It has been a long time ago and there was something that was bothering me and I have been upset for a while.

I am not going to bore you about it but in Hong Kong, the vibrant positive energy encourages people to be strong, tough and fight back. When I am here, it always influences me to try to be like that. But I just became very emotional and bad tempered.

With this particular thing, there is nothing I can do about it. Time and patience is the only answer.

It suddenly came to me that as an artist, I don’t have to be rational and cheerful. All the negativity and sadness can be turned into inspirations for paintings.

By allowing myself to be indulgent and miserable, I felt at peace and a lot better already.

There is a saying I had heard and it became a very important motto to me.

‘What you resist, persists. What you accept, transforms.’

And I started a new series of work since the last time I blogged. I had done some sculptures before from recycled objects, pigs out of a milk bottle, people from beer bottles and stuff.

It was more for fun but the guys from MADEinHK thought that it was interesting. And it made me think and I have wanted to experiment with it ever since.

I am not allowed (by myself) to buy the objects except for the materials. All the objects have to be either found or stolen (in a political right way, from people that don’t care or mind, like airplanes cutlery, etc).

Anyway this is a picture of the Marching Chickens, the first one. It is made from spray bottles (I have tons of them and I feel guilty in throwing them away because of their beautiful shape), forks and take-away spoons.

Today I finished my magnolias. And I thought it was time to start the blog here. And I would like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments and the warm welcome from Alive not Dead.

I started the painting of the magnolias about 3 weeks ago. It is a huge painting. Well, it is huge for me because I am not that big. It is 5 by 5 ft. And I am just 5ft4. So I am slightly taller. But when the painting is on an easel I have to stand on a stool and I really dislike painting while standing on a stool. It is the first big painting since about 10 years. It is definitely a lot wider than me. It is a big tree with hundreds of magnolia that I have painted individually with detail. I also dislike painting precisely and with detail. I often paint things I dislike, through the process you find out why you dislike it and the result is often more interesting than doing the things you like and are good at.

I saw ‘the Blossoms’ from Van Gogh in Amsterdam when I was 10 years old. It was the first time that I saw a piece of art that I recognized as such and I have been in love with it since, art and ‘the Blossoms’.

It was not the beauty that attracted me. The atmosphere and the yellowish colour of the sky are so intense that it seems impossible to breath with a sky like that. It made me able to imagine how the world suffocated him with its existence.

A tutor of mine in art college said that in art you can see how someone else sees the world. I never thought that Van Gogh is mad. He was so sensitive that life was too intense for him.

Last week people here seem to be more edgy. I live in Causeway Bay and I can hear it when there are arguments and fights on the street late at night. And there were quite a few last week. The economy might have something to do with it. Or maybe just coincidence. Anyway the first beautiful Sunday we had (in Hong Kong) since ages. I hope that it makes people happier. The sun has nothing to do with finances and it makes the world so beautiful.