catmaSutra cat art – Land on the other side of the rainbow

Land without Boundaries

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.
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

Land without boundaries is a place within. We forget that there is such a place, a place that we all wish for, a place without war, cruetly, hunger, fear, or pain. We may even feel that such a place no longer exists. We find cruelty everywhere – from the way animals are kept and slaughtered to the power of the wealthy over the poor- and we learn to walk away. I think sometimes we forget that whatever we do, we do it to ourselves. Nothing goes away in this world. It’s cause and effect. Everything gets imprinted. When we finally leave this place, there is nothing we can bring with us, just this place within us. It can be peaceful and beautiful, or it can be terrifying. Don’t move the way fear makes you move. This is a repetitive world made up of the sums of all our choices. This is a universe of potentialities, waiting for an intervention to affect the outcome. Love is an intervention. Why do we not choose it again and again?“

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.

The other side of the rainbow

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

The other side of the rainbow, on the other side of this great big world.

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.