Catmasutra commission piece - Soul Mates

Commission an original Catmasutra painting if your favorite piece has already been bought. This version is called "Soul Mates", a variation of an earlier piece "Equilibrium" in the Catmasutra 4 exhibition. Well, red cheongsam or qipao has always been a favorite subject for me. It is oriental and sexy, and deep red has become my favorite color on canvas. It's overbearing to have red walls, but with a predominantly red painting, it can transform a place depending on what you want. Maybe that's the beauty of collecting paintings. You can easily change the mood by swapping paintings.

Both paintings are set in the afternoon. It's probably a typical hot afternoon and there's an hour or two respite before the next 'to-do' list. The ceiling fan is spinning, and there is a slight breeze from the opened windows and doors. Light filters into the living room and the coolest place to be is on the roughly-cemented floor, with a couple of colorful cushions thrown in. A tall glass with ice cubes in your favorite drink, a book or magazine in hand, your body relaxed and at ease... and with the whiff of such luxuriant concoction of delight on display, the cat irresistibly appears and snuggles in, all ready for a belly rub...

Autumn (2004)

Some of my older paintings with the same theme....

Painted these two back in 2003. Now I'm regretting not taking proper shots of them. I'm in the mood to paint these two again, the back and front of a cheongsam but in a more abstract style, and maybe sneak in parts of the cat somewhere haha!

Rushes of Red 1

Rushes of Red 2

Red Sky

and the cat sleeps,
as the sun sets,
again as usual,
an afternoon delight...

Catmasutra Cat-inspired Collectibles

Finally got down to it and finished at least the first phase of stuff at cafePress! Yay! Now you can get all kinds of Catmasutra collectibles at www.cafepress.com/catmasutra. It's fun putting these things together and I'm always quite amused at how these paintings turn out from big buttons, small buttons, magnets, mousepads, tote bags, to throw pillows and keepsake boxes. My favorite are the journals! Well, I'll probably be the first person to buy them, wahahahha! I have started categorizing my art and it's interesting to see the kind of stuff that I usually paint, like a street directory of the world of the Catmasutra cats haha!

I have the SURREALIST POP section where you find the cats in improbable situations, like sleeping in the clouds, smoking a cigarette, or negotiating with tree frogs and sparrows! And I have the CAT ART PARODY of course, where the cat weave its way into masterpieces by Monet, Magritte, Hockney, Warhol, Botero! And the QUIRKY & IRREVERENT section, probably reflecting my inclination to get away from rules as much as possible (Funny that we always assume that without rules, man's inherent 'bad-ness' will take over and there will be world chaos ). LOVE & OTHER TEMPTATIONS explores the Catmasutra cat in all sorts of enviable positions while WINE & DINE, COCKTAILS AND CAT TALES speak of art of levitation with Lychee Martini, whiskey, sushi and wasabi. Last but not least, a KARMIC BLISS section where you find the cat in silent repose, majestic and peaceful in the presence of the divine! This is the first phase so I could only put up a couple of images, but that's the road map!

Sometimes I feel like I'm returning to an earlier time where I was an editor for children's books, as well as writing and illustrating a couple of books for children. It's like having a beginner's mind, looking at the simplest things and transforming them into something magical (haha Most things magical comes from the world of children). The deeper you weave into it, the more magic you can find, and that's when imagination takes us away. I guess as children, there are no road blocks. The runway is clean and clear, and the sky's literally the limit. As in the Golden Compass, all things are still changeable before the dust settles and as in Star Wars, both Anakin and Luke have been denied Jedi training in the first instance because they are too old. They have already seen the road blocks and signs that point the other way!

;)

Catmasutra Cloud 9 Journal!

“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else,
and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes I wonder if time is linear at all? Everything arises and passes in cycles. Perhaps time is made up of layers, layers of good and bad, happy and sad, success and failure and when one peels away, the other appears. And so it goes... round and round , from cloud 9 to the fall. If only we can let go into this change, we will be able to trust in the greater cycles of life, that whatever it is, it is perfect in its good or bad. And for the latter, most of the time, it is only our illusions and inconvenience that are being threatened!

“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.” ~ Donald Miller

“We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.” ~ William Somerset Maugham

Cloud 9 journal - one for the road!
Haha I'm experimenting with cafePress!
Check it out at
www.cafepress.com/catmasutra

:)

Cleaning my glasses once in a blue moon...

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do children of humans as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. ~ Helen Keller

All our life, we're taught to chase after or buy security one way or another. That's the way to freedom - everything in our society tells us that is the reality. We don't have to think about it. It's like we're in auto-pilot mode or something, almost second nature. It's like wearing a dirty pair of glasses for so long that you begin to believe in that reality (I never clean my glasses and I only use them at night...Wahahahaha). So it happened (as it would once in a blue moon), I wiped my glasses with my T-shirt and put them on and for that moment, I realized how clear and crisp the night is! So think about your second nature for an instance - perhaps our second nature is not really us at all.. Our second nature is our karma, the stories that we keep repeating to ourselves that we believe them to be true. And we will keep doing the same things, and as a result keep getting the same things.

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.” *

And so here we are again, finding a thousand aversions and resistance to the way things are. We always think about the future, how nice it would be if we could do this or that, or what if we couldn't do this or that. Our fears and cravings mingle and feed us, drive us to do battle with ourselves continuously. And there are just so many layers of ourselves that our first task must be to stop running, and find out who we really are. We are good and bad. The line is so thin that we can be an angel in one circumstance and a devil in the next. So Stop. Rest. Take a break. Have a kit-kat! Where should we hurry to before our death?

“Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.”*

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”*
*Quotes by Anais Nin

Excerpt from my short story, "foolish things"

Anguish rises and squeezes my heart in His palm. Silently, from amongst the images, a cat jumps out and sits on the table beside me. It gazes at me with its sapphire eyes. I stroke its shimmering fur. Then the cat begins to speak inside my head. It says, as if in response to my anguish:

"Space is a matter of perception."

"I do not have enough freedom"
"Freedom is a fool's concept"
"I do not have enough time."
"Because you make time your enemy"
"I need money to buy freedom."
"Freedom has no price. You are buying the wrong thing."
The cat, having said her piece, jumps away to pursue her dreams of sleep on my dirty laundry.

“The secret of Happiness is Freedom,
and the secret of Freedom, Courage.”

~ Thucydides

;)