Ducky Flies Home

Homebound the day after tomorrow, I'll be spending christmas in a plane, toasting champagne. What a semester. Here's hoping things get easier with the new year. I must say, New York has been such a b****. One always struggles to find beauty in the harshness, pushes you to keep searching. Well enough of that for now. I have the comforts of home, wonderful sunshine, glad faces of family AND the time to enjoy it for 3 weeks. The happier girl is me. ^_~

Icicle Night

First, I woke up to a great breakfast of warm toast, delicious scrambled eggs, and one of the best mushroom dishes I've had in quite a while.

Then, it started snowing. Beautifully.

I spent the entire day (and night) slaving away at my essay (it's now done!) while a light rain baked the fresh snow on the trees and everywhere in New York into icicles.

Lastly, in the euphoria of the essay off my list of finals, I ran out into the early morning streets with a camera and tripod, freezing but happy.

3 hours of Daylight

Thanks to my studio hangover, I don't get sleepy till 4am and I don't wake up before 1pm the following day. After the final studio reviews, I happily deluded myself into thinking it was time for a break, until today, when I woke up to the sobering reality of the 3 more deadlines ahead of me, 2 of which are due in 5 days. 5 days to kick out an essay about the Italian Renaissance and to figure out animation in 3Ds Max. Wheeee.

With the approach of winter, the sun sets at 4pm, giving me an excuse to take yet another denial break and stare out my window contemplating the passing of autumn. Damn i wish i took more walks in central park.

Opera

The Queen of the Night's Aria in the second act. (Note: This video is not the same as the performance i watched tonight though.)


So we decided to be bad students for one night and ran down to the Met Opera at 65th and Broadway to catch our last chance to watch Mozart's Die Zauberflöte this season. It was truly amazing. Props to the set and costume designers for this one... amazing designs, clean, oriental, futuristic, very strange but beautiful.

The highlight of the night though was discovering this lady who played Pamina's role, Genia Kühmeier. She has the most beautiful voice I've heard live, and me and diego completely preferred her singing the Queen of the Night's.



Just to throw in the irresistable tidbit, Die Zauberflöte was first performed in 1791, Vienna, and it struck me today that one of the things that I love about opera is the fact that we're watching the self-same performances that the people 200 years ago watched... kinda makes me wish that sound-recording devices existed then.

Angel of Pop and Time Relativity.

I've just discovered this completely irresistable tool called the rasterbator. You plop photographs into it, it gives you the photograph- in circles. Me, I particularly like this Calvin Klein underwear angel. Xp

On other fronts, studio work is finally looking up, with 3.5 weeks left to the finish and about 5.5 weeks left to home. I can't believe this semester is almost over. Isn't it universally true that time speeds up when you get older? If months seem like days now, I wonder what a year might seem like when I'm 50.

Nature's Big Event

Big Event Blog

Click the picture for the album. It was a really really great Christian retreat, in the midst of New York's finest season, Autumn.

The Parade that never was.

so me and the make-shift Nick Fury went down to east village to watch the legendary New York Halloween Parade. suffice to say, all of the streets from 23rd to the 14th were blocked off because of the sheer volume of paraders. we never made it there. we did however get our feast of sights, i must confess that the ones shown here were merely the beginnings of the thickening crowd, and i fast ran out of photo space before we hit the real meat of costumed revellers.

Fisheye Freaks

halloween happiness. ^x<

5 more weeks left before the final review (le gasp!) and my studio work is in tatters. (God help me) i'm hoping some miracle will find its way onto my lap soon enough. that said, i'm looking forward to a weekend at lake champion and nice big fat halloween parade on wednesday! diego's got his pirate wig out, complete with eye-patch and i'm going as a myself, oops, i mean a cat. *mreow*

sketchbook: anatomy

it's something to keep in mind, that when i'm finally supposed to take a break, i can't seem to keep my hands still. i've been sorely neglecting to draw, and it struck me when during my italian renaissance class, there was that fascination about the body that i left behind.

nonetheless, here are some rather awkward re-beginnings.



another thing i've discovered over the lectures of the italian renaissance, was that the great guys like Leonardo and Michelangelo always begun things, projects, studies, and seldom ever completed them- mostly because they were starting too many things (due to overwhelming bright-eyed fascination, i expect). is it then a failure to start things, and leave them unfinished? it is no coincidence then, that the word renaissance, meaning re-birth, seems all the more poignant, even in a sentimentally ironic way.

*sigh*

Björk

she only happens to be one of my favouritest artist. we went to see her in concert at madison square garden last night. stunning.

here's another video of hers, it's one of the best music videos out there (or not out there), it's not for the faint-hearted, though. (link)

Rally.

Tomorrow, at 11.30am, the students of Columbia University will rally and show their dissatisfaction with visiting President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will speak at an international conference here.

The school has been swamped over with posters all over campus and beyond for a week now with the man's (mis)deeds, showing his sense of what justice is. TV reporters have been camping outside the school gates, security has been tightened- and though all still largely remains peaceful- just today, the tension is palpable as my friends and I carry out our daily business of schoolwork. Our minds churning with the usual stresses of crazy deadlines, while trying to make sense of what is happening here in our hearts.

---------------

updated*



To be noted, here are some unforgettable points in the opening note, by Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University:

“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,... you are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated... I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.”

(article)

acrylic tryout

"there's no space in the apartment for me to leave pieces of paintings lying about to dry."

that's my excuse to buy some acrylics and try them out for once. i guess i'm posting this incomplete piece up before i feel like my blog has become a tad too intimidating for myself to put my less than perfect pieces up in.

/spinning/

in only the words that Murakami from Dance Dance Dance can make,


"When I was little, I had this science book. There was a section on 'What would happen to the world if there was no friction?' Answer: 'Everything on earth would fly into space from the centrifugal force of revolution.'" That is my mood.

black.eyed.barbie

meet another one of my best friends, S.

she's just your regular Snow White.

gone renegade.

<3

25

the year out ends in 10 days. and i turn 25 today. very happy indeed to come home from some morning yoga and find my first overseas bouquet sitting on my table, sprightly as a perky little puppy on a warm may day.

'twas a great day out to the old club, a family luncheon by the poolside where i've spent most of my childhood days. where papa dunked me in at 3 and got me my fins to swim. many a weekend spent in contests with the 3 brothers- who can cannonball the furthest, who can hold their breath the longest, who can retrieve the coin at the botton of the pool fastest... who can eat the most of mummy's noodles and chicken wings, some of this still happens, the same old brothers, except i can't fight with them anymore because i'm too tiny to throttle them in any skirmish. boo.

steamboat dinner with a handful of friends and family, chocolate cheesecake, and a good way to wrap up the year, and perhaps what seems to be the end of my singaporean days for now. and what with every closure, brings a new beginning.

{enter sinatra's new york, new york}

for kicks, the most girlfriendly pose i could muster-

for the boyfriend who brought me also a lively chorus of chilean feliz cumpleaños. te amo. ^_^

death, be a sport

the horror, the honour,
the cruel, cruel honour.

the thrill, oh the thrill,
the sick metal thrill.

what extremes the spaniards go to live life on the edge seem unreasonable to the point of stupidity; irresistable, to the sharpest point of passion.

don't clown with my heart

i interrupt this blog with a humorous little nugget.

~power to the clownfish.~

>;>

abstract sun contrast

it's my biggest painting yet, 1.2m x 1.5m, and i think this has to be the most comfortable size to work with. ^_^ it was due to for an office project earlier this week, but my dad and i found ourselves growing so fond of it that we decided to keep it at home.

said office project has been mainly occupying the bulk of my time since we got back from our trip and i find myself visiting art supplies and canvas shops almost everytime i leave the house, only to return carting back more paint, frames, flammable liquids, aerosol sprays, ink, canvas rolls, feathers, plastic toy eyes and jars of goop and other random items that i can buy under that broad umbrella of art. yes, i'm looking at stronger arms with all that weight-lifting. muahahaha.

as with the closing of the month of june, i am reminded that i have a month and a half left here in singapore. which means that about next week, starting on the coming monday, i should really begin brushing the dust off the 3D programs that i've left behind.

inklings

art is a series of destructive acts. (which makes me think of tschumi's "To really appreciate architecture, you may even need to commit a murder." huh!)

which really starts to make sense to me that everytime i encounter a perfectly beautiful and pristine piece of canvas or sheet of paper, i can barely bring myself to mar it... until i find a speck of impurity or macro-lens my way to the texture of the very fibres of the cloth itself... and find a start in a blemish.

it's a gamble, really. and when the painting sets me uneasy, something has to give in the risk of either improving the painting or completely destroying it. art starts with mistakes. there is no back-up and save to rely on. (hell, i wish there was)

so i tell myself recently. sod the wormholing behaviour. i've become more the demolition team than the architect these days. blackblack oils on blackbad ink. there is no canvas too sacred for me.

i'm listening

for signs of life
in an ideological desert.

Magic Carpet Exhaustion

she's so tired, of ala-kaazamming through the skies, legs cramped from sitting cross-legged, stiff back, crooked neck and aching joints... better to sleep a spell for a while now. maybe she'll get a broomstick sometime.


*

home again and i can finally working on these photoshoot pictures i've had lying around my compy. it's funny how i like doing these mindless things so much more than anything else, but gaudi's roofscapes and miro's compositions are fast moving into my head with a more lucrative agenda, so no more nudies for now. until the next round. ^_<

Hiatus

lying flat out on nothing. months seem to get chopped up between travels. days acquire a half-lucid, half-languid tempo; sifting sands that fall through fingers, an immemorable gray.

we're heading out to spain on wednesday and my list of unaccomplished objectives grow ever insistently. perhaps i've been rewarding myself a little too much for too little effort expended. the lack of income as well as the lack of a proper schedule is beginning to more than add up. i need to devise a more practical way to live with art, seeing as i can't quite live on it quite yet.

*

(on the lighter side of life, it must be noted that nude studies are fun. i will offer my undying gratitude and friendship to sympathetic friends who support my home-spun artistic development efforts. so who's next? )

Onsen= Hot Spring Bath

We whipped out our trusty ol' lonely planet guide. It said Shirahama had a Not To Be Missed Historic Onsen (mentioned in not just one, but a few great epic texts and classic literature of ancient japan). Could we resist that?

So we took a trip out to the Kansai region having hopes of spending a Spectacular Onsen Soak where past emperors such as Meiji himself (and others that i can't quite remember now) have soaked in before. We happily paid the 110 sgd bullet train tickets only to find a completely deserted beach town (it's slum period) and the said Onsen. True enough, it was buried among the ocean cliff rocks, where one could enjoy views of the spectacular pacific ocean. Yes, the crashing waves lap up to the brink of the rock-and-salt-formed onsen baths. Magnificent.

It wasn't until the 20th minute soaking in the hot natural spring waters with an assortment of other naked japanese women that i realised that my body could take no more than 45 mins in the scalding sulfuric waters. I begun to see how these royal baths do demand such a royal fee. I begun to see how enthusiasm got the better of foresight.

Oh well. Lesson learnt. Do not get carried away with lonely planet descriptions as irresistable as they sound. No matter how much one loves to hot bathe (there are few greater relaxations), there is only so much time in it a human body can possibly take.

We later bummed around and laughed ourselves silly for the expensive escapade and ended the night with some salsa at the train station waiting for what must be one of the last trains to pull up. Shirahama rocks.

Japan- Onsen Hunting

photos, (click above photograph-link) though none of the onsen itself, save one we managed to get after chatting up the owner.

Happiness is.

an attic
an attic with a puppy
an attic with a puppy and paints
an attic with a puppy, paints and salsa.

happiness is,
having space
having space to breathe
having a year out and finally learning to enjoy it.

When Prada met Herzog

night falls, and i finally meet the building that so inspired me to continue with architecture back in my undergrad years. seemed larger than life in all its ETFE glory, it does.







Prada building, Herzog & de Meuron

butter/my/fly

"I like to pretend that my art has nothing to do with me."
- Roy Lichtenstein

it's true. i do too.


photograph off a lacoste showcase in harajuku at night.

here's the full suit.

back alas, from pink heaven.

"i'm back!"

suffice to say, japan is AWESOME. there is no other country i've yet visited to score so high on the delight quotient. there is no other place i know better to Spring in than in the land of sakura blossoms. pink snow showers amid fresh grass. some sweet mochi in hand, warm tea or some sake in another and a camera slung ready around your neck. and so, i promise, i will upload more pictures along with brief rants and raves about that crazy island country that i so adore. ^_^

zen fever

incompleted piece of drawing from the dregs of my artist days. thought it was appropriate, seeing that it says the things i don't. that aside, to osaka then tokyo, then kyoto i go. ah, the paradoxical japanese are ever so fascinating, i can't hardly wait to slurp some real ramen, feast on all the sights and foods, jump in with the sakura matsuri (hopefully in a yukata) and then soak in an onsen and meditate in their gardens on well,... what makes zen, zen.

Change of Wind

Sunday, a flurry of discussions regarding work permits, salsa and tennis courses, art-degrees and continuing architecture school and suddenly, I'm bound for Osaka on the 2nd of April and returning on the 12th in time for the evening salsa class. No art-school for me, not now anyway, and more work for me, but at a more flexible pace and place.

The realisation of living a season at a time and the grasping of time, timing and the timely, comforting words from a friend that bring clarity and hope. Not to forget the loving and patient support from my love and family, I slowly and surely find myself getting better, the veil lifting, the light starting to shine, however tenuously at first. I still have the words in my head, first, become the artist... Acceptance bleeds colour slowly into my breath, inhale deeply, exhale- God is good.

con.flict

"La Mano"

i must confess, the longer i spend away from the buzz of the architectural scene, the more i don't feel like returning to it. however, to start on a different path, a harder path altogether seems daunting to say the least. art, architecture. didn't i write about the amalgam of both in my entrance essay? somehow the reality of that starry-eyed ideal seems quite impossible at present. two paths diverge where i used to believe i could tread both at the same time. i, well, i'm running out of time.

te adoro...

...cada pedazo de ti. x3

ro.se bod·dhi·satt·va

"I dream of a crimson nirvana."

Diver Girl 4

"She always had her own way of doing things."

Extremities

oil and texture and what i can do with my hands. i guess the beginning of art lies in the beginning of faith... in oneself.



here's a detail.

Soñé que era una artista.

Yo he regresado a ti
desde la incertidumbre con espinas.

s u r f a c i n g

Complicated but fun. don't worry mum, i'm talking about the Xae's SLR. ;P

Love is Abstract

i rest my head on a warm breathing chest, watching
you shuffle between sleep and wake.

Lotus Flower

Everytime a lotus flower blooms in my garden, i can never cease to get excited over examining every single detail, taking in the colour, the texture and of course that light pretty feeling of happiness and delicacy that it brings with it. Thank god for Xae's new SLR.

Braces Me

hello all, having procrastinated enough about getting my teeth straightened, i've finally hunkled down to the dentist's, gotten 4 perfectly fine teeth extracted, and had these dastardly wires fixed in. do not be deceived by my toothy smile, i wasn't quite so happy getting used to them wires. that said, i've got more than enough reason now to insist on pigging out at Crystal Jade Palace with their amazing soft souffle egg white red bean and bananna concoctions, scallops dishes and dim sums. nyum-nyum!

the song's called "crime in the pale moonlight"

did this while listening to some strange jungle jazz. it actually started off as a badly taken photograph of a design submission.

those devily details

... i can read you just fine.

the chilean forest

is dark,
is daunting,
is magnificent,
is scary,
is breath-taking,
is difficult,
is magical,
is every thing that dreams are made of.

to those who want to experience more limits of their own humanity,
go.