Art Progress

Today I attended first meeting of summer study group at the chairwoman’s apartment. She took the first turn to talk (so she could relax the rest of summer, she said). The not-so-big apartment was full of ladies and a gentleman (the host thought he is “brave”). In total, this study group has attracted 27 ladies and one gentleman to sign up.

We were required to introduce self before the talk started. Many from the US, UK and Holland. Rest were from Germany, Australia, Japan, Indonesia (3!), Israel, Honduras (the leader), and Zimbabwe (the gentleman). The other two Indo ladies are much older than me. One lady is a professional jeweler. She has workshop to make glass beads at home. She also designs and sells in the bazaar sometimes. We are going to visit her workshop next week. I’m excited.

RK talked about Torajan (an area in Sulawesi / Celebes) jewelry. She had a superb talk. Above standard! Very alive and lots of information plus real jewelry to show. I looked at NIE. Can you talk that much? She grinned. Half an hour passed quickly. Very interesting talk.

More talk with ladies over lunch. The usual lunch mates; two Israelis RIT and AMA, PEN and myself. Interesting ‘heavy’ talk about being number one in a relationship (read: first wife). Three ladies with three opinions. I better stayed quiet as observer ha ha.

I got home tired. Jakarta was hot and humid the past few weeks. It’s hard to concentrate well after a few hours in-n-out air-conditioned 'space'. I drove home directly while thinking about my undone artwork and the deadline of Treasures of Jakarta book. I still owe the publisher suggestions on lay-out and text. Uh..

Well, finally before dark, I managed to finish the first page of my becoming-art-journal. I decided to use the first page for my personal page (not 'experience' page). I’m not really satisfied with the result.. but it’s natural. First work, haven’t explored all materials available. I haven’t created my work space either. Should be understandable!