boo and poo’s land

After almost of two months here in the elite America from the world (maybe with exception of China and the strong Euro countries), Susie and I are starting to get settled down. We did a few ‘bandage’ repairs on a few eye sore places around our home. I just started teaching ASL just two weeks ago at a local high school here. After the academic experience in Madagascar, I’ve been pondering whether I would like to teach in the future as a new career from my design career. I have to say that I’m bit burned out from doing the design stuff for a while, yet I don’t get the motivation to do the new design at this moment. Heck, I got myself a new Macbook Pro, and the Adobe Studio is waiting to be dissected by me. Yet, I haven’t been able to find the passion in it that I did back in the past years. Also, I have been rummaging through my belongings in the storage room and I kept getting the same question, “Why did I have this?” while my new friends at Madagascar aren’t able to get these luxuries that I got 10 years ago. Definitely, the trip to Africa has given me a humbling experience despite my addiction to globe-trotting experiences. So far, I think Madagascar journey has been a wonderful chapter, especially when my darling, Susie, has been going through some ‘hellish’ moments there. At this moment, with my usual I will just follow the path whatever I see in front of my eyes, though I do have the itch to escape out of America. But with the majority of foreign currencies going banging hard against our weak dollars, I’m just glad that I’m going to stay hermit in America for a while This is such a jolly time to save $$$ for the education, family, and nature!

just before we left for africa, i have been following tessar lo’s paintings (http://www.tessarlo.com) for some time through his sister, alice. since he was having a breakthrough with the LA art scene, i just knew that i had to get a commissioned painting from him before his schedule gets too crazy. while i knew that his paintings emphasize the colors of emotion, they do remind me well of my darling as she likes to be emotional occasionally. so i decided to surprise her with mr. lo’s painting by the time we get back home from africa. i thought it would be a nice present for her by the time we get back home.

mr. lo and i have corresponded through a series of emails when i was back in madagascar and finally, we have come to the correct image of what i would like to see for susie. since susie was born in the year of tiger and she absolutely LOVES to sleep as well. also, her mind likes to flutter around sporadically and the fact that she is an introvert, i thought that it would be a perfect fit for a girl and tiger to be associated to represent susie.

once we got back home, the painting was ready, but it was waiting in LA and i have arranged with mr. lo to pick it up in LA because we had a wedding to attend in LA a couple of weeks later. but unfortunately, mr. lo was out of town and had his roommate take care of it. for the past two weeks, i had told susie that it took me almost a year to prepare for this surprise. she was being suspicious occasionally about the surprise and begged me to know what was it…

finally, when we got to the place where i was supposed to pick up the painting, i told susie that we were going to tessar’s place to pick up something and immediately, she knew that it was a piece of artwork. but the question still remains, what kind of artwork???

so, here is the painting that susie and i have found to be very sorrowfully beautiful and we hope that you do agree…

The whole painting

Close details of the girl sleeping

Close details of the tiger - you know how the tiger is supposed to be fierce… but in this painting, she shows to be sad yet her massive body indicates that she is capable of conquering the world.

mr. lo did a marvelous job using the background to captivate the beautiful aura of a dream. also, notice how her dress ‘melts’ into the background.

I have always loved to see how can one get a different perspective from standing at a different angle. I just think that many people tend to look at the painting directly at the T-intersection.

Once Susie saw the painting, her face just glowed and I am elated because if she didn’t like it very much, I would have been doomed to spend $$$ for nothing and she’d be going crazy on me!

Anyway, I will post up a couple of pictures of the murals that my students and I did in Madagascar at the school sometimes later. Also, Mr. Lo was gracious enough to contribute some painting supplies for the students. thank you, mr. lo!