Most of my adult life has been frittered away in mega cities like Shanghai, Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto. Freewill or not, every move forced me to come out of a comfortable cocoon that was about to become stale.
In Shanghai I was a young Fulbright scholar chewing on the terminology of economics. In NYC, I had my first taste of salesmanship at an import/export business. In Toronto, my team and I made a documentary film about Canada’s LGBT community. And for a few months here in Massachusetts, I scaled, skinned, filleted, deboned, and lacerated seafood; lifted, dragged, and displayed leaden furniture in retail stores. One needs not only to be able to metamorphose chronologically but also alternate roles daily.
Doing “useless” things is a useful excuse for me to stay sane. I landed in New England in 2017 after which playing tennis had become a hard to pursue recreational activity. I started drawing, first with graphite, then charcoal, color pencil, pastel, and ink. The drab world of covid pandemic shelter-in compelled me to explore a more fluid medium, watercolor, and the rest is history.
It’s fascinating how life’s twists and turns lead us down unexpected paths. Life is fluid, so is watercolor!