I’m very late on this, but I finally decided to upload a few excerpts of the best pages from my Taiwan Travel Journal. I went to Taiwan early May for around two and a half weeks as a treat for graduating college. It was also just a long overdue visit to my grandma. Exploring Taiwan freely, bonding with my Grandma, meeting cousins for the first time, and spending all my money because of how cheap everything was there felt pretty nice. Taiwan definitely does feel like my second home even though I’ve only been there 3 times. I thought it would be helpful to list out some of my favorite places, purchases and artists down below in case anyone ever decides to go to Taiwan and is in search of the best stationary places. Till next time Taiwan.~

FAVORITE SHOPS/CREATIVE PARKS/MUSEUMS—

TAINAN:

-Hayashi Department Store

-321 Art Alley Settlement

-點店文具工作室 (Dot Dog Studio)

Dot Dog Studio was probably one of the best finds for the Midori Travelor’s Journal. It was where I found the whole collection to be cheaper than all the other store’s I’ve seen them at. Besides the Travelor’s Journal, there was a bounty of washi tapes, stickers, inks, stamps, everything. Definitely a great place to stop by(and the owner could speak English really well).

-Blueprint Culture & Creative Park

Not only does it have art installments, there are a few rows of stores lined up inside the park. Walls are filled with large murals and the little shops had so much individual character. ((Also there is a cat that lives in the shop so you can stop by and pet her.))

-Shiwu Studio

This studio is very hidden in the back alleyways and took me a while to find, but it was very worth it. The store looked very modern and was decorated with beautifully grown plants(think of Monstera Deliciosa and all those nice trendy plants). Although it was a bit pricier than other stationary stores, it was a great experience since they sold a variety of fountain pens and notebooks that you can try out before buying. They had a great variety of stamps and stickers as well.

-Tainan Cultural and Creative Park

-9 x 9 Stationary

If you stop by this stationary store, be prepared to shop for hours. My boyfriend and I couldn’t stop shopping, there were so many rows of just stickers, washi tape, notebooks, etc. and it all was at a very affordable price.

-Hainlu Art Street

TAIPEI:

-Songshan Cultural & Creative Park

This park may be a bit confusing at first because there would usually be a lot of teenagers running about preparing a show. graduating students typically hold grad shows here and set up walls for everyone to see. Everyone is welcome to go in and check them out, there are usually multiple going on. If you keep walking past all the shows, you’ll stumble across a mall which will have so many beautifully handmade products such as ceramics, jewelry, bags, and more. I admit, I bought a lot of cute patches and stickers from this mall. There is also a small strip of stores in the older parts of the buildings with handcrafted backpacks, jewelry, and it is also where I bought my Paper Shoot camera.

-Huashan 1914 Creative Park

Another highly recommended place to shop for accessories and stationary. They also have a customizable wooden music box store where you can pick out of hundreds of pre-made wooden figurines to put on your box. Definitely this park is home to higher end and more expensive items, but it’s a great experience.

-Kingstone Stationary

-MOCA Taipei

-Jing Shing Fa Co.

A great place to find discounted stationary(aka. really cute and cheap stuff). It also sells more than just stationary, including snacks, batteries, soap, you name it.

-Eslite Spectrum

This is a chain stationary store that you can usually find in the bigger malls of Taipei or underground in between each subway stop. I think this is a good place to browse through Taiwan’s variety of high end stationary, but not a great place to spend your money. I was able to find multiple other places those sold products for cheaper.

JIUFEN:

-Jiufen Old Street

One of the most memorable parts of my trip was at Jiufen. Go check out the A-Mei tea house there and get the preset lunch menu! It was extremely delicious and the view + environment was beautiful. It is said that the building inspired Hayao Miyazaki for his film “Spirited Away”.

TAMSHUI:

-Tamshui Old Street

FAVORITE PURCHASES—

-Paper Shoot Camera

It’s a camera made out of stone paper and yes, it actually takes photos. Pretty good photos that resemble lomography photos.

-Mogu Handmade Pencil Bag

-OFF TOCO Mini Backpack

-Furry Patches from Yohand Studio

-Clay Pin from 小分子

FAVORITE TAIWANESE ARTISTS—

-Yohand Studio (@yohand.studio & @ej04zp)

Yohand has a very minimalist and child-like approach to the way she draws and creates merchandise.

-包大山 (@baodashan & @baozichen_art)

Her work is all over Taiwan at multiple creative parks. You will most likely stumble across her stuff when visiting the parks.

-小分子 (@lemon._.eyes)

She makes the most adorable ceramic pins, earrings, and stickers. They usually are mountains, watermelons, or lemons. I was only able to find some of her work at the Blueprint Culture & Creative Park.

If you’re reading this, that means you’ve made it to the end! Thanks for sticking around, see you in the next post.

-T

I graduated one and a half months ago and it has been such a ride since then. I honestly haven’t even had the time to fully process everything that has happened yet. All I remember was that Grad Show was the hardest I’ve ever worked (mentally and physically) for three days straight. It was a constant back and forth from my home, school, and the convention center while lugging around supplies and tools. I didn’t really tell anyone this, but the reason I declined all offers of help with preparing my wall was because I simply love the challenge. Throughout my life I have always had help whether I wanted it or not because I’m seen as frail, small, and just a child. The only time I really feel fully in control of my own life was through my creations and how it was presented. I wanted every part of my wall to be done alone to prove to myself and to others that I am more than capable of doing things alone. Looking back at my wall when it was completed was the best feeling I’ve ever felt. It truly did feel like my four years at ArtCenter had paid off. Not only did I improve SIGNIFICANTLY illustration-wise, I’ve also learned major life lessons relating to time management, relationships, eagerness to learn, execution, presentation skills, perseverance and so so so many more things I can bring with me. However many regrets I may have about my choices made during school, I know my time at ArtCenter was worth it.

Three days after my graduation show, I got on a 14-hour plane ride to Taiwan for three weeks(I will make a whole new post for this). I had to e-mail back all the offers I received from employers to tell them that I would have to hold off on interviews or projects until then. When I came back on to LA on a Monday night, I vividly remember running around the house unpacking my luggage and organizing the mountain of stationary I had purchased in Taiwan. I ended up sleeping at 3am and when I woke up at 7am, the first thought in my head was, “Crap. I need to find a job. How the hell do I find a job?”. Yes, I do curse a lot in my head. I jumped up and immediately started to e-mail back the employers from Grad Show. One by one they were saying that the jobs were fulfilled already and I was getting more and more nervous about that student debt racking up. Around 10 am I received my last offer e-mail and scheduled an interview for a full-time position the same day….at 2pm. I was very jet lagged and very surprised to say the least. Usually I never believe that opportunities like this would fly my way. Mixing that with my anxiety, I would start to make up a hundred reasons why I couldn’t make it to the interview. At a certain point in my life, I learned to cut off those thoughts after the 10th reason and just say fuck it, what is there to lose? So ever since then I’ve been working a whole 5 days a week for 8 hours a day and honestly have been loving it so far.

I think the biggest struggle for me right now is to figure out what’s next. I’ve been too tired and creatively drained for so long that my personal art has kind of stalled. The only things I can manage to paint are flowers. I can see how after people obtain a full time job, they get too comfortable where they are and stop growing in their own passions.

The painting above was done a day before my flight to Taiwan and has been the last painting that I felt happy about making. Hopefully I will get used to adulting and have my creative streak back soon!

-T