Nice to be Appreciated!

I have been updating this 100 feet long painting of Georgetown and the latest was adding colors to it.

I knew that the students would be more impressed if they get to see an original work of art if they see one or even allowed to handle one. Words alone does not cut the chase.

In these days and age students are more sophisticated in their taste but they lack the sense of passion in undertaking  something that comes from themselves.

They held my work with a sense of pride and this was more than enough a gratification when it comes to creativity; when you can make someone happy or crack a smile of wonder in their faces.

Being involved, being there with them and treating each and everyone  face to face and no pretension, that will grab their attention, this is in teaching Art.

Art Class at Convent Green Lane

Two days ago i was invited to give a class on "The importance of Art Classes in schools at the Convent Green Lane Secondary School: again it was fun to be teaching teenage kids with their over eagerness or lack of interest as the case may be.;one student sat stubbornly doing her science homework while i was teaching. There were about twenty five to thirty students and a mixed group of Chinese Malay and Indians girls. That in itself was a sight to behold and when asked who has done any art or interest in art not even one hand was raised.

Most students were naturally shy of felt self conscious about  doing a drawing especially when there is  a stranger in their midst overlooking their shoulders.

It was not too difficult to get them motivated for as soon as they got started , there was no stopping them even the most shy became a Picasso .

There were a few serious ones who got more involved into what they were drawing without much coaxing; these showed some promise and they seemed like the cream of the crop for the class as well.

In the Malaysian system of education  Fine Arts has taken the back sit and not until  their college years are student encouraged to embark upon their artistic venture and most were through lack of choices in the sciences.  

I gave them my spill on how and why art is important in the school curiculmn eeventhough at the back of my mind I felt no more convinced that what i was selling was worth the price I am paying right then; dont think of becoming a full time artist get a regular job! But I tried my best to make them see the importance of what it is to be creatively original in whatever that they were doing. Creativity means to be able to think not only outside of the box but under it and somewhere in between in and out; seeing tha thinking outside has slowly become the norm. They at least laughed a lot at my sense of humor.

Ramadan Blues

My daughter is back and will leave for KL this weekend, I am running around looking for money to get her return bus ticket! She will also need at least five hundred to cover her living cost such as rent and so forth and I am broke. I was in town trying to get a hold of my artworks to sell to those I figured would buy these if I can persuade them to for a good cause, but the shop I left them at was closed. So I came here instead to sit and figure out what to do while writing this blog; it helps for me to think better if i write things down as is;sometimes.
Chatting via SMS with my son in Dubai last night I found out that he is in a worse case scenario than I am and it made me feel even worse for wanting to ask him for help. So where else can I turn to. I will be doing a class this Saturday at the Convent Green Lane Secondary School where my daughter used to attend, but it is highly doubtful that it will pay enough for me to cover my needs for the moment. There is only one more option and that is to ask my cousin the catering business owner for my son Karim's promised bonus of five hundred RM to be paid in advance to help cover what I need for now. Possible but i hate to do it as it will be a major sacrifice on his part and he has already made so much contribution towards helping his sister out in the past already. My friend Lee, well I think I might have over taxed his generosity although I have made sure that whatever he has helped me out with in the past i cover it with giving him back more in the form of my works. Still I am at the end of my wits with my experiment with the 'milk of human kindness' issue in my life; there is only so much milk that one can squeeze out of one cow.
This is the month of Ramadan, a month that is the 'King among months in the Muslim calendar; a month that is filled with hopes and challenges for the faithful and I am not only feeling the thirst and hunger of the fasting but also all the vexations that life can throw at me; I am suffering from a cough that seems to not go away throwing up phlegm and choking the hell out of me at times and migraine headaches most of my waking hours. The Fasting month of Ramadan is both a blessing and a torture for most of us  and for me it has always been more so as I am dealing with getting to know my 'Self'. No issue in life is more sensitive than figuring out one's faith and belief in the after life, one's true belief in the presence of the AlMighty. Allah or God or whatever it is that one belief in. In Islam (my limited understanding), God is the  Ultimate Tester; He put you through the grind of life to ensure your faith is immovable, no matter how dire your needs may be that you do not succumb to despair and neglect to ask Him for His assistance; for in this negligence you have also denied Him just as you fail to show Him your gratitude when you receive the boons that life has to offer.
I must declare that I am far from a ritual oriented practitioner when it comes the worship of God; I am more of a spiritual worshiper; whatever that means. I worship the One in my own ways day in day out whether in the positive or negative sense as i sometimes have been known to look up at the sky and point my finger at God. Perhaps i have 'Hell to pay' in the afterlife after all the mistakes and transgressions i have committed in this life, so be it; I have lived my life as I see fit and most of it according to my own beliefs and volition; I abhor coercion in any form when it comes to my spiritual practice.
Although far from being perfect and often times below average, my life has been considerably lived with a little more excitement than an average man as my reflecting my past in the form of this blog and my journals in the past has manifested. I try to be as honest and transparent in revealing my ups  and downs mostly in the hope that the revelations will help me to see my self for what I am; at least who I think I am; as all these revelations are a product of my thinking mind. I am looking into the mirror of my soul reflecting that which is manifesting before me as a product of my own creation, my own self manifestation; still, Who Am I?

• Unself yourself...
  until you see your self as a speck of dust
  you cannot possibly reach that place;
  self could never breathe that air,
  so wend your way there without self.
  Hakim Sanai Quotes 
  
  
  
  
• Knowing others is to be clever.
  Knowing yourself is to be enlightened.
  Overcoming others requires force.
  Overcoming yourself requires strength.
  Lao Tzu 

The Dance of Shiva Nataraja

Nataraja or Nataraj (Hindustani: [nət̪əˈraːdʒ]), The Lord (or King) of Dance in Barathanatyam; Tamil: கூத்தன் (Koothan); Telugu:నటరాజ; Kannada:ನಟರಾಜ, is a depiction of god Shiva as the cosmic dancer Koothan who performs his divine dance to destroy a weary universe and make preparations for god Brahma to start the process of creation. A Tamil concept, Shiva was first depicted as Nataraja in the famous Chola bronzes and sculptures of Chidambaram. The dance of Shiva in Tillai, the traditional name for Chidambaram, forms the motif for all the depictions of Shiva as Nataraja. He is also known as "Sabesan" which splits as "Sabayil aadum eesan" in Tamil which means "The Lord who dances on the dais". The form is present in most Shiva temples in South India, and is the main deity in the famous temple at Chidambaram.^[1]