Warning: heavy image dump ahead--you're welcome.

I haven't updated on my life at all since the New Year, but there really wouldn't be much to divulge anyway. I'm a little horrified to know that we're already 1/24th done with 2011 and all I've managed to accomplish are a few illustrations, even fewer e-mails, a couple trips to art galleries and two visits to the gym. I've been mainly preoccupied with a number of illustration requests from the SGI-USA, one which was to design a logo for the Ikeda Kayo-Kai, and another two colorful illustrations for various sections of the Buddhist World Tribune newspaper. I'm pretty happy with the finished product of the logo but I'm not so sure if I'm free to share it in public yet. I feel very fortunate that since I began posting my drawings publicly on dA and Facebook (mainly from this summer), I've been receiving a number of requests and commissions from various sources. It's all great practice to get a small taste of what it would be like to pursue art professionally. However, the idea of living as a freelance illustrator (and most likely a part-time worker for something else to be able to keep a constant wage) is still a little unnerving to me.

Other news, like I said, I went to a couple art museums. I went to the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills on Wednesday with my friend from high school, Saya Signs. Right now they're showing the works of Motohiko Odani on his theme "Phantom Limb"--it was a collection of bizarre, symbolic installations revolving around the theme of physical sensations and psychological states. The pieces included a full-length dress made completely of human hair, a bunch of enormous female bodies, unicorns and lilies made of white bandages suspended from the ceiling, and fluid, geometric sculptures made of animal skeletons and bones. And lots of other strange stuff:

Today, Saya and I met again to go visit the art gallery in Shibuya Bunkamura, which is displaying a number of Claude Monet paintings, along with works of other impressionist painters from Giverny, France. After we got our fill of the lilies, haystacks and orchid gardens, we had lunch at Botejyu, an okonomiyaki and yakisoba restaurant, which was followed by quaint, Chinese tea and annin-dofu at Chamate on the 4th floor of Loft. Yes, there has been a lot of delicious eating during the first 15 days of 2011, I am unashamed to say.

Wow, it's already past 1:30... I need to sleep. Okay, the rest in bullet points:

• Began re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Simultaneously began reading Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, proving to be an awesome, captivating and illustrative read.
• Began, actually this evening, formulating (for the 4th or 5th time now) a new Capstone idea revolving around the construction of physical and conceptual space and atmosphere through light, objects, sound and words.
• Bought my flight back to LA (Jan 29th) by milage.
• Films watched: How to Train Your Dragon (AGAIN), Inception (AGAIN), Nine (the movie-musical with Daniel Day Lewis, not that potato-sack-tiny-people-animation movie), Julie and Julia (again) and Wall-E (again)
• Got my parents addicted to Angry Birds
• Went to Tama Zoo with my high school friend, Jeannie and took these pictures:
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• Drew these things:
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• And finally, totally screwed over my sleeping schedule.