"Soak" is the latest mini-collection of "common art" from "alcohol ink drip playing" in a time of the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic. Human cooperation does seem much more difficult than people might have assumed. For those working to fight the pandemic, theirs is 3D chess in very complex senses.

1. Soak
A beginner’s play in alcohol inks,
watercolor,
(non) synthetic papers,
and digital image editing…
Shalin Hai-Jew
Aug. 2021

2. 2
Landing

3. 3
Takeoff

4. 4
Shelter

5. 5
Beyond

6. 6
Hillside

7. 7
Predawn

8. 8
Listening

9. 9
Pile

10. Soak
• “Soak” is the latest in the “alcohol ink drip playing” series.
• The idea here is that “common art” and “creative production” can be
healthful ways to deal with the stresses of an ongoing global SARS-
CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic.
• In this moment, the delta variant is rampaging through various populations.
• There are major worries about a break-through mutation that may stymie the
current vaccines. There are serious efforts to ensure that this does not
happen.
• People are struggling to cooperate with each other to manage this pandemic.
Building coalitions takes a lot of convincing apparently, even when the
accommodations seem and are simple (the vax, effective masking, hand
hygiene, social distancing, and so on).
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11. Soak (cont.)
• In some ways, playing with art enables a temporary de-stressing.
Artworks can affirm a sense of order in a world in disarray.
• The algorithmic art, enabled by AP 2021 and AI 2020 help salvage art ideas
and enable variances from original seeding analog works.
• I am still struggling with trying to plan work and then follow through.
There is still a benefit of experimentation…but that should probably
be less as I have learned more about how alcohol ink behaves.
Impulse is a poor substitute for conscious progress.
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12. Soak(cont.)
• Every visual is suggestive and partial and does not fully describe a scene or
object.
• There is something about “less is more,” but that is easier said than done.
• Unless one has a paper napkin or cloth nearby while the alcohol ink is wet,
everything laid done is semi-permanent. One can go over the dried alcohol ink on
synthetic paper later with rubbing alcohol, but that only has some limited effect.
• Color is so central to emotion.
• In digital image editing, I recently discovered blur with Bokeh lights.
Several of the works here use this feature.
• Just saw that Adobe is removing 3D module from Photoshop 2021 because of
updates to operating systems that limit the module’s functionalities. Will keep an
older version on an older machine and hope that suffices.
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13. Soak(cont.)
• In a recent research project, I have been exploring world creating (aka
world making) using visuals. Image-making in this sense is about re-
imagining the world and exploring possibilities for the present and
future.
• Ideally, such ideas may inform people constructively for a world that works.
Or works better. These ideas help people transcend the status quo, the ever-
present entropy.
• B/W has its own stark loveliness. Its power is in the contrast and the
simplicity.
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14. On white synth paper
14

15. 15
Reconfiguration

16. 16
Migration

17. 17
Muggy Summer

18. 18
Strange Fruit 2

19. 19
Cloud Seeding

20. 20
Tulips

21. 21
Mild

22. On digital variants
22

23. 23
Walking on Ice

24. 24
Split Tree

25. 25
Electric Core

26. 26
Sparkle

27. 27
Flora

28. 28
Tulips 2

29. 29
Organization

30. 30
Planetary Weather

31. 31
Tsunami

32. 32
Downed Lines

33. 33
Oil Slick

34. 34
Honeysuckle

35. 35
Two Petals

36. 36
Blam!

37. 37
Pines

38. 38
Taken Aback

39. 39
Into History

40. 40
Vase

41. 41
Tree with Handholds

42. 42
Processing Breath

43. 43
Ferns

44. 44
Water

45. 45
Witting

46. 46
Eversion

47. 47
Morph

48. 48
Approach