I've never chatted with an artist before. This was the first, and i would love to talk to more artists, especially those out from Singapore! Why?

I met this lady artist teacher in RGS today, well she approached me to ask for help in turning her video artwork into a DVD, as it happens that i was THE only IT teacher in RGS, she had no other alternatives i guess.

So she did, and as i was figuring out how on earth am i going to help her (i have never burned a DVD on an iMac before, let alone make clips into one, luckily it turned out fine, great! iMac IS user-friendly!), we begun chatting.

Its just different the way an artist talk, i ask her about her work and she gave me explicit details on it and even illustrated to me the different kinds of art + what she does. From the way she talk, i can really feel her passion for the arts! Like how "passionate" i am about social work. I mean, maybe i am not as passionate as her yet, but i certainly felt her passion!

People like her, who thinks that money isn't everything who lives for her passion, the very fact that she bravely took upon the path of an artist (which is certain very brave in SG), who walks the world with her designs and look for inspirational work. I SALUTE her!

How many people can be like her? How many people's life isn't about simply studying for a piece of "paper" and getting a job and work work work till you die of old age or disease? How many in Singapore is able to put down the mentality that we need to work for life and passion is simply a word that's cast aside for the next generation? How many people is passionately doing what they wanted to do in Singapore?

In my opinion, not many. At least not those around me. Many don't even know what they want in life. Many thinks that they just want to earn alot of money, start a family and grow old. Many people work because they have to, not because they want to. Many people have no choice but to work.

I have a friend who told me he wanted to do Geology, but he will not do it, instead he went into Computer Science (which he claims to be his 2nd interest). Why? Because what can you do as a geologists in Singapore? Plant trees in Botanic Gardens? Help LTA decide which roads has got lesser greenery? Man, he was being practical i know, but Singapore kills talents.

What do they offer in Polys and Unis in Sngapore? Engineering, Business, Law, Medicine, a bit of Arts and most probably you end up being a teacher. Those are all very practical career paths. What on earth happen to Anthropology? Zoology? Geology? Arts, Drama? Music? Astrology? I mean, i am not putting down those who really desire to become a great engineer, but how many engineers really want to become an engineer? I haven't met one.

If i have a choice, i will rather choose passion over money, but i live in Singapore, and its a competitive world that if you don't do it, there will always be another who is willing to do so. And you wil have nothing to live on, and you will be stigmatised by those middle and upper-classed morons who thinks so highly of themselves that you are useless, inpractical and stupid.

If i have the chance, i will want to leave Singapore someday. true, Singapore is a peaceful country, too peaceful for anyone to really experience anything. So what is life when we haven't experience life? But i'm blog down by responsibility, i can't just leave my parents behind and go, i can't bring them along either. When the times come when parent is no loner the issue, most probably i can't go again, simply because i might have already start my family here.

In a way, i'm glad that i am able to get both passion and career as i know social work is my kind of work. But the social work scene in Singapore is pretty bad, with the focus on greater socio-economical capital and engineering and money-making seems to be the focus, not much attention is given to social welfare, that also mean that our pay isn't that attractive either. I very much want to talk about the social work scene, but that's another story for another time.

I think Singapore has no choice, and we are just "sway" to be born during this time in Singapore. We are still a young nation and rely mainly on our human resources for survival. When we are developing, the pratical thing was to have more income-churning activities, thus engineering and businesses. Now that we are more developed, we want to focus on the Arts, Sports and other areas, but it has being drilled into the average Singaporean that no, Arts/Sports = die. So how?

The more interesting paths will have to wait, they're for our future Singaporean, not for people of our era. For now, we have to be contented with 8-5, a few K salary, some less, engineering and businesses and find happiness in 4D, Toto and S-league.

Back to the artist, i wish her all the best in whatever comes to her. I would love to see her passion grow and maybe one day, i will see her works exhibited and shown on TV.

Oh, btw, she isn't from Singapore, maybe that's why she isn't affected by the "study-work-die" mentality.