For my final I really wanted to see if I could catch motion and paint an impression that I get when I see the everyday ongoings of my local environment. I was really inspired by the research that I had done for Final Year Project of the way everyone experiences culture in each constant moment as we live our lives.

I used to feel, when I was little, that Singaporeans were generally in such a rush (which could translate to being “kanchiong” and “kiasu”), and I’ve very often had negative receptions to that. But today, I kind of relish this part of Singapore as a necessary cultural process for Singaporeans. I do not see it so much as something negative but I’ve come more into terms about how it simply reflects Singapore’s rampant desire to advance and develop.

 

 

Personally not the most comfortable medium. I don’t like ink especially with a brush because it’s really quite unforgiving and ink with a brush makes my strokes unpredictable and uncontrollable. I attempted a piece before this and found myself adding too much, so I redid it and stopped where i thought was necessary with figures disappearing into the front of the queue. Also really starting to get into the subject matter of usual local Singapore scenes of people doing everyday stuff.

For this assignment, I wanted to capture a mundane moment, almost candid as if someone sneaked a picture of me while I was drinking coffee at my dining table at home. But at the same time i wanted the painting to be self aware of itself being in a picture. So, my body is kind of tensed with hands in less natural positions. The rigidness i also wanted it to be expressed in brushstrokes that are made visible that kind of visually vibrate in their spaces instead of directionally flowing from one direction of brushstroke to the other. The rigidness I also tried to express in the contrast of the rigid subject with a wispy kind of background to create some dynamic relationships so as to bring out the qualities of the different brushstroke types.