Angel's Story "Old Painting"

Digital Story from the Bawso Stories Project.

Angel's story, "Old Painting", describes the memories and feelings evoked by a painting she has made of special places in her country of origin.

 

English transcript: I was in the gallery and there are people there that was standing in my painting, and I was there. They didn't know who was the painter of that. Most of my painting said Angel so it's anonymous. So they said, “Oh this painting is so vibrant, the colour is rich,” they said, “and this like the person who paint this one has a lot of colour, you can feel.” They said, “you can feel the vibe of this person with this greenery colour and this silhouette sunset on the painting.” And they said, “You can feel the person, you can understand the person feeling with this one.” So, I was on the back listening to this one, and they said, “it's refreshing, at the same time it makes you think deeper on that painting.” So, it gives them something like, you know, something to think, you know.

 

So I remember, I said to myself, now I don't want to sell it, because I don't know how to explain it, but it's like they, the person looking on your painting, they captivated by your feeling, so not just only the painting but they feel you, that's one thing that I never thought, that they could feel, through my painting, they could feel the one who painted it, and she was, she was right when she said, “This person was having these two paintings together, the green scenery and the lush of this painting and then the sunset, she had this positive thing of the better future and yet you have this painting of her mind, you know. So I said, how on earth they could think on that way? Through my painting they could analyse the feeling of the of the painter, or what she was feeling when she's painting it.

 

When I explained this to them, this is the rice field of my granddad, this is the rice field where I grew up, this tiny house is on that rice field. So people, after their work, they are doing all the rice field, they stay on that one, they drink they dance, they play guitar, they watch that sun, you know, they watch the silhouette where you can see the sun goes down. That exactly the place where that house, that nipa house is located.

 

When I paint this one, I picture of my grandad, I picture the time that I've spent with my grandad. When I feel sad, my grandad, me and my grandad, if I for example, if I got scolded by mom or if my mom doing something or my dad doing something, he said “Come on, come on, don’t mess with your dad, let’s do painting,” or “Don’t get upset, let’s do painting now.”

 

So that’s the reason why I start painting is that when I feel upset or when I want to boost my mood, I go in painting, then I feel relaxed then I feel better, then my mood change, then I can express myself. Things that I'm not able to say, I'm able to speak, I am able to do it on my painting, it's like it's an extension of my thought, my painting is extension of my thought.

 

It's really, really one of the place that, if I think, or if I look at this, it makes my heart like filled with air, you know, that's how I could say it, it’s like whenever I look at this one I feel happy, I feel fond about it, yeah.