This slideshow continues the "drip playing" series...by sharing some more works, which were created as a form of escapism and creativity during the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic. These were created using alcohol inks mostly and a common digital image editing software. These were created on translucent synthetic paper, white synthetic paper, and black cardstock respectively. Even though many of these are abstract, I see these as pseudo-explorations of forms. And there is the interplay between the physical material / analog and digital.

1. Dilution and Concentration
[a beginner’s exploratory of liquid inks (alcohol and water) and digital visual editing]
Shalin Hai-Jew
February 2021

2. 2
Potato

3. 3
At the Beach

4. 4
Venn Hinge

5. 5
Stealth Arrivals

6. 6
Red in Tooth and Claw

7. 7
Contemplation

8. Dilution and Concentration
• A continuation of the exploratory:
• This work is a continuation of the exploratory in earlier slideshows using both
material (alcohol inks, water paint pens, and both synth and regular
paper)…and some digital applications.
• I got stocked up on more translucent synthetic paper again.
• I am seeing what changes when the paper size changes.
• Partway through the work, my home office scanner started showing
banding again, which was a pretext for trying digital means to apply
transparency patches, burn, spot-heal, and to engage in digital
editing.
8

9. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Many of the paintings start out looking more gloriously and peculiarly
lurid than what happens after the inks and paints dry…and then are
scanned.
• I’m much more comfortable with works going through an “ugly” phase (or
multiple such phases) … before finalizing to an equilibrium state. (It’s always
easier seeing how others go through this and having confidence that they’ll
pull it out…than I feel for myself. The safety net of having paints dry into less
vibrance…and having the extra layer of the poor scanner…makes it easier to
just go with it. Alcohol inks dry so fast that control is somewhat illusory.)
9

10. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Some lessons I’m working on for myself:
• I want to know when to stop. There is a point beyond which any additions
start to “muddy” the work (and the pigment). It is becoming clearer when
sparseness might work better than excess.
• I am trying to learn about white space and how to use that more effectively.
• I am seeing how layering of the various inks works.
• Each work combines feeling and thinking. One without the other does not
fully work.
• I want to think ahead from the beginning and not just riff the entire time. I
am understanding why some line up their paints and inks, and why they have
a plan for what color goes where early on. But I also want to be able to just
“go with it” where possible.
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11. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• I am learning how to make a visual that is “of a piece” without too
much artificiality, where possible. Where this is a real issue is when I
combine various types of inks and paint pens and alcohol markers and
so on.
• Digital means are sometimes needed to integrate disparate media
(which feels like a “cheat” for the material parts).
• The power in any creative space is the solving of the constraints.
• However, visuals are about illusions, so I use what I need to get to what I
want.
11

12. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• That said, I still like the “accidents” and the roughness…and am leery of too
much digital editing (although quite a few of the digital versions go through
several steps of distortion before converging on a final state).
• There is a lot to be said for imperfections and seams.
• There is a lot to be said for serendipitous accidents and “errors”.
• There is a lot about being inchoate. Visuals help fill some of those inarticulable
spaces.
• Sometimes, experimentation is about a “brute force” exploration of every knowable
possibility and mistake.
• The respective material mediums have “give.”
• The art space is open to interpretation and is relatively “forgiving” in the
informal aspects.
12

13. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Every work is a product of its time. In the present moment, with the
challenges of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, these are a diversion from
work and the stresses of the world. These works offer a way to attain
“second wind” in difficult moments because of the surprises along the way.
• These works also initially stemmed from the need to create decorative visuals for an
online academic journal that I co-edit. (Open-shared visuals and clipart only go so
far.)
• As a writer, I adore words (and concepts and stories)…and I hope some of
that comes through even in the simple word selections.
• There are some implied little stories (or little states of being) in the visual
labels and related visuals.
• But please, these are doodles, so don’t read too much into anything.
• If there is a silly interpretation, go with those.
13

14. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Along the way, I am learning about the materialia and the technologies.
• Each has various “affordances and enablements.” Each has a “nature.”
• There is strength in moving along with the nature. There is strength in moving
counter to that nature (to de-nature the medium), to go against the grain.
• It always seems to be that what I am “painting” is to the viewer and how
the human visual system works. It is not really about the visual but the
person.
• The lessons (for me) are two-fold:
1. Try.
2. Have fun.
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15. On translucent synth paper
15

16. 16
Clouds

17. 17
Foothold

18. 18
Cone

19. 19
Afterthrill

20. 20
Wild Grasses

21. 21
Not Smoke; It’s Night
(from Gorky Park)

22. On white synth paper
22

23. 23
Melt Rates

24. 24
Cool Reception

25. 25
All-Season Wreath

26. 26
Bolus

27. 27
Logging

28. 28
Last Gasps

29. 29
Erosion

30. 30
Assortativity

31. 31
Seeding

32. 32
Abundance

33. On black cardstock
33

34. 34
Stone Soup

35. 35
Living Densities

36. On digital variants
36

37. 37
Lace Doily

38. 38
Sweet Concoction

39. 39
Bamboo

40. 40
Stadia

41. 41
Splash

42. 42
Tuck and Roll

43. 43
Semi-Sweet Bubble Tea

44. 44
Night Sleet

45. 45
Dartboard at 1000 Meters

46. 46
Sheer Verticals

47. 47
Gilded World

48. 48
Square Brackets

49. 49
Spindle

50. 50
Razor Strap

51. 51
Xylophone

52. 52
Lines and Numbers

53. 53
Color Spinoff

54. 54
Reaching

55. 55
Fountain

56. 56
Drain

57. 57
Fissures

58. 58
Petri

59. 59
Soundwaves

60. 60
From West; From East

61. 61
Unwound

62. 62
Cityscape