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d COVERCommentaryI designed, hand-craft-ed and Photoshopped this cover for our No-vember 2012 issue about out-of-district students who enroll il-legally at our school. It was a last-minute replacement for the planned cover, which was not able to be completed in time. The design concept mimics an evidence board, such as the kind seen in crime shows during investigations, and sty-listically represents the investigation the dis-trict makes of the ille-gal students.

Cover commentary

I designed the cover of Verde Magazines award-winning issue about rape culture on Palo Alto High Schools campus that re-ceived a lot of a national and local attention in the news. I directed the photoshoot for the cover and Photoshopped words onto the models skin that represent the hurtful and stigmatic labels rape victims receive when they come forward. I also directed the design of the rest of the cover package.

Cover

magazine layoutcommentary

I designed this graphic for a sto-ry I did about the emergence of tat-too school scams and what profes-sional tattoo artists think about them. The original pho-tograph was taken by the publications photographer, and I Photoshopped fake tattoos, as well as the title, Sealed in Ink, onto the mod-els back.

magazine layout

A race lift and a sex change does not a new Watson make and British is not a character trait.

Holmes and Watsons portrayals either make or break a Sherlock Holmes adaptation. The original stories werent particularly thrilling as far as mysteries go, but they became such a hit because of Sir Ar-thur Conan Doyles sarcastic, cocaine-injecting, borderline-Aspergers sleuth and his faithful everyman sidekick. Screw up the char-acterization, and you have nothing but an unlikely whodunit on your hands. And unfor-tunately, thats ex-actly what CBS does.

The Science of SeductionThe most recent incarnations of

Holmes Benedict Cumberbatchs modern-day high-functioning socio-path in BBCs Sherlock and Robert Downey Jr.s scruffy action hero in Sherlock Holmes (2009) are both so iconic but still true to the book that its almost impos-sible to one-up them. Jonny

If Keanu Reeves decided to do a Kristen Stewart im-pression, the result would look exactly like Lucy Liu.

I ts every Sherlock Holmes purists nightmare: Holmes is a sexy lepre-chaun who has lots of sexy sex, Watson has a uterus, and (deep breaths, guys), theyre in...America.

Even the most blasphemous of fan fiction writers guilty of such monstrosities as 50 Shades of Sher-lock (Dont believe me? See rule no. 34 of the Internet) would never stoop

so low. But someone did. And that someone is CBS, with Elementary,

its new modern-day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes.

Poor CBS. All it wanted to do was sit at the cool kids

table. It even came up with a cute little tagline: New

Holmes, New Watson, New York. I mean,

how hard can the ac-tual writing be? Af-

ter all, BBC gave Sherlock Holmes an iPhone, and

Guy Ritchie made our titular detective a badass of

Chuck Norris-like proportions to criti-cal acclaim, so it should be pretty easy, right? Right, guys? Wrong. Newsflash:

Lee Miller (who keeps the titular detective British in El-ementary), clearly realizing the futility of the situation, must have thought Screw the book! and went off on an entirely dif-

ferent path: the sexy sex path. When we first meet H o l m e s , hes shirt-less and s h o w i n g

off his luxuriant chest hair and manly Celtic tattoos.

I find sex repellant, all the fluids and all the sounds, he says as we cut to a shot of sexy handcuffs draped sexily over a sexy ladder. [But] my brain and my body require it to function at opti-mal levels, so I feed them as needed. Ooh, Mr. Holmes, are you trying to de-duce me? (Ba-damm-chh.)

Well, its certainly a promising start. The dialog has potential and the whole Stephen Hawking-Ryan Gosling thing is definitely innovative. However, as the pilot drags on, Miller seems unable

PERSPECTIVES

to decide between character choices, switching uncomfortably from a poor mans Jack Sparrow to an eccentric fop to an excitable dog-man. Eventually, he gives up altogether and reverts to a ba-sic hair-trigger temper and uncontrollable need to acknowledge his own brilliance. Its only his British accent that keeps him from being completely boring.

Now, this could make sense in-story. When we first meet Holmes (before the line about sexy sex), he delivers a monologue to Watson about love as he stands a mere kiss-length away from her. Then, she steps on a remote, and we realize that he was re-citing a monologue he had just seen on TV. This combined with his later character development,could indicate that Holmes is a narcissistic sociopath incapable of feeling anything but anger and a need to be acknowledged and adept at replicating other peoples personalities. Unfortunately, while it may be the most accurate portrayal of a narcissistic sociopath Ive seen in a while, its definitely the most boring.

My dear, bland, boring WatsonThere is nothing inherently wrong

with making John, ahem, Joan Watson an Asian woman. In fact, being an Asian woman myself, I was eager to see how they would handle it without mak-ing her some mail-order geisha opium dealer from Crouching Tiger, (Not So) Hidden Stereotypes. And then, they cast Lucy Liu. And it all went to hell.

Has she ODd on Botox? Through-out the entire pilot episode, I counted all of three expressions all slight varia-tions of her default look, which is that of a wombat high on nitrous oxide. If Keanu Reeves decided to do a Kristen Stewart impression, the result would look and sound exactly like Liu.

But we cant blame Liu entirely; the screenwrit-ers are just as guilty. In one scene, as Holmes and Watson are about to enter a crime scene, Holmes calls Watson a glorified helper monkey. And that is exactly what she is, not just for Holmes, but for the audience, the plot, the director, everyone. For some weird reason, the screenwriters forgot to give Watson a personality.

Watsons dialog could belong to anyone ev-ery single line is either a question to clarify the plot

Text by EVELYN WANGPhotography as creditedCBS

guilty of killi

ng esteemed

author a seco

nd time

with Elemen

tarys sub-pa

r characteriza

tionSir Arth

ur Conan Doyle

found spinning in

grave!

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or a robotic response to one of Holmes constant jibes. She serves no purpose but to act as in-dialog exposition where the writers were too lazy to show-not-tell. Shes supposed to be an adult ex-surgeon, but she uses phrases such as scary administration guy and doesnt mean its not awesome! Her most insulting burn begins Youre just em-barrassed because When Holmes insults her (which is often), she gives a stoned-wallaby double-take, blinks slowly, and plods on with another ques-tion. Even when he blatantly crosses the line and talks about her past in what is clearly meant to be a cathartic scene, she responds as though shes complain-ing about a mildly irritating bowel prob-lem. Wait, hang on, what if this is actu-ally intentional? What if Liu is playing Watson as the Rain Man? Golly, CBS, youre brilliant!

Not so Elementary after allWith both members of the dream

team so sadly butchered by big names like Liu and Miller, the rest of Elemen-tary just disintegrates into yet another cookie-cutter police procedural. The only people who would benefit from watching this are recovering masoch-ists wishing to wean themselves off of their cattle prod fixation. Ill be watch-ing this just to see if it gets any better, since it couldnt possi-bly get any worse.

For the rest of you screaming for your Holmes fix, Id recommend rewatch-ing the Guy Ritchie film and the BBC mini-series, because thats all youre going to get until a comparable Holmes adaptation comes out. v

Elementary airs 10 p.m. Thursdays beginning Sept. 27 on CBS.

to decide between character choices, switching uncomfortably from a poor mans Jack Sparrow to an eccentric fop to an excitable dog-man. Eventually, he gives up altogether and reverts to a ba-sic hair-trigger temper and uncontrollable need to acknowledge his own brilliance. Its only his British accent that keeps him from being completely boring.

Now, this could make sense in-story. When we first meet Holmes (before the line about sexy sex), he delivers a monologue to Watson about love as he stands a mere kiss-length away from her. Then, she steps on a remote, and we realize that he was re-citing a monologue he had just seen on TV. This combined with his later character development,could indicate that Holmes is a narcissistic sociopath incapable of feeling anything but anger and a need to be acknowledged and adept at replicating other peoples personalities. Unfortunately, while it may be the most accurate portrayal of a narcissistic sociopath Ive seen in a while, its definitely the most boring.

My dear, bland, boring WatsonThere is nothing inherently wrong

with making John, ahem, Joan Watson an Asian woman. In fact, being an Asian woman myself, I was eager to see how they would handle it without mak-ing her some mail-order geisha opium dealer from Crouching Tiger, (Not So) Hidden Stereotypes. And then, they cast Lucy Liu. And it all went to hell.

Has she ODd on Botox? Through-out the entire pilot episode, I counted all of three expressions all slight varia-tions of her default look, which is that of a wombat high on nitrous oxide. If Keanu Reeves decided to do a Kristen Stewart impression, the result would look and sound exactly like Liu.

But we cant blame Liu entirely; the screenwrit-ers are just as guilty. In one scene, as Holmes and Watson are about to enter a crime scene, Holmes calls Watson a glorified helper monkey. And that is exactly what she is, not just for Holmes, but for the audience, the plot, the director, everyone. For some weird reason, the screenwriters forgot to give Watson a personality.

Watsons dialog could belong to anyone ev-ery single line is either a question to clarify the plot

THE CULPRIT: Lucy Liu stars as Joan Wat-son on Elementary.Photo: Nino Muoz/CBS 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc.

GUILTY AS CHARGED: Jo

nny Lee

Miller stars as Sherlock

Holmes on

Elementary.

PHOTO: Giovanni Rufin

o/CBS 2012

CBS Broadcasting Inc.

magazine layoutCommentaryI desgined the layout for my review of the CBS Sherlock Holmes ad-aptation Elementary, starring Jonny Lee Mill-er and Lucy Liu. As the show is a modern ad-aptation of the original Victorian-era novellas and short stories, I opted for a design that mim-icked the case files of a detective. I fabricated the case file and put on the blood splatters in Photoshop using Cre-ative Commons-licensed brushes.

magazine layoutcommentary

I modeled for and co-designed the lay-out of my culture feature on Asian eye surgery. The red makeup on my face is meant to be the outline of themost common plastic sur-gical procedures among women and the doll represents the Asian beauty ideal striven for by women who get the double eyelid sur-gery. The rest of the layout plays riffs on this concept, with the red borders rep-resenting surgical blueprints.

magazine layout

magazine layout

magazine layoutCo

mm

enta

ry I modeled for and desgined the layout of my feature on faux (bio-logically female) drag queens. I used cutouts of my legs in pink fishnets and platform heels, which are meant to convey the outra-geous outfits drag queens wear in their performances. The rest of the design draws inspiration from the DIY punk-zines of the 70s.

magazine layout

magazine layoutcommentaryI desgined the layout for my award-winning com-pilation review of in-die/alternative comic books and illustrated its headline. Each letter in the word Beyond cor-responds to a comic book character mentioned in my review, while every letter in Watchmen corresponds with the iconic images of Alan Moores graphic novel Watchmen. The out-line was hand-drawn while the shading and coloring were done in Adobe Photoshop. The individual comic book covers correspond to their respective books and break up the text.

ad design

ad designCommentaryThese are all advertise-ment designs for clients who chose to place ads in our magazine. The only pictures provided were the ones in the Lisa DeNeffe ad. All other art was taken from the cli-ents websites with their permission. Additionally, the only specifications provided were text and information.

UPPER LEFT: The client wanted me to both show-case her photography and include long blocks of text advertising her search for models and interns.

RIGHT: I was inspired by Amercan Apparel ads and hipster culture icons.

PHOTOgraphy

PHOTOgraphy Commetnary

tattoo story

Tattoo artist Luke Stewart of San Franciscos 7th Son Tattoo outlines a clients sleeve tattoo.

I took the following photographs for publication in our next is-sue in May 2013. The accompanying story, entitled Tattoo or Snafu? centers around the tattoo academies that allow people to bypass the traditional two-to-four year apprenticeship under-taken by aspiring tattoo artists. Tattoo academies are condemned by credible and established tattoo artists, including Erik Rieth of San Franciscos 7th Son Tattoo, whom I interviewed for the ar-ticle. The following photographs were all taken at his shop and will be used to showcase the difference between tattoos done by real tattoo artists and those given by scratchers, or untrained amateurs.

Hand-drawntattoo stencils hang on the walls of San Fran-ciscos 7th Son Tattoo.

The artists at San Fran-ciscos 7th Son Tattoo orga-nize their colored inks in glass cabi-nets.

Hand-made spider figu-rines keep tattoo gun parts com-pany at 7th Son Tattoo.

Tattoo artist Luke Stewart of San Fran-ciscos 7th Son Tattoo outlines a cli-ents sleeve tattoo.

Japanese masks, flash art and hand-drawn tattoo sten-cils vy for wall space at San Franciscos 7th Son Tat-too.

7th Son Tattoos Japanese-inspired decor mix-es func-tion and style with its sturdy massage tables.