Showing posts with label artist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artist. Show all posts

Saturday, July 8

好心疼妳

Yesterday, I turned on the laptop and had started a new entry on my blog with the intention for something entirely different.

The instant when I found out about your death, my immediate response was an audible "NO!".

Disbelief, shock, horror, and pain... so much pain. 

Whatever else I had planned for the day just went down the drain. I felt so paralyzed from doing anything constructive. 

I thought about just catching up on news about you. Although I idolize you, I had no idea what you had been up to. But it felt too much. Every snippet of you smiling, spreading sunshine and positivity felt almost.. threatening. Not even you...??

I was afraid my own thoughts will spiral down a path I dare not tread so I chose to distance myself from the news. I asked a friend out last minute and had a wonderful dinner. With champagne no less. Life does go on.

A brand new day. Begun with yoga and a fulfilling day to look forward to. 

But news related to you is hard to avoid. So many artistes shared about their interactions with you. All praises and reflections of the beautiful soul you had been. More than your singing or your dancing, I admire you for you, who you are had been as a person, a human being.

It made no sense but tears kept welling. Perhaps I should just allow myself a marathon to review all you had achieved in life. Allow these tears to flow freely. Cry my heart out but remember you at your best and celebrate you.

I listened to your final voice recording. I watched that clip of you relearning how to walk and declaring yourself a warrior. You will always be my idol. 

Late is the night, I am supposed to be sleeping. But in the darkness my pillow is  dampening.

I cannot imagine the helplessness that you must had felt to come to this decision.

真的好心疼妳 


Thursday, December 12

T-talks over K-dramas and N-flixs

During long commutes on public transport, beside Two Dots, I really enjoy my TED app.

On this particular day, out of the long list of suggested videos, Alejandro Duran's "How I use art to tackle plastic pollution in our ocean" caught my attention. Of course, the issue of plastic pollution has been on the forefront of my mind and especially so having witnessed the devastation on many of my dives in various parts of the South East Asia. This is exceptionally intriguing as it brings in the art aspect which I enjoy too!

The beauty of TED is it suggests other related and relevant videos right after you finish one. Having only completed a quarter of my journey, I let Jason deCaires Taylor's "An underwater art museum, teeming with life" to play. It reminded me of a phrase I heard from Dr Goodall about the "resilience of nature". Naturally (pun intended), she finds her own way regardless on land or under the sea.

The next video which continued to play was Zaria Forman's "Drawings that show the beauty and fragility of Earth". From the coldest and most remote of oceans to beautiful low-lying islands, nowhere is spared from the damaging effect of human behavior.

I chose the first video because I wanted to know how others deal with this seemingly unsolvable issue of pollution. By the end of the third video, I definitely felt uplifted. Which is really why I enjoy TED talks so much. To be made aware of amazing people, incredible projects and unimaginable ideas from all over the world every single day. Watching one TED talk is actually an item on my daily habit tracker list.

Perhaps none of the three speakers, all of them artists, made any direct difference in the production of plastic or the pace of climate change but I can see the potential impact of their art. Art is not useless. In fact, I feel it is very relevant. In our current situation, we need to tug the heartstrings more than ever to effect change. The work of these artists are beyond words and I can't think of a better way to stir emotions than being dumbfounded by what you experience.


I hope to participate in a beach cleaning that yields art materials, and personally swim through the underwater art museum, and behold the magnificence of the finger painter's compositions. Three items on my bucket list which would not come to be if not for these short and sweet TED talks.

What have you learnt from TED recently?