Ipoh, Malaysia, July/August 2010. I have the inspiration for drawing a hand with a head on. For keeping my memory fit and my imagination clear I make a tiny draft on one of the papers laying around.
Time comes when I am ready to draw the head-hand figure. It goes surpisingly fast, as if it is given to me from a higher source. In the process of drawing I have the beautiful idea of colouring the head in rainbow colours, similar to another painting I did back in India called Human Flower.
Unfortunately, time is running short, and I don’t manage to finish the painting in Malaysia. Even in Thailand, where I volunteer for 3 months, I don’t find the right atmosphere to complete the painting. And so I carry the drawing on to Australia.
Adelaide, South Australia, February 2011. In Dave’s place I finally get the inspiration to continue – or rather finish – my head-hand painting. My imagination from back in Malaysia, though I see it clearly in my mind, turns out far different on paper. The colors I choose are not the ones I imagine them to be. A bit confused about the result I leave the painting on its own for a couple of days before I continue adding color. I start and stop several times over the one months staying in Adelaide. Only when I come to the conclusion that the experiences I have made in between my stay in Malaysia and now in Australia, as well as the magnificent personality Dave and his warehouse I stay in have on me, I can accept the change of appearance I produce on paper. Once content about this evolution of my painting I finish it with great joy.
Some things don’t work out the way I think of, in general though it doesn’t affect the fact that it becomes a fascinating piece of art. The magic of the painting completes with the name giving, which is all that I heard a thousand of times from out of Dave’s happy spirited mouth:
Faaa-n’Tastique!
[speak as written to get the essence of it]