Notes

1. Losing my old paintings

I am afraid Kenneth had told his students to throw away my Sarawak painting because the glass pane protecting the work was broken. This means that one of the most important paintings of my life is irrevocably lost.

I have also misplaced the red folder containing my painting "Wuthering Heights" done in 1994. If I cannot find it, the story of my art is lost forever.

This is a very badly taken photo of the work:



2. The river drawings

Besides the two works above, I have also lost one section of my river drawing. There are four drawings altogether, but the last piece has been misplaced. This set of drawings was done during a geography fieldwork session back in my college days. The drawing is a study of a river channel. What is a drawing? Honestly, I think this drawing is better than most of my other drawings even though it seems more related to geography than to art. Currently the remaining three drawings are framed as separate drawings. One of the things I want to do is to remove the old frames, put the three drawings together, and frame them together as one work.

3. 2008 to 2010

There are many stages in my art, but I shall just focus on the period between 2008 and 2010. What do I have to show? One self-published art book in 2008 (though one might argue that the drawings were done from 2002 to 2007). Three exhibitions in 2010, with several drawings in between. The drawings for Sorrowful World are also ready -- I just need to save enough money to print the book.

4. (?) Two strands of work/On experimentation

Before Maxine left for Sweden, I told her that from now on my work can be divided into two strands. One strand consists of my black-and-white drawings, the other consists of experimental works. The experimental works should always be new and inspiring, or unpredictable. For the experimental works, I draw my inspiration from diverse sources and work to arrive at my own expression and meaning.

Experimentation is important. Experimentation allows one to arrive at completely new and different things, which can be surprising and delightful. I do not want to do only one or two kinds of art. I believe I can do different kinds of art without losing my style, and more importantly, my integrity.

In some works, the idea is more important than the process or the product. In others, it is the execution process that is more important.

... ...

5. Where do I go from here?

Yesterday, I managed to complete my drawing of the hidden shrine at Marne Road. I also did some experimental pieces which I am not very pleased with at the moment. For now, what I really want to do is to touch up and complete my painting of the graffiti wall at Teban Railway.