I fell in love with a quote from Game of Thrones.. “Moon of my life... My sun and stars..”.

  The moon was originally planned to be female, while the sun was male. However, my significant other mentioned that I am much more like the sun- shining bright and the fact that I enjoy the limelight, whereas he is like the moon- a soft glowing presence that comforts in times of darkness. I liked the idea so much that I changed the art work to what it is now.

  “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”

  I used an ink wash as the basis of this art work. I then added details with various pens. The bottom half of the drawing shows Earthly elements... The ground, the ocean with some animals in it. Up above, rain clouds roll in, and the heaven is filled with well wishes for mankind in Chinese characters.

“Someday someone won't be afraid of how much you love. They won't stay on the shore; they'll meet you in the depths.
You weren't made for shallow waters.
Your heart is an ocean.”

Just like how the ocean is beautiful, it is intimidating too. That's how my love feels like.

I feel too deeply. I love too hard.
It is not a flaw, though. It is part of who I am as a human being.
And I refuse to be made to feel sorry for who I am.

“People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place that they ever needed to search was within."

This art work was done in a very stream-of-consciousness manner and I think it well represents the happiness I was feeling when I made it.

“Set your goals high and don't stop till' you get there.”

-Bo Jackson

The circles represent the many choices and goals that we have in life. The black lines represent the obstacles along the way. You are represented by the arrow. Where will you go?

  The circles reminded me of planets and stars, which made me think about destiny.

“Destiny is not a matter of chance;
It's a matter of choice.
It is not a thing to be waited for;
It's a thing to be achieved.”

-William Jennings Bryan

I wanted to portray that death is beautiful in the sense that we should celebrate what each person accomplishes during their life.

“There is beauty and darkness in everything.
Sorrow in joy, life in death, thorns on the rose.”

-Cate Tiernan

"Hatred paralyses life; Love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; Love harmonises it.
Hatred darkens life; Love illuminates it."

-Martin Luther King Jr.

It's easy to see hate. Can you find the love, instead?

Life asked Death, “Why do people love me but hate you?”

Death responded, “Because you are a beautiful lie whereas I am a painful truth.”

“Nature finishes every little leaf, even to every little rib, its edges and stem, as exactly and perfectly as though it were the only leaf to be made that year. Even the flower that blooms in the mountain dell, where no human eye will ever behold it, is finished with the same perfection and exactness of beauty as though it was made for royalty in the Queen's garden.”

  The poem that inspired this drawing is titled “Caged Bird” and was written by Maya Angelou. I encourage you to find it online and read it.

  When I was younger, I drew a literal representation of the poem- a bird locked in a cage that was singing. In this drawing, the cage doesn't seem to exist. You could imagine the pattern surrounding the bird to be the cage. Or you could imagine the bird to be free and for you to be looking at it through a spyglass. I have my own explanation of a deeper meaning within this drawing, but I'm leaving it up to you to look for your own.

  An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. In Japan, the crane is considered a holy creatures and is said to live for a thousand years. That is why 1000 cranes are made, one for each year. In some stories it is believed that the 1000 cranes must be completed within one year and they must all be made by the person who is to make the wish at the end.

  The thousand origami cranes were popularized through the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was 24 months old when she was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. Sasaki soon developed leukemia and spent a significant amount of time in a nursing home. At age 12, she was inspired by the legend of the thousand paper crane and began making origami cranes with the goal of making one thousand. In a popular version of the story as told in the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, she folded only 644 before she became too weak to fold anymore, and died on 25 of October 1955. Her classmates felt sorry for her, and agreed to complete the rest for her in her honour .

  If you had one wish, what would you wish for?

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.”

This was another stream-of-consciousness drawing.

I felt that it turned out to be a good representation of one's imagination. The fragments of various thoughts... How they intertwine or blend with one another...

“Was it summer when we first started talking to each other?” he asked.

She glanced at the floor... smiled, then blushed in reply.

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This is a drawing of love, of good memories, and of future possibilities. It is not a perfect drawing. It is not meant to be.