PARSONS CHALLENGE III

dreams too aren't forever. one day the hard fact of reality will come slapping right in your face. that's when you lose your innocence, naiveness, and hopes that an utopia exists in this world. or, if you are lucky enough, dreams no longer are dreams for they are now reality. in the final work, dreams are pretty, filled with things you want. then frailty of such dreams is ultimately shattered, and real life kills everything. there's a huge difference between what you want and what you can. i choose the shattered dream because that is what i have been through. it's part of growing up, when the world is no longer a playground, when you are no longer under the ever protecting shield of you parents, when you are finally on your own. things aren't as simple as they seem anymore, now you have to fight for your life, if not, you'll just be eaten by the world and starve by the streets, but sure, you'll still have your dreams.

PARSONS CHALLENGE II

many things that we know and treasure in life don't last long, be it good or bad. in the second work i produced a wilting lotus and dying leaves, a representation of the cruel beauty of things. i was lucky enough to know an 85-year old lady while i was in the states. a very nice person, but unfortunately diagnosed with alzheimers. she was the mother of my host/foster mother there. all over the house were pictures of here, ever beautiful and graceful. but there she sits in here wheel chair now, dozing and tired. i have been told many wonderful stories about her, but deep down i can't believe that this aged lady was once the spotlight in so many stories and photos. is this what we have to sacrifice and pay for being human? the priceless memories and experiences we put in so much to collect, now being forcefully taken away from our hands. from the day we were born, we have begun a journey towards death, thought everyone has a path of his own. it is a cruel and sad fact of life, that nothing is immortal. our beauty, vitality and even memories fade, situations and conditions change, people are born and die. so do we cherish this short time we own, make the best of it, and eventually feel the excruciating pain when it leaves you? or do we just leave everything as it is, knowing that i will never last and the effort put in will just be wasted, and feel nothing from the numbness we have become when it perishes?

PARSONS CHALLENGE I

i'm aik shin. a malaysian-chinese boy who just had a taste of absolute freedom and the price to pay for being a human. i live for music and friends, but i don't expect them to. for the past year i was in the states doing an exchange program. the freedom was great, but the responsibility learned was tough. if it's one thing that i've overlooked, it's the short-livedness of things, i.e. our mortality. i left the first work unfinished. a constant reminder that as humans, we have no control of when our time of death is. you maybe walking by the streets and get hit by a car, trip on something and stab yourself with the cutlery you got from the cafeteria counter. anything could happen, anytime. my inspiration was bach's last unfinished fugue, contrapunctus XIV, from die kunst der fuge. however a genius he maybe, he is still human. leaving a great masterpiece unfinished. it stuns me to listen to the piece, and it just ends like that. we all are guests in this world. when the time comes, we all have to go. there is no exception. our short lives cannot come close to being a point in the whole timeline, yet what a persons makes during this miniscule dust of time, that makes a difference. some will be remembered till eternity, some forgotten forever.

Portfolio

The Halls of Time

The Gates of Eden

The Flame of Life

Portfolio

A poem should be wordless, as the flight of birds - Ars Poetica, Archibald MacleishWhite, red construction paper on black construction paper

Never none, ever one

i hath search'd thee far and wide,

and was glad when i did so.

with hopes that wi' me thou shall abide,

and gladly you did so.

we were made for each other,

thou and i both know,

for a world against us we couldn't more bother,

i am glad i have thee through sunshine and snow.

our souls were once one,

long, long ago,

separated by hurdles which we have won,

though all was painful and slow.

But we are now one and fused again, one soul,

never shall we part again, be happy, for we are whole.

Gaël

Chalk pastels on prepared brown paper

Portfolio

Les pommes Pencil on sketchbook paper

Lemon Sharpie Pencil on sketchbook paper

Suicidal Pencil on sketchbook paper

Flight of the butterflies Pencil on drawing paper

Joshua Bell Pencil on sketchbook paper
Drawn from photo

Mstislav RostropovichPencil on sketchbook paper
Drawn from photo

Draperies Pencil on sketchbook paper

My Host Family's House Pencil on sketchbook paper

Of tymes of olde II Conté crayon on paper

Of tymes of olde I Pencil on sketchbook paper

Portfolio

CrabAcrylic on construction paper

Tortoise Acrylic on construction paper

Memories Watercolor on drawing paper

Des Fruits Watercolor on watercolor paper

Pineapple Acrylic on construction paper

Portfolio

Sadness and Despair VIInk and watercolor on watercolor paper

Sadness and Despair VInk on paper

Sadness and Despair IVInk on paper

Sadness and Despair IIIInk on paper

Sadness and Despair IIInk on paper

Sadness and Despair I Linoleum block, Print Plate

Portfolio

Shells IIIInk on drawing paper

Shells IIPencil on sketchbook paper

Shells I

Prisma color pencils on black construction paper