Knot tying disaster!

 18 September

 In discovery channel, I frequently watch tribal females having to go through rites of womanhood.  Luckily Singapore we do not have such a culture, at least I know not of any such practices however I do know that if knot tying was one of the trails to womanhood, I would have failed badly. The basic knot was my biggest success and the second “flower knot” was a disaster. The second knot was supposed to adopt the form of a flower, however, my works were far form perfectly formed. My knots would get tangled or I would miss a step, I repeated the process many time as I again try to obtain the flower shape. My efforts were futile as I again received a shake of the head from the IS lecturer. Who knew tying Knots could be so hard?  The shape of the “W cannot be too big nor too small and the strings must not be tangled”. The lecturer frequently chanted this sentence out to me. I remembered how my strings got tangled when I did not weave it in between the specific coloured strings.  The lesson soon ended and I walked away with some understanding of the history of knot tying.  Thousands of years ago when paper did not exist the people used knots as a convenient way to record the number of livestocks or days in a month. I may not have successfully learnt knot tying as a skill, however I have learnt to appreciate it more and to recognize it as an art form that holds significant weight in the Chinese culture.

 TCC lessons were all about gearing us for tomorrows test. Miss Anita pointed out to me that on many of my exercises I have stuck to a specific composition and told me to not be afraid to try new compositions. I decide to take up the challenge and tried to paint a car and the canteen building. It did not turn out well as my painting was too watery and there did not seem to have any focus or focal point in my painting. I was very disappointed in my performance, but was comforted by the fact that luckily it was an exercise and not the initial exam. My dream is to be a concept artist and I believe that I should expose myself to all different art styles and learn as many skills as I can. Perhaps my dream job may not require this skill but my works may be inspired from these various styles.  My dream is still a long way and though my future is uncertain I still have 2 years to learn as much and as well as I can.  I cannot possible be as good as Miss Anita who has years of experience however I want to be able to produce some quality work so I can improve my portfolio.

It was time to put work aside and have a good dinner and some rest. Till next time.