Hope!

We need hope in our life! Without hope, we can end up with great despair, we could be very sad.

I was recently trapped in a situation of little hope. I was then planning for a big time adventure for myself. I thought I have everything organised, to my surprise, the situation was indeed the opposite. I do not have the resources to fulfill my plans and I was losing the support I thought I would get. Suddenly, the rosy picture turned blue, I exhausted all my resources. With limited resources, I have no choice but to give up part of my dream and face the reality. My plan schedule again need to be set aside in order to fix my problem. Plans have to be delayed, however, people don't see it!

With much despair, I am losing hope in many things that I do. I was mentally trapped within eagerness to set myself free from the situation. I jump from one solution to another restlessly. Then, one day, I realised that I am getting nowhere. I stood down, begun to think about the situation that I am in. I gave myself some ideas on what could I achieve, I was hoping, and giving myself hopes that things will turn up fine in the end. The hope I have was a compass that help me to set my direction. With hope I found the energy that push me ahead.

Good Art Exhibitions!

Recently, there were many good art exhibitions around. The first was the Tiong Gee exhibition. He was a friends that I know for many years. His simplicity of overall appearance of his art works always amaze me. Will simple mass of colours and lines, he managed to present to us a peaceful and calm, Zen-like work. More than a gentleman, he is a man with few words. I get to know him during an exhibition more than a decade ago. He is an easy going person with much thoughts. In this particular exhibition, he again presented his collage works with essence of life. Light hearted, simple colours, with touches of lines completed a series of compositions that is interesting and refreshing.


Another exhibition by Bak Chiang who happened to be my friend too, presented a series of that is greatly influenced by minimalist school of art. Most of his works is made up of a few lines with a mass of ink shades, some with the touch of birds,frogs or flowers. The placement of his objects were careful and thought-through. The presentation through the Chinese media certainly added a new dimension to the works of art.


The sculpture exhibition by Shai Po led us into a world of environment issues. Her amazing structures are constructed with a series of black and white materials, which send strong messages about deforestation, global warning, dying reefs .......... according to the organiser, she had studied the exhibition space for quite a while before she came up with this series of sculptures. The black and white combination was a powerful contrast of two opposite forces. The message behind is strong, just like her works, her thoughts.




One cannot denied is the quality of works created by our late pioneer artist Cheong Soo Peng. A show was organised for him in NUS museum. In this exhibition, I was overwhelmed by the range of works exhibited over the halls. Oil painting, Chinese Ink, Sculptures, Watercolours ......... He was definitely a hardworking artist who experimented many styles and medium. A forefront artist merging the east and west techniques and composition, subject contents together. In his western media, you see the eastern composition, and in the eastern media, he present his works with western techniques. An exciting show that I do not have enough time to study.



Just as I was writing this blog, an invitation for Eng Teng exhibition was handed to me. Hum ............... this is good! I am happy that the art scene is filled with good art exhibition. It's about time to boost our art senses, and I really hope this will continue.

Beautiful things ......

It was a sunny afternoon and the weather was hot! I was walking in Pasir Ris Central covered with shirts that was half-wet. For no reason I looked up, I was amazed by a cloud that floated next to a palm tree. Quickly, I ran to my car, took the camera and took the shot!

Many times in life, when we are surrounded by hash environment, we tend to forget the beautiful things that exist nearby. Yes, nearby is the word! Because we need not have to travel far to collect the wonderful gifts around us. It's a matter of the mind, the perspectives we have for ourselves. If we only treasure things of a certain values, we will fail to see nice little things that is meaningless to us. As we raise our expectations to higher levels, we might not be able to see the things we treasured once. Worst still, when we mark our expectations at a point that is beyond our reach, we will then be chasing our goals all our life and might end up with pains and sadness. As a result, we will not be able to appreciate our life to the fullest!

Therefore, it is good for us to be realistic! Perhaps slow down our pace a little and look around us. There might be many beautiful things you that you failed to see in the past and you might appreciate them better by now!

Words!

We always like to hear nice things! So, when others speak fondly about us, we are happy, on the other hand, we hate to hear unpleasant remarks about us!

As our society developed, as we geared towards a cultural society, we wanted to show our care and concern by saying only nice things to others. As times passed by, we forgotten the progress is based on constructive ideas and feedbacks from people with different perspectives. The nice words we collected over the years built our confidence, and we relaxed our humble beginning by listening to others. When we hear something that is different from our thoughts, our defensive system will automatically kick in. We refuse to listen anymore! We became more self-centred and less caring even though we talked so much about it.

With a society that is so highly developed, all of us are busy with our own lives. We always like to gather positive remarks, comments or information that are in favour of us. Often, we failed to see the truth! Failing to see the truth enable cheats and lairs to flourish. A lack of time is the excuse we generally like to use, and it hinders our progress and development.

In the teachings of Confucius, he has three phrases that speak against flowery words. In two of these phrases, he mentioned that flowery words will erode one's moral character. In the last phrase, he tells us that flowery words are unlikey to be of justice and great virture. So the next time when we want to say nice words to others, think twice.