The works I'm submitting for Singapore Art Show
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/16092980/http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/16126173/http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/16163908/http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/21199132/Wish me luck. Details of Singapore Art Show are here:
http://www.nac.gov.sg/new/new02a.asp?id=228My CV:
Art background:
Dec 1998 – present: Practicing artist
Jan 1993 – Dec 1998: Art Elective Program at Victoria School and National Junior College
Education:
Bachelor of Arts (Pass); major in English Language at National University of Singapore (NUS)
Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) at National Institute of Education (NIE)
Exhibitions:
2002: sin 2nd show; A person’s Journey (amateur solo exhibition)
NUS Central Library
2000: A Review, works by sin (amateur solo exhibition)
MPH Bldg, Artist’s Café (no longer exists)
1998: Voices: teenagers speak
Singapore Art Museum
Other Abilities:
- Interest in books and listening to music
Artist’s statement:
I am still in the process of exploring drawing and painting.
Artworks:
Windows (series), 2003-2004
This series is about entrapment and despair.
A song...
Suddenly I miss this song...
曲：张洪量 词：姚谦 编：
有时候 风太急 禁不住 挂念起你 这一刻 离我遥远飞行
有时候 夜太静 拦不住 回忆的心 于是泪 每个夜里如繁星
我多么羡慕你 总可以 转身飞 远远的 我的爱是你 沉重行李 绊住你追新梦的决心
我多么想念你 当时间 都失去了意义 穿越思念后 等成信箱 让你需要的时候可以 投递 告诉我 沿途中 想与我 分享的心情
...and I miss my NIE days.
Hoping to take part in an art competition/exhibition.
Wish me luck. I'll update any news here.
I'll be sending in my 'Windows' series.
None
I was down with a sore throat and a bit of runny nose. I hope I do get better soon, because a lot of things are coming up.
Dr Ho asked me to go and look at his new painting, but I simply have no time. I miss drawing.
Things are hitting a low for now. I hope they get better soon.
I wish I'm wrong, but
...the end is already in sight...
Moon River
I'm swooning to the tune of 'Moon River'.
'Two drifters, off to see the world,
And there's such a lot of world to see...
We're after the same rainbow's end...'
I do not know why. My mind conjures a blue Romantic painting, with a tiny boat in the style of Chinese painter Li Keran...
I love to sing...
Am I already seeing the end of the tunnel? Only time will tell...
Cleared an old folder...
and saw many old art pieces.
Where are the dreams and ambitions I had then? Have I given up, or am I simply humbled by reality and other greatness?
1995 till now... It's like taking a short ride back in time to relive the past moments. The paintings and drawings are ugly, but as I stare at each painting or drawing, or read my former writings, I recall exactly how I felt then.
Love...suffering...hope...Have I grown over these years at all?
Indulging in melancholy and sadness yet again....when I know I shouldn't, because tomorrow morning, I want to listen to 'Angel Voices Calling'.
Perhaps, when I look at my NIE drawings five years down the road, I would feel the same way as I did today?
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Ramblings...
Miscellany (July 2005)
The teaching profession is a busy and demanding one: endless assignments to mark, co-curricular (CCA) commitments, meetings, school events, courses, dealing with students etc. Remedial sessions would be coming up soon. Over the past few weeks, I had been so busy that I hardly have time to reflect on my teaching. Art was totally non-existent. In short, school life was almost everything.
Looking back, I enjoyed my sessions with 2N2. Being a Normal Tech class, the students are very weak in English. I only tried a few things with them. 1) I tried to encourage a reading culture by putting up articles from Teens and Teenage magazines on the class notice board. 2) I tried to provide more interesting materials for them to read. I have given them comprehension passages on musicians or celebrities such as Avril Lavigne and Coldplay. They are also exposed to texts from Readers’ Digest and Penguin Readers. Classroom teaching is almost zero. Every lesson, I would just give them a passage with some comprehension questions for them. I would then attend to them in small groups or individually. The girls are generally diligent and show positive attitude towards learning, while the boys have some discipline problems which may take a while to handle.
My sessions with 3E7 were terrible. I prepared very little and they were largely bored and uninterested. I guess I am still unprepared to really handle upper secondary as well as I can handle lower secondary yet. I had to prepare my materials from scratch and I certainly did not have time. I am totally unfamiliar with the upper secondary syllabus and its requirements yet.
With 1E4, some sessions worked well and others not, depending on how well I had prepared the lessons. I thought the session when I gave them the National Geographic article worked quite well, as well as the session on the London Blast article from The Straits Times. This morning I spent about two hours marking their test scripts. Some students performed better than I expected, but their English is generally weak. I am also their co-form teacher (with Shi Ming), and thus far I think I have not carried out my form teachers duties well. There is much room for improvement.
Art lessons were generally more unsuccessful than successful. Though I enjoyed the Powerpoint session with 1E3, I am not sure if they enjoyed it as much as I did. I guess the project was of a scale that was too ambitious, but I thought I really should try to stretch the students. At 1N1, I had to provide the visual research AND the materials for them, so they merely execute their works or designs, which defeats half the purpose of the project. However, I am currently quite pleased with some students’ works, though I thought they could have been much better. One group of students came up with their own project to design weapons, and used wooden strips to make a sword. I thought that was quite innovative. At 1E3, only Rabiatul and Sherlyn have their visual research thus far. I am waiting to see more work done by the students before I can develop their projects further. When I first planned the project questions, I had expected to see a variety of works from the students. Instead, large groups get together to do similar projects. Many students opt for photography, which strikes me as an easy option especially since I know very little about photography and the students will know even lesser still. As I was telling my friend Liang Zhu, the students would go around clicking just about anything and call that ‘art’ or ‘photography’, which is a seriously misguided idea. Over at 1N1, many students follow Shu Ting to do jeans design simply because I passed her a magazine on jeans and that solves a lot of visual research work that they have to do. One group of Malay girls did some poster designs and the work was quite poorly done. At 1E3, many are opting to do manga, and I’m going to push them to do it REALLY well. I tried to find a book on T-shirt designs at Kinokuniya yesterday and at Bras Basah today, but could not find any. That means Gloria and some of the 1N1 girls have to do their visual research on their own.
With NPCC, I guess the best thing I had done was to complete the mural. I need to get to know the cadets better.
Time waits for no one...
I recall a few meet-ups with Jacelyn. There was one at Fat Frog's at Substation (no longer exists I think), one at Funan Mac's, and one at Bishan Olio Dome. If I recall correctly, the one at Bishan Olio Dome was to discuss NIE matters. Today, a few colleagues left to go for NIE. Last night, while tossing on my mat, I couldn't help but feel the swift passage of time yet again.
Honestly, I did not paricularly enjoy my NIE days. Why do I still look back? I recall waking up early to draw trees, listen to Emi Fujita's 'Anegl's Voices Calling' and having quiet time over breakfast. One phrase I particularly like from the song is 'joy beyond the telling'... With all my busy and hectic schedule now, will I find time for such quiet moments of solitude and joy again? I cannot even bring myself to listen to Bach's 'Air' and keep my mind peaceful for even five minutes in the staff room; my table is in a chaotic mess. When shall I feel 'joy beyond the telling' again?
I was fortunate enough to find time to slip to Orchard Kino for one hour or so today. Saw a really nice art book that costs about $46, but managed to refrain myself from buying it. Really wished to do art again very badly!
After that, on my way home in the evening, I decided to walk the long way home by making a detour to my old residential area. For those who had followed my blog for very long and recall older entries, I actually thought of passing by my usual 7-Eleven to see if the 7-Eleven girl is still working there. When I bypassed the previous week, I thought I saw her, but I did not go in then. Today, she wasn't around.
Besides the 7-Eleven girl, there is this lady who is wheelchair-bound seling tissue paper. Let us call her the tissue-lady then. I bought tissue from the tissue-lady about eight years back. Some weeks back, I still saw her.
There are characters in one's life who do very little, or do nothing, yet somehow they remain in one's memory for very long.
Joy and sadness...
As I was on the train, I got a surprising SMS that one of my good friend's mother had passed away. Of course, such things need verification. The news was later confirmed; the kindly lady had indeed died of cancer. She was younger than my mother.
When I called my art teacher to verify the news, I forgot to congratulate him on the birth of his son, who should be about two months old now. My art teacher married quite late, around late thirties close to forty. He asked me about my teaching life and stuff. We had a hasty conversation.
... ...
I came back home and read a cheerful blog today. My friend commented on her colleague's blooming love life, and how that cheered her up. It reminds of how I would think of pleasant things in this world to cheer myself up or when I am insomniac. I believe in sharing other people's joys. As long as I see the compassion and forgiveness of fellow human beings for one another...or pretty young ladies loved by worthy gentlemen... gracious elderly and happy children, then I do believe that life is worth living in spite of all the suffering we see around us in the form of wars, diseases, disputes, disasters, poverty etc.
I see a young and pretty colleague everyday. She is loved by the God she believes in and, I believe, a worthy gentleman too. (I could only recall once she said something about her boyfriend not wanting to watch a performance she wanted to watch. I don't suppose that makes the guy any less of a gentleman.) Her radiant smile occasionally brightens up my day.
Such is life.
And I am content.
(As Emerson once said, 'Give me health and a day, and I shall be happier than kings.'...or something to that effect.)
Old stuff
MISCELLANY (June 05)
1.
An artist is first a human being like everyone else, with anxieties, insecurities, problems, fears etc. I am first a human being, then an artist.
Joseph Beuys is right when he says everyone is an artist. Perhaps it should be ‘everyone can be an artist’. We need to demystify the artist because knowledge is transparent and open to criticism. Art is no longer ‘high culture’ in current times. The artist is just like everyone else, except he does creative work.
Art is an expression of one’s thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. The journey of art is about finding one’s own voice. One must study traditions and art history, as well as penetrate into life and nature.
2.
Art is not easy. Having struggled for years, I am still as one finding my way in the dark. I am still as one finding my way out of the desert, which may take forty years.
I have yet understood drawing and painting, and there are still conceptual art, installation art, new media art, and postmodern art in general.
Nevertheless, I also agree with Joseph Beuys when he says ‘One should not question if something has been done in intellectual or art history…’ I have forgotten the latter part of the statement, but I believe it has something to do with expression or truth or reality.
3.
One must be open to new ideas and knowledge.
Art problematises. Art does not offer solutions.
New knowledge or expression does not arise from a vacuum. It is founded on old knowledge and traditions. Then, one internalizes the old knowledge, combines it with one’s feelings, prior knowledge and experiences, and generates new knowledge and expression.
In this time, what we should do now is to assimilate and internalize. We must critically examine what has been done, and arrive at our modes of expression.
4.
Thinking and doing must develop together. Thoughts without actions are mere ideas in the air, like castles in the air. Action without thought is like a factory line.
Eventually, everything is about new ways of doing and seeing things.
None
Everything is over; everything is just beginning. This too will pass.
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