Things That Have Taken My Breath Away In The Past Month Or So

As I was driving to the car wash today to get my cushions steam-cleaned (Arnold threw up all over the backseat yesterday when he realised we were heading for the vet) I thought about what I would be posting today. As you have probably guessed, I am now reading Finding Your Way In A Wild New World by Martha Beck, which is not on sale in Malaysia yet, but which I ordered from book depository. And I thought, wow, it takes my breath away.

I tend to be a little obsessive or haven't you guessed?

When I arrived at the car wash (after negotiating the gridlock Saturday traffic around Bangsar) and handed over my unkey keys to Mr Choong, my trusted car cosmetics person, letting him know in the meantime about the backseat and how it would need to be steam-cleaned, I think about all the things in the past month or so that took my breath away.

Firstly, I would have to give the book pride of place:



Then of course, if you've read more than a few posts here, you will realise that I'm obsessed with the following group. I think they sound like angels, but I'm grateful for the most part, that I'm alone in the car because choir boys singing in Latin is not everyone's cup of tea:



And this artist, Lee Weng Fatt. I stumbled across his work at an exhibition that I had been invited to by another artists. There were four of them there, and unfortunately, this guy had already left by the time I got there. But his work took my breath away. I just stopped and gaped. And then wondered if I'd ever find out who he is as I was pulled away to view the other artist's work.



I walked into Art Accent at Bangsar Village 2 today and asked if they had his contact details. Ended up having a really nice conversation with TJ who works there and who told me how Weng Fatt started out and how he works. Then he said he would pass on my business card to the gallery owners and they would get back to me.

Then I strolled over to the Thomas Kinkade gallery and had a long conversation with the lady who runs it. We ended up talking about the Disney pictures and I told her my favourites were the San Francisco ones. She said those are signature and running out. Everyone seems to want one of those. Well, except for the ones who collect the Disney series. In fact, she said, there were two Disney giclees sold for about RM6,300 a piece and some collectors had come along and offered RM18,000 for the same. When she called to tell the ones who bought the two paintings, they did not jump at the offer. Rather, they decided to insure their own paintings for more.

"Malaysians don't seem to think of art collection as a business. They pay a lot for pieces they love and then are emotionally attached to them."

Not only Malaysians. I remember an artist I interviewed who told me that one of the expats who'd bought two of her pieces refuses to lend them to her for exhibitions because (a) he needs to look at them everyday and (b) what if someone stole them?

She tends to laugh about this. "It's not like I'm Matisse, what? Who would want to steal my paintings?"

So this is my favourite Thomas Kinkade.



And this:



I also loved the movie, The Christmas Cottage (as you can see elsewhere in these pages), especially the character, Glen, his mentor.



I guess I just like mentors. Especially curmudgeonly ones.