Art will Never Die- The Artist does.

My daughter caught me by surprise by walking in the doorway on the evening of my birthday. She told me she had given in her resignation letter if she were not allowed to return to be with me for a few days and her bosses gave in. I was genuinely surprised and imy heart swell at the sight of her trying to catch my surprise look on her phone camera. What else can one expect in life when your daughter made such sacrifice by laying her job on the line to be with you on your birthday; Alhamdulillah! She has a mind of her own from the day she could walk. She grew up being bullied since kindergarten as she attended a Japanese school in Sendai, Japan where she was a 'henna gaijin' kid among rich parent kids as the school was among the best in the City. Later when we moved to Malaysia from Japan she became a victim of bullying by the Malay girls at her Malay schools for being yet a foreigner of mixed blood. She survived these challenges and today the experiences has made her strong in character. My words of advice to her has always been to remember who she is as a person who had been through life's trials and tribulations at an early age.

At the age of 12-13, she and elder brother who is one year older had accompanied their sick mother on a flight from KLIA to St. Louse Mo. in the United States. My late wife was suffering from what was called rapid dementia, a more critical form of alzheimer and I was not allowed to follow as i was not a US citizen by the American Embassy in Kuala LUmpur. I had to go through a waiting process as the ven happened just after the 911 incident in New York. I could only pray and surrender to the Lord's Will to make it all happen safely and it did. Imagine two children having to go through all the airports while making sure their mother did not break down in the process. After a month in Illinois their grandmother decided to send them back to me in Malaysia as she could not handle the situation, and so they travelled again halfway across the world to meet their fate in this country. The All Mighty could not have given a greater challenge for all three of us and I count it as a Grace and a Blessing.

On another note, millions of Ringgit Malaysia has been donated to the Malaysian government  by the citizens of this country rich and poor alike in order to meet the debts and economic crisis we are facing; it is unprecedented in the annals of any country in the world. This is what makes one proud to be of the society one grew up in. After a land slide victory to end the kleptocratic system that had ruled for sixty years, the citizens of this country, multiracial as it i to come together and bear the common burden of chipping out to save the Nation from bankruptcy; this is an eye opener and a whole new ball game of patriotism. With the eldest Prime Minister of 93 years old at the helm, Malaysia is going to attempt the impossible of turning around a beleaguered economic, political as well as religious harmony that has become the rallying call of this Nation. There is hope yet for the generations to come as their future is now being paved for them through acts of great courage and sacrifice of those elected newly into power. I pray that this too is yet another Grace and Blessing of the All Mighty for us as a whole.

I got my first commission to paint a mural on the walls of a School building which is close to where I grew up. It is a small project but it is a good start for me to get back into being creative as i have practically divorced myself from making Art for almost two years now. I still do keep sketching and writing to keep myself from getting too rusted to start again, but i feel a whole confidence in myself and look forward to creating my best yet. 

“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.”
― Hokusai Katsushika