It was an Art Festival out in the open with all kinds of creative activities including food and everything else or so i felt with everyone involved getting set up at each and every individual tables and mine was to present a Print Making demonstration! I was running back and forth getting the things i needed together for what i thought was ding an etching demo. I felt all kinds of pressure with everyone i felt were looking forward to me making a fool of myself at failing. Some were cheering me on while others were laughing and snickering at my struggles to accomplish the impossible for how can one carry out a Print Making project out in the open amidst crowds of people cheering and jeering me on? There were hose who even offered me Marijuana or ganja to help me in the process and this turned into an even bigger fiasco as found myself fumbling trying to get a smoke on the joint i was offered; it was a humiliating effort as sparks flew all over splattering but i persisted getting to where i needed to accomplish. In a dream shit happen in the most weirdest way and in the most unimaginable places and this dream took place in my own backyard in the presence of my fellow Malaysian friends but it ended or so it seems with me back in the Print Making studio at the University of Green Bay, Wisconsin where i finally go it together with the help of a familiar lady fellow print maker who handed me my favorite apron i used while doing my printing at the studio, a brown felt full body apron.. As I tied the strap around my waist I found myself screaming from the depth of my soul...CLARRY NELSON COLE! This woke me up from the dream. Not two minutes after the Azan or call for the fajr or morning prayer came from the loud speakers of the State Mosque...and like always, the Devil was in the details of my dream.
My Art Forte has always been in Print Making ever since I was first introduced to it while in college in Green bay, Wisconsin and I had studied under my late professor and friend Mr. Clarry Nelson Cole who was originally from Sierra Leone, Africa. I spent a great deal of my life while at the university in the print making studio sometimes for twelve to fourteen hours a day until the administration decided that I could sleep in the studio provided that the studio door was locked while i worked at night. The loft in the studio was cleared so I can turn it into my sleeping quarter if i felt too tired to work. One morning after an all night long of doing a series of monoprints of faces of Native American Chiefs I fell asleep and was woken up by two ladies who cam in to do their work. They were unaware that i was up there on the loft looking down at them looking at my works pasted on the studio wall, One of them told the other, " He does this but he hardly sell any of them, this is Art for Art's sake." I was moved by her statement and fell back to sleep. I remember selling a few of these prints which was done on and oval copper plate to a Greek friend, George Berberis who lived in San Jose, California when I moved to live in San Francisco from Wisconsin... that was another episode of my life where i met a great man, a brother and lost through my own faults.
Another opportunity presented to me in my later life was when my family moved to Sendai, Japan where at the Miyagi Museum of Fine Arts had and open studio policy that invites all artists local or foreigners to carry out their work for free including instructors and tools and equipment. There they had a good Print Making facility where I spent most of my free time enjoying doing what I love to do. I had six solo exhibitions in the City and sold a great many of my works. In Penang I was able to do print making at the University Science Malaysia where i did numerous mono prints to my credit and held solo shows in several of the prominent galleries in the City of Georgetown. I was never a disciplined but an obsessed print maker. I could produce as many quality works as fast as my fingers could move, I am proud to say, however it seems nothing last too long that I can call my success due to one fault or another that I have. As the saying goes, I am a rolling stone that will gather no moss and now I am contented with it with no regrets as I never intended to hang around too long in any relationship, career or hobbies like most people; I am a Rolling Stone and although I gather no moss, I leave behind me a trail of mini successes.
In this dream I had this morning someone, I felt like a Chinese friend made a remark, "You will never!" learn just before I was offered my brown felt apron and gave that loud scream. Perhaps in this life what I learn is that to be hooked on with years of doing the same thing in career of otherwise is not my style and as I have mentioned before, I am an eclectic who chose the best of all possibilities and move on before I am hooked for good by anyone or anything that would tie me down.
No comments:
Post a Comment