Julia Kuo's Blog, page 3

Taipei, Taiwan

I’ve been spending the winter in Taipei every year for the past 5 years now. It’s one of the things I love the most about freelancing. Not only is travel to new places important to the way I see the world, but going to Taiwan year after year has become an integral part of my hyphenated heritage. My parents moved back about 6 years ago, so I experience daily life with them. I go to the Jientan gym to run and one by 101 to climb. I work my normal 8 hours a day, eat meals with my parents, and explore Taipei bars and cafes with friends. As a second generation Taiwanese-American, getting to experience normal life in Taipei rather than a rushed visit is a luxury - and one that I don’t take for granted! 

Baltimore

I spent 5 days in Baltimore with this wonderful view from T.G.’s apartment. Baltimore is a beautiful city in the fall! I must have come at the right time, because all the trees were red and orange from the plane’s overhead view. Even the overcast sky was offset by the white smoke coming out of factory smokestacks.
One highlight from this trip (besides spending time with TG!) was visiting Johns Hopkin’s Medical Art program. It was amazing to see non-load-bearing prosthesis models (for example for the nose and ears) and the wide variety of studies the grad students have to do, since this program encompasses scientific art too. It’s an incredible discipline because it requires so much patience and attention to detail. I’m not sure if I could ever do something like that! 

The Field Museum

Spent a great morning drawing at the Field with some wonderful ladies =)

We were pretty fascinated by the weirdness of the babirusa - those curly top tusks looked like they were going to grow into its forehead! And what were the lower (but almost vertical) canines for? We were guessing that the top were for fighting and the bottom were for some type of eating function. Well good thing we have Wikipedia because we were pretty wrong: ”The tusks of the adult males are used in intraspecific fighting. The upper tusks are for defense while the lower tusks are offensive weapons.”

Cusp, Chicago

I was happy to be a contributor to Cusp Conference this year! It’s a two-day event held at the Museum of Contemporary Art and boasts two dozen speakers from a wide range of backgrounds on “the design of everything.” I took pages and pages of notes and created a more finished product for the Cusp folks that you can see here:
https://www.cuspconference.com/julia-kuo-day-1/

The Field Museum - Chicago Ideas Week

This Chicago Ideas Week lab was called “The Field Museum: Restoring Nature in Chicago.” The lab delivered 3 hours of packed information on the natural history of Chicago (“the mudhole of the prairies”) and current practices of the Field as a research institution. We saw a tiny portion of the museum’s huge collection of taxidermy birds (photos here and here!) and botanical plants. It was incredible to see those Birds of Paradise in person after having obsessively watching David Attenborough’s Life over and over again. 
The lab also addressed future plans of the local areas and the work of the Chicago Wilderness group. Mark Bouman, Chicago Region Program Director at the Field, emphasized that the idea of expanding the Chicago Wilderness Area would be a subtle integration of natural elements into the existing space, rather than a dramatic overhaul. I’m looking forward to a greener Chicagoland! 

Sydney, Australia

Sydney with Annie!

I think I ate more than my fair share of meat pies. Staying by Woolloomooloo and Harry’s definitely played a factor. I hope the US warms up to meat pies beyond the chicken pot pie. 

I also loved our trip to the Blue Mountains and picking up a farmer’s fresh squeezed orange juice along the way.

The highlight was definitely a three hour hike alone on Manly Beach. I just couldn’t believe the change in terrain and surroundings from the beach level up to the tops of the cliffs overlooking the beaches. It was a wonderfully isolated three hours, with only the occasional walkers passing by.

I kept seeing lizards of different sizes and patterns scurrying around, so I would either take a photo or draw depending on how long they stayed still for me. The largest one stayed still so long that I first took a photo with my digital camera - then my film camera - then did a quick sketch - and then got greedy and got very close for a detailed sketch (see above). Finally after ten minutes of my unwanted attention, this lizard flung itself towards me and landed in the middle of my path just a few feet ahead! I was surprised that even when I walked towards it, it didn’t budge. It was not happy with me, but a nice Frenchman happened to come along right at that time and the lizard promptly scampered away. 

Possibly the worst traveling-alone decision I made at this time was kayaking alone in Sydney Harbor. It was far too windy and I had so much trouble keeping a good distance from the boats that I ended up coming in early. Note to self: don’t do that again. 

Boston Commons

Boston seems to have a lot of the same qualities that I appreciate in Chicago: a concentrated city-center, reliable public transportation, plenty of cared-for public spaces, and tons of history. We spent our day wandering around - I recognized some places that I’d actually drawn before, like Copley Square - and went to Boston Public Library just to look at the John Singer Sargent murals. What a gorgeous building. I wish I could work out of Bates Hall’s reading room! But there were plenty of people packed in there, so it looked like it was getting plenty of use and attention. During my visit, I was surrounded by people getting through their 2nd and 3rd degrees; the city felt like one large higher education community. 

Pittsburgh International Airport

I’m waiting for my flight back to Chicago and watching the luggage get unloaded from this Southwest plane. I love watching airports and runways and trying to figure out where each little cart is zooming off to and what it’s job is. There are so many little pieces and parts that are needed to make the entire system work!

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater

Whenever I travel with friends or family, I always feel guilty about sketching! It takes a while for my scribbles to resemble anything, and there’s also the problem that the longer I draw the better I know it’ll be. I always imagine that the perfect travel buddy would be someone who writes songs, does timelapses or counts rocks at scenic lookouts -  any time-consuming travel habit will do =) 

My solution now is just to get there early, so this is as far as I got before friends showed up. After this came the tour of Fallingwater’s interior.  It’s great to see the horizontal theme of all those cantilevers repeated inside - even throughout the furniture and paintings! If you’ve been there, keep an eye out for a Diego Rivera painting that fits the horizontals =)  I was also happy to spot some original Audubon, Hiroshige and Hokusai pieces. That family had some good taste in art. 

Lincoln Park Conservatory

Perfect afternoon of drawing on the grassy field between the Lincoln Park Conservatory and LP Zoo with LF and KP. It’s great how to have illustrator friends who all have very different and distinct styles!