Double Happiness

(“Help the Elephant”, my latest painting) I used to afraid of what would Mom think knowing that her only daughter is pretty much passionate in doing art. I was scared and also worried that she and Dad wouldn’t agree or permit me to spend time playing with my imagination or messing myself up with those washable colour paints. To be honest, those kind of feeling had been started to infiltrate my self barrier since I officially got this kind of title, apparently, ‘the Biology student’. Please don’t get me wrong. It really wasn’t like I hated all stuffs related to Biology or regretted my own decision to put trust to myself at studying the subject for the next 3 years. I just felt that I needed something unrelated to my ‘have to meet and have it done everyday’ subjects. I’m an easy-to-get-bored person, so I thought that doing this unrelated subject would be good as a form of my runaway, trying to yield some products from my productive boredom expression.

(“Ad Astra”, my latest sketch) The next thing that I did was bought my first Canson watercolour pad (200 g, 15 sheets) with my own saving at Prapatan Store, exactly at Jatinegara Market, East Jakarta. It was quite cheap for an art supply, I think, cause it’s only costed me 44 thousand rupiahs (still below 50 k, which was my, uh… shopping limit). Arriving home after a long deal with a noisy public transportation and the very usual hot weather of Jakarta, Mom asked me what did I buy. To be honest, I doubt Mom would like my idea of buying a stuff which was so unrelated to my academic needs at first. But after I had myself ready to face any future reactions of her, I faced Mom who’s just getting herself to pray Ashar. I told her that I bought a watercolour pad for my painting needs. I also promise that I’d make sure it wouldn’t be wasteful at all. After that, an unexpectedly thing happened. Mom was just smiled and said, “Oh, don’t forget to keep your artworks nicely. I suggest you to have them block-framed. You know, glass is expensive, so glass frames will cost you much money and broken risks. Cheap block frames will ‘seal’ your picture well.” Oh man, I was so surprised. Then after saying that to me that afternoon, Mom told me that I had a package with my name on it, delivered from Rolling Stone Indonesia magazine.

Mein Gott, double happiness! It was an S-size T-shirt with a painting of Slank members printed on the front side. I’m not even a Slanker, but nevermind. The band was really popular with their down-to-earth manners and civilization/human rights supporting songs. Those facts were enough to make me proud on wearing that shirt. Thank you, Rolling Stone Indonesia. Thank you, Mom :’)