Dear Diary: Chapter 5

Dear Diary: chapter 5

Happy New Year's everyone! I thought I would start the new year off with a few random things going on in my life right now...

1. My daughter Madeline has a habit of taking random things and hiding them in mysterious places. Her greatest feat so far has been making a xylophone key disappear without a trace. After months of looking everywhere for it we finally gave up hope. This week however, I finally found it hidden in amongst the branches of our christmas tree when I was taking it to the wood chippers.

2. There’s a dirty ugly rat living in my garage. Maybe he's not ugly by rat standards, but he's definitely ugly by human standards. I don’t have any phobias, but now I every time I open the garage door I'm afraid that a rat is going to run up my pant leg. If anyone knows either how to get rid of him or what to name him (or both), I’m all ears. 
(Update: I got back from Christmas holidays and found a half decomposed frozen rat in my garage. I couldn't help but feel bad for the poor little guy. I showed my respect by ceremoniously flinging his body into a bush behind my house with a shovel).

3. HAIR UPDATE: As fans of the Beef know, my hair and I have been on a magical journey. After 34 years of being on this earth I finally decided to let it all grow out, and the results have been incredible. When people look at me, I can tell that they think my hair looks sexy and cool. It's currently down to just above my shoulders. I haven't decided how long I will let it grow, all I know is that I’m going to keep riding this groove train.

4. For Christmas my awesome wife got me a rugged new mountain stroller so that Madeline and I can go on crazy outdoor adventures. The illustration looks like me pushing a lawnmower, but I assure you that it is me pushing a cool new stroller up a mountain.

5. I never make new year’s resolutions, but I have decided that 2016 will be the year that I finally learn French. I’ve been making a loose effort to learn for the last couple of years, and now it's time to pick up the pace. If you happen to see me on the street, feel free to say ‘Bonjour’.

6. Starting this month I’m going to be taking an eight week illustration course at the Emily Carr University, and I’m super excited about it. On top of my regular weekly posts, expect to see lots of new and wonderful things here at the Land of Le Beef.

the Montessori Academy

You might remember that I recently did two small murals at a preschool in Hong Kong ( one of Woodland Pre-School's 10 locations in the city). Well those murals turned out so awesome, that Woodland insisted that I adorn the walls of their newest, most spectacular school yet - the Montessori Academy on Caine Road.

In keeping with the woodland theme, we decided to go with a forest motif for this mural. So once again I picked up my pencil, and went about designing what would soon become the modern version of Raphael's School of Athens. I could go into great detail about the planning, process, and decisions made, but I really don't feel like writing an essay right now. What I will say is that it is a huge honour to be a part of such a great school - the Montessori Academy is amazing.

(a big thank you to Rainbow Wong who helped with the painting - many long hours were spent making sure that each brush stroke was perfect)

planning, floorplan, construction...

sketches, ideas, details...

in progress, details...

paint, a paintbrush, and a beaver...

view of the main wall...

unfortunately the wall is so long that it is really hard to fit the entire mural in one photo, so here's a portion of it...

here's another portion of it...

this is a separate mural at the entrance of the school... 

the Woodland Montessori Academy from the outside...

chinese new year

I'd like to wish all the people out there a very happy 'year of the snake'. I can't say that snakes are my favourite animals, but as far as the chinese zodiac goes, they're definitely in my top twelve.

anyhoo,

Chuk nam sang wei.