Catmasutra cat art in Hong Kong!

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

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!

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!

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

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

;)