"Emulsion" is the most recent addition to the "alcohol ink drip playing" series started in January 2021. The works here are all seeded with alcohol ink paintings on synth paper. By July, I am hoping to have acquired a few more capabilities in the digital image editing area. Thinking visually is a reprieve from other projects where it's mostly thinking symbolically and linguistically.

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

2. 2
Venting

3. 3
Implacable Sky

4. 4
Break

5. Emulsion
• “Emulsion” is the latest in the series of “alcohol ink drip playing” as a
distraction during a time of stress during a global pandemic (SARS-CoV-
2/COVID-19).
• As with many of my family, friends, and colleagues, we want to leave this all behind
and move on…but it will be some years yet…before we all can in mutual biosafety
and health. The core predicate of these slideshows continues.
• Many of us have been back at work for months now, in person, albeit mostly masked
In mid-June, masking is now no longer required for those fully vaccinated.
• Since Jan. 2021, I have been engaging in direct experiential learning to see
how alcohol inks and synthetic papers work.
• In an IT sense, this is “brute force” learning and not optimized. It is fun though.
5

6. Emulsion(cont.)
• There are technical limitations of the media.
• I’m trying to learn how to better design seeding visuals for digital outcomes.
• Such drip playing helps one think more visually (even for a lifelong textual and
symbolic thinker).
• I wonder if there will be a digital filter for alcohol inks on synthetic
paper one day.
• If that exists, I would so adore practicing with layers and layers of inks. In the
analog, that would be too expensive.
• I am constantly feeling like I am making the same visual again and again
because I am failing to go beyond a certain escape velocity.
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7. Emulsion (cont.)
• My main goal is to create novel imagery here (as I am learning about the
analog and the digital methods). There are real limits to variations (I see
the finite edges).
• As for my work, I am not seeing increasing visual refinement per se yet but
something closer to the “common artist’s” voice and curiosities. Or perhaps any
improvements are subtle and limited.
• I like that there are always a range of options at the start but that these start to
dwindle…as more alcohol ink is laid down…as more of the digital processing
pathways are explored. There is a convergence on a stopping point and something
that feels like an appropriate end state for each work (or multiple versions of
different end states).
• Sometimes I’ll include some lesser works (in my subjective eyes) just to remember
something learned, something of the common art-making experience. There is no
wayfinding path back to a time, but at least there is a reminder.
7

8. On white synth paper
8

9. 9
Two Sisters

10. 10
Entanglements

11. 11
Firmament

12. 12
Wind Direction

13. 13
Rejuvenation

14. 14
Edible Roots

15. 15
Stored Lightning

16. 16
Stepped Grapes

17. 17
Pollen 2

18. 18
In Hiding

19. 19
Dream Forest

20. 20
Back Light

21. 21
Drying Fruit

22. 22
Glimmers

23. 23
Continuity of Forms

24. 24
Mist

25. 25
Tidal Pushes and Pulls

26. 26
Atmospherics

27. 27
Leak

28. On translucent synth paper
28

29. 29
Pledge

30. 30
Of Wrath

31. On black synth paper
31

32. 32
Disheveled

33. On digital variants
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34. 34
Pairing Off

35. 35
Climb

36. 36
Hoof Beats

37. 37
Spined Flower

38. 38
Spined Flower 2

39. 39
Hem

40. 40
Method of Entry

41. 41
Broken Affection

42. 42
Envelopment

43. 43
Hard Rain

44. 44
Touch

45. 45
Turf

46. 46
Balance

47. 47
Etch

48. 48
Shell 10

49. 49
Long Fall

50. 50
Marble

51. 51
Found Object

52. 52
Surprise