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.

some days i just feel like...

i miss the road

i've been home for 12 days now and already i'm beginning to feel the missing pangs of my wind-blown days in chile. it's back to the daily grind, which is proving to be tougher than usual due to the weight of expectation. yet i know if i can see this through, the reward is sweeter than any riches can buy.

Nona needs help.

"Somedays, even a heroine finds herself in a spot of big trouble."


finally, i sit myself down with the tablet and work on photoshop for 2.5 hours on my very first anime drawing. it's still a far cry from the polish of professionals but i'm happy with the start. this first of my resolution of Art Weekends seems to be off on a good start... now i wonder how having a furry boyfriend in the picture will affect them. ;P

Picture Perfect You

"Catch Me and You Get Caught"

Photoshoot Baby

"Enough is enough."

Hello There You

That's the title of the above photograph, result of my very first photoshoot with Rach. methinks i need a better camera, one that lets me actually adjust stuff. methinks i need to learn more of this Stuff. --^_^-- that aside, i'm pretty pleased. Rach is completely beautiful.

let the flying begin

am packed and set and ready to jet.

leaving tomorrow on a 1pm flight to new york and thereafter flying home from new york to singapore on new year's eve.

sigh, it's hard leaving this life and this country that i've grown to love so much. but at the end of each season and journey, another begins. =)

Boy

probably the best christmas present i got, from his fairy godmother. =*^.^*=

Leviathan Thot

a powerful imagination-tickling installation by brazilian artist Ernesto Neto. A 'tulle and polystyrene creature' takes temporary residence under the dome of the Pantheon. Wild.

more

and

more.

my desktop ninja

just made this... it's a photo of my own eye taken by radek at a small great jap-food joint. actually since i couldn't decide between the colours, i'll put the 3-toned version up.



alright. comments?

cool, queer film

tiempos de copia

lemme try

...some henna art

and

...some photomanipulation.

El Desierto Part II

A El Desierto 2

will deliever part one which consists of the first half of the trip soon.

two of us

R: sorry for the sucky anniversary. sick people don't make for very good company. here, let's make a toast, over ginger tea. russian style, so you better tell a tale.

D: (omitted.)

R: we'll have a make-up anniversary, i promise it'll be better.

back from the desert, smiling

the desert did wonders for me. more photographs when i sort everything out.

jules, the tattered angel boy

jules just fell from battle. he's kinda tired of this f***ed-up war and he just wants to go home. except... home's kinda far away now.

sketched over breakfast... wonder if i'll do more.

tablet pratice

*fumbles about with tablet pen*

hang in there baby brother!

tomorrow is the last paper of GQ's A levels. i wonder if he actually got this drawing i did for him. it's my first attempt at anime, tho it doesn't really look too animesque, i must admit. after that he'll be whisked off with the rents to japan. to my stressed out mum, i hope all preparations are going fine.

the machine takes all

an image, of the school we were working on for 2 weeks. not a very descriptive image but well, i guess it's to do with the fact that this post is more like a rant about how life has become so intrinsically tied to the 17" screen in front of me than any other medium.

as of last year, upon entering Columbia and moving away from comfy old singapore, my entire universe seems to have migrated not to new york but rather the vitual existence of the internet, photoshop, and 3d max. i dream in CAD commands and i orientate my position with the gizmo. what seems lacking in life is real contact with anything. gone are the days of hanging out after class with close friends chatting about nonsense, ranting about the latest fantasy novel/movie/song, reading out corny poetry hastily written during classes, role-playing silly characters we've invented, drawing, and day-dreaming in trees that we've so carefully named. gone are the days of lazy hazy first love and talking about the future without really imagining it could be just round the corner.

i've been absorbed into this architectural world of appearance, function and style. but none of this seems to take on the immediacy of experience. the days of my young life spill into this virtual blur, the endless hours spent obssessing about form and theory, trying to make sense of language and aesthetics. and yet despite the involvement of my work with the lives of people, none of this really requires real contact with people. the more fantastical, the more polished, the more inventive or well-coordinated the design my imagination can dream up, the better.

as my laptop's starting to slow with much use, i'm dreading the format i have to take it through, having to sort out the backups, re-install the programs. i miss those days when i used to weigh alot less, electronically speaking.

conversation, oil painting no. 7, and more hair

me: it's easy for me to paint you, or people that i feel alot for but i guess i should try painting other people too, to hone my skills.
D: yeah! you could paint my friends.
me: we could invite them over.... except some of them might not like my paintings. damn, what if they don't like them?
D: yeah, so, what if they don't?
me: hmmmm...
D: well, as with any other artist, not everybody's gonna like your art. the thing you should ask yourself is who you're doing it for, why you're doing it.
me: huh, true. i'm doing it for myself.
D: ha yeah, you artists have gotta be selfish like that.
me: heh, pretty easy for me!

5th oil painting

i've spent years of my life with these stars in my head. time to let them out.

"Art is whatever moves you and fashion is also whatever moves you. When i see clothes i see clothes, but when i see something that moves me, for me that's fashion. That's why i see so few things that i like. Everything that excites me is art and within art i include everything: fashion, music, design, everything that moves me. If i see somtthing that moves me on the street, whether it's a fight or whatever, even if it isn't documented, it's priceless, whether it's legal or illegal, politically correct or not, if it moves me for me that's art." - Carlos Diez Diez

(transtlated, interview from b-guided, spain.)

Chillan Weekend

Hi all! *sunshiney beams!*

back in santiago, back to blogging and rendering classic-modernist-minimalist images of an elite school that the firm is competing for. i miss the weekend. since a certain someone has been shooting off her mouth at me for being plant/flower obssessive in my photographic endeavours, i've decided to put this one up for her. (yes, you know who you are.)



weekends. i love weekends... chillan was especially beautiful, seeing spring come out in full force in the countryside was just such a simple, yet breathtaking delight.

Chillan, chekkit!

Parque del Recuerdo

even tho it was a public holiday, i still had to come into office for work. towards the evening though, we took off to visit diego's dad. i wasn't too appropriate though, going bonkers at the breathtaking array of spring flowers the beautiful cemetery park had to offer. more, more and more photographs to come, i promise.