white space, white noise

Breaking Ranks
Photoshop 7
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Not sure exactly what it's supposed to mean, if I had to I'd say it's the search for identity and dignity, and the struggle with being.

Life's been fine so far.

Art - meant to inspire? Or a display of inspiration?
Inspiration - invalid if non-conforming?

Just a couple of days back, I was told by someone that real good art inspires the viewer. This critic, a man probably into his 60s and carrying with him an air of condescending seniority, seemed to insist and genuinely believe that the viewer, or if you may, art buyer, is king. I wouldn't blame him, on retrospect it feels like he was coming from the typical capitalist camp, refusing to accept what I had to say about my work, and would rather have his own interpretation of the piece be heard. I'm not sure if he did see that it was in fact a bash on what his (assumed) affluent, prosperous, successful life was built upon, but I'm sure he did it partly to spite the Artist.

What does it take for one to understand that representational art could exist as symbolist art?

I can take misinterpretations, it is all part of reaction and interaction. Having my work printed on canvas bags albeit for charity's salesake without my permission is bad enough but forgivable. Yet despite taking explicit care to point out that Decadent Progression is not a piece about a futuristic fantastical dystopia but an illustrated archetype of Man's present and unavoidable decadence, I still get shit printed on worksheets proclaiming otherwise.

What does it take to ignore that stigmatic label of student under which this work was created, and just judge me, not even as an artist, but as a person who has something to say with a painting?

The artist painted a vision of the future in ‘Decadent Progression’. Describe the landscape depicted. What role does mankind play in sustaining such an advanced society? Is this a positive outlook of the future?

I'll tell you what it describes. It describes me, you and everyone as slaves to a system which we are heralded to be successors of. It describes with sarcasm the nature of work which we undertake; the climbing of the social ladder; the constant progression we're pushing; our unidentifiable personalities; the gloom which we submerge ourselves in; the moulded lifestyles we lead; the motions which we repeat; it describes blindness, submission, death, life, breath and suffocation; and it more than anything else describes man's fall from grace. And mankind has a role in every part of it, there should be no illusion of machines being in control, or of a souless entity enslaving him, he is in full control and this reality is a result of decisions made by the collective history of humanity.

And no, it was never meant to be positive, the truth hurts so cut the politically correct sterilised and patched up version of pain you're feeding your children. Deal with it, it'd help them more if they got a punch in the face than to be living a lie bred under censorship and celebrated under rosy limelights.

Singaore Youth Festival Gold with Honours, and I ought to feel honoured?

So I've been posted to 3rd DA Battalion at ADSD and thus begins my true National Service. Being the active operational unit that it is, don't expect me to post much about its daily going-ons, what I can say is that it's a stay-in vocation, so I probably will not be here much for the coming months. I can also say that my schedules will get pretty messy and uncertain, with weekday guard duties and weekends burnt.

If there's anything, email me (may be jumbled up and thrown out with a ton of spam, try both the hotmail and gmail ones) leave a comment (same, sifting through the tons of trash I get daily is tedious work, and imagine doing it for an accumulated pile at the end of the week) shout at the shoutbox (may not work at times) or message me (91701984, only if it is concerning something very urgent, but if you're bored, and if I'm bored I'll reply). Do not, other than under the most dire circumstances, call me, I rarely pick up unknown calls.

Surf
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Glare
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Both from Beezewax's set. In short Baybeats 2006 was awesome, but mostly because of Sunday's lineup. Got lots more shots to sort out, but am bloody tired right now (only got home little more than an hour ago) and I have to pack my stuff and get ready to stay in after I receive my unit posting tomorrow. So I guess I'll leave it to next week. Adios.

Baybeats is here.

Been doing some random jobs in the past few weeks. Actually "job" may be a misleading word to some, because I'm not getting paid for any of this; but it's fun, I get to help a friend, and it counts as practice, so why not when I have nothing to lose?

This is a graphical overhaul of The Sir. Community's website, the idea came expanded from their last site's splash interface, which I had made some months back.

Old Sir. Community website splash navigation
Photoshop 7
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New Sir. Community website backdrops
Photoshop 7
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Various levels of editing was involved in each backdrop in this series, all of which started from a screenshot taken from Battlefield 2. Most of the work came in creating and adding the "Sir. signpost" and making it fit into the ingame environment.

I've also got a T-shirt graphic here made for my V200 AFV course that's ending next week.

What Traffic?
Photoshop 7
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It's true, when we go on the roads (those who live in the Yishun-Sembawang-Khatib area may have seen us before) people just stare, and most motorists would rather avoid us if given a choice. It's no wonder, the vehicle is large, dark, heavy, powerful, loud and not like anything else on the roads. At cross-junctions it's amusing to see drivers and passengers turn their heads to follow our direction of travel as we drive past them. Children point and wave smiling as pedestrians step back from the kerbsides, it's like we (or maybe the prominent L-plates) exude a certain aura of reverence (or danger). As a driver, or standing from the rear hatches and observing, you can't help but feel some pride, some semblence of purpose, finally. It's better when people know what you're doing, you don't feel alone, wasted and used. Even if just superficial speculation that's detatched from true appreciation, you feel like you have a real part to play in the country's defence.

After next week (presuming we pass the test on Tuesday) we'll be posted to our parent units to assume our operational roles; we probably won't be going on the roads too much; we'll be staying-in; going out-field; performing daily maintenance; learning the ropes from the laojiaos (old birds), it'll certainly be different then, I'm just hoping for commanders that deserve and command my respect, and then I'll be ready for anything.

Challenge to growth
Photoshop 7
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Revisiting the theme of man's decadent progression in his addiction to materiality.