Blanketing The Soul

Blanketing the Soul
mixed media, 168 x 155cm, 2017

I remembered when I was younger, my mom used to make quilts for me and my siblings, she liked to use hexagon shape to cut the fabrics and sew them together to make the quilts, so for me this homemade hexagon quilts represented a mom's love, protection for the family, similarly in the nature, the structure of honeycomb or beehive is in the shape of hexagons, is the place where bees store honey and eggs, and is also an ideal place for bee to raise their young. So for me the perfectly equal sizes of hexagon shapes represent love, protection, union, domestic stability. The woman behind the hexagon shapes symbolized the family, the traditional values which are the backbones to form/provide the place where we are raised, where they shaped us to who we are now in the society.
In this technology savvy era, a smart phone becomes a necessity in one life. It's supposed to help us to improve communication, to gain more info, but it is slowly taking over our life, we often saw people in a gathering, be it in a restaurant or at home, most peoples are concentrating on their smart phones than on family members, we lost the face to face communication, peoples are more interested in the virtual world, virtual friendships, virtual "like" or virtual "love". I have read a joke where a wife said to her husband: are you going to "see" me and talk to me only if I put the smart phone on my face?!" Sadly, nowadays most people see the "apple" through their smart phone, not through their eyes and heart! (Like hexagon, the "apple" for me is the symbol of love.) They are more interested in engrossing themselves in the world of a smartphone than face to face communication in real life.

Blue Feeling

Two pieces of paintings that close to my heart, a feeling for my beloved country Malaysia.

Price of Sorrow,
acrylic & oil on linen
30.5x30.5cm
2015

The Line is Bleeding
acrylic & oil on linen
30.5x30.5cm
2015

Hop and Hope

Hop and Hope
oil on canvas
72.5 x 72.5 cm
2014

Someday in My Dream

Wild and Free, oil on canvas, 76 x 61cm, 2013

Thirst, oil on canvas, 76 x 61cm, 2013

Street of Kimberly, oil on canvas, 76 x 61cm, 2013

This series focus on the street scene, with an irony and contemporary twist compare to other conventional street scene paintings. In this series, wild animals, the naked figures and the fully clothes people in the paintings go on with their activities oblivious of others condition and seem to accept each other’s apparent condition as a “norm”. The first impression shows the indifferent attitude in people, they go on with their daily lives without concerning of their surrounding or others people. It seems that people have become more careless, self-centered, and less communication in face to face interaction especially in this modern era as the technology become a more savvy, social network craving generation. Are we? Is this our future in the society? On the other hand, some show the wild animals as part of their life, as another species living in this planet, harmless to each other, is this the future world? A diverse world where every living species live side by side in peace?

The series addresses the futuristic concept of the world. We may never know if wild animals roaming in the street, human beings stark naked in the public eyes will be a norm in the future society. Prehistorically, human beings were not restricted by rules or moral conscious which compels people to cover up. At the dawn of civilization, humans evolved. Due to cultural and moral expectations, people must dress decently to cover oneself, and this largely depends on the fashion trend that rules the people in their respective time frames. But what is “decent” and what is not are merely perceptions; and sadly, human beings succumb to these without questioning, trapped by their own perceptions.

When we are long gone, the buildings which are 100 or 1000 years old will still stand there to witness the changes. We will never know what happens next. Maybe one day, the power of individuality will rule, clothing become optional, or the world has become so widely expanded that wild animals and human can live side by side. People will be so indifferent to how others live their life or why the animals are roaming the street; if that will to miraculously happen, will it be a cold and careless society or a world in unity? Will it mean that people are more ready to accept and respect each other, be it an animal or another human being? We are just living organisms, scientifically categorized to maintain balance, human and animal alike.

     

Someday, oil on canvas, 46 x 61cm, 2012

Right Here, oil on canvas,76 x 61cm, 2013

Prey, oil on canvas, 61 x 46cm, 2013

Paradise is Here, oil on canvas, 137 x 213.5cm, 2013

On Their Way, oil on canvas, 76 x 61cm, 2013

Marching On, oil on canvas, 91.5 x 107cm, 2013

Intersection, oil on canvas, 61 x 46cm, 2013

Nonsense Stage of My Mind.

I sat in a little corner of a coffee shop, watching people passed by, I detached myself from the surrounding, as an alien looking at the world around me.........thinking....
*****
Why people can't live harmony with each other? Why there must be conflict? Why we just can't live peacefully, aren't we just a life in this planet called earth? Be it an insect, animals or us, the so called super-intelligent animals on earth, we all are the living species in this beautiful planet.....
*****
From baby to grown up, to old age......we can't fight the life circle, we will all be gone one day.........we are all just a dust in this universe..........a mortal human being........everything is not permanent......except the steel chair I was sitting on....may be.......
*****
People perception is so scary...sometimes........we are trapped by our own perception....and let our perception ruled our life..........
*****
My creativity outlet control by by my emotion....sometimes....so the works produced sometimes so dark....they said.....why not brightened up your colors a bit.....that will be more attractive. Attractive to who?....My heart is bleeding........and some said kudos to you for daring to use this kind of colors......my heart is still bleeding .......because I am alive.........
*****
I sat still in a little corner of a coffee shop, sipping a cup of coffee, in a stage of thinking of nothing.....watching the world passed by me........................

The New Girl and Red

Red, 76x 61cm, oil on canvas, 2012

 The New Girl, 76 x 91cm, oil on canvas, 2012

“The New Girl” and “Red” depicted modern Asian women who dyed their hair with different colors, from a dark hair Asian beauty to a brunette, brown, red and other color dyes………they keep changing their hair color until they forgotten what their original hair color is! (I was once received a comment regarding my so dark hair, queried why my hair is so black! OMG! I was born that way!). I place this modern era girls with a traditional batik motif background to show the contras between two elements: “Modern” and “Tradition”. The background girls in “The New Girl” are typical batik figurative design (kampong girls) commonly used. The dyed hair modern women in the paintings are more as a symbol of modernization. In the painting “Red”, the woman face is void of color; very pale looking, with striking red hair n red lips. The color used on the image of woman in “The New Girl” are also mostly towards the tone of “cold color”. I am trying to convey the message that some of the new generation today is so indifferent, cold towards their originality, roots, traditional values and culture. I am not trying to critique or impose my “traditional thinking” on anybody, or saying the new generation is in the wrong for not following their culture and tradition. How they live their life is their own choice, especially now most people are a bunch of technology savvy, web social network craving in this modern technology world.  I am just trying to present a contras image with two different elements for you to think, to ponder, to wonder, to deliberate about what happened in the world today and what have lost with the bygone era!

Choice

 Choice, 76 x 91cm, oil on canvas, 2012

“Choice” is my second piece based on Plato epigram.

"I throw the apple at you, and if you are willing to love me, take it and share your girlhood with me; but if your thoughts are what I pray they are not, even then take it, and consider how short-lived is beauty" - Plato (Epigram VII)
 

The two women, one receiving/holding the apple, the other laughingly throwing/watching an apple falling, show the choice we constantly make in our life. Either you are “throwing” or “receiving”, the choice is yours to make. We are free to choose our own destiny!