Website Launched!

My website is ryanchoart.com
My online portfolio will be on that site, and I'll continue posting other things here.

How Music Is Made

A mixed media interpretation of how music is made - inspired by a short story called "Ars Poetica".

The Marketplace of Kabul

Here's an illustrative interpretation of a passage from The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad.  The passage describes a woman wondering through the bazaar, buying various items.  She ends up at a cart with bras, and buys a "powerful corsetlike contraption".
The women in Kabul are required to wear burqas which have a small opening for the eyes - the grille.  These are often in the shape of a hexagon, which I used as a framing device to suggest first point perspective.

Loretta Lynn!

I love Loretta Lynn's music (esp. the Your Squaw is on the Warpath album)! I got a chance to illustrate her for my Op-Art assignment.  I wanted this piece to have an American folk art feel to it.  

The painting ended up much bigger than I anticipated; the dimensions are 18" x 30".  

Prison + Hope

A small 1.85" x 2.35" piece about prison and having hope.

Geoengineering

I had a chance to illustrate an article about Geoengineering for Op-Ed class.  I decided to focus on the uncertain outcomes of this technology.  The piece was influenced by face card illustrations; I wanted this reference to subtly hint that we are gambling with our future.

Here's the original article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/geoengineering-testing-the-waters.html

Rachel Carson

I got a chance to illustrate the amazing Rachel Carson (environmentalist, author of "Silent Springs") for an Op-Ed hw assignment.  Here's my portrait of her for the article.

And here's the link to the actual New York Times article, if you want to read about her:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/books/review/on-a-farther-shore-by-william-souder.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0