today the sea was angry and heaving, barrelling over my head and sweeping me up and under and round and round, i lose all control only knowing that i would surface to air in seconds. i dug my toes into the sand to fight the rips, i tilted my head to watch the infinite waves approach, dived under to avoid the froth, sometimes too late so the water slams into my face and nose and airways like a brick wall, wave flushed cheeks and sea salt hair. i was well. i love it, i was so happy i could die. watching the water mesmerises me, being in it calms me down, i want to be on the waves forever so i plan my journeys along coasts.

3. new friendships are a barter – conversations, drinks, vitality, the promise of a good time are currency – to get the camaraderie i crave i offer pieces of myself. here is a smile for you, here is banter, here i rise to share an anecdote from life back home. the luxury of buddies slouching in easy silence is not mine for the trip. sometimes this is fatiguing.
4. humans are faceted and malleable (keep the stalwart ones), i have seen great tenderness in the wildest wolves and it is up to me to harness the best side of every person. yet remember: the easier people come, the fickler their hearts, the easier they go ; let them with nary a backward glance, this is important.

Kuta Beach, Bali, January 2012

5. if it is unknown, eat it, touch it, experience it. fearlessness and lightness – make room for the newness that will charge in – our world pulsates with promises for the claiming. there is so much out there i have yet to comprehend.

on facebook, following a friend’s random drive to a mountain lodge, skiing off its slopes in the afternoon. i sulk. we have no splendid vistas to lose ourselves in, no vast deserts of snow, no oceans of heaving waves, we are barren ; sillypore is necessarily a matrix of constructed joy and beauty, pull the blinkers over to blind your mind. i have found the (few) things that excite me in this city – work, the straightforward pleasure of good company, the odd metropolitan cutie, stealing moments in the sun with the latter two – it is futile imagining that there are more.

Seminyak Beach, Bali, January 2012

but i am so happy here, bali has a momentum that suits me – slow bossa nova in afternoon cafes, acoustic guitar riffs on the beach, laughter and pulsating music as night breaks, there is a space for every kind of beat that you feel like and good people who dance and laugh and sing like their spirits are on fire. bali rewards those who love life and camaraderie, freedom and change, it is the lightest place i know and i am here for the good times.

1. Origami paper printed with foaming paint
2. One can always trust the boys to think up legit monster plants
3. While the girls decorate theirs like charms

In the studio, it is always a pressing challenge to strike a balance between imparting skills, and nurturing their imaginations. On one hand i need to teach them to paint a perfect leaf, draw perfect circles. On the other, their mottled purple leaves and wonky circles can turn out to be just fabulous. There are many ways to hold a brush, to subvert drawing techniques to suit your purposes. I encourage good techniques whenever i can while they make me understand that art is more encompassing and expressive than the carefully structured lists in my manual.