New Day, New Insights, New Discoveries
Finally, the moment has arrived. Its been a long day, beginning from 10 when I left the house this morning and ending at abt 10 just now. Its been a great day, I call it art day, and I sit here blogging, feeling abit tired, but refreshed wif new directions and perspectives toward art, savouring every single moment.
Morning woke up at 930, get ready to set off, then going to reach city hall there, wee shian say he’ll b running abit late, so I went to raffles city upstairs mph there to read book while waiting 4 him to come (ya la I noe I very mugger)…there was this very gd one “A pictorial history of Malaysia”. And I found myself even wishing that I cd read it longer, shows a lot of old photographs of colonial Malaysia. Very nice. b4 long wee shian sms me say he’s here already. So bo pian Malaysian pictorial history part II have to continue next day coz have to come down to meet him. Then go startbucks there to discuss. Ordered drinks already then started talking abt sch life, ya la just catch up wif one another. Its been a while since I last saw him u noe. Then after that went to see his art pieces. Look see look see then realize that hey his drawing not bad le. Although its quite obvious that in many aspects such as shading he’s still quite untrained, there r some gd ideas wif a lot of gd potential.
There was one building which he drew which really took me aback, so I help him generate ideas to further improve on it. Sometimes feel abit paiseh touching his artwork, as though I’m trying to impose my drawing style on him like that, but there was chemistry going on in the exchange of ideas part. So there u have it below, the final product. a surrealist configuration, a timeless, dreamlike landscape reminiscent of de Chirico, an enigma occurring where neither they nor we wd exsist. Masterpiece la. I’m very proud of this drawing, and I’m sure wee shian must be too.
Its also quite startling and perhaps coincidental that wee shian wd start of drawing stuff like that, exploring the concept of surrealism, infinite space and nostalgia. There’s abit of overlap (in a gd sense) here since I’m also exploring such stuff in my paintings now. After that went for lunch at food court upstairs and help him out wif this portrait. Of all the genres of subject matter in art, portraits r the most suck cock ones. Most of them r dam dry and boring, but there exceptions such as occasions when u r inspired or really feel for the subject, such as one portrait I did of a Sicilian priest after reading puzo’s awe-inspiring epic The Sicilian. And if the person in the portrait has ms chan's face. I bid u well trying to make the sitter more visually stimulating.
At around 4 say bye bye to him, and went home to collect my solo exhibition sketchbook and got ready to see Chia. Met him at 8th floor of bras basah library. There’s really some gd stuff in that reference library. One of these days must go and visit again. Anyways, shared wif him my ideas. Thankfully, he got a lot of gd things to say. Gave me so many invaluable tips on how to change this, modify that, and like kuenny warned me against being too illustrative (direct) in my compositions. He was very inspiring, and showed me some books he picked from the shelves pointing out stuff I shd learn to emulate/learn from. Sadly we had to cut short the session coz, b4 long was already 8 and lib was closing. Alto this session wif him lasted only an hr, it was really worth the trip down 4 me as he gave me so many insights from an outsider’s perspective of my paintings which deal wif my SJI experience.
And one more thing. In a day, the schedule for this week has changed dramatically, such that I myself abit confused.
Tues will be consultation wif kuenny at SJI at 11, then will me Sean at city hall for lunch. He’ll b coming to my house to teach me the tricks of the D70 camera (he got same model and has been using it 4 quite some time). After tt we’ll go my house the CC next door to play badminton. Wed whole day stay at home to pia art. Thurs will play badminton wif those lao tus (now sign on) then after that go city hall see wee shian re his portrait. Evening will go Pontini for birthday celebration. Friday early morning 7+ will go wif sean to shoot SJI campus (and also use the opp 2 dry run and get used to my new cam). After that will go orchard for lunch and watch harry potter wif harshal. Weekend will b spent piaing art again.
So there u have it, and I’m looking forward to the exciting week ahead. I’m praying that nothing bad happens to disrupt this coz it all sounds so perfect. Wanted to blog more, especially share my reflections on my first experience as an art teacher myself. But now quite tired and must pia solo exhibition so I’ll leave it for tmw’s entry.
alvin ong dozed and watched the sawdust trampled night @ 11:27 PM
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