Who Are You?

 

Staying in the moment of sacred bliss just a little bit longer, Baba!

Just as ready, I am for this Big Change that is approaching either It will be WW3 or I will depart this life hopefully for good, this time. It is called the end of the Kali Yuga, the final age of destruction and resurrection, I am just a witness, I am just pure consciousness in the form of skin and bones, 'dancing with their fathers and mothers, the sons and daughters and they dance along....

They called me the Yard Boss at H and H Ship and Environmental Services, a facility located on the San Francisco Water Front. The whole area is now being converted into the SF Giants Ball Park. Now there's a story worth telling my grand children if I ever have any. 

I was a farmer once, the man outstanding in his field.! The organic farm at the foothills of kampung Lintang, in Belantik Dalam, Sik, Kedah. The devil is in the details they say. SRI LOVELY the place is called and I visitted it with my Autralian brother Ben last week. 

I have stood within the citadel of ancient Rome and was awed.

I was the Black Sheep {Ship} of the family, the mixed up kid. Nothing sacred and nothing blasphemous, all was as it should be. I spent my teenage years in the East Coast State of Terengganu For three years i worked as a Health and Safety officer at the Patronas Refinery site in Kerteh and later in Gebeng, Pahang. 

I have been reminded of my ancestry by none other the Lord Ravana Himself in Jogja, Indonesia. My Grand Father, Paul Mariano was from Sri Lanka.

I had the best Fondue made for me in Giswil, Switzerland by my second son who lives in Switzerland.

I raised my two children in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Ca. My family lived two blocks from the Park on 2nd. and Balboa and the Park was my children's playground. I enjoyed Babysitting.

I have done my share of sharing with young and old in the course of my journey. I don't think I make a good regular school art teacher but i enjoy teaching every chance i had. Otherwise i teach by example and just by being there drawing sketching or writing had drawn many attentions.

I have smiled at the world in Bali while my wife laid in bed in a Home with Rapid Dementia in Illinois. I reused to be sucked into depression of feeling sorry for myself with my wife's illness some things in life are just meant to be and there is not much one can do about it. It was not just my karma nor my wife's, itwas also my children's and their grandmother's karma that played out and I had made my choice. 

 

I had left my legacy on my eldest son's wall in his living room in Dubai, he was flying for Emirates Air and i tasted the 'good things' in life. 

And, Who Are You? Have you got a story to share?

They called me, "The Fisher of Men," simply because i was not cut out to be a fisherman out in the Bering Sea of the Pacific Northwest. I a crew member of the fishing vessel, The Iceland one of the oldest boats out of Sandpoint, Alaska. Yes, Sir as they say and i hate to keep saying it, the Devil is in the details...how can I forget the Ghost Ship of Unimak Pass! I spent almost two years at Sandpoint, Alaska, living among the Aleuts and fishermen from the lower 49 every fishing season. 

Sumatra - Land of the Minangkabaus.

 

Sometime in 2008 I was travelling all over Sumatra for ten days. I would like to share again this awesome journey in the land where my Grandmother was born and raised, in a palace in Deli, Sumatra. I am proud to say I was born of a royal blood for whatever good it does, however to know who I truly am I have to dive deep into my past if not spiritually, mentally, emotionally and psychologically/ genetically, I have to ascertain every aspect of my genetical makeup, where did my ancestors originate from? Who were they? Is the stories told of them their past heritage and status, are these true? Yes from all my understanding and intuition, I am born of royal blood through my Grand Mother's lineage...So I travel all over Sumatra to get the feeling of the country.#sumatra #deli

   

The Minangkabau people are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Minangkabau Highlands of West Sumatra, Indonesia1. They are the largest ethnic group on the island of Sumatra2. The Minangkabau are strongly Islamic, but also follow their own ethnic traditions, or adat3. They are also the world's largest matrilineal society, with a complex social structure based on matrilineal clans, and property, such as land and houses, inherited through female lineage4. Minangkabau is also the native language of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra5.Wikipedia. #minangkabau #indonesia #austronesian

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Centuries ago, Minangkabau settlers from west Sumatra who made their new home at the state of Negeri Sembilan at Peninsular Malaysia, brought their style of architecture. The sweeping, multi-tiered buffalo horn architecture is the most distinguishing feature of the Minangkabau and was used prominently in the state's capital, Seremban...Wikipedia #buffalohorn #architecture

I was mesmerized by the colors that explodes intensely all around me as i walked down the narrow street of a small town. It reminded me of South America when I was walking down a lane in Medellin, Colombia. 

                                                 Proud owner of this colorful building.

The inside reminded me of being inside the Japanese Temples in Kyoto, that feeling of wood. 

This is where architecture becomes a work of art. Each and every building created with care and creativity, taking into account all the spiritual aspects of the building's 'Fengshui,' or cosmic location.

 

Where does the word #minangkabau originate from? A legend has it that the word Minangkabau came from two words, minang and Kerbau. A buffaloe fight to the death was held to settle a dispute between two parties and one won -minang or to win, over the other, Hence winner of the Buffalo fight. Google it!

I would highly recommend a travel through Sumatra but do not expect too much in terms of choices of good food and fancy restaurants along your way. That was way back when I cannot say that things have not changed.

The Art of Living - as an Artist.

 

                                                          The Art of Living - as an Artist

Visiting the home of renowned Kedah Artist Cikgu .Aswandi?...got to check on his last name.

 

 

             With Tengku Shahriman the metal sculptor artist from Kuala Kangsar, Perak.

                                  Group photo with A Samad Said, Poet Laureate,  Prof.Najjar Mussawir of Univesity of Illinois, Mr. Cecil Rajendra known lawyer/ poet/writer and Prof. Hasnul J.Saaidon of U.Sains Malaysia. Pengarah MGTF-USM.

               With visiting Professor Najjar Musawwir from U of Ill. at Carbondale. Najar, from behind bars to the high seats of academic. 

                                               

                                         With my Brother Assoc. Prof. Hasnul Jamal Saidon. of USM. 

                       With Mr. Khoo Sui Hoe, veteran artist and Globe Trotter of Georgetown. He used to own the ? Gallery in Georgetown where I had a Solo Exhibition of my prints and paintings. 

                           In between two great personalities, Mr. Sui Hoe and Cecil Rajendra. [lawyer/writer, }

                                           One of my favorite picture of myself with another. She was a violinist for her high school band who was performing at the 'Little Penang Street Market.' and i was in the role of being an 'OTAI' artist. The sweet moment we shared was captured in black and white. 

A crucial part of living i believe is in one's relationship to the world and to humanity at large. Knowing yourself is knowing what or who you are in touch with, connected to or breathing in and out the same air that you are sharing with the whole of Creation itself and if you fail to see this as being and integral part of your own personal existence than you are bound by conditioned limitations in your life. If you are satisfied and comfortable with being in this state, then no problem, no right or wrong in this only being aware of the choices you make ; right or wrong, good or bad, black or white, Yes or no...Are you aware who is making these choices? If the question is crucial for you, than you are one who has awaken from your sleep, your dream, your existence in this realm of Maya or Illusion, of the 'dual thinking mind' or monkey mind, of karma and karmic consequences; you are on the road to find out, who you are. 

A thing or two about my art.- random picks.

 

A Wood Block Print. Print done at UWGB in GB, Wisc. and was once used as a LOGO for the Kanzeon ZenYoga Center in Corte Madeira, Marin County, California. Dennis Junpo Kelly was a friend and my first Zen Teacher, he went on to become an Abbot of his own school he opened the Zen Center at Corte Madeira after he was ordained from the new York Daibosatsu Zen Center. Dennis was originally from Green Bay, Wisc.

In love with a Gamelan dancer in Jogja, Indonesia.

A Site etched into my memory of the Bell of Haguro of the three Mountains of Dewa Sanzen, This etching was done at the Miyagi Museum of Finr Arts, Open Studio. located in Sendai, Japan.

The same bell done with water color.

A multilayered mono type print using materials of different texture for effect. 

A view from down under done in acrylic.

A woodblock print done on a two square feet pinewood board. This was done at the Print making studio at UWGB, Green Bay, Wisc. and all over the parks in the Green Bay Area. #greenbay #uwgb  

A multilayered monoprint  possibly done in Sendai, Japan. #sendaijapan

A painting of Persimmons against a cold sky while in Kyoto, Japan. #persimmons

 

A large painting done on a collective of different sizes canvas and hung to the ceiling. This was done in Dubai for Capt. Steve my son's close friend. It was his idea to do a painting in this form. For one reason it would be easy for him to take it with when me moves.

When painting a 'mindscape,' one has to absolutely let it all go! No thought in between execution and motion/ movement. No hesitation, no preconceived idea or imagination, no doing and no one doing it; only in this state of mind can one produce the landscape of one's mind. #mindscape 

        I like to copy the works of Old Masters like Rembrandt, and  Katsushika Hokusai. Sometimes in doing so I feel like I am at the very site where the paintings were being done and what it felt like. It all off course also depends on what i was smoking or ingesting of drinking at the time, but the experience was positive. #rembrandt #hokusaikatsushika

A sprig was embossed into a piece Japanese handmade card board through the process of mono technique and there a Haiku was written by my close friend Mr. Reichiro the Loundarymat owner and Haiku Master whose shop was at the top of the hill in Mukaiyama...

When I saw this print I felt like there is no more that can be done to outdo this technique as it has appeared on this print; to me it was a sense of achieving perfection. I called it, "The Lightness of Being."