catmaSutra cat art by paul koh

catmaSutra Cat Totebags

2012-01-30T17:07:00.002+08:00

The color of Two

catmaSutra tote bags!

catmaSutra was conceptualized as a

way of making the quiet visible,

the soft spot that tugs at the
heartstrings.

Using an expression that closely mimics the

drawings of a child, the
"Wide-eyes-closed" and
"ear-to-ear" smile
of the cat brings

us back to simpler moments...

A child's wonder

is all we need to see things

in a different light, and

using that light

to make a difference

in this adult's world...

Have a beautiful vision,

Walk softly, live gently

;)

catmaSutra cat art 2012 Calendar!

2011-12-22T00:42:00.002+08:00

Have a beautiful vision.

Walk

softly,

live

gently.

2012 catmaSutra 'CATLENDAR'

12 original cards for each month

+ 5 'wild' cards to inspire and tickle your senses...

A catlendar list of things to do...

only the things that matter

& that means only the little things

that we take for granted

that we have forgotten

;)

...

the sun on your face,

the smell of rain,

the sound of laughter,

that sweet sensation

of peace

;)

catmaSutra 2012 catlendar available @ S$20
Contact Art 2 u

;)

2011-12-10T10:32:00.001+08:00

It's that time of the year when the cats of CatmaSutra come out to play!Bright, quirky, and capable of levitation, the seventh installation of catmaSuta cat art exhibition is once again back at Utterly Art.

The seven year itch has only served to cook up more mischief as the catmaSutra cat takes you to that sweet spot of whimsical bliss and light-heartedness.

"If we stop and observe how life flows, we'll notice how the universe is made up of individual moments which when appreciated fully, gains a shape akin to a smile from the heart - a personal heaven."

Paul's paintings take his audience through these moments using the cat as the perfect allegory to create a personal space that tugs at the heartstrings!

Come check out some of the available catmaSutra collectibles and smile-getters (2012 catmaSutra calendar cards, tile coasters and keepsake boxes), the purr-fect gifts this festive season.

catmaSutra 7 cat art exhibition

CATMASUTRA: 7TH HEAVEN

Opening Reception:
Wed 14th Dec 2011 from 7pm

Exhibition runs from
14 to 24 Dec 2011
@ Utterly Art
229A South Bridge Road
2nd Level

Opening hours:
12 noon to 8pm,
Mon to Sat.
12 noon to 5.30pm, Sun

Or contact Keng Hock
for appointments:
Tel: + 65 6226 2605
Cell: 94872006

utterlyart@pacific.net.sg

Cat Monologue

2011-12-03T13:44:00.001+08:00

Went down to buy coffee. Was trying to hear myself amidst the noise, listening to voices inside as I stroll through a thin mist of rain. There are two voices talking, one is from my heart. I always hear that first, and then a second voice which is not entirely mine but seems cocksure and as usual, pretty loud. But if you hear deeply enough, it is loud because it is insecure and doesn't want to lose out in any way. Insecurity and fear - they are best friends, almost inseparable. I bought the coffee and saw the cat that I knew; he has been sleeping next to my bike the last few evenings. He was now asleep on a chair tucked underneath the safety of a kopitiam table. I pulled a chair next to him, made eye contact and started patting him. he's a good natured cat and began to flip for me. I pat him on the head, his chin, rubbed his face and letting him rest his head on my palm while he purred away blissfully. The heart seemed settled and quiet - pure and simple. This voice became loud and clear. And when I turned to walk away, the cat sat up wondering where I'm going. Half way across the road I looked back and he was still looking at me.

I went back later and took a photograph of him. He had changed seats but still sleeping tightly seemingly without a care in the world...

catmaSutra 7 cat art exhibition

CATMASUTRA:
7TH HEAVEN

Opening Reception:
Thurs 14th Dec 2011 from 7pm

Exhibition runs from
14 to 27 Dec 2011
@ Utterly Art
229A South Bridge Road
2nd Level

Opening hours:
12 noon to 8pm,
Mon to Sat.
12 noon to 5.30pm, Sun

Or contact Keng Hock
for appointments:
Tel: + 65 6226 2605
Cell: 94872006

utterlyart@pacific.net.sg

These are stories in the rain

2011-10-18T23:21:00.001+08:00

“When it's raining like this," said Naoko, "it feels as if we're the only ones in the world.

catmasutra cat art

“Thanks to the long days of rain,
the blades of grass glowed with a deep-green luster, and
they gave off the smell of wildness unique to things
that sink their roots into the earth.”

Haruki Murakami

A play on Jamie Beck “cinemagraphs:… totoro and halo in the rain..

“There are a hundred things she has tried to chase away the things she won't remember and that she can't even let herself think about because that's when the birds scream and the worms crawl and somewhere in her mind it's always raining a slow and endless drizzle.

You will hear that she has left the country, that there was a gift she wanted you to have, but it is lost before it reaches you. Late one night the telephone will sign, and a voice that might be hers will say something that you cannot interpret before the connection crackles and is broken.

Several years later, from a taxi, you will see someone in a doorway who looks like her, but she will be gone by the time you persuade the driver to stop. You will never see her again.

Whenever it rains you will think of her. ”
~ Neil Gaiman

catmasutra cat art: In-between Love

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen...”

~ Ernest Hemingway

“People always think that happiness is a faraway thing,
something complicated and hard to get.
Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter
when it rains - a cup of strong hot coffee
when you're blue; for a man,
a cigarette for contentment;
a book to read when you're alone -
just to be with someone you love.
Those things make happiness.”

~ Betty Smith

Moving on...

2011-09-07T23:10:00.000+08:00

Tired. Thought I listen to a piece of music before I turned off the power, pull the plug. Goodbye day. May I be released from your chains into something more comfortable. Music. The whizzing sound of fans like turbos of a flying machine. I’ve come crashing down, into the arms of your royal darkness. Hello Night.

Will be updating this blog on Tumblr: http://catmasutra.tumblr.com/

Hidden dreams and quirky cat impressions!

2011-07-21T00:31:00.000+08:00

Beauty surrounds us,

but usually we need to be walking

in a garden to know it.

The body itself is a screen

to shield and partially reveal

the light that's blazing

inside your presence.

Water, stories, the body

all the things we do, are mediums

that hide and show what's hidden.

Study them,

and enjoy this being washed

with a secret we sometimes know,

and then not.

~Rumi

Super quirky cat art collectibles

to add to your feline addiction...

catmaSutra iPad cases

catmaSutra iPhone covers!

;)

Joker Cat is in town - The Quirkiest cat art iPhone cat cover!

2011-07-12T23:02:00.001+08:00

"There is always a Joker to see through the delusion.
Generation succeeds generation, but there is a
fool walking the earth who is never ravaged by time."

"Our lives are part of a unique adventure...
Nevertheless, most of us think the world is 'normal'...
But that is just because we don't realize the world is a mystery.

As for myself, I felt completely different.

I saw the world as an amazing dream.

I was hunting for some kind of explanation of how

everything fit together."

"A joker is a little fool who is different from everyone else.

He's not a club, diamond, heart, or spade.

He's not an eight or a nine, a king or a jack.

He is an outsider. He is placed in the same pack as

the other cards, but he doesn't belong there...

It is different for the Joker,

because he was put into this world with

a flaw: He sees too clearly and too much."

~~Jostein Gaarder, The Solitaire Mystery

The Jester cute Cat iPhone 4 Cover - Get it now...

dream

2010-11-28T02:48:00.002+08:00

dream by priscilla ahn

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest tree.
I had a dream.

catmaSutra cat art

I don't know what's left to say about this life I'm willing to leave.
I lived it full and I lived it well, there's many tales I've lived to tell.
I'm ready now, I'm ready now, I'm ready now to
fly from the highest wing.

;)

The opium den of remembrance

2010-11-06T15:23:00.000+08:00

"In the world of the dreamer there was solitude:

all the exaltation and joys came in the moment of preparation

for living. They took place in solitude.

catmaSutra cat art: Garden of Eden

But with action came anxiety,

and the sense of insuperable effort made to match the dream,

and with it came weariness, discouragement,

and the flight into solitude again.

by Cuba Gallery

And then in solitude, in the opium den of remembrance,

by Marc Lorec

the possibility of pleasure again."

~ Anaïs Nin

Maybe baby

2010-10-31T21:23:00.003+08:00

"...maybe if I could have lived more peaceably…

maybe if I’d met the right person years ago, maybe...

Maybe, baby, the promised land was there and I missed it

Look at it glittering in the light.
But the truth is I am inventing the maybe.

I can only make the choices I make,

so why torture myself with what I might have done,

when all I can handle is what I have done.

The Maybe Islands are hostile to human life.

Photo by Marta Cernicka

Much of what I have done is left unfinished-

not because I left it too soon, not because I was lazy,

but because it had a life of it's own that continues without me.

Children, I suppose, are always unfinished business:

they begin as part of your own body, and continue as seperate

as another continent.

from: http://bestbookmarks.net/photography/photography-by-david-zaitz

The work you do,
if it has any meaning, passes to other hands.
The day slides into a night's dreaming.True stories
are the ones that lie open at the border,
allowing a crossing, a further frontier.

The final frontier is just science fiction - don't believe it.
Like the universe, there is no end."
~ Jeanette Winterson

catmaSutra cat art: Wishing

;)

It won't happen again...

2010-10-29T00:50:00.000+08:00

The Sun (feat. Nili) - Villeneuve from duriez jérémie on Vimeo.

I keep thinking of you, you're on my mind.
For the fifty seven thousandth time this morning.
I keep seeing you in sheets of white.
I can't change anything, I can't change aaannyything.
Aaaaaaaannnnnyyyyything.

I was out on my own, for the first time.
It was here all along, that I cracked.
Now it won't happen again till the next time.
Yeah I think I can do this all by myself.

I've been thinking of you a lot this morning.
For the fifty seven thousandth time today.
I will see you in pictures dressed as I am.
I can change anything, I can change aaannyything.
Ooohhh aaaaaaannnnnyyything.

I would like to tell you, where I'm going to.
I've seen it before, I've seen it before.
I would like to tell you, this is not about you.
I've seen it before, I've seen it before.

I keep thinking of you, you're on my mind.

Divine Chaos

2010-10-21T00:52:00.000+08:00

"Life is divine chaos. Embrace it.

Forgive yourself. Breathe.

And enjoy the ride"
~ Solbeam

catmaSutra cat art: the Great Singapore Rush

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;

for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;

and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."
~ Audrey Hepburn

catmaSutra cat art: Here's Looking at You

;)

Lightness

2010-10-16T22:58:00.000+08:00

catmaSutra cat art: The Bearable Lightness of Being

"The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body.The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?"

~ Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

catmaSutra cat art: Equilibrium

"We all need someone to look at us. we can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under. the first category longs for the look of an infinite number of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public. the second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known eyes. they are the tireless hosts of cocktail parties and dinners. they are happier than the people in the first category, who, when they lose their public, have the feeling that the lights have gone out in the room of their lives. this happens to nearly all of them sooner or later. people in the second category, on the other hand, can always come up with the eyes they need. then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love. their situation is as dangerous as the situation of people in the first category. one day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark. and finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. they are the dreamers."

~ Milan Kundera

;)

Love Song

2010-10-13T00:52:00.001+08:00

catmaSutra cat art ~ Love Song

"In different degrees, in every part of the town, men and women had been yearning for a reunion, not of the same kind for all, but for all alike ruled out. Most of them had longed intensely for an absent one, for the warmth of a body, for love, or merely a life that habit had endeared. Some, often without knowing it, suffered from being deprived of the company of friends and from their inability to get in touch with them through the usual channels of friendship—letters, trains, and boats. Others, fewer these... had desired a reunion with something they couldn’t have defined, but which seemed to them the only desirable thing on earth. For want of a better name, they sometimes called it peace."

~Albert Camus

catmaSutra cat art ~ The Explorer

"The Marquis De Sade said that the most important experiences a man can have are those that take him to the very limit; that is the only way we learn, because it requires all our courage. When a boss humiliates an employee, or a man humiliates his wife, he is merely being cowardly or taking his revenge on life, they are people who have never dared to look into the depths of their soul, never attempted to know the origin of that desire to unleash the wild beast, or to understand that sex, pain and love are all extreme experiences. Only those who know those frontiers know life; everything else is just passing the time, repeating the same tasks, growing old and dying without ever having discovered what we are doing here."

~Paulo Coelho

;)

Foolish things...

2010-10-06T00:18:00.001+08:00

A short story about nothing

from a long time ago ...

FOOLISH THINGS

Take my hand...
to a rain of dreams
to get away, I can
get away, I can
be home again.
touch? Love
you? Oui.

"It's raining again," says Cat. She pulls the covers over herself. Traces of an impending storm float in through the open window. A scent of rain triggers something inside me. "Want some coffee?" I ask. My mind withdraws and expands. The smell of rain tickles my nose. I breathe it in - this air, this life, blown in from somewhere else. I look at Cat, as if I am apart from her reality. Cat is different from me. She doesn't complicate her life with superfluous dreams. She doesn't let foolish things depress her, and she hates coffee. How can anyone hate coffee? And there is something about her that irks me - she feels more comfortable sleeping on my bed than I ever did or will. She says my bed gives her dreams to dream about. A flash flashes. A recurring dream: there is liquid in the air. Lightning cuts the air in a million places. The air breaks to the sound of thunders. The liquid fall, and I see myself in another life. I am kneeling in a desert. I raise my arms and ask for my salvation.

The scent of rain pierces and converges at a point between my eyes. I cough desperately to rid of the tainted air, the whiff of another life. Cat asks if I'm okay. I say yes. The room door creaks as I leave to make myself a cup of coffee, and a cup of tea for Cat, and a cup of milk for Angel, a silver-coloured cat from Tibet. They make such a lovely pair together, you know, Cat and Angel. They seem to have perfected the art of sleeping (When one sleeps, time loses its grip. The concepts of past and future vanishes. Peace only happens when one is not eager to move forward or fall behind. Time becomes a friend). "Mmmmm, you're back..." Cat purrs as I stroke several strands of her hair over her ear. "Do you know what I like best?" I ask. Angel decides to drink her milk. A cold wind escapes into our room. "Rain," she replies at the very moment the drizzle erupts into a full-fledged storm, sending mystical vibes through my body. "You don't have to close the window..." Cat says as she gets up behind me and peers outside. Rain... it feels so good to be exposed to its touch, so free, so wild, and yet, it inevitably makes me sad. Rain makes me remember clearly. It makes me remember the words that used to reverberate inside my head. Now those words and even those years seem so meaningless, so distant.

"I do not have enough space."
My voice is soft, almost lost in the rain and the music from the radio. Another recurring dream: Land becomes sea. Rain falls but I'm not wet. I wear a robe so white and soft that I feel like I'm wrapped in a cloud. I walk the waves and they walk me. The sky is inside me. The sea is inside me, but when I get to shore, my legs collapse beneath my abominable weight. I kneel in the desert, alone and abandoned. And then I'm here, staring out into the window, unable to make sense of my life. The window seems to open a second time. I breathe in its reality. I see myself working day and night, trying to make more money. I see rats in shirts and ties, stealing my dreams from under my nose. 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 silver 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. How easy it was when I was studying in the States. How easy it was to believe, to criticize, to dream, to hope, to be inspired, to change the world, to make a difference, to feel the power in one's hand. "Foolish things..." I let the words slip easily out of my lips. "Nobody bothers, nobody gives a damn - so why should I care?" Cat lowers the volume on the radio. The music fades and merges with that of the pouring rain. Sometimes, I haven't the faintest idea what's going on in my head any more.

"Hey, you're okay?" Cat's voice invades my thoughts, and her face, my vision. I watch her quizzically, tilting my head as a dog would when spoken to in a tone that it does not recognize. "Don't do this to me..." she says, "I hate it when you are in this mood. You get so damned depressing and you will drag me down with you." I laugh and snap out of the cloud that I was in, and crack a stupid joke. The cat looks at us with a knowing look on her face as she circles my pile of laundry, exercises her claws, and settles in a circular sleeping position. I vow to try the ritual the next time I can't get to sleep…

***

Sometimes I do go walking in the clouds

but it's just cold and wet and empty.

But when you look out of a plane it's a special world...

and I like it."
~ Neil Gaiman

***

"You will receive everything you need
when you stop asking for what you do not need"
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

***

One Short Trip

2010-10-03T20:43:00.000+08:00

Life: One short trip

Fallen from Sascha Geddert on Vimeo.

Do not let your fire go out,
spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite,
the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero
in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life
you deserved and have never been able to reach.
The world you desire can be won.
It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours."
~ Ayn Rand

****

The Reason Why

2010-09-25T17:38:00.002+08:00

"His talent was as natural as the pattern

that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings.

At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did

and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.

catmaSutra cat art, In-between Love (2008)

Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and

of their construction and he learned to think and

could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone

and he could only remember when it had been effortless."

~ Ernest Hemingway

catmaSutra cat art, Morning Cat (2008)

"I should feel the air move against me,

and feel the things I touched,

instead of having only to look at them.

I'm sure life is all wrong because it has become much too visual -

we can neither hear nor feel nor understand, we can only see.

I'm sure that is entirely wrong."

~D.H. Lawrence

catmaSutra cat art, The usual please (2004)

"Wisdom is having things right in your life

and knowing why."

~William Edgar Stafford
;)

We are dancers

2010-09-14T00:57:00.000+08:00

"The secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets.

The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again.

The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably.

They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.

They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen.

catmaSutra cat art: All Play, No Work

They are as familiar as the house you live in.

Or the smell of your lover’s skin.

You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t.

catmaSutra cat art: dancers

In the way that although you know that one day you will die,

you live as though you won’t.

In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies,

who finds love, who doesn’t.

And yet you want to know again.

THAT is their mystery and magic."

~Arundhati Roy

Remember...

2010-09-09T23:58:00.000+08:00

To love. To be loved.

To never forget your own insignificance.

To never get used to the unspeakable violence

and the vulgar disparity of life around you.

catmasutra cat art: Recycle Plant

To seek joy in the saddest places.

To pursue beauty to its lair.

To never simplify what is complicated or

complicate what is simple.

catmaSutra cat art: Earth

To respect strength, never power.

Above all, to watch. To try and understand.

To never look away.

And never, never,

to forget."
~Arundhati Roy

;)

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

2010-09-07T00:48:00.001+08:00

Are we ever ready to abandon our whole life for something else? To alter everything that makes sense to us and to move into a different world...? Such a sacrifice must be the result of love... or is it that the life itself was already worn out?

Perhaps we are finished with one aspect of our life, but could not admit it, being stubborn or afraid, or perhaps just clinging on to the habit, the routine. We start looking for escape routes, take the leap of faith, and perhaps blame it all on fate. But it is not fate, at least, not if fate is something outside of us; it is a choice made in secret within ourselves. The pain is when the dreams change, as they do, as they must. "Suddenly the enchanted city fades and you are left alone again in the windy desert.

As for your beloved, she didn't understand you.

The truth is, you never understood yourself."

~Jeanette Winterson

;)

Edge of the world

2010-08-27T23:07:00.000+08:00

Beyond the edge of the world there's a space
where emptiness and substance neatly overlap,
where past and future form a continuous,
endless loop.
And hovering about there are signs no one has ever read,
chords no one has ever heard."

Lovely Bloodflow from BATHS on Vimeo.

Humans by necessity must have a midway point
between their desires and their pride.
Just as all objects must have a center of gravity.
This is something we can pinpoint.
Only when it is gone do people realize it even existed"
— Haruki Murakami

catmaSutra cat art, INcidents within the Lines

there are some things one remembers

even though they may never have happened...

;)

Waves

2010-08-25T22:40:00.000+08:00

"Although the rhythm of the waves beats a kind of time,

it is not clock or calendar time.

It has no urgency.

It happens to be timeless time.

I know that I am listening to a rhythm

which has been just the same for millions of years,

and it takes me out of a world of relentlessly ticking clocks.

catmaSutra cat art: Catch me if you can

Clocks for some reason or other always seem to be marching,

and, as with armies, marching is never to anything but doom.

But in the motion of waves there is no marching rhythm.

It harmonizes with our very breathing. It does not count our days.

Its pulse is not in the stingy spirit of measuring,

of marking out how much still remains.

catmaSutra cat art: Water

It is the breathing of eternity,

like the God Brahma of Indian mythology inhaling and exhaling,

manifesting and dissolving the worlds, forever.

As a mere conception this might sound appallingly monotonous,

until you come to listen to the breaking and washing of waves."

— Alan Wilson Watts

Tin Soldier

2010-08-14T01:09:00.005+08:00

'What is it that you contain? The dead. Time. Light patterns of millennia opening in your gut. Every minute, in each of you, a few million potassium atoms succumb to radioactive decay. The energy that powers these tiny atomic events has been locked inside potassium atoms ever since a star-sized bomb exploded nothing into being. Potassium, like uranium and radium, is a long-lived radioactive nuclear waste of the supernova bang that accounts for you.

Your first parent was a star."
~ Jeanette Winterson

***

- Tin Soldier-
© paul koh. All rights reserved.

from: http://www.trifter.com/Europe/United-Kingdom/The-Wander....359599

A designated waste area for military manoeuvre. The sun blazed the orange ground to an incredible hardness. The rain took its turn, melting the hardness down into soggy mud. Mosquitoes, wild with anticipation, infested this wasteland when the soldiers were unaware, fast asleep in their tiredness. At night when the mosquitoes feasted, wild diabolical creatures appeared and preyed upon their unconscious world. Soldiers were no longer waking up; it was easier to sink inside their impenetrable armour, inside the darkness. At least, it was warmer there. They have spent almost 40 days in this wasteland and their time was almost up. This was where they were supposed to find God…

from: http://conceptrobots.blogspot.com/2009/11/adam-wesiersk....t.html

"A solitary soldier stood on the orange mud in sector 12. Soldiers were genetically engineered androids, frontline troops and very expendable. They were there to make up the numbers. They did not need a reason to live. In sector 12, only one soldier stood on the orange surface. He had sunk deep into the dark void like the rest of them but there was something that nudged him, a spark that rekindled a memory. He held out his hand towards the little light. It swayed in the still air and dropped gently onto his palm. It was a snowflake.

from: http://nkhatiblou.deviantart.com/art/Robot-99440139

The heat dissipated. The soldier stirred and struggled to his feet. He removed all his armour, and arose from the thick orange ground on the last day of the mission. He forced open his own tightly clenched his fist, and there it was – the snowflake still intact in his palm. There were no soldiers to be seen anywhere. The air was heavy, like quick sand, but he felt better, much better without all the amouring, without the wiring. He released the snowflake. He had only to follow the snowflake. He would find God. He was not supposed to be there. S19876 was not supposed to be there.

***

            Commander 'Archangel' Low came out of the tranquillizer chute into the main control site. The computer's voice resonated inside the chamber:
            "Good morning, Commander. Year 2145, third day of September, 1800 hours. Time of sleep during journey, 36 hours. Time of waking process, 68 minutes. Time..."
            "Thank you S1. Get me S19876 and quickly. I need to expedite proceedings -"
            "I am afraid that will not be possible, Commander. S19876 has abandoned the space craft. He said he has gone to look for God. It seemed he wanted to 'take care' of you for a change."
            "What the hell? I'll recall this product and I will personally rewire his 4 gigabytes standard-issued brain. It's impossible that he's already malfunctioning -not when he's guaranteed to me for the next two years."

            Archangel Low fumed bitterly at the product he received from base control but the sight of his suit distracted him momentarily and filled him with a sense of pride. It was decorated with rows and rows of medals - Red for best Reconnaissance unit, Purple for best Assault unit, Green for best Sabotage unit, and Gold for best 2nd Elite Commander. He had done well for himself. He had destroyed many of his enemies to get this far, and he was too near the top to afford any miscalculations. He had promised his wife and his five-year old son that this would be his last expedition. This mission would earn him a double promotion, that is, if he succeeded...

            "That damned tin-head! What happened to the good old-fashioned soldier? What does he think he is anyway?!" Archangel Low cursed again. He was sure S19876 would give him trouble or worse, ruin his reputation and his chance at getting the promotion. His lips curled at the thought of his rival, 3rd Elite Commander Gabriel taking his place as the new Base Commandant! No! He did not come this far to lose out now. Then something caught his eye, and for the first time in his life, he was paralyzed with fear…

from: http://amyeli.deviantart.com/art/Vector-Eye-51352336

***

His body had been cut open and sewn back. His skin had become a pale yellow, losing all its colour of health. Deep wide scars lined his body from his shoulder blades down to his chest, across his stomach and down again past his pelvis to his thighs. His yellowish fingers traced the scars upwards to the sides of his face, and upwards to his head. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD! My head has been cut open!"

    "Who did this to me?!" His voice roared in anguish and fear as he turned towards the computer, "Who cut up my body? Who did this to me?"
    "It's S19876, Commander. He said he wanted to exchange places with you. He said it was his time to take care of you, sir."
    "How could you LET THIS HAPPEN??!! Who is this S19876? Damn it! It must be Gabriel! He must have planned this all along, sabotaging me from Earth Command by sending me this soldier."
    "No Sir. S19876 was not sent by Commander Gabriel. S19876 is your soldier. You cut him up and rewired him yourself. "
    "NO! That is not possible. My soldiers are not programmed to disobey me. There must be some kind of mistake - I have to find S19876. I need to know what he did to me. Nobody will take what is rightfully mine. I have too much to lose."

from: http://psipunk.com/category/futuristic-aircrafts/page/5/

Archangel Low chose his course of action, programmed the Search shuttle and manoeuvred the craft across the orange sands of sector 12. Orange particles floated up and down, one on the other in a continuous flow of circular motion, forming swarms of sand holes that enveloped each other. Archangel Low shook his head and wondered how he got into this mess, 100 light years away from Earth. He remembered the reports from the Scouts Squadron, that they had seen God in sector 12. When the top officers at Earth Command believed the reports, Archangel Low immediately volunteered for this important mission. After all, it was he who planted the reports. Gabriel was the favourite to become the next Elite Commander by virtue of his family background while he had worked all the way up. He was never to stand idly and watched all his efforts gone to waste. He remembered his promise to his wife and his son, but pushed it aside. A deep dark fear was opening up like a black hole in his heart.

from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmcp/2876823139/

The Search Shuttle sped past a pyramid, a sphere, when there it was just as he himself had described it - the rock on which the stairs led to God. But a solitary soldier was already there. Archangel Low finally recognized the soldier - it was S19876. S19876 was the scout he cut up to make the false report. S19876 was the one he transformed into an android soldier.

The soldier inserted the key which he had stolen from Archangel Low, into the slit on his left thigh. He turned the key, removed it and allowed the mechanism to click into motion. Trot... trot... clang... clang, the pair of boots began to march in a pre-established rhythm. Right turn, left turn, up-down, up-down, S19876 began to climb the stairs that led to God.

    "S19876! COME BACK this minute, or I'll have you dismembered, part by part!"
    "SCREW YOU!" S19876 replied with a grin on his face. Taken aback, Commander Archangel Low activated the remote control, stared at the red button, but hesitated. The word "EXTERMINATE" stared back. He punched the numbers 1-9 -8 -7-6. "One last chance, soldier - RETURN TO SHIP!"
    Up-down,
    face right,
    face left,
    the soldier continued climbing the stairs. He was oblivious to the threats Archangel Low was babbling in his offbeat voice.
    Clenching his fist in disbelief, his anger rising to his head, he slammed at the red button and –

SPLAT!
"---_-COMMANDER LOW! --__---"

The computer echoed repeatedly:

"MALFUNCTION;
MALFUNCTION!
MAL-FUNCTION?"

The bald head of the Commander ruptured, his eyes popped out amidst a bundle of multicoloured wires, loose circuitry and bad connections.
     "Hahahahaha HAHAHAHA HAHahaaahha!"
Th e soldier laughed uncontrollably as he reached the top of the stairs. His mechanical smile took almost human form as he laughed from one steel ear to another, and he laughed so hard that he mistimed his next step.

    "Oops!"

Losing his balance, S19876 fell from the rock, crashing headlong towards the orange sand. There was a pec uliar grin on his face before the orange earth came up to meet him.

    ShouuuuuuSPLLLAAATTT!

His body plummeted against the bottom of the rock and splattered all over the hard orange ground. The mechanism stopped, but blood - fresh, red blood squirted out of his body.

     Darkness.

***

"What is it that you contain? The dead. Time.

Light patterns of millennia opening in your gut.

Every minute, in each of you,

a few million potassium atoms succumb to radioactive decay.

The energy that powers these tiny atomic events

has been locked inside potassium atoms ever since

a star-sized bomb exploded nothing into being.

Potassium, like uranium and radium,

is a long-lived radioactive nuclear waste

of the supernova bang that accounts for you.

Your first parent was a star."
~ Jeanette Winterson

;)

Little Curlique

2010-08-03T23:25:00.001+08:00

"It's like you took a bottle of ink and you threw it at a wall. Smash! And all that ink spread. And in the middle, it's dense, isn't it? And as it gets out on the edge, the little droplets get finer and finer and make more complicated patterns, see?

So in the same way, there was a big bang at the beginning of things and it spread. And you and I, sitting here in this room, as complicated human beings, are way, way out on the fringe of that bang. We are the complicated little patterns on the end of it. Very interesting. But so we define ourselves as being only that.

If you think that you are only inside your skin, you define yourself as one very complicated little curlique, way out on the edge of that explosion. Way out in space, and way out in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you're a complicated human being. And then we cut ourselves off, and don't feel that we're still the big bang.

But you are.

Depends how you define yourself. You are actually--if this is the way things started, if there was a big bang in the beginning-- you're not something that's a result of the big bang. You're not something that is a sort of puppet on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are.

When I meet you, I see not just what you define yourself as--Mr so-and- so, Ms so-and-so, Mrs so-and-so--I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I know I'm that, too. But we've learned to define ourselves as separate from it. "

— Alan Wilson Watts

;)

Samurai

2010-07-16T00:57:00.002+08:00

I've written and posted this short story a few years back, and somehow it's been in my head recently. I once toyed with the idea of doing a graphic story for it so I'm gonna cull images from the WWW to see if I can create a new feel to it. Hopefully I can find the time and inspiration to continue the story. I must also find my way back to painting. It's been really trying to find the right balance but I guess that what's life has to teach me at this stage.

Here's the story:

- Samurai -
© paul koh. All rights reserved.

Autumn. Red leaves fell.

Joseph's Art

Winds of dawn cut across her face with a pain that cut even deeper, but she remained impassive, untouchable behind the mask. Still she watched the fallen leaves float on the shimmering lake against the rays of morning light; still the serene bliss of autumn’s dawn mocked her, that this tranquillity would never be hers…

A cool breeze cut a rectangle in the air as her enemies braced themselves for the confrontation. She hardened her heart, curbed her own emotions and her longing to be away from this place. She remembered a famous haiku poet and the words she must not forget –

Shi-zu-ka-sa ya
I-wani-shi-mi-I-ru
Se-mi-no-ko-e

Such stillness -
The cries of the cicadas
Sink into the rocks

Old Samurai by Jeff Simpson

Silence before the taste of blood was for the young warrior a physical presence, a black velvet blanket flowing deep into her consciousness. In its darkness, she closed her eyes. She could hear her own breathing, and in a moment felt the depth and rhythm of her adversaries, their tension coming out in waves.She imagined them to be samurais, all seven of them with their traditional hakama, the esteemed divided skirt of the archer and warrior. Only the samurais were allowed to use sword and bow and arrow and yet they were afraid - afraid of her…

From the Last Samurai

Arrows.

Arrows pulled and notched against the curves of long bows. Their heads were made of barbless mild steel, honed to a needlepoint for precise penetration. Released by a kyujutsu master, the arrow would pierce right through an adult human being, from breast to backbone. The long bows arched as the samurais stretched the bowstring back to touch their lips. They sighted the masked warrior along the shafts, and one after the other in rapid succession, the arrows flew from their bows.

She heard the sharp buzzing, the sound of a quickening within her own heart, and the terrifying rapidity of arrows shredding through the velvet blanket of her consciousness. Against her own volition, she felt nothing but the pattern of red autumn leaves falling and drifting on the quiet lake. Without will, her body gave in to the spirit of the katana, the long sword bestowed upon her by her legacy. Without will, her body moved down, her blade flashed out of its sheath and slashed against the thrust of the invading arrows. The blade, smooth like an extension of her, glinted with anticipation the taste of blood that was forthcoming.

http://www.notcot.com/images/medusa-small.jpg

Red autumn leaves drifted and the beauty of nature remained unaffected, unlike her. She stood up in her warrior’s stance, her armour of gold and red wanting battle just as her blade did the taste of blood. Only her mask hid something, something remotely human.

from: http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles4/147923/projects/4....51.jpg

The sounds of swords released from her enemies’ sheaths only served to fuel the tumultuous emotions that were already raging inside her. She reminded herself once more of her own hatred and in so doing, felt their fear rather than their courage. “Bushido,” she thought, “the way of the samurai, the way of the honourable… the way of the mask!” and she paused, a tear dislodged itself behind the ghastly mask...

“YAAAAHHHH…” The first one came charging, his reflection appeared in the corner of her eye. She stood motionless, her sight fixed on the face of her enemy. He charged with his sword riding the autumn’s wind, his face a contorted expression of strained ferocity. This was pathetic, she thought for she saw fear in his eyes, and fear she would not tolerate from a samurai.

Her katana speared deeply into the right chest, slid across smoothly to the other side, and into the belly of another behind her. She could taste the corrupting sensation of power as her blade entered and withdrew from living flesh, now dead at her hands. “[Gerrshi, krushi…]” she made the sound as she walked towards the other five, “[this … is the sound when my blade enters your flesh. Ikershiii…]”

from: http://rephoto.jpn.org/photo/510503

The leader of the Kamashita clan, humiliated by her taunts, lashed out in retaliation. “Pride of the great samurai?” She taunted again as she raised her katana to fend off his first blow and sidestepping his opponent, pierced the shorter blade, her wakizashi, into the fleshy part of his sword hand.

from: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://slowthatu....ai.jpg

She saw the samurai’s face screwed up in agony; his teeth drew back from his lips in a terrible grimace and his long sword cluttered uselessly at her feet. The samurai found himself on his knees, his head jerked up, and the wakizashi touched his neck. “Without will, my body gives in to the spirit of the blade,” and the shorter blade inched into his flesh and slid across mercilessly.

By Mike Mitchell

The remaining four watched with stupefaction as their leader dropped without his head. She felt their hearts pounding and their legs struggling to move away from her – away from this demon of death. “Enough!” the face behind the mask screamed in silence. She knelt down and her blades returned swiftly to her side. She had become tired, and she no longer wished to kill or live like this any more. “Red autumn leaves – you fall and you leave,” she cried out, “Red autumn leaves – take me with you, away from this accursed playground.”

from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_muze/3060153261/in/set-72....04968/

“Let it end,” she pushed the seppuku sword deep into the left side of her abdomen and methodically pulled it across to her right side. I saw the water in the lake broke as her memories flashed outwards, like ripples made by a stone thrown into the still lake. And like ripples fading and merging into the lake, I saw her eyes fluttered and closed, her body bending over. And through the faint light from the hibachi, I saw red leaves fall on the shimmering lake but this time I saw red and white koi carrying Auntie Mari with them.

from: http://porraqueisso.tumblr.com/page/8

* * *

I was squatting beside the pond and watching the koi again when Auntie Mari appeared with my clothes, now dry and clean, and a Tupperware container of homemade sushi. It was still drizzling but I was in a hurry to feed her Kohaku. Auntie Mari knelt down in front of me, hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks. I returned her affection.

By Joseph's Art

“Auntie, why did you pretend with the seppuku sword?”

“It’s time to let go of the past.”

“Why?”

riskai - Meme

“Because you are here. You make me see things differently with your eyes.”

“Then my name is Jiro Kiyoshi, and you are my sister.”

“Yes Jiro, you are my samurai and my brother.”

By Ladislav Hubert

“Will you tell me more warrior stories?”

“Yes, but now take this sushi to your mama before the rain starts again.”

“Can I come again tomorrow?”

“If your mama allows…”

;)

We live more than once

By Alexander Maskaev

The Reset Button

2010-07-05T01:33:00.000+08:00

You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper. The fire isn't thinking 'Oh, this is Kant,' or 'Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition,' or 'Nice tits,' while it burns. To the fire, they're nothing but scraps of paper. It's the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there's no distinction--they're all just fuel.
~ Murakami, After Dark

"On any given day, something claims our attention [literally "grabs our hearts": kokoro o toraeru] Anything at all, inconsequential things. A rosebud, a misplaced hat, that sweater we liked as a child, an old Gene Pitney record. A parade of trivia with no place to go. Things that bump around in our consciousness for two or three days then go back to wherever they came from... to darkness. We've got all these wells dug in our hearts. While above the wells, birds flit back and forth."

from: http://cuson.deviantart.com/art/siu-kong-in-shopping-st....437855

Time to press the re-set button

;)

The Mad Jester

2010-06-30T23:48:00.001+08:00

Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn.

Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step.

There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

An you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."

Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore)

;)

Like A Friend

2010-06-17T00:45:00.004+08:00

TIME TRAVEL:

Music, the ethereal medium to hold emotions & dream-images:

A real life tape recorder for memories in color

LIKE A FRIEND (1998 by PULP)

###

Don't bother saying you're sorry

Why don't you come in

Smoke all my cigarettes again
Every time I get no further

How long has it been?

Come on in now, wipe your feet on my dreams

You take up my time

Like some cheap magazine
When I could have been learning something

Oh well, you know what I mean, oh

I've done this before

And I will do it again

Come on and kill me baby

While you smile like a friend

Oh and I'll come running

Just to do it again

You are the last drink I never should have drunk

You are the body hidden in the trunk

You are the habit I can't seem to kick

You are my secrets on the front page every week

You are the car I never should have bought

You are the dream I never should have caught

You are the cut that makes me hide my face

You are the party that makes me feel my age

Like a car crash I can see but I just can't avoid

Like a plane I've been told I never should board

Like a film that's so bad but I've got to stay till the end

Let me tell you now: it's lucky for you that we're friends

Artist: Pulp Lyrics
Song: Like a Friend Lyrics

A thread of truth

2010-05-29T14:56:00.005+08:00

Awoke from the depths of a somewhat dangerous dream to watch the sun-rise today. It's like spring time, in between seasons, alive with the fluttering of wings and tweets of sun birds and sparrows. In these twilight minutes, just before the shape of heat takes on its over-powering form, the breezes are kind and gentle, the dark clouds moving rapidly away revealing a tinge of red behind big bright chirpy clouds.

"Yesterday is History, Tomorrow a Mystery,

Today is a Gift, That's why it's called the Present"

~Master Oogway

There is a thread that ties everything together. Watching the pedestrians commuting, anonymous and interchangeable in every way, a boy would become the older man walking ahead of him; an elderly woman waiting to board the bus was the young lady behind her. The thread is so visible for a second, interweaving reality with a supernatural bond, and yet we hold on so tightly to our own ignorance, trying to break the thread in every way imaginable.

Of a story about the Australian Aborigines told by a guide on a recent trip, when they have reaped the nourishment from a certain plant, they put up a sign to let others know that the plant has been harvested and will need time to re-grow. The thread is as evident as it is natural. They depended on the land, and thus they respected and cared for it. With all the technology of the modern world, we have not only failed to recognize this thread but worse, alienate ourselves from it.

The shape of heat follows the thread of our actions, "The universe is such a balanced instrument that any act immediately sets corrective forces into action," global warming, oil spills, depleting forests, greed, technology for the sake of consumption proclaimed as the state of advancement. Can't help but feel that we're all living in a lie.

In the valley of the Blue Mountains, the air is fresh, moist, lush and fragrant. There's a tingling of the senses; it makes you feel connected to the land. Not sure how things will balance out in the future. We're beginning to see how fragile our environment is. Our past informs our future; our present is a gift to the truth. How do we even begin to see, feel, live in a new way?

I think we have lived life many times over and died as many times in a single lifetime. I woke up from the night to the excited fluttering of wing-beats and tweets; the sparrows and sun birds are happy today. I realized I have died in my sleep so that I can live again today.

Green Peace
catmaSutra cat art

;)

CCCC compilation 1

2010-05-24T09:15:00.003+08:00

Quirky Pics from
Cute Cats Curated by CatmaSutra

from babykailan's photostream

Zen

Throw yourself into life

Wash your mind

open your eyes
;)

I TRUST YOU

Verse
The soul is a newly skinned hide, bloody

and gross. Work on it with manual discipline,

and the bitter tanning acid of grief.

You'll become lovely and strong.

If you can't do this work yourself, don't worry.

You don't have to make a decision, one way or another.

The Friend, who knows a lot more than you do,

will bring difficulties and grief and sickness,

as medicine, as happiness, as the moment

when you're beaten, when you hear Checkmate,

and can finally say with Hallaj's voice,
I trust you to kill me.

~Rumi

Verse

A silver of mirror shines out

from under a felt covering. Think how

it will be when the whole thing is open

to the air and sunlight! There are

mysteries I'm not telling you.

;)

Freedom of Madness

Verse

Look for someone else to tend the shop.

I'm out f the image-making business.

Finally I know the freedom

of madness.

~Rumi

The Cat Files

Curious Curatorship of the catmaSutra Cat!

catmaSutra likes this!

Adapted from Andrea Galvani's work

Zen

Alas! the world is full of enormous lights and mysteries,
and man shuts them from himself with one small hand!....

~Baal Shem Tov.

Andrea Galvani'

It's the facts that lie,

never the stories...

...they become true when

we're interested in the pursuit of truth

;)

from the photo collection of SlyviaLadycat @facebook

Zen

Sense the surrounding space that connects you to everything.

Verse
You could be moving in a circuit without wing,

nourished without eating, sovereign without a throne.
No longer subject to fortune, you could be luck itself,

if you would rise from sleep, leave
the market arguing, and learn that
your own essence is your wealth.

~rumi

;)

No better love

Verse

No better love than love with no object,

no more satisfying work than work with no purpose,

If you could give up tricks and cleverness,

that would be the cleverest trick!

~adapted from Rumi

"The Explorer"
New catmaSutra Tile Coaster!

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in

are different from the things we do.
~ Freya Stark quotes (French adventurer and explorer 1893-1993)

;)

Remote Control

from the photo collection of SlyviaLadycat @facebook

Zen

Recognize your inclinations,

but resist the pull to be controlled by them.

"This is not a Pipe"

catmaSutra painting of the day

Verse

Walk to the well.

Turn as the earth and the moon turn,

circling what they love.

Whatever circles comes from the center.

;)

love-wings

from the photo collection of SlyviaLadycat @facebook

Verse

Test your love-wings and make them strong

Forget the idea of religious or physical ladders

Love is the roof, the vital core of the soul,

And of all you see, only love is infinite

~adapted from Rumi

"Serendipity"

New catmaSutra Tile Coaster!

Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you're perfectly free.

;)

Papaya

2010-05-15T01:46:00.001+08:00

It's Gone Now...

Came back on my bike in the night. The lot is empty. Less visitors now that the Karaoke lounge has moved. The papaya trees like a couple of young lovers are gone. Left no trace except the freshly cut grass in the little space in front of the lot. Several days ago, the papaya tree which was beginning to bear fruit has its head of leaves chopped off, the fruit still clinging to the upright and headless trunk. The Male plant was still there, stoic, standing by its side - not anymore I guess. It's raining again, heavy drops pelting down on the night. The last grass-cutter, with his wrapped head like a gypsy ninja paused when he came to the papaya trees. He did cut one down but stopped as he carefully cut the grass around the other two. Not sure why he let them live. But time has ran out I guess, this other grass-cutter has no such mercy.

Beauty surrounds us,

but usually we need to be walking

in a garden to know it.

~Rumi

;)

Quirky Quiet...

2010-04-25T15:27:00.003+08:00

Quiet. There is a silent moment in everything. Shhhh... Stop thinking. Listen. There are birds chirping like surround sound, filtered from urban noise. Neighbor's chopping away incessantly at something (you wonder how many people they're cooking for), cars and trucks moving in and out, engine's idling, people shouting. Relax. Allow the breathing to become calm, foster that lightness of being.Quiet amongst the noise, even in the most mundane stuff... There are so many people who works so hard to leave a legacy behind. This baffles me. What legacy? Every moment is a play of patterns, of noise and clutter. The only legacy worth leaving behind is the way we live our lives - the most intangible things are often the most precious ones.

Angel wakes at 4:30 am, and like an ninja assassin, treads lightly on my sleep, exercising his claws on my chest, then sits, then lies, watching my consciousness stirring back to life. "Heya...", I said telepathically. Angel nods and replies, "It's time". I get up and open the door, and he promptly sneaks out. I'm back on my bed, shifting gears in dreamland when Halo comes in later in the morning. She finds my legs under the covers and promptly uses them as her pillow, shielding her eyes from the morning light with her paws. I remember when they were kittens. Another hour and I'll wake.

catzophrenia 2006

The heart is a strange thing. It is a hard disk with seemingly unlimited storage space, cluttered and choke full of stuff, both remembered and forgotten. Once something happened, it's there. Cut it up and it creaks open like an ancient door with rusted hinges, and there's a rabbit hole, much like the one depicted in Alice in Wonderland. The natural instinct is to fall. It's a scary flight down the rabbit hole, but you'll soon get used to the gravity of it all; at the end of it, you'll find a pinhole of light that opens into a continuous universe of twinkling stars. The silent nature of each thought, of each experience is right here, within us.

I remind myself to slow my thoughts down so that when I fall,

I'll catch myself and find that pinhole of light.

My Sweetest Constellation

Break on through to the other side...

;)

Doing Time

2010-04-02T16:03:00.001+08:00

WHERE'S THE MONEY GEORGE ? from oizo mr on Vimeo.

If you’re working in Singapore, time almost always seems to run out pretty quickly. It’s an easy excuse to say that you have no time because of work; in fact I think it’s a common excuse. You and I are both guilty of it but I suspect that deep inside, we know that there is in fact, time – time to call loved ones, send a sms, or just making an effort to do something. As we grow into a job, we should aim not only to become more efficient, but more importantly to see things in the proper perspective and that entails saying “stop”. It’s time to do that something else for yourself or your family. Finding something you love to do is crucial. Otherwise it's more like doing time and waiting for the special getaway once a year (mountains, trees, and a motorcycle).

Photo by danny st

Life never ceases to be magical and interesting. It becomes more so when you’re able to step back a little from it. For me personally, life is really like a movie that you project in front of you. Much of it is fiction. In every of our waking moment, we can decide what kind of movie we wanna watch, sad or happy, depressing or uplifting, boring or exciting. The fun part is that it really doesn’t matter – it’s just a movie.I don’t think that each human being is that much different from another. All of us want to be happy. In the core of our being, we’re the same. It’s the movies that differ, that tell us that things should be this way or that. It’s like every being has a box over their heads. In that sense, everybody is fighting for the remote control over these mind boxes. If more and more people get to see more of your movies, then you’re in control and therefore shape that world accordingly. It’s the same for Hollywood movies, the same for advertising, as it is for office or world politics.

adapted from photo by Mio Cade

I read somewhere that if the earth’s resources are shared equally, there is more than enough for every single person. That's of course, one world view that will never materialize. Eventually, each movie will end and we have to return to ourselves, hopefully to the center of our peace - without the projections, without the distractions. That is the truth - nirvana. Hopefully, we will find that center sooner rather than later. That is pure living without the highs and lows, and in learning to live, we inevitably learn how to let go and move on.

;)

Quirky, Quirky, Quirky...

2010-03-23T23:41:00.001+08:00

Quirky, Quirky, Quirky...

Esencia de una Seducción
Uploaded by erecuenco. - Arts and animation videos.

Love this piece by Eugenio Recuen especially how the music fade in and out. I love the way he creates his mood pieces; It takes you away from here into another place, a fairy land where everything is possible, and time works in ways that you don't quite understand. At the end of it all, at the end of all the winding, we'll realize that it's enough just to sit with a loved one, and let everything else unfold in its own time. If we get too caught up, we''' become just another wind-up toy lost in a make-belief world.

It's the facts that lie, never the stories....

;)

Impressions...

2010-03-20T15:06:00.002+08:00

Funny how a little theory will appear at the back of your mind and it just does its own thing until it calls out to be expressed! Maybe the sudden change in weather triggered it. It was so hot the past weeks that it was as if an evil climate regime has succeeded in engulfing us in its fiery bubble, beating us down into a heated submission. Then in the last couple of days, it rained and the weather was cool and pleasant. People are more friendly and a stroll in the HDB heartland marketplace was surprising calm and refreshing. And just like that, we have gotten over the tyranny of the evil hot climate (and I guess awaiting its return sooner or later). Haha We also sneaked into Taiwan to escape the heat for a couple of days.

Piece by Zhang Huan,
Museum of Comtemporary Art, Taipei

A lifetime of impressions - a simple way of putting life into perspective. Minus the impressions, and we're completely at peace. That's probably how meditation works, by cutting through the millions of imprints that we collect. Beneath the imprints is of course our true nature - who we really are - without the distractions. The "Who am I?", "Why am I here?" questions, of course, revolve around spiritual or/and religious arenas and are subjected to many different interpretations, but the essence is always the same. I mean, the truth is the truth, however you want to look at it. The "truth" however, is hard work and often requires a lifetime of commitment which seems incompatible with the values of modern society (blind faith to religious cause is the another extreme). So it comes down to impressions - We live via impressions. If we collect positive impressions, then life inevitably will be positive and vice-versa (the typical law of attraction theory).

Another piece by Zhang Huan

One purpose of art is to break us out of this mode, as it presents to us another perspective of looking at things. It may not need to make logical sense; indeed it may serve to break us out of the logical mode, and allows us to experience a new phenomenon directly.

Sensational work by Yoshitaka Amano,

Automotive paint and acrylic on aluminum panel

Most of us are hopelessly in the middle, and hence we live average lives with our regular ups and downs. So if life as we know it is just a series of impressions, then really, they don't matter that much. Because they don't matter that much, it's easier to let go, and that's probably the first step towards a spiritual journey. Once we've become accustomed to 'watching' these impressions as they appear, that's when all the fun starts. We become more aware of our emotions, our reactions and we are able to fine-tune them, and by doing so, become increasingly light-hearted. Not that it is an easy thing to do, but it'll certainly add more spice to our lives.

;)

Dance me to the End Of Love

2010-02-26T00:26:00.000+08:00

"Dance Me To The End Of Love"

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love

"A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing."
~ Marilyn Monroe

Carry Me Away

I am involved in a freedom ride
protesting the loss of the minority rights
belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars.
All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

~ Marilyn Monroe

It's often just enough to be with someone.
I don't need to touch them. Not even talk.
A feeling passes between you both.
You're not alone.

~ Marilyn Monroe

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown.
It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
~Charlie Chaplin

;)

catmasutra cat art exhibition: My Quirky Valentine

2010-01-27T18:29:00.007+08:00

Make a date with the Cat!
My Quirky Valentine

Opening Reception:
Tue 2nd Feb 2010, from 6.30pm

Wed 3rd to Wed 10th Feb 2010 @
Alliance Française de Singapour
1 Sarkies Road, 2nd Level

Opening hours:
11am to 7pm daily

Or contact Ms Chen Man Lee
for appointments:
Cell: + 65 9675 7721

My Quirky Valentine is a quirky cat-art show that reveals and celebrates the innumerable diversities and expressions of love. As the Persian poet, Rumi would say, “A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.” Indeed, it is important to grow into the person that you are first (which is more a process of letting go then changing oneself), come full circle into all the unique qualities that define us, and when truly realized, reflects the universal. With this connectedness, it is essentially a celebration of emptiness that contains everything! And everything becomes a celebration...

"Love Song", 30 x 30"

"The whole world lives within a safeguarding, fish inside waves, birds held in the sky... even the ground, the water, every spark floating up from the fire, all subsist, exist, are held in the divine. Nothing is ever alone for a single moment." ~Rumi

"Square Root Love", 30 x 30"

The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you, not knowing

how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.

They're in each other all along.

~Rumi

My Quirky Valentine is about the thousand half-loves that fire our imagination to that which we truly love, the passion which fills our hearts and minds. As our hearts get larger, it seems capable of holding more things, it becomes flexible, lighter, and funnier! In the same way, the more we hold on to our identity, the more solid our problems become. It always pays to look at the lighter side of things...

"Charlie's cat", 30 x 30"

"We are such stuff

As dreams are made on,

and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

~Shakespeare

"That Furry Thing Called Love", 30 x 30"

Love is a mainly-furry thing,
It's the April rose that only grows in the early spring,
Love is nature's way of giving a reason to be living,
The golden crown that makes a man a king.
Once on a high and windy hill,
In the morning mist two lovers kissed and the world stood still,
Then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing,
Yes, true love's a mainly furry thing.

"Come Fly Away With Me", 24 x 30"

Now to stand still, to be here,

Feel my own weight and density!...

Now there is time and Time is young.

O, in this single hour I live

All of myself and do not move

I, the pursued, who madly ran,

Stand still, stand still, and stop the Sun!

~May Sarton

Now, come fly away with me....

;)

Ode to the Rain 2009, catmaSutra...

2010-01-03T21:54:00.010+08:00

Maybe it's due to the lack of seasons here that the rain takes on a stronger significance in deciphering the natural rhythm of time. I have always found the rain to be strangely alluring and familiar, as if revealing the rise and fall of things. Rain puts us in a different mood, albeit being portrayed as such in movies, it does have a strong subliminal grip on our senses. It swings us temperamentally into moods as disparate as sweet-coziness (think snuggling up in bed on a stormy night), introspection with a tinge of darkness creeping up, or as popularly portrayed in the folklore of human kind, sadness, tragedy, romantic ups and downs, and the ultimate redemption. It seems inevitable that rain should be used in movies as it is such a primal mover of our emotions.

It was a very wet end to 2009, more so than I can remember in recent years. Time and again, I felt compelled to be out there with the rain, capturing the out-pouring of emotions (sometimes it felt like the whole world was crying but didn't know it yet...and i needed to document it somehow) Maybe because I've been painting full time for a while - time, the misunderstood condition of our time - that means no more regulated time, no more 9-7, and the end of artificial and disharmonious rules that govern the way we live - freedom? Freedom is a wild creature and sometimes I don't think our 'society-conditioned' body is equipped to deal with it. We have to spend time with it, understand it, accept and then let it go...

I saw a swallow fly when I was writing this with its beautiful lines and traced the shape of its unrestrained flight. I watched little flowers appear on treetops as if by magic and white butterflies fluttering amongst it and these are road-side trees planted in the public car park behind my apartment! There is indeed beauty everywhere if we have the time and space to see them. The mechanic who works in a shop downstairs would raise his song-birds to the treetops via a pulley system, while he sits in his rain-washed chair, listening to the chirping of his company of birds. Soften the heart and let it open, open to more of everything, the big and the small. Life is a simple paradox.The most valuable things are free and close by but difficult to find. Our time here is short, yet it can seem like a long time. Life is tiny to the world and history of time, yet it means everything to us. Everything is connected, with threads tying everything together. How we move in turn move all the things that are tied to us one way or another. So don't just live. Have a beautiful vision. Hold on to it.Walk softly, live gently.

Wishing one and all an inspired 2010!

;)

catmaSutra Six Appeal! till 27th December 2009

2009-12-19T16:35:00.001+08:00

catmaSutra Six Appeal is now on at Utterly Art. Do go and visit the catmaSutra cats if you have the time... it's worth a smile or two! Here're some pics from the opening night at Utterly Art. Once again, thanks to all who came down and supported the "wide-eyes-closed" and "ear-to-ear-grin" version of life.

Just like the paintings, life is subjective with so many different world-views, and yet we all want the same things (namely, happiness). The way we define happiness is of course, very different and cuts across powerful combination of life mixing our sense of freedom with money, time, love, security, fear... etc. I think it's important to know that we're all alchemists in our own way - that we have the power to choose our own ingredients and determine how we are. The Colour of Two teases the colours of life into bands that envelop the two catmaSutra cats. Life is a curiosity of intersections and crossroads, of one colour fading and blending into another. There are no coincidences. Everything is connected.

Colour of Two (48 x 24")

My Sweetest Constellation is about 'falling up', of finding your own direction, of knowing, that however you fall, you can always fall up to a good place... Like a chocolate box of M&M candy-coated constellation, you'll never know what will drop in front of you. All we can do is to enjoy the varied tastes and colours that come our way.

My Sweetest Constellation (40 x 30")

In the same vein, the catmaSutra Jester embodies the light-heartedness of catmaSutra paintings. Things might not always go well for him, but he has great faith that if he just sticks around, reality itself will conspire and come to his aid! This is something worth practicing. Some people are born more of a joker than others, but it's really something that can be cultivated. Haha We really shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. Deflate the ego. Enjoy life ;)

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players... "

The Jester (12 x 12")

Six-appealing split-personalities of the catmaSutra cat (12 x 12')

There's a host of other traits including the cool dude, The Gunslinger (you know how cats always try to act cool when they fumble and then pretend as if nothing happens). The Gunslinger also points to Angel (Russian Blue cat) peeing on the sofa - yep, just one of those things. And we have the dare-devil cat... sometimes, we just have to bite the bullet and do it. Halo (Ginger cat) would make a dash for the front door, sprinting down the stairs into the big unknown. Knowing that Halo is a rather timid cat, it's amazing that she has this sudden 'wolverine-thing' to be so bold and daring. Other split-personalities in this series include the Explorer, the Streetfighter, and the Magician. I like the Magician, as it is at the heart of things that magic happens.

Changing the way time works (36 x 24")

The past is just memory, the future is mere anticipation and the present is where you can change the way time works. Choosing how you remember the past, grasping over things that may or may not happen will affect the stage that you're currently in. The potential to change for the better is always now and here. Be happy and you'll stay happy.

CATMASUTRA SIX APPEAL

17th - 27th DEC 2009 @
UTTERLY ART
229A South Bridge Road 2nd Level

Opening hours:
12 noon to 8pm,
Mon to Sat.
12 noon to 5.30pm, Sun

Contact Keng Hock
for appointments:
Tel: + 65 6226 2605
Cell: 94872006

utterlyart@pacific.net.sg

;)

catmaSutra cat art exhibition 6 - Six Appeal!

2009-11-30T02:37:00.003+08:00

Bright, quirky, happy, and extremely sticky... the underlying sweetener that prods and gels catmaSutra 6 into existence. In preparing for Six Appeal, somebody has turned the hour glass upside down ... night becomes day... and mornings slip away before I can shake my dreams away. It's the sweetest constellation, regulated not by the ticking of the clock, but by an 'unnatural' natural rhythm (the stoned-out vampire syndrome). The rainy days are a plus, beating down the incessant heat with its own intense outpouring. The strong thumping of the rain in the early morning hours, in the afternoons and the nights exudes a weird sense of completion. Haha I have taken so many photos of the rain that I can probably do an album on the theme soon. Along with scouting for music (for music that resonates is the sound of the soul), listening to the rain, painting and watching the entire range of activities my cats go through (which ain't that many, considering their favourite zzz pastime)- this is truly the sweet taste of freedom.

My Sweetest Constellation

Have a beautiful vision.

Walk softy, live gently.
Find your own stars
live for them...

So this is the theme for catmaSutra Six Appeal, finding that quirky, delightful feeling that makes you contemplate and believe that things can be transformed just by holding on to a vision; for an artist, how an empty canvas can be transformed by an idea, into the sweetest constellation - the personal configuration of stars that allows us to move in the way we want. All we can do is believe and follow the signs, or as the catmaSutra cats would have it, the code of Meowism...

Meowism

;)

catmaSutra cat art gifts and collectibles

2009-11-12T20:32:00.006+08:00

...

Sara Lov - Fountain
animated by Seonna Hong.

...

Been raining crazy the past days... but then again, I do like the rain and its music. The sound of rain falling is like a grand symphony, the chorus followed by the melody...the air cool and moist with birds chirping their little songs one after another. It's all seamless, one blending into another, the waves of thumping raindrops, a strong outpouring and then fades and softens. We take for granted the passing of each day but the rain makes us stop and we should stop for a while. Maybe rain is like music, our little music videos that allow us to swim in its melody... In the grand scheme of things, our time here is short; it's as if we're living on borrowed time. Every thing fades and softens...

How I loved the rain-
Used to be
because it felt like
redemption
for things we did
and didn't do.

The comfort of rain-
because it seemed cold
but it's warm within.

It tasted bitter-sweet,

this hidden smile

this fateful tear

I still love the rain
but now only as change
from a sunny day..

A limited collection of selected catmaSutra cat art collectibles are now available locally in Singapore. These cheeky catmaSutra cats are 100% charming and happy and they make purrfect gifts! Go take a peek and browse through the different designs for tote bags, keepsake boxes, and tile coasters. Hurry as there's only one of each design while stock lasts. They're for local purchases only and there will be a 10% discount if you purchase them directly ;)

Everything is soul and flowering...
~Rumi

;)

Peace & Happiness

2009-11-01T13:03:00.158+08:00

I did a commission of his 2 Bengal cats, and he recommended this clip to me. He was sure that I will find some semblance of truth in it... And I couldn't agree more! So the clip below is an introductory guide to owning a playful cat, who in my case loves catching and chasing lizards, paper (crunched) balls, and his latest craze, a teddy bear key-chain which, when thrown at a fast pace resembled a mini furry creature scrambling for its dear life. Angel plays fetch of course, fetching you the above mentioned prey so that you can release it for its apparent pleasure.

The funny thing is that when we kept the teddy bear toy in a box, he would 'guard' over it by pretending to sleep and flip on his back near the box, which inherently means sleeping on our notebook and pressing countless keys on the keyboard. Below are some of the "stills" of Angel.

Incidentally, Angel peed on the sofa bed so play
was suspended temporarily pending further investigation...

We were of course pretty angry with the "devil-in-disguise" angel, and he received some silent treatment from us. However, after some detective work, we concluded that it was done under duress. There were obviously two piles of shit, with one piece of the shitty business conducted earlier by Halo which was a tad ostentatious in terms of smell. The second piece of business was done in quite a bit of haste, with the last of his chocolate nuggets left on the step just before the exit of the covered litter box.

Angel at the remand centre

As I happened to wake up late in the day Angel, who I'm sure had vowed at the spur of the moment never to ever deal in that area, decided to take his business elsewhere. We were pretty upset with him, as this was the second time in two weeks. We have to strip the mattress and cushions, scrub and spray smell-curbing chemicals and personal cologne , sun (which is hard to come by in the last couple of days), and finally add a touch of Bengay cream (actually it's for muscle ache) to sufficiently mask the stank of below-the-table business.

Angel relieved at the verdict

After serious deliberation, Angel was let off with a stern warning and found "not culpable in the first degree". We were away for a few days in the first instance and hence not around to be his efficient toilet keepers. He got away the second time as it was quite evident that he was under considerable duress and accepted that it was all a case of bad timing.We also refrain from calling Halo as co-defendant for this smelly episode.

An original commissioned catmaSutra painting
called "peace and happiness"
for Truffles and Silky, aka Paul and Helen

Here's Truffles...
It's a great thing that in commissioning the painting,
they have decided to go for the catmaSutra cats
rather than straight portraits of their cats.

Silky and Truffles

It's the spirit that matters...
Without the spirit,
there is nothing else...

;)

Standing the test of time

2009-10-15T19:24:00.003+08:00

The greatest thing a human soul ever does
in this world is to see something
and tell what he saw in a plain way.
To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one.
~John Ruskin

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Hundreds of thousands of impressions
from the invisible are wanting to come through you!

I get dizzy with the abundance. When life
is this dear, it means the source is pulling us.

Freshness comes from there. We're given the gift
of continuously dying and being resurrected.

catmaSutra cat art exhibition, From the Depths of My Lullaby:
Lotus Lullaby

He was an elderly fellow, tanned, sporting an earring, and carrying two bags, each sling across the shoulders. He walked with a limp towards us, but stopped half way as he spied a black and white cat in the furniture shop before the eatery. He made eye-contact with the cat and with his body gestures, which must be a language in itself to the cat, he strained to bend over, and putting his hand into one bag like a magician, he released a handful of dry colorful cat food pellets into a plastic bowl (seems like these two are already acquainted). Breaking into a little smile, he proceeded towards the eatery where I was eating my prawn noodle, and he started gesturing to the people in the eatery that he needed some money to feed himself. He went from table to table and met with the usual response. People averted their eyes and shook their heads. I've prepared a two dollar note and that would be my gift to him if he came by but he didn't. Randomly, he moved from table to table and before long, limped away...

I've "met" a few cats in my time (especially as i started when I was a kid), in some alley or by the road side. It is a language without words, an understanding of our inherent natures, almost. There are, of course, cats who are afraid and ran off the minute you catch their attention. One can only imagine how the fear got into them. Then, there are those who recognize the language, and like many similar instances, I find myself sitting on the pavement by the roadside stroking a purring stray cat. I would then run off to some 7-11 and buy a packet of cat food. That was my chance meeting with a cat, and by this chance, the cat was going to get a tasty meal. What is interesting is that some of these cats are already quite well-fed and it was there spending time with you simply because it wanted to.There was one black and white cat at Empress place that I remember quite fondly as it loves to sit on the lap... It's hard to leave them once you made the connection.

Our street cats

I have no name for what

purrs so perfectly

from out of our urban wild...

The elderly man was begging for food
and he feeds a stray on the street.

There is an understanding of
what it's like to be on your own,

or what it's like to be alone,

or what it's like to be poor and old

Take your pick

the one that purrs on the street

purrs straight into

the poor little heart.

And only the ones with

the heart can see.

My colleague and I were walking back from lunch one day when we almost bump into an old lady. She was trying to sell tissue packets to passers-by. We walked past her but turned around. We gave her $2 each and asked her to go have a good meal. We didn't need the tissue so we didn't take any. She was surprised and stood motionless for a while before saying her thank yous. That was our chance meeting with the old lady, and by this chance, she was going to at least get a decent meal.

Reason has no way to say

its love. Only love opens

that secret.

If you want

to be more alive, love

is the truest health.

~Rumi

;)

Freedom to choose

2009-10-08T03:47:00.001+08:00

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress

can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

Do we treat our animals well? How does our government view animals? If I were to venture an answer, the answer would be they have no views. They are not significant enough unless they're the cause (or suspected of being the cause) of an epidemic, or there are complaints from the 'majority of Singaporeans' (one of the favourite phrases that you'll hear ... We have grown a lot as a nation, and yet in many ways, we have not grown at all... Sometimes you wonder... A woman feeds a group of stray cats, and the most common comments you'll hear is "Is this hygienic? Should we call the authorities?" There're so many hit-and-run cases regarding cats that you wonder about the nature of people.

Ever occur to you why some of us can be
this much concerned with animals suffering?
Because government is not. Why not?
Animals don't vote. ~Paul Harvey

Sat on my Ikea stool at the yard at 3 am, listening to music from my Ipod, eating sesame moon cake and drinking green tea, and talking philosophy (not much point with regard to politics). I think this phrase is true, '90% of what we feel is only our own interpretation', meaning that we are all addicted or attached to something, and finding means and reasons to justify them. We are all addicts, one way or another, and it's difficult to let go - to change one habit for another. It's hard because we normally try to replace a bad habit with a good one. Makes you wonder how we pick up all these bad habits in the first place; it's as if we are being subconsciously hypnotized (which may be true in more ways than one). Finished another painting today. It's rather an experimental one, called the "color of yellow". Slowing life down to exacting beauty. It's a beautiful way to live when the present is all you have.

Angel, my blue Russian has taken an instant liking to a key-chain teddy bear that I brought home, and as we adjourned into the yard, he has taken upon himself to carry the teddy bear to near where we sat, half-looking at us, hoping that we'll play catch again. Haha, he's looking for it now although I have hid it before he pulls out the limbs...

peace ;)

catmaSutra Artees
10% goes to Cat Welfare Society

With animals,
we have the freedom to choose...
to love, protect, care OR to fear, hate, abuse

How we choose

determines the kind of person that we are.

Nothing goes away,

we get better or we get worse.

;)

That ingredient of Life

2009-09-25T01:35:00.000+08:00

"Someone said Brecht wanted everybody to think alike. I want everybody to think alike... Everybody looks alike and acts alike, and we're getting more and more that way." Andy Warhol commenting on social mechanization in 1963.

Tomato-based catfish Soup

Makes me wonder how we are all the same and more interestingly how we are different. Seems like there is this special ingredient that is hidden in a capsule (so to speak) that is buried within us when we are born. Our goal perhaps is to find this capsule and unravel it before it dissolves away, or gets hidden by tons of other things that mean much less to us. Our body and our senses are very much the same. They are subjected to all kinds of distractions, temptations and naturally, an operating system that program us to be whatever nationality we are and all the associated quirks.

Adapted from Obedience School 101

It's easy to see the special ingredient, it seems, if we are artists, musicians, or writers; whether we follow our 'calling' or give in to the 'programming sequence' is another question. Money, and security comes with the operating system especially if it's made in Singapore. It may be quite baffling when the special ingredient is not quite so apparent but it's there nevertheless. That's probably the main reason why we are different. Some people simply love watching TV above everything else (why not go into that industry one way or another), others may be gregarious in nature and the service industry may be a perfect match. Bottom line is, we have to consciously search for that buried capsule with our very own x-factor, and find a place in the world where we can fully utilize it, unravel it. That, I suspect, is part of the secret to happiness. When we are in our element, we can only get better.

No Parking on Rooftops

If we allow the operating system complete control, then inevitably, we'll get lost somewhere and we'll start to wonder where we're heading, and whether it's worth it. Many things that we seemingly need are not worth the trouble. Life can really be better with less, if what’s left is what you love.

;)

New cat art gifts and collectibles!

2009-09-19T14:34:00.002+08:00

Catmasutra cat art is based on the real-life adventures of the artist and his two cats. The adventures begin somewhere between this reality and the dream world of imagination. It’s like an “in-between” world, a gap that perhaps the cats are the best navigators, and the artist a hitchhiker, grateful for the directions in a purely weightless realm. The world is never a mechanical thing, set in its course, bland and monotonous but it is always expanding with possibilities; It's up to us to see the full potential according to our own vision. No one else can think exactly how each of us think, or feel and for this reason, no other person or authority can judge what we really need to make our life more complete as ourselves. We must find out for ourselves what our nature needs to bring it permanent happiness. Then comes the harder part, to let go of our fears and find the freedom to be ourselves completely. This is the world of catmaSutra cats, a world made up of imagination and stories, of childish things, of fairy tales, mythmaking, and all the flights of fancy that grants this artist his
delight.

"The highest truth is something imagined,

not proved, and that it comes not in arguments

but in stories..."

Cat lovers alert! Now you can own a little piece of the latest Catmasutra cat art pieces on these cute, vibrant and adorable cat art collectibles! Filled with irrepressible charm & wit, the collection includes keepsake boxes, framed tiles, tote bags, tile coasters, cat art magnet.

More of the latest designs coming your way soon!

Time...

2009-09-10T01:04:00.007+08:00

"No need to announce the future.
This now is it. This.
Your deepest need and desire
is satisfied by the moment's energy
here in your hand."
~Rumi

Time - a curious thing. Seems like it was from a dream... time as a stream where you can touch and take a swim in. Swimming backwards seems easier than forward, but each time it gets so shallow that you just stand up and walk out, realizing that you have just wasted your time. The future's like an open sea - it doesn't seem to have a point, nor does it need to have one. It's just that, the open sea. The present is the future. Slowing time down to a standstill... the ultimate bliss ;)

Love this video...
(Makes me think of time...)

Lifetime Spring/Summer 2010 from Trevor Fleming on Vimeo.

;)

Sunscreen

2009-09-07T11:47:00.009+08:00

EVERYBODY'S FREE (TO WEAR SUNSCREEN) by BAZ LUHRMAN (edited)

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth;
oh never mind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.

Don’t worry about the future;
or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.

The real troubles in your life
are apt to be things that never crossed
your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday

Do one thing everyday that scares you.
Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts,
don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy;
sometimes you’re ahead,
sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end,
it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive,
forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters,
throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know
what you want to do with your life…
the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22
what they wanted to do with their lives,
some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees,
you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry,
maybe you won’t,
maybe you’ll have children,
maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40,
maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…

what ever you do,
don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either –
your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body,
use it every way you can…
don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it,
it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own...

Dance…
even if you have nowhere to do it
but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines,
they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings;
they are the best link to your past
and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,
but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
because the older you get, the more you need the people
you knew when you were young.

Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise,
politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do
you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable,
politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse;
but you never know when either one might run out.

Be careful whose advice you buy,
but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past
from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts
and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…
&
magic beans...

;)

Follow your bliss

2009-08-18T22:25:00.006+08:00

Haven't written for a while. Am a real sucker for a balcony. It's a way to be and breathe. Don't really like watching TV, and let someone else project images into my head. We're such suckers for distraction, as if afraid of our own thoughts, we while ourselves away doing things we would never care to remember. Now, I'm in my little yard, 1.5m in length, 0.5 m in width, with a bottle of hoegaarden and some doritos. Angel, as usual, took first licks at the beer and the chips. Facing my lime plant, and half-chewed palm-like plant, watching the sky and our foreign talents playing cricket in the field across me. Used to write when it rains, half-wishing it would rain now.There's the litter of kittens who grew up on the roof next door. They've grown now but still trying to sneak beneath the fence.They're wondering why they're not able to squeeze through. And the territorial white male cat who have tried to establish territory in my yard has taken to a staring competition with Angel complete and their own version of karaoke; he has now decided to take me on leading me into a anxiety-filled dream with sinister overtones. Woke up next morning stoned. Sat on a blue Ikea plastic stool, back against the sun-bleached wall, watching the sky with eyes closed, soaking up the sun, and the chirping of birds. Thank god for a balcony...ten minutes and then it's time to leave for work...

The soul is always ambitious in its desire to know itself.

Go to a garden and just stand in it.
Recharge your inner batteries ;)

Thank you from the depths of my lullaby!

2009-08-05T00:36:00.005+08:00

Thank you from the depths of my lullaby, for all those involved and everyone who visited and supported the catmaSutra inaugural exhibition in Hong Kong (Gallery by the Harbour)! Having been back for a few weeks already (you wonder how time files), and now gearing up to prepare for the 6th annual catmaSutra show in Singapore (December). Hopefully, I will be back in Hong Kong next year for a second show...also thinking of exhibiting in Japan... ;)

;)

An unfinished story from years ago...

2009-08-03T23:13:00.002+08:00

What does it feel like to be travelling through space, if space is not ‘empty’ but a semi-solid celluloid dream? Riding a bike is like this, it is beautiful. You concentrate on the road as you need to, yet somebody else is projecting images in your head. It flashes in front of you - a different skyline, a different sun, different shadows, different faces, different emotions - as you move through something more than empty space.

The dark is like space, never empty, but full of shadows, ghosts. You can touch the darkness, hold it in your hands. You can breathe it in and let it sink into you till it squeezes a tear or hardens into stone. It’ll touch you, blind you, drown you, and take you if you let it. And there is no darkness like space trapped within closed doors - doors that are closed but always open. And the dark is like that - you can open it like a door.

And I remember the ride back from the sea. The sun is setting. The highway takes me up, higher and higher. The sky - it’s vast, massive, limitless, all encompassing, and it’s concave. It makes my heart spin but I see the skyscrapers in front - they’re like concrete scraping the sky. I wonder if it bleeds. I bleed. I’ll stop bleeding.

Is true love the same as death?
I used to think that death is the absence of self. That death is nothing more than losing one’s self completely and eternally. That the feeling is passing but pervasive like the last heartbeat. One breath, one thought, one beat and the air stops. The mind stops. The heart stops. Nothing means anything anymore. Just this merging with the darkness, - this complete formlessness.
Is love like that?
How would you want to die?
If I were to die, I would do it watching the sky.
I love the sky. It’s different every time you look at it. It’s vast, massive, limitless, all encompassing, and it’s concave. It makes my heart spin; it makes me get up and dance, it changes but it always stays the same. From one corner of the earth to another, it’s the same sky. I need the sky. I need the sky to know that everything is still brand new and the same. I need the sky to carry me away. That’s my suicide wish.

;) yeah - that kind of mood...

CatmaSutra goes to Hong Kong, the sights, the tastes, the big Buddha...

2009-07-22T00:27:00.015+08:00

From the Depths of my Lullaby
Gallery by the Harbour, Shop 207, Level 2,
Ocean Centre, Harbour City, Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong

4 Jul 09 (Sat) - 28 Jul 09 (Tue)
11am - 9pm daily
Ms Chloe Fong T: (852) 2118 8008

This was technically the second time that I visited Hong Kong. The first was just a stop-over where I didn't even venture out. It was summer and terribly hot and the streets were just too crowded (it seemed too much like Singapore). This time round, I went with some friends who know some friends in Hong Kong, and i guessed I felt the vibe of Hong Kong. This goes to show how much a place can differ if you have the opportunity to meet some really nice and sweet people. That's the real charm of a place.

You think, that since the term was coined, "the Four Asian Tigers" referring to the highly developed economies of Singapore and Hong Kong, (South Korea and Taiwan are the other two) between the early 1960s and 1990s, that the two cities must be alike - crowds of people, fast-paced lifestyle. That immediately reduces my desire to visit Hong Kong as a holiday destination. But one can also not deny the energy and vibrancy of the place, and it's huge. There are lots of spaces for culture to grow organically, for different energies and sub-cultures to develop. Some chaos is essentially required for this energy to surface. That's when Singapore feels like a manicured garden, very much controlled and censored. It's as if the government is afraid of culture, and hence, must always "manage" it, and in doing so, these organic energies are essentially diluited and lost.

As more and more Singaporeans travel and experience the vastness that is so different from our own country and culture, perhaps we would be able to feel that life is bigger, much bigger than this life that we're supposed to live. So Rock-a-bye... live and let live, open your heart and travel. The world's just different places under one sky, not unlike the heart.

catmasutra, interview with the Standard, Hong Kong

2009-07-19T22:01:00.006+08:00

Don't miss out if you're in Hong Kong!Purrfect picture

Joyce Kam, The Standard, Hong Kong
Friday, July 03, 2009

Paul koh's paintings are sure to put a smile on your face. Cats with ear-to-ear grins add a light-hearted touch to each of the acrylics in his CatmaSutra series, so named because it is meant to depict the different positions and attitudes of his signature animal.

"Through the years, the CatmaSutra cat has evolved its own story. It's almost alive in its own way, snuggling into different situations and making itself comfortable at every instance," said Koh, who has been working on the series since 2004.

"Its big smile, or the eyes-wide-shut and ear-to-ear grin, represents a deep- seated childhood innocence cum devil- may-care bravado."

Koh's latest artworks will debut at Harbour City's Gallery by the Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui tomorrow. The show, "From The Depths of My Lullaby," will feature 25 paintings until July 28. The imperturbable cat is everywhere - stuck in a Chinese soup jar, sleeping on a lotus leaf or playing mahjong.

The quirky style in the paintings is based on the personality of Koh's two pets, Halo and Angel. He reckons the series is as a gateway to a new space, a wonderland where emotions are innocent enough to run free, and dreams more than just make-believe.

At times, Koh pays tribute to the masters by having the cat sailing under the great wave of Katsushika Hokusai's famous painting, taking a coffee break at Vincent Van Gogh's yellow house and hanging on in a Piet Mondrian composition.

"It's a way of immersing myself via the cat into the classic paintings I love. In the explorations, the cat is the navigator and we are hitchhikers, grateful for directions in a perfectly innocent and weightless realm," said Koh.

Having grown up with cats his entire childhood, he finds his paintings were inspired by his association, friendship and understanding of the felines.

"The cats in my home were not house cats. They were free to roam wherever and whenever. They were independent individualists, and freedom was their modus operandi. Wherever they are, they seem capable of being happy," he said.

The paintings are priced between HK$5,400 and HK$12,100, and there are collectibles such as tote bags, keepsake boxes and coasters.

Said Koh: "Honestly, it's a bittersweet feeling when the paintings get sold. Each of them is dear to me as it is a tribute to a happy story that'll put a smile on our faces. I grew up with cats and I hope each CatmaSutra painting rekindles a little of everything that we believe to be true as children."

Date: July 4 to 28

Time: 11am to 9pm

Venue: Gallery by the Harbour
(Shop 207, Level 2, Ocean Center, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui)

Inquiry: 2118-0090

;)

cat art - playing with the classic paintings...

2009-06-29T00:18:00.007+08:00

In a perfectly weightless world, the adventures of the cat begin! This is an exploration of the classic paintings I love. It’s a way of immersing myself via the cat into the adventures of these masterpieces. How else can you sail the great wave in Hokusai’s painting, pose in Botero's still life, or appear between Mondrian's lines? It’s about entering into a dialogue with these classic paintings and making them accessible to viewers from another perspective. It is akin to Warhol creating art out of an ordinary soup can. By introducing the cat, a door is opened and the audience is invited to participate in the painting.

Still Life with Botero

In a big and grandiose world of Botero, my fat catmasutra cat fits right in. (Fact is that my cat has taken very much to sleeping on the table, and she loves to prop herself against whatever she can find). A perfect model for a still life portrait, if I do say so myself ;)

Still Life with Fruits- Botero (1978)

"Catch me if you can" is a throw-back to the Hokusai's sea paintings. There's somethimg momentous of his paintings, as if caught in a frame of time. This painting is largely about the value of freedom and the ability to let go. We are always chasing the wrong things. Instead of chasing, maybe we should just enjoy the ride, and let nature take care of things for a change.

Catch me if you can

This one is, of course, a play on Mondrain's art, which is in essence, an exploration via intuition into pure abstraction, "I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things…

Incidents within the lines

I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true."

And from pure abstraction, as a reversal, reveals its beauty. "Incidents within the lines" is about our imagination, the beauty we find in-between if we open our eyes. It's about imaginary friends and day-dreaming... its about finding a language for which no words are required...

;)

catmaSutra cat art - Land on the other side of the rainbow

2009-06-23T23:59:00.014+08:00

Land without Boundaries

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.
~Rumi

Land without boundaries is a place within. We forget that there is such a place, a place that we all wish for, a place without war, cruetly, hunger, fear, or pain. We may even feel that such a place no longer exists. We find cruelty everywhere - from the way animals are kept and slaughtered to the power of the wealthy over the poor- and we learn to walk away. I think sometimes we forget that whatever we do, we do it to ourselves. Nothing goes away in this world. It's cause and effect. Everything gets imprinted. When we finally leave this place, there is nothing we can bring with us, just this place within us. It can be peaceful and beautiful, or it can be terrifying. Don't move the way fear makes you move. This is a repetitive world made up of the sums of all our choices. This is a universe of potentialities, waiting for an intervention to affect the outcome. Love is an intervention. Why do we not choose it again and again?"

SPCA and Cat Welfare Society are offering a $2,000 Reward* for information leading to the apprehension and prosecution of the person/s who may be responsible for the suspected poisoning of cats at Bayshore Park condominium since Thursday, 11 June. Please call SPCA at 6287 5355 ext 9. You may be required to assist the police in their investigation. The affected felines were found unconscious or disoriented. Five have since died or have been put down. Cruelty to animals is a crime under Singapore law and is punishable by imprisonment of up to 12 months and/or fine of up to $10,000.

The other side of the rainbow

Some nights stay up till dawn,
as the moon sometimes does for the sun.
Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way
of a well, then lifted out into light

The other side of the rainbow, on the other side of this great big world.

Something opens our wings. Something
makes boredom and hurt disappear.
Someone fills the cup in front of us.
We taste only sacredness.

If I open my eyes, I can see the blue sky.
And the sunlight on my face, and the sounds of birds...
It's easier than fear and all its derivatives...

;)

Catmasutra cat art lands in Hong Kong!

2009-06-16T22:32:00.013+08:00

Catmasutra is in Hong Kong!

Cat of Prosperity(18 x 24")

After a flurry of events, the paintings have safely arrived in Hong Kong ;) What better way to introduce catmaSutra cat art in today's somewhat dampened climate than the "Cat of Prosperity". Taking inspiration from The Maneki Neko or the 招き猫, the CatmaSutra cat of Prosperity is armed not with one but four prosperity charms. The gold coin is called a koban, (used during the Edo period in Japan), and it is deemed to worth ten million ryō (千万両). The mallet, on the other hand, can be traced back to Daikoku, variously known to be the god of wealth, or of the household, particularly the kitchen. He is recognised by his eyes-wide-closed and ear-to-ear smile, and a flat black hat (hmm...perhaps the catmasSutra cat comes from his household ;) He is often portrayed carrying a golden 'magic money' mallet called a Uchide Nokozuchi. The golden mallet can magically produce anything Daikokuten desires when he strikes it. Quite customary for Maneki Neko, the catmaSutra cat wears a red collar but here with a Kame, a tailed tortoise longevity charm as they are fabled to live ten thousand years.

Last but not least, is the catmaSutra cat's very own Tai Fish (sea beam), a symbol of good fortune as it is almost always depicted with its captor, the god Ebisu. Ebisu is one of the Seven Lucky Gods (or Shichifukujin), and he embodies candour, wealth, the morning sun, and young children as well as being the patron god for fishermen and fair business practices. As the myth goes, Ebisu was born without bones and was cast out to sea in a boat of reeds. Despite his hardships, he eventually evolved into the ever-smiling god, Ebisu.

Of course, more valuable than any of these prosperity charms is the ability to smile, come what may, in good and bad times. That's the essense of the catmaSutra cat!

Wonder without Willpower (30 x 30")

Inside water, a waterwheel turns.
A star circulates with the moon.

We live in the night ocean,

what are these lights?
~
You have said what you are.
I am what I am.
Your actions in my head,
my head here in my hands
with something circling inside.
I have no name
for what circles
so perfectly.

;)

Catmasutra cat art in Hong Kong!

2009-06-10T23:27:00.006+08:00

Finally, most of the preparations for my catmaSutra cat art exhibition in Hong Kong are done! Hopefully now I could also spend a little more time blogging... so stay tuned for more sneak previews of the new pieces I've done for this exhibition, "catmaSutra - From the Depths of My Lullaby". The exhibition will open in the Gallery by the Harbour ( Level 2, Ocean City) at Harbour city, Tsimshatsui from 4 to 28 July.

Art is somewhat like the DNA of the artist. It encapsulates a personal history in an external form, a signature or a finger print. You can always find traces of the artist in his art, a hidden story or a layered emotion. Perhaps that's what makes art interesting - it's always personal. And because it's personal, the potential to connect becomes evident. After all, we are the human condition. As such, art is one of the few media that can be pure. In other words, there is no need to layer a lifestyle aspiration over it for commercial purposes!

"From the Depths of My Lullaby" is a tribute to the happy story that we all know. It's a lullaby, a soothing song, that lulls us to sleep (when we were kids of course). Each catmaSutra painting has always been about this simplicity, this purity of emotion that we seemingly forget while growing up. Painting and playing with my cats always bring back this feeling - quiet, peaceful. These are the two things I grew up with, though in our haste, we tend to forget what we love. Our lives become too busy and complicated; we over-value what we think we know as adults versus what we know as children in our hearts. Hopefully, this collection of catmaSutra cat paintings rekindles a little of everything that we believe to be true as children.

;)

When worlds collide

2009-05-21T01:17:00.001+08:00

All day and night, music,
a quiet, bright
reedsong. If it
fades, we fade.
~Rumi

Truth tell, anywhere is a life, once there is love...

Is this the universe, lying across the knees of one who mourns? Things dying...things new-born. There will be a story of a world held in a walnut shell, cracked open by love's finger and thumb. There will be a story of a planet small as a ball, and a child threw it, or a dog ran away with it, and dropped it on the floor of the Universe, where it swelled into a world.

How we think about our world... not just this one but the many worlds that live within us. What we love, we keep alive or else we die not knowing what we've lost. Everything has a lifespan... If only we could see the beginning and the end, we would treasure the time in-between even more. And at the designated time, we walk away and there would be no need to turn back. The flowers on my lime plant bloomed and fell away, each leaving behind a tiny green dot which, with a little blessing will grow into a whole new world. There are kittens playing on the roof, kittens being themselves wholeheartedly, in the present moment, open to whatever happens. And there is a woman who happens to comes by in the night to feed them. A new world opens...

A quantum universe - neither random or determined.
A universe of potentialities, waiting for an intervention
to affect the outcome. Love is an intervention.
Why do we not choose it?

~Jeanette Winterson
;)

Eyes-wide-opened!

2009-05-12T00:45:00.010+08:00

Eyes-wide-opened. Life is so personal and yet impersonal. Remembering the movie, "Accuracy of Death", it is indeed a wonder how death in general is "nothing special", and yet to the individual, it means everything or everything else. If you look at our history as a human race, and simply by the number of wars we have fought, the death toll must be a staggering number. Yet it means almost nothing to the living. We may watch some really bad news over the telly, but as long as it doesn't really affect us, life goes on as usual. It's as if nothing changes. Young people become old people, new generations replace old ones. Nothing lasts - it is just another drop in the puddle, another wave in the coming and going of the tide. Nothing really matters. So how to live?

Death is a good way to learn how to live. That should be the first rule, because it takes away most of our problems. Faced with death, everything else seems trivial, and the seemingly little things that we take for granted become important - the simple beauty of life becomes apparant. This is our the spirituality regardless of religious inclinations. To understand our own true nature is the road towards spirituality, and for that, nature is the best teacher (personally it's the cat, the sky and currently a lime plant haha ;)! The second rule, for me, is the practice - that's one of the hardest thing to do as we're caught up in so many things. So take time to stop (and that includes playing your PSP when you have nothing to do, or fiddling with that i-touch). Visit with nature. Have faith that you will find yourself, and you will.

We all walk two paths. One is based on physical reality and the day-to-day. The day-to-day has a big hold on us. It grinds us down with the same old things, make us weary, impatient, and will leave us complaining and frittering our days away. It becomes important then to break that hold in whatever ways you can think of!

The other path is the inner journey (or the spiritual path), and that is always a great adventure. It'll take you to places you'll never dream of...

Collect catmaSutra zen-inspired cat art collectibles!

;)

Orange Sky!

2009-05-02T00:21:00.010+08:00

One of the most beautiful piece of nature you can find anywhere is the sky. What makes it so great is that it can be part of your home. You just need a window (I love balconies but that's such a rare commodity these days) - one window to one sky that houses the rest of the world. You can't help but feel that everything is connected that way...

So lie on the floor and look up, or turn upside down and look down at it, touch it, play with it. It's a beautiful, ever-changing landscape. In the afternoons, my cats always come down to sun themselves for a while before moving to slumber in the shade. Watching the cats sleep, like watching the sky, is a great way to stop and do nothing for a while. Sometimes I think we're too concerned about using time. We do whatever we need to do, and when're we free, we still do whatever we need to do (like watching TV...). We never stop.

The weather is terribly hot these days, but the sunsets are awesome! Once, the entire sky was painted with yellow hues and as the sun set, the entire canvas turned orange (the photos below were not treated in any way). I'm moving again to another place. It has been a real adventure moving from one part of Singapore to another, (feels like an expat in your own country) although it's one of the most energy-sapping exercise that you'll swear that you'll never do it again. Also realized how attached I am to so many things, things that you probably wouldn't need and couldn't bring anywhere in the end. It's probably time to let go.

And is there anything you would withhold?
Some day, all that you have shall be given.
The trees give that they may live,
for to withhold is to perish.
~Khalil Gibran

This we have now
is not imagination.

This is not
grief or joy.

Not a judging state,
or an elation,
or sadness.

those come
and go.

This is the presence
that doesn't.

~Rumi

;)

squiggles

2009-03-23T13:08:00.010+08:00

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
and sees the moon reflected in it?

Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop.
Now's there's a pearl.
A vagrant wanders empty ruins.
Suddenly he's wealthy.

But don't be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth...

...Your legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you've grown,
lifting.
~Rumi

Let go of expectation. Go for intention. Find and enjoy what you can on the journey. Life is a merry-go-round and we think it's a straight line. Be grateful if you're thrown out of it ;) at least now, you can rejoin knowing it can be fun, regardless.

Life’s a mess, a bunch of squiggles and doodles, and never a straight line. It's the imperfections that make something perfect. I love the mess. No matter how hard I try to keep my desk tidy, I know it'll end up a mess again, a beautiful recycled mess. Put life against the ruler. If you can measure it, then it's not worth it. Haha Life is never fair. One can always find someone else having a larger slice of the pie, or in a better position and vice-versa. These are the trojan horses on the merry-go-round; sometimes you go up, and sometimes you go down. So it's a matter of practice and patience to slow down a bit and really see. Prescribe your own myth, find the things that are hidden at first glance. Life is no worse or better, but when it's no longer a straight line, we're free to choose.

Catmasutra Collectibles: Smile-Getters Tile Coasters

"Because we do not rest, we lose our way.
We miss the compass points that show us where to go,
the nourishment that gives us succor,
the quiet that gives us wisdom.”
~Wayne Muller

;)

New cat art collectibles from Catmasutra!

2009-01-19T23:27:00.010+08:00

Collect all 5 elements from the catmaSutra 'Enlightened Series'
(Highly recommended: the keepsake boxes, tile coasters, and framed tiles!)

The modern world is never about balance. It's the imbalance that makes her go round. The world is huge, but we want to squeeze everything into the palms of our hand. And we call it a good thing. We used to play in the rain out in the open, now young children are glued to their PSPs. There's no way we can find balance in the modern world, as she sells us another version of "balance" on her terms. There's always another version.

When we lose our balance, we try to plan for the future, set new year resolutions... plan to give ourselves more time (which is a near impossibility sometimes). Truth is we can never find balance out there. No matter how we plan, we just can't seem to get the balance right. So stop. Just be with yourself for a while (forget about the world) and breathe. Haha ;) The best way to prepare for the future is to take care of the present. When we stop chasing the future, we realize we're actually good right here in the present moment. If we can't stay still; if we can't stop awhile, we would already have missed our appointment with life. You can never find a way that'll lead you to balance, peace or happiness. Balance, peace or happiness are themselves the way. All we have is our inner compass. Everything points to the present. Live. Live in the present.

Water for
an overwhelmingly 'earthy' year
with the ox being an earth animal,
and this being an earth year...

;)

Lucky Star

2009-01-10T00:46:00.011+08:00

Time is not constant. Time in stories least of all. Anyone can fall asleep and lose generations in their dreams. There are times when all the stories that are folded into this one can be shaken out and let loose, but until then, like the lives of saints, more is contained than can be revealed. The world itself will roll up like a scroll taking time and space away. All stories end here.

There are people who will be whisked away in closed cars to comfortable beds. The rest of us will search for the bus. Luggage. Heaven or hell in the hereafter will be luggage or the lack of it. The ones who recognized that love is enough and that possessions are borrowed pastimes, will float free through the exit sign, their arms ready to hug their friends, their toothbrush in their pocket. The one who stayed up late, gathering and gathering like demented bees, will find that you can take it with you. The joke is that you have to carry it yourself.

The moon and the white clouds at the window. How many times have I seen it before? Perhaps it is true that the world is made new again every day but our minds are not. The clamp that holds me will not let me go.

How shall i live? I was living wasn't I?

lucky star (2008)

I dreamed I was a single moment in a single day.

Quotes _ jeanette winterson

;)

Catmasutra - When nature calls

2009-01-04T19:31:00.012+08:00

When Nature Calls (2008) Wallpaper

Get more Catmasutra wallpapers here

I have lost my rhythm and I was trying to find it back. It won't come, of course. That's not how rhythms work. It has to do its thing first. The journey is to find it back. We all do this one time or another (or maybe it's just me for I can't live on the surface of things). Like most things, when you look for it, it's not there but when you're ready (and perhaps not expecting it) it appears. I saw a little boy at the supermarket yesterday, standing still. Amidst the maddening crowd, this little kid was there holding up a single prawn with his fingers, slowly rotating and looking at it from different angles. I stood there for a while, watching him and I realized he was completely captivated by the prawn. It was almost as if he finally understood what a prawn really is. The mother returned with a disapproving look and sent him off to wash his hands - the real world beckons - there is no time for magic.

I sell magic beans 'cause I believe in them. It's not something that you keep to yourself. There's just no fun in that. Besides, it helps me to believe in them. See the eyes sparkle for an instant, feel the heart open a little - there's the magic, however fleeting. Alas, if you're like most people (or like Jack's mother) you probably throw them away. There is no place for magic. I sell magic beans because one day when you look at your backyard, you may be able to see a huge beanstalk growing; and if you're lucky enough you could even climb it, steal a glimpse above the clouds. It's hard to believe in magic when no one else believes in it. Yet we all believe in it once upon a time.

Many times I've told myself not to sell magic beans anymore simply because there are no takers. What's the point? Why do I care? There're so many things on sale these days. No matter how many were bought, the shelves keep filling themselves up (almost like magic). Where do all these things go? If that's not enough, we have the 24-hour Valium of the television to lose ourselves in.

"If everything I have become were not machine-made I
might be able to take the risk of being human with you."
~Jeanette Winterson

;)

Christmas goodies - Catmasutra Wallpapers

2008-12-25T14:58:00.009+08:00

We can't say 'peace' enough. I think beauty queens should wish for world peace and it shouldn't feel pathetic. I think Radio Dee-Jays should wish for peace without apologizing. I think before we can get drunk, we should wish for peace. Haha it's funny, really, how it has become a little embarrassing to wish for world peace... Maybe it's such an improbable wish that nobody really believes in any more.

It's not hard to know what we want; we basically want the same things (love, peace, happiness) and yet we do the very things that hurt others and ourselves in turn. So the karma continues and the cycle goes round and round. There are so many things that we lack control that we have given up, watching the news (the main channel for bad news), just wishing that nothing bad would happen to us. Our lives will change - that's a certainty, sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. There is never a fixed way for life to happen. It happens in all kinds of ways, sometimes bizarre, surreal, beautiful or downright depressing. We just have to take and then let go. Peace starts right here...

Merry Christmas!
Peace, love, and everything nice under the blue sky...

Free catmasutra wallpapers -
get these goodies now!

18th - 28th DECEMBER 2008
@ UTTERLY ART
229A South Bridge Road Singapore 058778 2nd Level

Opening reception: Thursday 18th December 2008 at 7pm
Opening hours: 11am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday

;)

Catmasutra 5 art exhibition

2008-12-17T01:09:00.005+08:00

CATMASUTRA 5

18th - 28th DECEMBER 2008
@ UTTERLY ART
229A South Bridge Road Singapore 058778 2nd Level

Opening reception: Thursday 18^th December 2008 at 7pm
Opening hours: 11am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday

When Seasons Change

Outside, the freezing desert night.
This other night inside grows warm, kindling.
Let the landscape be covered with thorny crust.
We have a soft garden in here.
The continents blasted,
cities, and little towns, everything
become a scorched, blackened ball.

the news we hear is full of grief for that future,
but the real news inside here
is there's no news at all.

Friend, our closeness is this:
anywhere you put your foot, feel me
in the firmness under you.

How is it with this love.
I see your world and not you?

listen to the presences inside poems.
Let them take you where they will.

Follow those private hints,
and never leave the premises

the tent - by Rumi

The tree of life

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel.
None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

It occurred to me time and again, the importance of art simply because of its implied freedom to explore and express. Art, in all its forms, as paintings, or words that form images in our head, is a search within, the road seemingly less traveled in today's world...

it's Christmas time
peace ;)

Catmasutra 5 painting exhibition

2008-12-11T22:41:00.007+08:00

It's that time of the year when the cats of CatmaSutra come out to play!

Back to his quirky best, Paul Koh tugs at the heartstrings yet again and takes you to a bewildering and delightful fairy-tale realm. Snuggling up to the knowing and mischievious Catmasutra cat, you'll discover a place where emotions are innocent enough to run free, and dreams more than just make-believe. Quirky, amusing and karmic, Paul's paintings unveil an “in-between” world where innocence and mischief go hand in hand.

Michelle Chang's series, A Blue Beginning is a story of Angel who thinks he's got a bout of blues. He's determined to rid himself of this and so begins his quest. Angel travels far and wide and arrives at villages beyond the hills and magical lands, all in the hopes of finding a cure. He basks under the sunlight hoping to turn orange like his friend Halo. He sleeps under the starry night praying for a silver lining so that maybe, just maybe, he will not be blue anymore. Michelle Chang is taking a 2-year hiatus to complete her largest collection of work about Angel and his blues which will be unveiled in 2010 so come experience the beginning of an exciting journey!

Tel: + 65 6226 2605 | Cell: 94872006 Contact: Keng Hock

Email: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg

December... it's the end of the year again... rains and showers are becoming more frequent... (I'm constantly getting drenched on the bike), the recession is hip again (you can hear about it all the time)... but no matter, the Christmas lights are out and time is the great reversal of things. Everything is just a matter of time - it just depends if you believe in whatever it is you believe enough. So here I am again - the traditional year-end Catmasutra exhibition, now in its fifth year! I could have sworn that once I woke up and saw Halo (my ginger cat) with her eyes wide shut and she had that famous "ear-to-ear" grin! Haha There will be quite a collection of works this year, a showcase of both new and old. I'm keeping the prices similar to that of Catmasutra 4 so do pop by and visit the gallery - and you might find yourself owning a little bit of mischief and good cheer...

And if you wanna get a Catmasutra skin for your laptop, visit
skinweaver!
(Drop me a line if you have a favorite Catmasutra painting that you would like me to convert into skins)

peace

;)

History of time

2008-12-05T23:26:00.008+08:00

"Tell me what do you think about death?"

"That's my line."

"Answer me, anyway."

"Death is nothing special."

"Death is nothing special. Everyone dies someday, so it's not special at all. But that's easy for you to say. I mean... you see lots of people as they die. But, you don't see any of them as they live. So you don't really know life. That's the reason you can say death is nothing special."

"Is life special?"

"Against the whole world or all of history, one's life is nothing special. But... for those of us living it, it's very important."

"Not special, but important?"

"Yes. The sun in the sky is nothing unusual. But, it's important that it be there. Death's like that, maybe."

"I'm sorry, but I've never seen a blue sky."

"That's right."

"So you can see that, can't you?"

"I've never seen it before. It really is blue. Yes. its beautiful. So this is what the ordinary and not-special looks like?"

"Yes. But it's very, very important."

Lines from the movie, "Accuracy of Death".

Catmasutra 5
coming your way soon!
18th to 28 Dec
Utterly Art
29A South Bridge Road 2nd Level

;)

Momentary lapse of reason

2008-11-26T00:50:00.012+08:00

" I made him walk on a lead and he jumped for joy, the way creatures do, and children do and adults don't do, and spent their lives wondering where the leap went...

He had the kind of legs that go round in circles. He orbited me. He was a universe of play. Why did I walk so purposefully in a straight line? Where would it take me? He went round and round and we got there all the same...

The light had the quality of water. I was moving through a conscious element. Time is a player. Time is part of today, not simply a measure of its passing. The dimensionality of time is not usually apparent. I felt it today in the light like water. I knew I was moving through something that had substance...

Something serious. Here was the dog, me, the sun, the sky, in a pattern, in a dance, and time was dancing with us, in the motes of light. The day was in the form of us and we were in the form of the day. Time would return it, as memory and as futurity; I looked at him, trusting, vulnerable, love without caution. He was a new beginning and every new beginning returns the world. In him, the rain forests were pristine and the sea had not been blunted. He was a map of clear outlines and unnamed hope. He was time before or time after. Time now had not spoilt him. In the space between chaos and shape, there was another chance."

Some snippets from the short story by Jeanette Winterson, the 24-hour dog. I really love the way she writes and you must wonder about the soul of the person - the things she sees and feels. I think if you can see real beauty in the world, you can see real darkness as well . They're both sides of the same coin. The closer you are to one, the closer you will be to the other. (Maybe that's why so many artists, poets and the like suffer for their art) Beauty is born and will pass away. Time is a great reversal of things. It's like everything you ever think, feel, and do are all there, like dust particles floating in time, a trail that you leave behind for your future.

To get really close to something is to realize the darkness when that something is no longer there, that everything is transient, momentary. Maybe that's why most people prefer to be in the middle, to be swept away by the superficiality of everything. It has become that easy to get lost with all that our consumer society can offer and promise us. Of course, they're empty promises. Maybe that's why we always need one more thing that we think will really make us happy.

True wisdom is to "go above and beyond cause and effect, to go above birth and beyond death - to go above happiness and beyond suffering". But we're "modern" people living in a "modern world" where there are always more important things... haha only life and the mess it brings can teach us...

;)
Catmasutra V
coming your way this December...

The Art of Water

2008-11-10T01:18:00.009+08:00

The Art of Water.

Many an artist have been inspired by the gentle beauty of water. Aaron Lye (for PURE magazine Oct-Dec 2008) talks to artist PAUL KOH about how water inspires him in his art.

So Paul. Tell us a bit about yourself. I have always been interested in drawing since I was a kid. I have no idea where that inclination comes from, but I always preferred looking at pictures and drawing them rather than reading books. Of course, the belief then as is now, is that art has no viable career path. It took me a long time to come back to it, and as it happened, I started work as an editor for a publisher of children’s books, and that opened my eyes to a rich and multi-layered world of illustration and magic. I started clamoring to do some of the illustrations, and in my next job, I got involved with web design. That’s when I knew this is where I want to be. They’re two different things, art and design, but they belong to the same family tree.

How did you first find yourself getting into art? Where did your love for painting come from?
It’s a natural inclination. I’m the only one in my family who has this passion. As a child, I’m already very visual. It’s a more emotional and direct way of expression, especially when you have a vivid imagination. I think drawing or art has a more direct relationship with imagination. When you are using your imagination, you’re more likely to think in pictures than words. Even now, I don’t really ‘read’ magazines but ‘consume’ the emotional content of the images. So my love for painting comes from this desire to make my imaginings come true, so to speak.

I understand you’ve experimented with a unique, abstract style of painting that makes use of water. How did this start? Where did the inspiration come from? Can you describe the process of working in this style? When I was working on “Fluid Abstractions”, it was a platform for me to become more intimate with the act of painting. You become an extension to the painting process. As you delve deeper and deeper into an art piece, you begin to explore your relationship with it. Brushes are used as whips, hands as brushes, water as paints. The spontaneity becomes important; the ‘natural’ way in which each painting reveals itself becomes the source of inspiration and creativity. Water – its fluidity – becomes central in developing this series. One of the inspirations comes from trying to fuse Chinese ink brush paintings with abstract art.

In your opinion, what is it about this particular style that makes it stand out from more traditional methods of painting? It alludes to the mysterious space between matter and spirit. There is a gap separating the intent of the artist, and the spontaneous manifestation of the paints on the canvas. It is a very intuitive mode of painting even though it can be frustrating. It can take you round and round until you are able to find it in yourself to say that it is finally finished, that it has reached an agreement with your heart and emotions.

Do you still use this technique in your paintings today? Has it influenced your later works in any way? I still use certain techniques in my later works. It becomes part of my repertoire of adding depth and texture, especially the pattern and flow of water.

Tell us a bit about your more current works – the Catmasutra series of paintings. Well, I have been illustrating since young, and growing up with cats means that my two passions seem destined to be linked together. And it did - when my first painting of a happy cat was sold in 2003 from the exhibition, Project Mooch. The first Catmasutra exhibition in 2004 was a sold out, and the series developed from there. For me, Catmasutra is about telling a happy story, a reminder to see the positive side of things, and even possibly the magic in between. I take stuff that we commonly come into contact through our surroundings, the media, etc. and present a moment in a story that is personal and yet universal. I'm fascinated with the flow of energy that vibrates in between, that blurs the line between reality and myth, between the power of everyday and the power of imagination. I conceptualize Catmasutra as part of this in-between world. The "eyes-wide-shut" and irrepressible "ear-to-ear" grins of the cats are representative of this energy - that in spite of life's imperfections, there is always a positive side, good enough for a smile!

I’ve noticed that quite a few of your Catmasutra paintings feature water scenes. Any particular reason for this? I love the spontaneity and fluidity of water. This was evident in the Fluid Abstraction series and this follows through to the Catmasutra series. Personally, I love the sky and rain. Water has a calming effect, rain a redemptive quality and sky, freedom. These are the most beautiful things and they are always here with us. Perhaps that’s why, inadvertently these elements find their way into many of my paintings.

What do you usually do for inspiration for your art? I get my inspiration from everywhere, magazines, movies, art, design, illustration, popular culture, etc. There are a myriad of energies all around us, so we can tap into these energies, distill them and re-energise them in a way that works for ourselves. In essence, there's beauty and freshness everywhere once we choose to see it.

Where’s your favourite water-related location in Singapore? In the world? I love Marina Bay, especially the view from the highest point of the ECP, where the city looms in front, flanked by the bay and sea beyond. As for the world, it has to be Venice. It has a unique colour, a reflective luminance unlike any other city.

;)

sunlight on catmasutra street...

2008-10-03T01:12:00.005+08:00

The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe before it's gone.

Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.

The sun is love. the lover
a speck circling the sun.

A Spring wind moves to dance
any branch that isn't dead.

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.

words by Rumi
;)

catmaSutra cat art by paul koh

catmaSutra Cat Totebags

catmaSutra cat art 2012 Calendar!

It's that time of the year when the cats of CatmaSutra come out to play!Bright, quirky, and capable of levitation, the seventh installation of catmaSuta cat art exhibition is once again back at Utterly Art.

The seven year itch has only served to cook up more mischief as the catmaSutra cat takes you to that sweet spot of whimsical bliss and light-heartedness.

"If we stop and observe how life flows, we'll notice how the universe is made up of individual moments which when appreciated fully, gains a shape akin to a smile from the heart - a personal heaven."

Paul's paintings take his audience through these moments using the cat as the perfect allegory to create a personal space that tugs at the heartstrings!

Come check out some of the available catmaSutra collectibles and smile-getters (2012 catmaSutra calendar cards, tile coasters and keepsake boxes), the purr-fect gifts this festive season.

Cat Monologue

These are stories in the rain

Moving on...

Hidden dreams and quirky cat impressions!

Joker Cat is in town - The Quirkiest cat art iPhone cat cover!

dream

The opium den of remembrance

Maybe baby

catmaSutra cat art: Wishing

;)

It won't happen again...

Divine Chaos

Lightness

Love Song

Foolish things...

One Short Trip

The Reason Why

We are dancers

Remember...

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

Edge of the world

Waves

Tin Soldier

Little Curlique

Samurai

The Reset Button

The Mad Jester

Like A Friend

Artist: Pulp LyricsSong: Like a Friend Lyrics

A thread of truth

CCCC compilation 1

Freedom of Madness

The Cat Files

No better love

Remote Control

love-wings

Papaya

Quirky Quiet...

Doing Time

Quirky, Quirky, Quirky...

Impressions...

Dance me to the End Of Love

catmasutra cat art exhibition: My Quirky Valentine

Ode to the Rain 2009, catmaSutra...

catmaSutra Six Appeal! till 27th December 2009

catmaSutra cat art exhibition 6 - Six Appeal!

catmaSutra cat art gifts and collectibles

Peace & Happiness

Standing the test of time

Freedom to choose

That ingredient of Life

New cat art gifts and collectibles!

Time...

Sunscreen

Follow your bliss

Thank you from the depths of my lullaby!

An unfinished story from years ago...

CatmaSutra goes to Hong Kong, the sights, the tastes, the big Buddha...

catmasutra, interview with the Standard, Hong Kong

cat art - playing with the classic paintings...

catmaSutra cat art - Land on the other side of the rainbow

Catmasutra cat art lands in Hong Kong!

Catmasutra cat art in Hong Kong!

When worlds collide

Eyes-wide-opened!

Orange Sky!

squiggles

New cat art collectibles from Catmasutra!

Lucky Star

Catmasutra - When nature calls

Christmas goodies - Catmasutra Wallpapers

Catmasutra 5 art exhibition

Artist: Pulp Lyrics
Song: Like a Friend Lyrics