27/02/2010

Yogya Calling: It's Only the Beginning


I made it! My first drawing in 2010. 2009 had been my glorious year in terms of painting, arts & crafts. I succeed in joining 2 painting exhibition in a year and one of them is quite kick-ass: BIENNALE X, Yogyakarta. Oh and not to forget to mention: Selected Works at Jiaxing International Cartoons and Comics Exhibition, China.

Yogyakarta, one of the best city in Indonesia I've ever known, which turns out to be my second home. Apart from the reason that I got my beloved one & bunch of close friends there. I love the art scene, their modesty and strong D.I.Y ethic. This piece hadn't been created there, though, but it somehow reminds me of how I want to do one thing in my life seriously. I always want to be an artist. 

The conversation between Ms.Vantiani and the foreign gallery owner few weeks ago was like a hard slap on my face.


"Where have I been?"
"What have I done to make myself a good artist?"


I haven't create anything since the last one I prepared for Biennale. After all these times I worked at the bookstore, I gradually forgot to use my paints and brushes. Damned me. 

A lot of chit-chats and signs that the universe (meh!) showed me lately, I thought I have to get myself drown in paints again. So, I've decided.

25/02/2010

Warte Mal!


(submitted in 21Design: Happiness Plate Design 2009, but never win)

Starting from this post, I'm changing the size of my blog's pictures. I wonder if it's applicable to older posts?

23/02/2010

Here..Fishy, Fishy, Fishy...

It's been a super b-b-b-b-u-u-u-u-s-s-s-s-y-y-y-y-y-y week at the store! All books & CDs arrived today and I stayed until 8.37 PM barcoding and dividing them to 3 other store branches. 

"Astaga!" (or "what the f-!", "meine Güte")

Thanks to my beloved crafty co-workers for staying with me soooo late at the store and I'm so blessed that God gave you all crafty hands. Last week we got these crafty books and they're rummaging through the pages enthusiastically. I got some pictures of their origami animals.

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU, GUYS. Truly, I am. 


I'm eating my mangoes, placing order for a new raincoat, writing tomorrow's to-do-list and texting my bestfriend. 

Q: "What have you been up to?"
A: "A bit busy, applying for various new jobs available on-line"
Q: "Same here, but I'm busy rolling side-to-side, watching my friends using the computer. God, he's so noisy."
A: "That's why I don't call you."
Q: "I guess we thought the same thing. Me either, but I got something to tell you...a gossip"
A: "Tell me... tell me"
Q: "Later on, I will call you in the middle of your golden slumber. is it okay? ha ha"
A: "I'll punch you right on your face"
Q: "Go ahead then."


15/02/2010

Edges: Rounded or Stamp-style?

I'm setting up few samples of my new stationery sets. I prepared for a letter to a friend (but I won't mention it here, because it's a surprise). All done with scissors, no paper punch allowed during the process. Ha-ha.

It's been an uncertainty anxiety at my workplace. I feel like "should I stay or go?"

let's take a picture

rounded edges

stamp inspired

both edges

14/02/2010

In Memoriam of Mr. Salinger ( January 1,1919-January 28,2010


I cannot forget how to read The Catcher in the Rye and Franny & Zooey until now. I always remember how smart Holden Caulfield is, but he's not so keen to show it to the world.
"Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone."(Holden Caulfield)

13/02/2010

Fire Map, Here I Come!

Hooray....finally finished the quest to the spirit tower to get the fire map. Catch a partial headache, so it would be better to take a break. Back to Holden Caulfield and my cup of now-cold tea.

Link & Zelda, you really made my eyes glued to the screen.
*crunch-crunch*

It Still Feels the Same

There are so many things that successfully made my eyes hardly blink recently. Here's the list:

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

 
Yeah, well, I'm sort into Nintendo games for all my life. I like Nintendo above those super-excellency Playstation or X-Box. I had my first console years back then, two monochrome Gameboy, one Super Nintendo and the last one (for three years now) is Nintendo DS light. I never disappointed with Nintendo products. They are still good at displaying Mario & Zelda, both in color and monochrome. One or two years ago, I played this Zelda The Phantom Hourglass and found out not that interesting. But the force is strong with this one, yes I mean the Spirit Tracks. My eyes were glued to small touch screen with never ending swiping stylus. Now I'm in the quest of finding Fire Map on Spirit Tower after Ocean Realm.





(everlasting) Blank Journal
I like to make it, but not so keen to write it. This one I bought on my last trip at the price of 60 Baht.

But I really laid my eyes on Little Otsu journal by Jeremy Tinder
(via buyolympia.com)

Still, I'm thinking hard what and how to fill 'em...
 

Workplace
I'm working in a bookstore that required 3/4 of my daily energy, even since the day one I worked there. Now as the new assistant store manager, it still feels the same. It won't get any easier. Wake up really early in the morning to open the store, by myself. None of my co-worker arrive yet at 9 AM. It happened every morning, until now. I want them to treat the store the same way as I do, but I don't think we all feel and think the same.

07/02/2010

Read Along: My Son the Fanatic - Hanif Kureishi

(short story appeared in "Love in a Blue Time" and "The Black Album")


"How can you love something which hates you?"

What if you found out that your son's apparently have an erratic habit? If suddenly he stopped listening to his favourite music and wearing the latest fashion items on earth? You'd better ask Parvez, for the change of his son's, Ali, life.

Parvez, an Indian-Pakistani immigrant or Punjabis they might say, had been working for twenty years in England as an accountant and taxi driver at night. Then meet Ali, Parvez's son, a straight-A student who also excelled at cricket, swimming, football and used to be a "normal" person. One day Parvez found out, his son threw away all his possesions: TV, video, soundsystem, guitar and even dumped his English girlfriend. Intrigued by his son's eccentricity, he asked him what happened and he only got a silent treatment. Once he opened his mouth just to say "There are more important things to be done". Parvez seemed a bit nervous with his son's becoming silent and developing a sharp tongue. He told his co-workers and he got some conclusions that his son might me a drug-addict!

Until one night he told Bettina, a local prostitute who took a ride on his taxi, about his son. She had known him for three years, as she went long way home after her "shifts". She usually sat besides him, not at the passenger seat. Bettina is the one, whom he could share anything, even the topics he would hardly discuss with his wife at home. He told her about his suspicion of Ali, as a drug-addict and she said "It's all in the eye". If they looks bloodshot or dilated pupils, it might be true. Then Parvez went on an observation, days and nights he watched his son praying five times without fail. As he saw these, he remembered his old days. Parvez grown up in Lahore where all the boys had been taught the Koran. To stop him falling asleep when he studied, he got his hair tied with a piece of string that attached to the ceiling, so that if his head fell forward, he would instantly awake. After the indignity, he avoided all religions.

All he knows, for the sake of living in England for many years, adapting to the place we live is more important than anything else. "You're not in village now, this is England" he said as he insisted his wife to cook crispy bacon for his breakfast. Ali was quite disagree with his father, he didn't like him to be too implicated with western civilization. As a matter of fact, they're not just implicated but they live there. In Ali's opinion, the western materialists hates them (the immigrants and moslems). "The law of Islam would rule the world," he said, "the skin of infidel would burn off again and again, Jews and Christers would be routed. The west was a sink of hypocrites, adulterers, homosexuals drug takers and prostitues". He also proud of jihad, "I and millions of others will gladly give our lives for the cause...For us the reward will be in paradise."

Parvez couldn't take this any longer, he let his rage out then the essential question came up from the beaten-up son:

"So, who's the fanatic now?"

***

I really like Parvez for his attitude, especially for adapting to the place we live. Sometimes I believe right or wrong is relative, it depends on how, who, in what circumstance and where we stand at that time. An Indonesian proverb might say "Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung".

06/02/2010

Oh my...I hardly cope with fonts....
Did you know? I spent most of my time re-designing my blog, because it didn't look well on another browser and end up like the way it used to be?
Yeah...I like it better then.

05/02/2010

Schreib' Mir, Ja? (pt.2)

Crafting on a rainy day is such a bliss. I used many scraps fabric from my bestie's mum to wrap this 2004 journal. It's a lend over from my father, from a national department of whatever. I realized that the journal with black pattern fabric would definitely boring, so I dug deeper for more interesting fabrics. 
Many of my favorite things had birds drawn or sewn over it, so I decided to do the same thing with my new journal. An owl for my journal, as a raven on previous one.

04/02/2010

Where's the Message Hiding? Under Miso Mucho Bowl series!



Recent condition:
Too many beautiful scrap paper lying around the house, too many friends I've promised I would send mail to but I haven't do it yet (Entschuldigung, Leute!), too many wasted flyers I took from the workplace and too many exposure to Nick Drake, Pepepe, Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, Beach House and Sade (yes she got new album "Soldier of Love").

Results:
Cards with could-be-opened miso bowl. Inspired by the guessing game, where the bean's hiding?

But the different is, you won't lose if you guessed the wrong bowl, because it got different prizes hidden underneath.



The card also got blank side in case the message in the front is not enough to speak out your mind. I'm planning to make more of it, so stay around.