Warm Arty Day
My Jakarta life is back. I have started doing household chores since last night: laundry, cleaning, tidying,.. I had short morning but productive because I started quite early. I even had yoga before 7:00 which I rarely did. It was so good. I did it hard plus weight lifting. I feel that I didn’t do enough in Bali. My body had warned me, it was aching and stiff.
I wore my sarong the Indian way to an art talk by PED. We planned the talk last week when we visited a private museum. PED has extensive knowledge about Indian paintings. He was posted in India before moved to Indonesia five years ago. And it’s his birthday too. We sang birthday song in Indonesian, then English. He cut chocolate fudge cake; two other nice cakes also looked inviting. The nine ladies had all three rich cakes. I thought I could not have lunch. I felt full…
We had to start the talk immediately because PED had to be in office at 11:00. So little time. He started the talk about different style of Indian paintings. He showed us some paintings from his collection. The couple has promoted at least two unknown Indian painters. One they met when they looked for help in flooded area in India. PED recalled the day he met the artist. He was painting in front of his small house where wife, kids, in laws, rooster, and dog lived. That was his life but PED thinks he was the happiest person he ever met because he does what he likes to do. Painting is not his main job, he works in factory. PED managed to bring his painting to the world. Now his works have been exhibited in London, New York, and Paris.
The other painter is an art teacher. It’s same poor artist living in one small house with all. He liked to paint on cigarette or match box before PED asked him to paint in bigger format. His painting was super too. I loved the theme – dark skinned Indian wearing traditional accessories – very India and very Hindu.
SUS and PED thought about selling some of their collection because they will not be able to take home all. We were uh and ah because they have nice collection of many interesting arts. Lots of little art with history they brought from India and countries they visited. SUS has an art shop in her country but still they have to get rid some of their possession.
PED said that living as diplomat is not easy because they live in two worlds. It shows on the way they decorate the residence. They put art from their country and Indonesia in formal area in front and art of their interest in their private area in the back which is mostly from India and Indonesia. PED will retire after Indonesia post and enter a big house in his country but not as big as his residence now. Their Kamoro (Papua) sculpture collection will be donated to a museum in his country. They don’t have place for the collection but would like to be able to see it anytime. What an idea to donate to a museum!!
But who can stop one from talking about things (s)he is fond of? Once we pass the warm-up stage, we can talk on and on. When PED ended the talk, it was already 12:30. We were all happy though. It was a really nice talk. It's so nice of him to spare his time to share his knowledge with us. He should do more with larger audience. I guess he would do again when he ‘let go’ part of his collection before leaves Indonesia :-)
PEN and I had light lunch later. We talked about lousy auction in an auctioneer. I could not believe that people could do things unprofessionally. What a pity because actually the concept is good, only the conduct is messy. This is part of the challenge to do business. Looking around is not enough without an open mind to learn.
My arty day was not over after the long morning. NIE and JEA have their artworks displayed in an exhibition for charity. The exhibition was opened by their ambassador. It’s annual event involving 16 artists from some countries.
The house where the art are displayed was already full when I came. I met many friends, old and new, also friend artists who have their works displayed. I meet friends I don’t meet every day in such occasion. I laughed a lot, friends bring different point of art views, that a nice thing to share. Some works are really brilliant that initiated us to discuss more about the concept. An Indonesian senior artist pick lesbian-theme for his latest work. He created bronze sculptures and paintings with two nude ladies. It's interesting, it ignited naughty comments.
I was a bit headache and laughing made it worse. It seemed that I didn’t have enough liquid, I realized later. I was among the latest to go out. I made my way out silently because everyone I know was still busy with friends. It was a nice arty day!
Photo of birthday PED.