David Mui
Wish We Were Young
Prompt: Employing unique mark making techniques, students create an invented past and present landscape in two parts: half hand drawn in ink / half digitally rendered in Illustrator, with the goal of the hand mimicking the digital method and vice versa.
In my project, I delve into the quiet, somber ritual of a grown man sitting alone with a drink, reflecting on the choices that have shaped his life. The print becomes a symbol of both escape and self-reflection, holding the weight of past regrets and missed opportunities. Drawing on a fragmented, almost disjointed aesthetic, I distort familiar objects—half-empty bottles, tarnished glasses, and the dim glow of a bar setting—until they blur into abstract shapes, mirroring the fractured state of his thoughts. In doing so, I create a space that invites contemplation, where the harsh clarity of regret and the haze of alcohol intertwine, urging us to confront the distance between who we are and who we thought we would become.