Batik

I met a woman that has a Homestay.  She takes university courses, teaches AND runs a Homestay: Malaysia is a place where many people are right in the middle of living.. and at a homestay, you get to taste a little bit of everything.  

I wasn't sure when she first invited me to an activity: sure that it was going to happen.  Sure it was what she said it was.  Sure of anything really.  When you first move to a new country everything is so new.. I have learned not to expect what I see on the surface to necessarily match what goes on below.. and here I was experiencing sensory overload for sure.

The banana orchards, the traffic, the language, the humidity... the monkeys.. Getting lost so easily and enjoying it so much.  But I am starting to settle in now and I am getting very excited about my new friend and the hobby that Jackie set me on the path of: painting: painting anything! 

What I like about cloth is the potential!  The potential of painting a huge piece and yet not worrying about the cost, or transporting some pieces back home, for gifts maybe.

I was thinking about it at home, in Madeira Park, but figured it would take a while before I managed to find everything I needed.  And when you are in a country it is always good to hold off and look around.. adopt some of what is going on in that place.  Getting started in an imported project, doing something unrelated to where you are.. well.. there is just something ' not right' about it.  Art is like clothing, architecture.. it has developed for a reason.  And here.. it seens the syle of the day is batik. I will use wax instead of gouda.. and dye instead of ink.  This can work!

I was off this morning to the Homestay in the middle of the rice paddies behind one of my schools.  A lovely building on stilts, surrounded by water. I was to meet up with my new bestest buddy and two of the women she went to school with... they had an assignment to complete.  A batik painting.  They had invited an artist to come to the house to work with us, to help with the process.



Mine is furthest away:)

 Our design had already been applied, with the wax.. we stapled our work directly onto a wooden frame and began to apply the paint: after we had some tea of course.  There were pop bottles of dye, in a huge variety of colors, and brushes.  We used plastic water glasses to hold the colors.  Because the dye was so watered down it spread out as you applied them: running together and creating a wonderful, unexpected mix of color.

Jackie would be impressed at the big brave strokes I used..

I talked to the fellow later and he is going to get me everything I need to work here at home in the evening.. YES!  I am so excited!  I want to paint those boats down at the water's edge. 

To start with anyway!