the observatory

Certain works takes a period of time, been reworking on this pieces, repaint it all over again and again. I always didnt snap photos of the process - even though i always emphasized to my students about the importance of documentation.....( the irony ) anyway will complete few more pieces to complete my "Breaking Bad" phase. Again Walter White a.k.a. Heisenberg is an awesome subject, the show itself is worthy to be evaluated, discussed and qualified to be an extreme example of awesome cultural artifact. I titled it as The Principles of Uncertainty, its apt as this painting goes several transformations on it's own. Below is the first version, Em put it out - something missing, my usual "awesomeness" and i agreed... after long pondering....i repaint it - i'm sticking to this. Period.

He Man is one of my least favourite 80's cartoon, its cheesy and the characters is all bulky and badly drawn, but i have soft spot for Skeletor and Orko. Anyway did this, you guys can use this if you want. I normally will post this pic to comment on any idiotic remarks or comments in the social media. It seems that everything posted in the social media able to go viral, for example the word ALE UTO, actually its a local slang for kepala butoh .....meaning dickhead ...its funny to see that people used that word casually - worst the ones who doesn't know what it means.  

Documentary is a pain in the arse work. Its totally a different medium than short film or ads. We need to figure out an angle, structure a narrative out from primary sources. This process can take up months, years. This is one of my old doumentary i collaborated with MGTF primarily with Hasnul called Still Waters. My pal Hasnul round up a whole goons to document the lives of people who lives in SG Pinang, mind you i was aghast to see it was so dirty when they previewed me the visuals, so i sat down with Sham and basically spend hours and hours analyzing and conjuring an angle to the materials. The visuals were poor and unstructured. Cant blame them, it was taken by students without any briefings. Anyway it took me 3 days to make it to an acceptable narrative, its not one my best but i need to highlight it as it was displayed well.  If you guys wants to check out the video, here's the link

Its great to know that someone is happy with your creative work. This painting is a spin off direction based on the mechanism of the universe series. Entitled - We Are Small. This is how Nanny ( the client ) put it - "when i first saw it, it made me think of a restless soul seeking for itself, yet gave me a feeling of peace." Well Nanny, you are right, this painting explores the observations of incidents, people, events that revolves around us, the best part is we are part of it, it may be overwhelming at times, confusing, but we need to learn that we need to trust the universe. Glad you love it and somehow understand where im coming from without any pompous artist statement shit which the gallery loves to do. 

Lately been developing more visuals - again its movie/film related. However i need time to reflect on this and decide which one i will choose, finalize and print it to kick start my series of postcards. Why postcards? Its tangible and everyone able to afford it, rather than an one off item. Most of the time, i can be choosy even to the extend of buying anything that is film/movie related posters or prints. I like simplicity, simple graphics that says everything. I believe there are people out there who appreciate this sort of stuffs.  So i need to find reliable awesome printers who able to give me a fair price. Its simple, i believe we must give the best to others.  Here is Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction for you.

Bring out the gimp, but the gimp is sleeping.

It took me so long and just one fine day, i decide to sell half of these away, keeping only the ones that i loves the most. Sometimes, you can only shake your head - wondering and asking why on earth you collect toys. I started out buying Star Wars in 1995 till now. Seriously i stopped halfway - realizing that you need to streamline and edit back what you have.  So what remains here now is only the AT-AT, X-Wing, Millenium Falcon, Lego's and my vintage Kenner figures. sold all of this sold all of them except the Imperial Shuttle keeping this - its the original Kenner figures. I sold off all the modern POTF figures kept the At-At, Star Destroyer and the Shuttle, upgraded the Falcon to the BMF version only Lego's remained. this is how i transport all of them from my mum's place to my place 15 years worth of collecting and curating plastic stuffs....

Unexplainable.......Hillarious and Amazing  and i found out that the word beer can be pretty delusional too i would love to put MC Hammer " You cant Touch This" as a backing track for this visual

This is the reason why i still loves truck or huge ass cars, I remember vividly i followed my mum went to a wet market and saw a stall selling those plastic toys and one of those is the iconic Kenworth truck - damn, its the Bj and the Bear truck. My mum bought it for me, and this is one of the earliest favorite toys, so i will just lie on my stomach, in the middle of our small living room - spending hours and hours on the floor pretending im the truck driver...until one fine day, entah apahal, my mum was rushing for something, she ran out from the kitchen and steps on it.Imagine a rampaging King Kong escaping something and in the middle of the action - smashing a truck. Man............. Fast forward, in 2014, Hotwheels reignited my 5 year old in me. Awesome!!!!!One thing that is missing is the trailer......but beggars cant be choosers....it the freaking Bj and the Bear truck man!!!! Another icing on the cake is - i manage to clear out all those other nonsense die cast cars i boug...

Life is filled with alot of sudden changes......we need to rise up and.....move on. From a hired assassin having a wallet named Bad Motherfucker, got a divine intervention on the job and decided to walk away and becoming a wandering monk.

Im a huge nut sci-fi fan, gobbling up anything that involves around the spaceship, astronauts and etc. I was happy when India able to send up the Mars Orbiter Station within a budget which i think can pay Christopher Nolan's hairdresser fee. I like indie short films, films that requires a simple set, simple set up and something that involves tragedy. So i managed to round up 5 of my film students for this project called 455 days. The budget is really tight and using only 3 shooting days, without any post production facilities or services, i rely entirely on the practical set lighting.  Have fun watching.

Im lucky to be able to converse my thought in various materials ranging from paintings, in the performing arts and finally in the film medium. This is one of my documentary, i was pretty ecstatic when it was chosen to screen in a festival called Chopshots in Jakarta early this year. Kinda short and different but i need to express this based on the conversation i had with a monk in early 2012.The animators who worked with me in this are super duper talented and they able to finished it within a month. Awesome right? Anyway thank you to the Organizers and the juries who select the film, i know its not easy, but you guys have my appreciation. its nice to see the program book  is designed tastefully. film still - the conversation, 2014

Need to document my conversation with my fellow pal, only Quentin Tarantino able to make Ving Rhames got fucked in the ass by the gimp. Marsellus: I'm prepared to scour the the Earth for that motherfucker. If Butch goes to Indochina, I want a nigger hiding in a bowl of rice ready to pop a cap in his ass.

I broke my left leg in a motorbike accident, it took me almost 9 months to be back on my feet. Seriously the 9 months of recovery is so long, and this year 2014 - reminds me of this phase. Dark, long and gloomy. So many things happened. But lo and behold, all these will pass. Nothing last forever and honestly i cant wait to say goodbye to this particular tiring year. Knowing im a huge Star Wars and WWE fan, I got this from my colleagues, bless the soul who drew this.It cheered me up. Like what my bro told me - not all good things when things are good and not all bad things when you having a bad time. jokes and well wishes scribblings cool right?

I hate taxi drivers - period. Seriously dont get me wrong, i met couple of good responsible ones too, but as one of the Bangladeshi's petrol pump attendant told me, 99% percent of taxi drivers are shit. Basically they will overcharge customers with their magical imaginary calculators. Cmon man, you cant get rich and you need to ask yourself a question, how long you want to people to curse you. Duit Haram, watercolor on paper 2014

Rene Magritte explored this, love this work when i first stumbled upon it. Deconstructing relationship between words and visuals. The grandfather of inter-text and this is my homage. After Landa, ink watercolor on paper 2014

Shariputra, Form does not differ from emptiness Emptiness itself is a Form Form itself is Emptiness So are Feeling, Cognition, Formation and Consciousness The state of nature are empty from all characteristics. They are not produced. They are not destroyed, defiled, not pure or neither increase or diminish. Therefore in EMPTINESS - there is no FORM, FEELING, COGNITION, FORMATION or CONSCIOUSNESS No eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and most importantly no mind, no sights, sounds, smells, taste, objects to touch or dharmas. No ignorance or ending of ignorance no old age no death There are no suffering, no accumulating, no extinction, no understanding and no attaining.  Gate-gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha This is an important text which i manage to find when i went back to Melaka. It was stored in my room for years and true enough, this is the answers i seek. In the end of the day, what we are accumulating? What we are looking for actually? So what Buddha said i...

I spend few weeks isolating myself, battling and most importantly to still my mind. Its very tough. For years, ive been analyzing books concerning the fundamentals of religion, theology and yes philosophy. Huxley's is still my favorite. Im intrigued and actually loves to analyze and ponder the elements religions offer to us.  Again its very sad to see people associate religion as some sort FORM instead of PRACTICE and ACTION . When it comes to FORM, people tend to associate themselves. Somehow people need to realize that we need to go beyond FORM. with our so called busy life, we dont find time instead of finding time to reflect upon the things we did. Anyway we are just small pieces that contribute to the big picture. We are insignificant - but the time we living now makes us think otherwise. FB and other social media tools doesnt help.Everyone loves to be who they are not. Everyone loves attention and somehow caught in something. Isolating oneself is not easy, you nee...

I stumbled upon Pulp Fiction earlier before i able to hunt down Reservoir Dogs. Initially i prefer the Dogs over Pulp, but over the years, i found out that Pulp Fiction had a better advantage in terms of script, direction and the way how the narrative is presented. Quentin definitely knows his stuffs when he presented the Dogs. Few elements in the Dogs such as minimal symbolic objects such as briefcase, skinny ties, camera angles ( MCU ) were carried and explored further in Pulp. Most critics said he plagiarized Ringo Lam's City on Fire, but hey who doesn't copy each other right? Everyone will somehow bring their influences in their work in one way or another.  and yes, its inevitable for you not to play this image in your mind every time you listen to this track. 

Been out of touch with her for months, Rosa got hold on to me and asked me for a Spidey. Her one and only kid is a huge fan. Well me too, and i told him that you going to get a mixture of Steve Ditko, Sal Buscema and Mcguire in this. Rosa texted me the next day and told me this blew the kid away.  took me couple of minutes to get the right angle. getting the base is easy, but its takes awhile for the shadings Voila!!!!!