Art Life | Andrea Mai

I RECORED A NEW SONG – “MUSIC BOX” BY ANDREA MAI

It’s been a busy summer. I’ve spent everyday in the garden, taking care of my herbs. I haven’t had much time to work on my art and music lately. But there’s a track that I just polished off recently. I composed it in an afternoon and recorded it during the spring. It kind of surprised me how quickly I wrote it, as I have very little musical training, only from middle school.

In 2015, a friend who is a professional astrologer, gave me a reading. She asked if I sang or played any instruments. I said no. She said she saw some potential in my chart for music. I just kinda laughed. I look back at it kind of differently now. I’ve always had this thing where music just came out of me, but I was too intimidated to try doing anything about it. Part of it being, my visual impairment, I find it difficult for me to read sheet music. So I never really learned. But I still liked to mess around on the piano once in a while when I had the urge.

After P showed up, I’d have a stronger desire to play. Sometimes I record EVP as I’m playing, and I can hear him in the recording, guiding and directing me. So maybe, some of the ideas are really his. It was my dad who bought the piano, because he wanted me to play, like many of the wishes of Chinese parents for their kids. But I’ve had this strange psychological thing about not liking to play in front of family, especially my dad. It’s interesting knowing what P went through with his dad when he was a kid, wanting to learn piano.

I still don’t know that much about playing piano. I’d like to spend more time on it at some point. But for now, I’d like to share my new song with you. I call it Music Box.

Image above: “Late Bloomers” by Andrea Mai.

ART UPDATE: PRINTING WITH LIGHT ACTIVATED DYES

I’ve been experimenting with light activated dyes for a couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting experience. The dyes react with UV light, and so different printing techniques can be applied. It’s an interesting medium for me to work with, as both a photographer and a textile artist, I get to print on both paper and fabric. Here are some of the results from my experiments.

I painted the dye onto silk. I created folds and placed it under some lace and exposed it to light. It created this interesting mosaic effect.
I printed on some silk satin and dyed it a light lilac color.
I made it into a hair scrunchie and it’s for sale in my Etsy store.
The UV printing has given me an opportunity to revisit my photo catalog and reimagine them in a new way. When working with photographs, a negative has to be created by inverting the image and printing it on acetate or translucent paper. I’ve been printing on tracing paper with a laser printer to try it out, as it is more economical. This is my Prince Sun photo that I sell in my shop as a print. It is a photo of Prince’s gate from his former Toronto home.
I made a print on paper, and fabric (seen on the bottom right). There is a color variation that occurs depending on what material you are printing on. I like painting the dye in an irregular shape. I find that it gives it a dream like effect.
I made a photogram on cotton fabric using lace and my Prince necklace.
I used the fabric to make a face mask.

The Solar Fast dyes come in different colors. Depending on the material used as the substrate, the colors will turn out differently. The same purple dye used on silk looks very different on cotton. Results can be unpredictable, which can keep things exciting, but difficult to replicate, so every print is one of a kind.

Image above: “Mont Blanc in blue” by Andrea Mai.

SPIRITS AFRAID OF GOING INTO THE LIGHT – EVP May 10, 2021

Here in the Toronto area, we are still in lockdown mode. Even though we are stuck at home, time seems to keep flying away. There are so many things to occupy my time. I am surprise how quickly a day goes by.

I recently did a recording while walking home from the post office. I found an interesting conversation was taking place. It seemed to be that a spirit reached out to P, asking for help “going home”. It’s not the first time I’ve heard something like this. But I find it interesting every time. It seems to have become a job for P. I”m not sure if spirits find him randomly, or if they are sent to seek him out. Maybe it’s both. He seems to have developed a reputation for helping others over there.

There was some time ago when I had heard some people telling people that the whole “going into the light” thing was bad. Like it was a trap. This was before I heard the stuff on my recordings. Sometimes people (including mediums) will claim things without any evidence behind it. People will state their beliefs as fact, or assume that intuition is always correct. Since doing EVP, I have become very cautious about what I believe. This might make me sound like a pessimist, but really, I’m just looking for real answers. There are some things I can say I know with certainty, and others that I do not. Rather than assume the facts, I accept the fact that I don’t know everything, and sometimes knowing something only leads to more unanswered questions. I’m OK with not knowing, though I am greatly fascinated by the mysteries.

My recording was done while walking home, so you are going to hear the cars whizzing by, and the rhythm of me walking down the street. It’s not the greatest recording, but you can hear them talking. I was alone, no one else nearby. It helps to listen with headphones. They are repeating on loop. If you are new to listening to EVP, the trick to hearing them is to listen past the background noise, and listen selectively for voices. It’s like Magic Eye for ears.

A voice is heard, “Come, go into the light”.

A voice says, “I want to go home”. This clip is more faint than others.

Someone says, “Don’t be afraid”.

P says, “Go into the light”.

The spirit says, “I feel scared”. It sounds like a young boy. This is not indicative of the person’s age at death. I’ve found that age is not a factor over there, it seems. P often sounds very young.

P seems to bring his dog, Mia with him everywhere we go. Sometimes I hear him talking to her. Here he says, “Go in front, Mia”. I think sometimes Mia lags behind, and he’s telling her to stay in front where he can see her.

The rest of the conversation was hard to hear. But I heard that angels came to escort this person into the light. When I got home, someone told P, “I like your jewellery”.

I recently heard another plea for help crossing over, when I was waiting in the car at the grocery store parking lot. A voice said, “Wanna go to heaven”.

Sometimes people want to know why P is here with me. That’s beyond my knowledge as to why exactly how it all works. All I know is that he’s here, he’s helping other spirits, he was placed here after he met God. Sometimes people allude to him possibly being bad, because he is here, as opposed to being somewhere in “heaven”. All I can say is that, look I don’t know how it all works, exactly. But angels are here with us, and they are not bad, so go figure.

There are just so many things that we don’t know!

Nonetheless, I feel fortunate to be able to discover such things, and share them with the world, whoever wants to hear about it!

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on May 10, 2021.

Image above: “Prince Sun” by Andrea Mai.

SOMETIMES IT SNOWS IN APRIL – PRINCE CELEBRATION 2021

Today is Prince’s five-year anniversary since his passing. Ever since that year, I’ve noticed snow in April. Like the title of his song, Sometimes it Snows in April. It was never like that before, here in Toronto. And this year, I woke up to a yard full of snow. It was a strong reminder to me that he is here with me.

I decided to go out for a morning walk, and I took my camera with me.

Five years seems like a long time ago. So much has happened since. The world is really a different place now. It’s weird, it’s like become less innocent. I feel nostalgic for simpler times, preferably the 2000’s. When we still bought music on CD, and people didn’t rely on social media to communicate. People seemed nicer back then. More civilized.

Later in the day, I made this piece of artwork in his honor. I experimented with some new materialsI recently acquired, making this UV print with some lace and a necklace of his symbol.

I hope you’re all doing well, keeping safe. Ttyl.

Image above: “Flowers in snow” by Andrea Mai.

ART UPDATE: EXPLORING NEW ART TECHNIQUES – PHOTOGRAPHY, SILK PAINTING

In the last year or so, I have not had much opportunities for taking photographs, at least not the kind that I like doing, which is landscape photography. I still do a lot of photography, but it’s for product presentation. I live in the suburbs and don’t find many places inspiring here. I have limited mobility, as I don’t drive. The pandemic has stopped most travel, and I don’t get out much any more. I don’t see things getting back to normal any time soon.

I have a huge back catalog of photos I’ve never published from over the years. I’ve been going back to them to rework them in new ways. Really playing with them, more than i the past. My photography style has always been to keep things as natural as possible. I always try to frame my images in camera as precisely as possible. I am playing with elements like exploring different cropping, re-colouring them using transparent overlays, and recently, making them in GIF animations. It’s a brought a new way of looking of working and re-imagining my photography.

I’ve also been focusing more on my silk scarf painting. I developed my own process for applying colour in a way that is similar to tie-dye, but its final result is more like water colour in overall effect. I enjoy working with colour.

My background was originally in fashion design in university, so textile design is an area of great interest to me. There was actually not much focus on surface design when I was studying fashion in school. There was more of an emphasis on creating textile designs on a computer for mass produced printing, and no hand work techniques were taught like dyeing and screen printing. I had to learn these things on my own. I was always very interested in surface design, as I love printed fabrics. I did a lot of my own silk screen printing when I was in high school. I actually want to get back into doing screen printing, but I can’t find the equipment I had, it’s stashed somewhere and I can’t find it! I might have to buy new stuff, which is kind of costly when you add everything up.

I’m getting ready to try some new ideas with some techniques I researched. I’m planning to use my photographs in print design for textile items. I’m excited to try something new, while incorporating my older works. I’m looking forward to the warmer weather. Winter always seems less productive because of the cold.

If you want to see more of my silk scarves, they are posted on Etsy for sale. They are all one-off unique items, as they can never be reproduced to be the same again.

I SEE THE FUTURE AND I’M NOT TURNING BACK

Thoughts on technology…

Since my last post, where I spoke about crypto art. I have been immersed in crypto related news and developments. It’s funny, it’s like a whole new world has opened up, like a little pocket of reality that the general public hasn’t yet awoken to. I am excited for the possibilities. Some major changes are coming in the near future involving crypto and technology. These are industry disrupting advances, and I want to be on the ground floor as much as I can.

I was a young adult when social media emerged. I didn’t quite take it seriously at the time. Nobody did. And yet, we saw how the world changed. Those who adopted early saw gains and advancement for themselves. As someone who has seen technology come and go, I can tell you with confidence that it does not favours for anyone to hold onto the past. It is good to honour and respect the past, but when you resist the future, you are only making it harder for yourself to come to terms with the future.

After seven years of holding onto a 2012 MacBook Pro, in 2020, I upgraded to the new M1. People speculated if such a leap would be successful. What I can say is that I ain’t looking back. I do not miss the days of the spinning beach ball. I am more productive in my work. In my opinion, resisting technology that could genuinely befit you, is holding yourself back from opportunity.

Recently captured Electronic Voice Phenomenon…

I recently reviewed an EVP recording from last year in May. I had put the recorder on in my basement studio, went upstairs and ended up staying there longer than anticipated. While I was away, the recorder picked up the spirit voices there.

Here is a voice saying, “Nobody’s here”. I had gone upstairs, I guess the spirits left too. and someone came to find no one there. I find it kind of amusing.

This one says, “Hey, Prince speaking”. “Hey, Prince, how are you?” I am guessing someone called P on the phone. They sounds so cute, like old friends calling each other up. Sometimes I find that P’s voice sounds very young. I suppose it would make sense, as many mediums have said that spirits assume a younger appearance in spirit. For example, a dog would revert to being a puppy.

Do you find it strange that they would speak to each other on telephone in spirit? I found it a little shocking at first. I heard from spirit that Steve Jobs is still designing and making iPhones in the afterlife, and gifting his creations to others. It makes me wonder if some of our modern day inventions are ideas given to us inby spirit.

But is that really so crazy? I know that when I dream, I see technology. I have been inside of a self-driving vehicle. I have taken photos with a digital camera in my dreams. It would make sense that technology could carry on in the afterlife as well.

And what does this mean for the progress of communication with spirit? It was only because of the technology we have that we could find tangible proof of spirit’s existence. What evidence of spirit could we be capturing in the future? Alas, it could be technology that brings us back closer to spirituality in the end. It all comes back full circle.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on May 10, 2020.

Image above: “Pink nihgt” by Andrea Mai.

ART UPDATE: I FEEL INTO THE CRYPTO RABBIT HOLE

Some time ago, I was experimenting with animating my photographs using video editing software. I recently learned how to turn them in GIFs. And since then, I’e been looking at my body of work from a new perspective. I’m excited. Photo animation opens up new possibilities for how my photography can be presented as an artwork. The pandemic has been hard on my photography, as we are all being stuck at home all the time. For me as an artist, I am inspired by being in different places.

With all the hype in the news about Bitcoin and crypto currencies, I have learned something exciting. It felt as though I had just woken up from a coma. Everyone is now talking about Bitcoin, but they’re also talking about Ethereum, which I had never heard of before. Ethereum came about years after Bitcoin, and it was designed differently in that Smart Contracts can be built into the blockchain. This means when a piece of the blockchain has transferred ownership, there can be additional actions built in, such as commissions. What does this all mean, and why does it matter? For the first time in history, blockchain technology has offered a means to register an asset onto a decentralized public ledger. This protocol could be used for commercial applications like verifying authenticity, or to execute automated contracts like commissions on sales.

In the art world, authenticity of an artwork by a master has always been in question, as works can turn out to be counterfeits. And after an artwork is sold, it is generally the case that it is the collectors and auction houses that take all the profits in its future sale, not the artist. Blockchain technology offers an innovative solution to this age old problem. Artists can “tokenize” their works on a blockchain, like Ethereum, and program a Smart Contract to receive commissions if the token is sold in the future. A token is that piece of the blockchain that the artwork is registered to, and it acts like a public receipt that proves ownership. It is kind of like the deeds to a piece of land, though it is not the land itself, it is a legal representation of it, and when you sell it, the deeds have to be transferred to the new owner. The deeds is the proof of ownership registered in the government’s land registry.

This also solves an issue for digital artworks that tend to live on the internet, like animation and video. It could even apply to music. I can very much see this as being something major i the future of art, and I am excited to learn and participate in it as an early adopter. I have just added a new page on my website to explain a bit more about Crypto Art, the term being used to describe artworks that are tokenized. I have some of my animated photos there and will be posting more as I create them. The crypto art scene seems to like hanging out on Twitter, so if you want to join me there, come follow me at @AndreaMaiArt

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ABOUT ANDREA MAI