Well, it's Friday. This means the week is coming to an end soon.
I love the idea of calendar.
We will be lost without it. I know I will be.
Not that looking at the calendar had made me feel less lost, but at least I knew my time was running out and I had to act ASAP.
So, I have been lost for a long time. Truth. Kind of plodding along not certain of where I was heading.
Fortunately, drawing and painting pull me back.
Here are some drawings I did of a few characters I encounter this week. Trust me, I encounter many, MANY characters each week, living in one of the most popular parts of Singapore.
Some are memorable, many not so. But each one has a story I don't know. I see each person through my own eyes, and my words are not a reality that they might be living in. My words are just thoughts or reflections that I have when looking and thinking about them.
Here goes:
 |
I often saw this tall, thin lady doing stretching exercises at a void deck nearby my flat, on my way to the library (when I was working there). She wore these really well-made, expensive looking, maybe designer blouses, with loose shorts that sat just above her knees. I could see her spine protruding when she bend her body forward.
She has a handsome face. And her eyes...she doesn't look at anyone. Face expressionless. I can also describe it as calm.
Since I stopped working at the library I don't see her as much. But I saw her the other day, sitting on a metal bench at the elevator lobby, fanning herself with a brochure. I could not see what was printed on the brochure, but I caught the caption on her tee, on her chest - TODAY.
I remember that moment I saw her, because her eyes looked like they were staring blankly at some other day except today.
At my flat I hear the voices of 2 people trying their best to tell the other person that he and she isn't listening to him and her. Every single freaking day. When words that are not heard continue to vibrate through the air, they become noise.
There is so much noise around me and inside me that I go to this special corner to inhale the poison that can kill me, just a little bit at a time...
In a lovely house somewhere in Electrona there is a man who collects little dust objects. These objects are mostly globular, and they create themselves when dust particles get tossed in the air, aided by the shuffling of the man's feet on the floor. Think tumbleweeds, or the dung balls rolled and shaped by dung bettles.
I was on my way to Food Republic at Nex Mall when I encountered this uncle lying this way on the ground at the void deck. I know this uncle and he knows me too. He has a severely hunched back, so maybe that is how he looks when he lies on his back. I am not sure why his hands were that way though, he looked like he was riding a Harley Davidson bike or something. Anyway, I looked at his face and he looked rather peaceful. I was so hungry I didn't stop to check if he might have passed out or was dead or was just lying there. He often sleeps on the stone benches at the void deck, so I didn't think too much about this. But then I went home and remembered this scene in my head. (I hope he is OK)
There was a lady sitting diagonally across to my seat, eating a bowl of yummy looking crushed ice dessert, topped with some red beans and ruby-coloured jelly things, and drizzled with what looked like milk, most likely coconut milk. She started talking to me in a soft, squeaky voice. Imagine mice whispering. I quickly realised that she wasn't talking to me, she was just talking to herself.
I sat through my bowl of fish soup noodles hoping she would not do something crazy like jump up and strangle me. She kept talking and laughing and took small spoons of her dessert. She looked really, REALLY tired. I didn't wanna change table in case it might upset her.
In the little town of Wishram, witches are laying eggs in Todd's yard. His friend Peaches is very skeptical about them....
Back in Serangoon Ave 3, at a corner of a mezzanine level, Mr. T the stray cat is doing one of his favourite activities.
