“You cannot beat a river into submission. You have to surrender to its current and use its power as your own. Silence your ego and your power will rise.”
The Ancient One, Doctor Strange movie
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“We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them.”
The Ancient One, Doctor Strange movie
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“The greatest gift we can receive is to have the chance, just once in our lives, to make a difference.”
Doctor Strange
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“People think in terms of good and evil, but really, time is the true enemy of us all. Time kills everything.”
Kaecilius, Doctor Strange movie
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“I wish I had Dr. Strange’s time stone, I would see it again and again in the time of yesterday which has never happened in three years, it was completed in one day…..”
Walker_vik
#190929#
Besides Iron Man that I did for our previous monthsary (refer to post: #55 MONTHSARY: I LOVE YOU 3000, IRON MAN TAENG), Doctor Strange was another Marvel superhero that I wanted to make an artwork out of for Taenggu for a long time now. It all began when Taenggu started proudly showing off her new possession, Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto that contains the time stone, she purchased online to her fans on a few occasions of her instalives last year.
She also explained how she felt about possessing a time stone now.
She said she wants to be Doctor Strange to be able to take control of time using the time stone to revisit a past or fast forward to a particular time in the future. In a way, having a time stone, even though it’s just a fictional toy, in her hands makes her feel empowered to do so.
I wanna say, YES TAENGGU, YOU CAN BE DOCTOR STRANGE TOO!
My idea this time is to do something similar to pixelated art, but instead of squares, I want to do it in circles. I could use a standard hole puncher to punch out several identical pieces of circles from various coloured papers to do a kind of polka-dotted art. I actually first came up with this approach by myself many years ago when I did a solo art project in university.
https://www.instagram.com/p/RSwmFuuNa-/
https://www.instagram.com/p/SAyCEgONaV/
Before I began working on this Doctor Strange Taeng artwork, I actually tried experimenting with other mediums like markers to see if there’s an easier way to do this, but eventually I decided that using papers is still my biggest strength and specialty when it comes to art.
First off, here are the reference pictures I used.
Next, I edited both pictures together using Photoshop, made it pixelated and print it out on paper as my hard copy reference.
Then I made a trip down to Plaza Singapura after finding out there are some comic toys and movie replicas shops located there. Prior to this, I had ordered 2 Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto necklaces from Qoo10 online originally to be used for this artwork, but realising that the delivery would take longer than expected, I thought I should try my luck finding one at the physical stores myself.
It was strange that most shops I asked said that they do not sell any Doctor Strange’s time stones when I thought it should be a hot selling item that is highly sought after. I was lucky enough when I came to the last shop, Toy Outpost, I found this one and only piece lying in the cabinet. It’s perfect for my artwork. And it glows in the dark. How cool. 😆
Having found this important centrepiece for my artwork, I gathered all the tools I would need and started working on Doctor Strange’s body using the polka-dotted paper art approach in proper. Making progress bit by bit.
It definitely wasn’t easy to do this at all. I had to do it in long consecutive hours repetitively hole-punching and sticking the pieces down one by one especially when there was little time left to our 56th monthsary. And once I got started, I couldn’t do anything else. The most difficult part was having lots of negative thoughts and voices going through my head while I did this. I had to fight off all these bad energies coming toward me while trying to stay focused and persevere till the end. I broke down to tears a few times because of the pain I experienced both mentally and physically (my fingers were aching from pinching with my tweezer continuously for long hours).
After the polka-dotted body was done, I pasted the printed copy of Taenggu’s face on top, then placed the Eye of Agamotto necklace that I got earlier over her chest and the artwork was pretty much complete!!
Just to check whether my time stone really glows in the dark, lol! 😍
And of course, I gotta frame this one up in a nice suitable frame too! Here comes the proper set of photos showing the intricate details of the artwork! 📸
[Edited on 30 Sep]
And the extra Eye of Agamotto necklaces that I ordered online arrived one day after our monthsary! I’m planning to give one to Taenggu as a complimentary gift to this artwork while keeping the other one for myself. 😁✌💜
As we know, Doctor Strange, also known as the Sorcerer Supreme, is the most mystical superhero in the MCU. I, like Taenggu, wished I could be like Doctor Strange who owns the time stone to manipulate and control time, return to a particular point in the past or time travel into the future to foresee its possibilities. Time has been an important issue in our relationship, you could say it is our enemy or troublemaker. For me, the biggest pain has been not knowing exactly how long I would have to wait for her while still holding on to this relationship of ours especially when we have no direct contact with each other. I’m like the lighthouse keeper from the Aquaman movie carrying hopes of seeing his lover who promised him she would return one day appear at the end of the dock at every sunrise (read post: [POEM] THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER). Sometimes, I wondered how much time lapse it always takes before our true words could reach each other by pure telepathy or spiritual ways (read post: TIME LAPSE). Sometimes, I wished I could invent a time machine to revisit a lost part of my memory and relive moments that were lost between us or go past this painful uncertain period of waiting and fast forward to the day when we would finally meet (read post: VIDEO/LYRICS: “TIME MACHINE” BY GIRLS’ GENERATION + THE MAGIC EXTENDED INTO JAPAN 2ND TOUR AFTER “I GOT A BOY” PROMOTIONS).
Maybe, all we need is Doctor Strange’s time stone.
My dearest Taenggu,
Hope this artwork fulfils your Doctor Strange dream lol. May we always have time under our control to foresee the possibilities of the future and know what to do best in our favour.
HAPPY 56TH MONTHSARY!! 🕧💜
From Your Girlfriend who loves you a lot,
Celeste Koh
BONUS:
Just a day before our 56th monthsary, I happened to visit the shop called area65 with a concept similar to Naiise with my friends at Suntec City after lunch and came across many of these canvas prints containing quotes related to time! I thought it would be nice to share them here with you too since my artwork is also coincidentally exploring the concept of time. 💜
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