I Am The Artist.

Has been sometime now that I have been able to sit an unravel my mind and today seems like a good day to catch up with what has been ans what iss going on within and without. I have been making an effort at creating a few more paintings for my upcoming solo exhibition at the Gallery Seni Mutiara with the opening date on the 11th. of August, same day as Hari Raya Haji and the next day on the twelfth would be my seventieth birthday. It's a package show whereby I'd try to share all that i am as an artist. How far or how near have i understood the significance of living the life of an artist; Art in Quest of the Universality. This was the title of my letter of proposal to the members of the different faculties explaining what I intended to do for my Fine Arts Degree. It was accepted without any of my need to defend my letter and I was given the green light to embark upon creating my own Art degree under the program called, University Without Walls through the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It was a pilot project and I was accepted to participate with the blessings of all my Art professors and fellow Art Students; They had a banner hung saying, " Stay way Sam! as long as you can!" ( not really.)

The next three years of my adult life was spent discovering myself through my travels away from the studios at the University and onto the srreets of London, Whales and the Mesas and deserts of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Through the Andes Mountains from Colombia to Equador and celebrating the Gawai Hatu along with my Iban Hosts in a Long House where I spent three days and nights awake high on tuak, or tapioca wine; I became an Iban warrior in that space and time and it was during the same journey the i walked alongside my late uncle Ranjan, a Hindu while he performed the Kavedi during the Thaipusam celebration while visiting Penang. The slide shows I presented to classes by request of my proffessors to coin their phrase,"Blew their minds". I enjoyed my college years going through the bes and worse of my times in the coldest State of the US; Wisconsin at Green Bay. I spent eight years living in Green Bay full of trials and tribulations as a father and student; I was in my early thirties. 

For me being an Artist is a bit more than just being able to produce great masterpieces the fetch handsome prices, nothing wrong with it but it has never been my luck to have it all my way. I allowed myself to float along from one station to another, one level to another, in my effort towards self discovery, answering the most basic question of ,Who Am I? Who I am I came to understand is the same  who I was and who I will remain to be. How exciting or boring it may be it is entirely up to me; I am the Artist.