Halloween 2019: Genie For You Baby

“But oh, to be free. Not to have to go ‘Poof! What do you need, poof! What do you need, poof! What do you need?’ To be my own master. Such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in all the world.”
Genie, Aladdin
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“Today’s special moments are tomorrow’s memories.”
Genie, The Return of Jafar
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“Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what’s outside, but what is inside that counts.”
Aladdin
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“It’s all part and parcel of the whole genie gig: phenomenal cosmic powers, itty bitty living space.”
Robin Williams, Aladdin
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“You ain’t never had a friend like me.”
Genie

#191031#

The famous Genie from Aladdin seems to be an obvious choice to make for an artwork for Taenggu this Hallloween. Apart from the hype from the live-action remake of the Aladdin film released in May this year, my decision was largely due to the fact that Taenggu had also gotten herself a giant life-sized Genie plush toy from Disneyland a few months ago. She said she was going to have sweet sleeps together with her new toy from then on.

And then later on, during an instagram live by her makeup artist, Taenggu left comments requesting for her and her hairstylist unnie to do Genie makeup and hairdo for her. I thought it would be a great cosplay idea for Halloween too lol!

It won’t be that hard to imagine Taenggu at least with a Genie hairdo, isn’t it? 😆

Taenggu had also personally recommended a couple of songs from the Aladdin original soundtrack on her instastory too!

Looks like Taenggu is a great fan of Aladdin, especially the Genie character in it. I had watched the movie myself and totally fell in love with the Genie acted by Will Smith. He literally stole the limelight of the whole film! I enjoyed it so much because of Genie.

Will Smith’s appearance as the Genie in Aladdin movie cheered me up a lot!

So no doubt, I’m definitely going to make Genie the main character of my Halloween artwork this year!

And as a tradition from the past two Halloweens, this time it would be a string art too! Learning from my past years’ experience, I’m more careful and confident about choosing the right kinds of materials I need this time, like a nice thick wooden plaque I found from ArtFriend and household nails/pins from Spotlight.

On one Tuesday night on the first week of October, I was feeling really down after working as a part-time packer for 42Race earlier in the day. I felt so demoralised, feeling like I wasn’t fulfilling my true purpose doing such kinds of student level jobs. I felt psychologically imbalanced about earning so little doing part-time jobs (roughly only $500 a month) while struggling to keep up with my passion in mind-singing, spiritual art and writing. It has been hard to balance between time and money, freedom and living. So I ranted on Twitter about how I felt that night.

https://twitter.com/invariant_stars/status/1179022569371910144
https://twitter.com/invariant_stars/status/1179022570823176194
https://twitter.com/invariant_stars/status/1179023266662404096
https://twitter.com/invariant_stars/status/1179024074736979968
https://twitter.com/invariant_stars/status/1179026250611867648
https://twitter.com/invariant_stars/status/1179026253740830720

After expressing my troubles and dilemma on Twitter, I rested for awhile and then suddenly there was this silent surge of energy within me. I decided to get up and start planning for my Halloween string art. I printed out my reference picture of Genie on paper and gathered all the materials I would need together. While doing so, Taenggu surprised me with these 3 videos of her Genie plush toy on her instastory at the same time.

I was like, “How did she know?!?” I was amazed. She might have sensed that I was getting started on my Genie string art! Seeing this definitely gave me a huge boost of motivation and energy to keep moving on despite the tough circumstances. Yes, doing art has been one of the things that push me from behind and make me live life forward with anticipation. What else can I look forward in life other than seeing my ideas come to life and my art into something beautiful in completion?

Getting my materials ready that Tuesday night

On Thursday, I got myself started on the actual making process of this piece of string art for real. Instead of nailing the whole thing first then do the stringing, I alternated between both at the same time i.e. nail one small part then string that small part first before nailing the next part portion by portion, in a way that was easier and more convenient for me to work with. Unlike the first year when I felt very strange hunger pangs in my stomach while hammering the nails (refer to post: HALLOWEEN 2017 #1: MY GHOSTIE, MY BOO) and the second year when I felt immense backaches during the stringing of threads (refer to post: HALLOWEEN 2018: SUPERBAT), this year I was able to do both with much ease and a lot less pain. This probably implies a lot on the shifts in my spiritual wellbeing too.

Hammering the whole picture lightly with a single nail to make markings on the wood first.

Then hammer one nail at each hole, and string around the nails with a thread of the respective colour, and repeat the process again at different parts of the Genie.

While doing the stringing process especially for his main body, the web-like effect of the interlaced strings made me think as if I was making connections among the artistes and people I know in the world with each other and myself like what I have been doing in my head all the while. It was strange but mystical and magical thing to do.

After all the repetitive nailing and stringing processes were done, I used a black marker to write the words “Genie for you baby” which would be the title of this string art, to fill the blank space at the top.

I thought it looked quite weird to have a faceless Genie. So I used felt papers to create some of his facial features like his hair, beard, eyebrows, eyes and wide grin with teeth.