catmasutra cat art exhibition: My Quirky Valentine

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...

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

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!

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

...

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

;)