catmaSutra cat art – Land on the other side of the rainbow
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That’s not for human beings. Move within,
but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
~Rumi
SPCA and Cat Welfare Society are offering a $2,000 Reward* for information leading to the apprehension and prosecution of the person/s who may be responsible for the suspected poisoning of cats at Bayshore Park condominium since Thursday, 11 June. Please call SPCA at 6287 5355 ext 9. You may be required to assist the police in their investigation. The affected felines were found unconscious or disoriented. Five have since died or have been put down. Cruelty to animals is a crime under Singapore law and is punishable by imprisonment of up to 12 months and/or fine of up to $10,000.
Some nights stay up till dawn,
as the moon sometimes does for the sun.
Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way
of a well, then lifted out into light
Something opens our wings. Something
makes boredom and hurt disappear.
Someone fills the cup in front of us.
We taste only sacredness.
If I open my eyes, I can see the blue sky.
And the sunlight on my face, and the sounds of birds…
It’s easier than fear and all its derivatives…
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. Check out the paintings for this new cat art exhibition at www.catmasutra.com
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.
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…
Free catmasutra cat art wallpaper
When Nature Calls (2008) WallpaperI have lost my rhythm and I was trying to find it back. It won’t come, of course. That’s not how rhythms work. It has to do its thing first. The journey is to find it back. We all do this one time or another (or maybe it’s just me for I can’t live on the surface of things). Like most things, when you look for it, it’s not there but when you’re ready (and perhaps not expecting it) it appears. I saw a little boy at the supermarket yesterday, standing still. Amidst the maddening crowd, this little kid was there holding up a single prawn with his fingers, slowly rotating and looking at it from different angles. I stood there for a while, watching him and I realized he was completely captivated by the prawn. It was almost as if he finally understood what a prawn really is. The mother returned with a disapproving look and sent him off to wash his hands – the real world beckons – there is no time for magic.
I sell magic beans ’cause I believe in them. It’s not something that you keep to yourself. There’s just no fun in that. Besides, it helps me to believe in them. See the eyes sparkle for an instant, feel the heart open a little – there’s the magic, however fleeting. Alas, if you’re like most people (or like Jack’s mother) you probably throw them away. There is no place for magic. I sell magic beans because one day when you look at your backyard, you may be able to see a huge beanstalk growing; and if you’re lucky enough you could even climb it, steal a glimpse above the clouds. It’s hard to believe in magic when no one else believes in it. Yet we all believe in it once upon a time.
Many times I’ve told myself not to sell magic beans anymore simply because there are no takers. What’s the point? Why do I care? There’re so many things on sale these days. No matter how many were bought, the shelves keep filling themselves up (almost like magic). Where do all these things go? If that’s not enough, we have the 24-hour Valium of the television to lose ourselves in.
“If everything I have become were not machine-made I
might be able to take the risk of being human with you.”
~Jeanette Winterson
Cat art collectibles & the Art of water from Catmasutra!
The Art of Water
New cat art collectibles from Catmasutra!
Collect all 5 elements from the catmaSutra ‘Enlightened Series’
(Highly recommended: the keepsake boxes, tile coasters, and framed tiles!)
Many an artist have been inspired by the gentle beauty of water. Aaron Lye (for PURE magazine Oct-Dec 2008) talks to artist PAUL KOH about how water inspires him in his art.
Many an artist have been inspired by the gentle beauty of water. Aaron Lye (for PURE magazine Oct-Dec 2008) talks to artist PAUL KOH about how water inspires him in his art.
So Paul. Tell us a bit about yourself. I have always been interested in drawing since I was a kid. I have no idea where that inclination comes from, but I always preferred looking at pictures and drawing them rather than reading books. Of course, the belief then as is now, is that art has no viable career path. It took me a long time to come back to it, and as it happened, I started work as an editor for a publisher of children’s books, and that opened my eyes to a rich and multi-layered world of illustration and magic. I started clamoring to do some of the illustrations, and in my next job, I got involved with web design. That’s when I knew this is where I want to be. They’re two different things, art and design, but they belong to the same family tree.
How did you first find yourself getting into art? Where did your love for painting come from?
It’s a natural inclination. I’m the only one in my family who has this passion. As a child, I’m already very visual. It’s a more emotional and direct way of expression, especially when you have a vivid imagination. I think drawing or art has a more direct relationship with imagination. When you are using your imagination, you’re more likely to think in pictures than words. Even now, I don’t really ‘read’ magazines but ‘consume’ the emotional content of the images. So my love for painting comes from this desire to make my imaginings come true, so to speak.
I understand you’ve experimented with a unique, abstract style of painting that makes use of water. How did this start? Where did the inspiration come from? Can you describe the process of working in this style? When I was working on “Fluid Abstractions”, it was a platform for me to become more intimate with the act of painting. You become an extension to the painting process. As you delve deeper and deeper into an art piece, you begin to explore your relationship with it. Brushes are used as whips, hands as brushes, water as paints. The spontaneity becomes important; the ‘natural’ way in which each painting reveals itself becomes the source of inspiration and creativity. Water – its fluidity – becomes central in developing this series. One of the inspirations comes from trying to fuse Chinese ink brush paintings with abstract art.
In your opinion, what is it about this particular style that makes it stand out from more traditional methods of painting? It alludes to the mysterious space between matter and spirit. There is a gap separating the intent of the artist, and the spontaneous manifestation of the paints on the canvas. It is a very intuitive mode of painting even though it can be frustrating. It can take you round and round until you are able to find it in yourself to say that it is finally finished, that it has reached an agreement with your heart and emotions.
Do you still use this technique in your paintings today? Has it influenced your later works in any way? I still use certain techniques in my later works. It becomes part of my repertoire of adding depth and texture, especially the pattern and flow of water.
Tell us a bit about your more current works – the Catmasutra series of paintings. Well, I have been illustrating since young, and growing up with cats means that my two passions seem destined to be linked together. And it did – when my first painting of a happy cat was sold in 2003 from the exhibition, Project Mooch. The first Catmasutra exhibition in 2004 was a sold out, and the series developed from there. For me, Catmasutra is about telling a happy story, a reminder to see the positive side of things, and even possibly the magic in between. I take stuff that we commonly come into contact through our surroundings, the media, etc. and present a moment in a story that is personal and yet universal. I’m fascinated with the flow of energy that vibrates in between, that blurs the line between reality and myth, between the power of everyday and the power of imagination. I conceptualize Catmasutra as part of this in-between world. The “eyes-wide-shut” and irrepressible “ear-to-ear” grins of the cats are representative of this energy – that in spite of life’s imperfections, there is always a positive side, good enough for a smile!
I’ve noticed that quite a few of your Catmasutra paintings feature water scenes. Any particular reason for this? I love the spontaneity and fluidity of water. This was evident in the Fluid Abstraction series and this follows through to the Catmasutra series. Personally, I love the sky and rain. Water has a calming effect, rain a redemptive quality and sky, freedom. These are the most beautiful things and they are always here with us. Perhaps that’s why, inadvertently these elements find their way into many of my paintings.
What do you usually do for inspiration for your art? I get my inspiration from everywhere, magazines, movies, art, design, illustration, popular culture, etc. There are a myriad of energies all around us, so we can tap into these energies, distill them and re-energise them in a way that works for ourselves. In essence, there’s beauty and freshness everywhere once we choose to see it.
Where’s your favourite water-related location in Singapore? In the world? I love Marina Bay, especially the view from the highest point of the ECP, where the city looms in front, flanked by the bay and sea beyond. As for the world, it has to be Venice. It has a unique colour, a reflective luminance unlike any other city.
Catmasutra 5 painting exhibition
18th – 28th DECEMBER 2008
@ UTTERLY ART
229A South Bridge Road Singapore 058778 2nd Level
Opening reception: Thursday 18th December 2008 at 7pm
Opening hours: 11am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday
When Seasons Change
Outside, the freezing desert night.
This other night inside grows warm, kindling.
Let the landscape be covered with thorny crust.
We have a soft garden in here.
The continents blasted,
cities, and little towns, everything
become a scorched, blackened ball.
the news we hear is full of grief for that future,
but the real news inside here
is there’s no news at all.
Friend, our closeness is this:
anywhere you put your foot, feel me
in the firmness under you.
How is it with this love.
I see your world and not you?
listen to the presences inside poems.
Let them take you where they will.
Follow those private hints,
and never leave the premises
the tent – by Rumi
The tree of life
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel.
None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
–Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
It occurred to me time and again, the importance of art simply because of its implied freedom to explore and express. Art, in all its forms, as paintings, or words that form images in our head, is a search within, the road seemingly less traveled in today’s world…
it’s Christmas time
peace
Catmasutra Painting Exhibition – Imagine-Nation!
painting show coming your way this August!
www.catmasutra.com
About the exhibition…
Singapore is considered one of the most efficient countries in the world. Just as this systematic efficiency has brought us success, it has also left an indelible imprint on our subconscious, where “truth” is seen and valued in terms of a prescribed path to success and happiness. This exhibition, “Imagine-Nation” asks us to look within instead, to listen to our own thoughts for a change, and plant these thoughts and consciously choose the path that we really want to take. Inherently, it attempts to expose our collective delusions about the”pre-programmed” nature of our life, and the prescribed notions on the best way to live…
Using the Catmasutra cats in social and surreal settings, this collection aims to provoke thoughts about our lives in our urbanized city in a quirky and irreverent way. References from popular and local culture are used and weaved as a counterpoint in each painting. The essence of the Catmasutra cats is based on their eyes-wide-shut, ear-to-ear grin, which translates to a deep-seated childhood innocence cum devil-may-care bravado, with a healthy dosage of self-belief and unpretentiousness… This serves as an anchor for all of Catmasutra paintings…
CATMASUTRA : IMAGINE-NATION
6th – 17th AUGUST 2008
@ FORTH GALLERY
69A pagoda street
Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday 1130am to 7pm
Monday and public holidays by appt only
More about the new paintings soon…
CATMASUTRA ~ The Enlightened Series
only in falling…
The Map of Unchartered Occurrences“We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It’s just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn’t have expected.” ~ Ben Okri
The Pilgrimage“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours… and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.” ~ Bob Moawad
Kiss Pressed like a flower“In mysterious ways the heart reveals itself to be like a flower that opens and closes. this is our nature. ” ~Jack Kornfield
Just SittingA solo exhibition by Paul Koh
Opening Reception & RSVP:
Wednesday, 4 June 7pm
tel: (65) 6348 7793
Paintings will be displayed till 19 June 2008
CATMASUTRA – THE ENLIGHTENED SERIES
CATMASUTRA – THE ENLIGHTENED SERIES
4th – 19th JUNE 2008
@ ARTOHOLIC GALLERY
422 joo chiat road
Opening Hours:
monday-friday: 12pm – 7pm
saturday : 10am – 9pm
Paintings will be displayed till 19 June 2008
There was quite a bit of research that goes into these 5 paintings. I was looking for ways to represent the five elements, and in a way, imbue the paintings with the qualities of each element. Fire is an element that is filled with energy, resonating with qualities of dynamism, strength and persistence. It is very active and vibrant, and it moves outward, expanding with the potential of going into full bloom, energised by the colour red (which is associated with extreme luck). It is associated with fame and good name, and the way of making one visible in the world. It is the flame that provides warmth, creativity and enthusiasm. And there’s the fire from the heart as everything external is a reflection of the internal. And for strength and solidity, the abstraction of a stone statue of Buddha meditating, igniting the flame of fire.
As it is, the 5 elements are more phases or dynamic states of change, and as always, balance is key. An excess of fire can also burn in the destructive cycle, resulting in aggression, impatience, anger or impulsive behaviour. Our sense of self or the way the world plays out for us is a play of patterns. Each stage is always a phase, transient and ever changing; when we’re caught up in it, we never believe it to be so. haha It’s only when the phase has taken its turn, that we look back and realise that it has passed. And with that, we get older and hopefully wiser wahahahaha…
The earth element was a little more difficult to conceptualize. ‘Earth’ is a great transformer that serves as a transition between elements. It is both yin and yang, its energy moving inward and centering, drawing all things towards its core, bringing harmony, balance, rootedness and stability. It is associated with earth tones, and yellows, and qualities such as patience, thoughtfulness, hard work and stability. I included in the painting the quality of change, of seeds with the potential to grow below ground, and seeds being scattered above it. The cat lies unperturbed by the cycle of things from the invisible to the visible, secure in the grounding of the roots, and safe in the open palm…
The Catmasutra Totebag…
Been busy doing a few freelance and commission projects, and my other two exhibitions in June and August are coming up. Yep, I’m gonna be tied up for a bit… Good thing about this ‘break’ is that you get to choose how you wanna live your day, every day. You get to face your own ups and downs, and know your own mind a little better as you are not ‘regulated’ or ‘distracted’ externally. Everything is a cycle and everything changes – that is the only guarantee in life (other than death and taxes). So it’s also about training yourself to live in the here and now. That is the only proper way to live. Otherwise, we’re just leaking days that we can never recollect because they’re not special in any way. Haha the real mystery of life is always in the here and now; in the very least, you’ll realize that you’re alive to live this day.
Māo, zì dòng
“Cat, Automatic” a literal translation which is a subtle reference to Halo’s ability to sleep automatically everywhere. Wahahahah! Now you can get the totebag at CafePress. This is one of my favs and it looks cool on other stuff as well. There are so many things that we do, think, or feel automatically – all seemingly beyond our control. Truth is, they’re automatic because we have been practicing them for years (the good and bad stuff)! So if you want to change anything, you just have to change your thought patterns and re-wire them habitually. Negativity, fear and doubt are all useless emotions as they just delay whatever you want to achieve. And it’s not a nice way to live haha!
All degrees of failure are based on timidity
~Prentice Mulford
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