"Overflow" is the latest in the alcohol ink drip playing series. This was started in January 2021, a year and a month into the COVID-19 pandemic. Going to "common art" is a salve in a time of stress. These have helped in the transition to back-to-work in F2F settings (since late April 2021). I am hopeful that public health authorities and others can keep working this issue for all the world's peoples.

1. Overflow
A beginner’s play in alcohol inks,
watercolor, acrylics, alcohol markers,
synthetic papers,
and digital image editing…
Shalin Hai-Jew
Oct. 2021

2. 2
Pall

3. 3
Post Noon
(digital sumi-e)

4. 4
Washed Footprints

5. 5
Fulminating

6. 6
Towards Warmth

7. 7
Granite Face

8. Overflow
• “Overflow” is the most recent work in the “alcohol ink drip playing”
common art series. This series was started in January 2021 to enable
me to handle some of the stress from the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19
pandemic.
• I’ve been back on a sparse-feeling campus since late April 2021.
• People deal with the stresses in different ways. The workplace budgetary
pressures are many and very real. Some decompensate and go negative and
destructive.
8

9. Overflow(cont.)
• Recently, I watched a video by a practiced artist. She made the point
that if one does not like the line when drawing with ink, don’t try to
fix it. Just build up on what works. Piling up inks to “fix” an error
results in a much worse result. One ends up ruining the paper by
overworking it.
• That seems like a good lesson for life, that every action is done… There is no
covering over what decisions have been made.
• It may help to not repeat mistakes. That’s where learning comes in.
• Getting outside of one’s head by immersing in alcohol ink drip playing
really does put one into a beginner’s mind, in the moment. One’s
awareness is in observation and affecting visual changes.
9

10. Overflow(cont.)
• I am seeing a pattern of laying down inks and liking particular parts
but putting everything prior at risk to try for new looks, at the macro
level and then down to the micro level. As a work evolves, the visual
foci change.
• Given the dynamism of the alcohol inks, it is hard to preserve a prior visual
effect. One invariably impinges on prior work.
• Each piece has its own visual logic, and part of the work involves working
towards what that logic is, and what the final equilibrium state should be.
10

11. On white synth paper
11

12. 12
Coffee

13. 13
Cactus 3

14. 14
Sharded Air

15. 15
Tunnels

16. 16
Turtle Dive

17. 17
History

18. 18
Cracked Spine

19. 19
Insistence

20. 20
Blood Fruit

21. 21
Mist on Rocks

22. 22
Post Noon

23. 23
Competition

24. 24
Emergence

25. 25
Void Encounter

26. 26
Harsh Light

27. On translucent synth paper
27

28. 28
Into Being

29. 29
Winds

30. On digital variants
30

31. 31
Green Bloom

32. 32
Surmountable

33. 33
High Tide

34. 34
Canopy Drop

35. 35
Cold Flow

36. 36
Tangles

37. 37
Fragrant

38. 38
Tenterhooks

39. 39
Hope

40. 40
Harmony

41. 41
Wearing

42. 42
Signal and Noise

43. 43
First Snowfall

44. 44
Ice Flow

45. 45
Frozen Bud

46. 46
Glass Butterfly

47. 47
Way Forward

48. 48
Void Encounter
(16 colors)

49. 49
Cold