Art to Anticipate

Today is the first meeting of Heritage summer study group. Many of my friends from art group joined because.. it studies the Jewelry of Indonesia! Another form of art! The theme is interesting but the disclaimer is more inviting (You don’t need to attend all meetings. You can join when you are around.)

We laughed out loud after reading the disclaimer. So perfect for non-committal ladies like us ha ha.. We are all afraid of commitment especially commitment to study in summer!

Four of us arrived a bit late. Looking at the other members, we sank, most were older and.. they looked serious! It was a serious study group. There will be twelve meetings every Tuesday morning starting next week and each week a or a-pair-of member is required to make presentation.

It was repeated many times by the leader that the presentation is not a doctorate thesis (but still required ten to twelve pages, fits doctorate thesis proposal ha ha). We are allowed to clip from any source available as long as we cite the sources. And it’s best if we can hold show-n-tell session.

It was also emphasized that non-English speaker can organize a trip instead of making presentation. Heritage tried so hard not to scare people away, of language limitation or heavy homework. Hm fair enough.

I made quick count heads. More than 15 members attending (one man!!). Hm.. I have a chance to pair up then. I squeezed my memory what I have in my collection to do the show-n-tell. I have some nice metal pendants from Timor. I can find the information about those. Hm.. Plan A.

What’s my Plan B? I wrote a little note to PEN, asked her to pair up with me organizing trip to visit IW – an American jeweler lives in Jakarta who adopts Indonesian motifs into his exquisite designs. That counts! At least we have something to write in ‘commitment sheet’. PEN preferred to hold it near the end of the season, in August. Perfect! They accepted our proposal.

Piece of cake then. I like IW for his work. He is nice and knowledgeable person too. PEN and I will visit him before she is off to Oz one month. A simple write up about him and done is our task in summer study group. We can relaaax in other meetings held by other members. Smiiile.

Yaa members of our art group are spoiled members. We liked to learn new art, but no writing please.. No report please.. We shared details of our visit but that’s just it. So it’s good to join other study groups which really study, for a change.

I didn’t know that PEN and RIT planned to go to a Malaysian lady who tailors clothes. Oh okay.. would love to join them. I have told myself not to buy anything. I tailored some nice silk blouses to go with batik in the past. I have enough of it. But after an hour, I decided to order a nice spandex wrap-round long skirt. Very elegant and sexy. Great design to fit any size of body and allow many styles! Brilliant!

I dropped by FRA a minute on the way back to pick up gift from YUG's boy, went to Body Shop, and had coffee with PEN. I’m going to a get-together at cousins’ house this evening. Their 88th grandmother’s birthday. I bought nice rose scent of lotion and soap bar to match at Body Shop. What else can I give to a lady of the age? PEN suggested me to buy ticket of a cruise in Malaysia. What PEN? Or a set of old movie DVDs, or CD of singers from her time,.. I only had a few hours left. No way. And those fancies would just be suitable for PEN's and my 88th birthday. If we are lucky to keep the… spirit!! Ha ha..

Enough talking about old age and where to spend the rest of our life. We discussed it along the way in the middle of frustrating traffic. So hilarious! Now being at home, I feel a bit tired but nice feeling. Nice to know that I have something to anticipate in the coming three months. New art, new friends, new knowledge, new… many.

Shown in photo is the gift from MIMO – 4-year old son of YUG. Very nice! I haven’t interviewed the mommy about the art. Apparently mommy ‘touched’ the art with computer. But it’s so nice to have someone shares their kid’s art. I will display it among my funky collection. It’s a POP ART!