endure lockdowns and the
sense of futility at my country and its missteps…and the world, too,
and its missteps.
• The editing of the scanned alcohol “common art” is not about what is
produced but the learning that came out of it (which may or may not
be visible to anyone looking at these drafts).
12

13. Hidden Water (cont.)
• This slideshow “Hidden Water” suggests something to me about
hope.
• Some watercolor was intermixed with the alcohol inks on synth
papers.
• Some of the visuals are visually plausible. These speak to the visual
understandings that people may have.
• Visuals are built to how people see and think about seeing and train into
seeing.
• This means that no matter what myriad options there are in digital image
editing, there are limits to what may be visually expressed for human
consumption.
13

14. On white sketch paper
14

15. 15
Apricot

16. 16
One Drop

17. On translucent synth paper
17

18. 18
Seepage

19. 19
Flames in Water

20. 20
Surprise Freeze

21. 21
Fireworks

22. 22
Lavender

23. 23
Cauldron

24. 24
Amethyst

25. On digital variants
25

26. 26
Cave Painting

27. 27
Water’s Edge

28. 28
Paper Airplane

29. 29
Neon Life

30. 30
Dun

31. 31
Morphology

32. 32
Drop

33. 33
Gliding

34. 34
Moment

35. 35
Spark

36. 36
Reflectances

37. 37
Through and Through

38. 38
Hidden Water

39. 39
Memory

40. 40
Memory 2

41. 41
Orange Glory

42. 42
Vines

43. 43
Diversionary

44. 44
Hand Wind Clock

45. 45
IOU

46. 46
Flare

47. 47
Swirl

48. 48
Digital Fish

49. 49
Passive Hunting

50. 50
Rings

51. 51
Dare

52. 52
Counterclockwise

53. 53
Bottled Affection

54. 54
Shaped Round

55. 55
Spinneret

56. 56
Pod