230. stomping ground

I have been back in Singapore for almost two weeks now but I'll be heading back to Tokyo later tonight already. Being back here this time have been the most emotionally draining experience I have had in years. My mom was emitted to hospital about two weeks ago, I received a phone call from my sis crying on the phone at 4 in the morning then, and tried my best to get back as soon as I could to be by my mom's side. 

She has been recovering really quickly and she will be in the hospital for a couple more days before she can come home. It has been really draining emotionally, physically and mentally. I hardly had time to myself because I would be by her side from 12pm - 8pm daily and when I get home, I will be busy doing house chores because both my sister and dad are busy. 

I'm really  grateful to have my friends, without them I would have still been a very panicky mode and not get anything done on the day after I found out my mom was emitted to the hospital. Thankful I have friends who look out for me, who take their time to console me and just be there for me. 

Honestly, after this experience with my mom. I'll like to say go give your mom a hug and tell her how much you love her. I've never realised all the things she has done for me and that she is actually the one that sticks us all together. My dad, sis and I are really lost without her. Dear mom, please get well soon and come home. We love you. (Also it's nice to know my dad has emotions, he teared when my mom was sent in for operation)

Onto a lighter note, I've never written about my favorite hang out spot in Singapore. Before becoming a flight stewardess, little sis was working at a cafe in Tiong Bahru. I would visit her very often because of all the other cafes and cute book stores closeby. I haven't had a Plain Vanilla cupcake in almost a year and was so glad we found some time while waiting for my mom to be done with her operation. My favorites are their Earl Grey cupcake and Salted Caramel tart.

Just next to Plain Vanilla are a couple of stores, clothes, bags, accessories, books... These two (first and last picture) are my favorites. The one pictured below sells Singaporean antique and books by local authors while Woods in the Books is a kids' book store. They even have Moomin books there! Too bad photos are not allowed in these stores. The middle picture is of the ground at another cafe nearby that has various types of imported beers. They placed bottle caps into the cement which I thought was pretty cool.

Like I mentioned earlier, I didn't get to do anything much this time. I hope to see my mom healthy and well at home when I come back in September. But for now, August seems like it's going to be a good month again. I always love August. I thought by now I wouldn't but I still look forward to every August.

you remind me of august

the way that i still care about

229. evoke, lynch.

i need this.

reason why i love this band so much.

228. over the garden wall

Being nocturnal means I stay up painting, listening to music and watching films. Recently, one of my friends posted something about Over The Garden Wall on Facebook and I was immediately attracted to the whimsy character design, did a little research on tumblr and I had to watch it.

Over The Garden Wall is a mini series that aired on Cartoon Network last November. I don't think it will have a second season and I'll be happier if they didn't. It's one of those kind of things that is better left short and for us to ponder about rather than to get to know too much and get uninterested.

It is a beautiful piece of animation and for me, it is really unique and a breath of fresh air to watch compared to other series or animation films. Think Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow x Adventure Time x Nightmare Before Christmas's Halloweentown mashed up into one, for me at least it feels that way. The story follows two brothers who became lost in a strange forest called The Unknown, and a series of strange events occur and they meet several weird and creepy creatures along the way.

The series definitely has an air of mystery to them which I love, it makes you feel more intrigued by every little thing they do. The soundtrack also has this "old vibe" to it, and reminded me of cartoons in the 50's. It's also showed on the dance/music sequence in Episode 8, Babes In The Woods in Greg's dream. That scene was one of my favorites from the entire series.

(all gif by sixcastles.tumblr.com)

I also really love the scenery in this series. Again, it has an "old vibe" to it and from what I see, I'm guessing they used watercolor to paint it. I hope it is since it's the medium I use in all my paintings. As I'm writing this, I'm re-watching the entire series again because that is how much I love it.

Also, since class has started already, I doubt I would have time to find new things to watch. It's back to studying kanji everyday and waking up in the late morning which is too early for me... still.

227. refresh

On Saturday, 4th July, I went to Q-TA's collage workshop, I've been wanting to go to something art related to get to know more artists for a while now. It was a nice change of "scenery". After going to his exhibition in May, I really enjoyed his work more. Surprisingly, the venue for the workshop was somewhere really near Harajuku. He started with giving a talk about how he create his work, I could hardly make out what he was saying because it was very in depth Japanese. He handed us our materials and we started doing our work after his talk, he told us to cut out the pictures we liked best and collage them together to create something.

At the end of it, everyone showed their works and he talked about each one of our works individually. It reminded me of being in art college when we had critique class every Wednesday. I felt a little nostalgic.

After the workshop was over, we went to a nearby izakaya for dinner. It was nice to get to talk to other artists, thankfully there were a girl and a guy who could speak english very fluently because of living abroad. I was a little hesitant on going at first because of the language barrier but I'm glad I forced myself to go. We all introduced ourselves and all that, when it was my turn I said I liked Japanese music and Q-TA (everyone calls him Q-san or Q-TA (not T-A- but ta) asked who, I said THE NOVEMBERS and to my surprise, he said he did the artwork as collaboration with tobird on their album cover for zeigiest. He gave me some good advice on getting creative jobs and about art. It's good to network and for me, he suggested since I like music, I should get to know more bands and people who work with bands as well. Also to never stop creating because once you stop, you'll find it very hard to start again. Which is really really true for me. It's best to create something everyday. Also, he noticed my phone wallpaper is Aquirax Uno's work.

He was asking me to show him some of my works and said that I should add something interesting or weird to make paintings to let the viewer ask "why?", much like Aquirax Uno's work. It would also be more engaging and interesting. I don't know if I would do that but it is definitely something to think about. I wish I could understand more Japanese because after that he was giving even more good advice to everyone and it was very depth. 

After we were done with dinner, we all went to a nearby karaoke. I wasn't that into it but thought it would be rude to leave since no one else was leaving. So I just sat there and watched people sing as usual. I don't really enjoy karaoke honestly, unless the people I'm going with are singing music I like, lol. It was quite fun tho, since most of them sang Japanese music and anime songs. 

All in all, I felt productive and hopefully I'll get to attend more art-related things like this in future. I haven't been collaging for a really long time (4, 5 years?), and going to this workshop was refreshing for me. I hope to add some collage elements into my future work.

This piece he posted today on his account was done at the workshop!

And mine... it's not as minimalistic.