A day in life

You will not find much information pertaining to my personal live on the internet. As with many other South East Asian artists, I am a private person by nature. But here is just some background information about me, my family and my education. Maybe this will help you understand my work better

I was born in Jarkata, the seventh of eight children to a teacher. I learned to be a photographic draftsman from primary school age, when I started helping my father do enlarged drawings of photographs on commission. My early exposure to the principles of photography is perhaps the reason why composition played such an important part in my paintings later on - I found that the arrangement of my subjects had such unique power to tell stories, to give greater meaning to my paintings.

Because my father could not single-handedly support our large family, I had to work part time to contribute to my family's income. At first, I sold comic books and ice-cream in my spare time, something which inspired me to take up cartoon drawing. It was also this early foray into the adult world of economic survival in this city that made me particularly sensitive to those in a similar situation of hardship, later on in my life. Anyway, due to my interest in cartoon drawing, I later took drawing lesson from Dukut Hendranoto, a local artist who, non-dogmatically, encouraged us students to get in touch with our selves. He played an important role in shaping my artistic philosophy, which was not to stop at depicting the reality as our eyes see it, but the unique reality that we interpret for ourselves, from our own perspectives. I consider myself self-taught, except for this man who has given me so much valuable advises, even though my studies with him were less than formal. I still remember him fondly to this day.

By junior high school, I've already founded my first artist studio with three friends, and decided to become a painter. I applied to the Secondary School of Fine Arts (SSRI, Sekolah Seni Rupa Indonesia) in Yogyakarta, but dropped out a year before graduation. I was originally interested in realism, but the school did not encourage us to work professionally in this style. Sure, the school did teach us techniques pertaining to painting realistically, but realism was not deemed worthy of anything but a study tool, or as one of the preparatory stages to creating "real art" which must be expressionistically or decoratively distorted. I was mocked for my interest in realism in that school, and after deciding that the school environment was unsuitable for me, dropped out and returned to Jakarta.

After returning to Jakarta, I found work as an illustrator for news magazines as well as for calendars, some of them industrial. These two modes of working, in turn, influenced my painting. In order to be able to paint a relevant, visually catching, and communicative cover, I followed new events closely and did my own journalistic research. In this way, the idea that art was firmly connected to socio-political and economic affairs was solidly exercised. By painting industrial interiors and machinery, architecture and oil-rigs for calendars, I further trained my skill at depicting such objects, materials and textures. These subjects fascinated me so me as to prompt me to continue painting them at my own rate and leisure, without interference.

My art has been heavily influenced by these formative experiences in my early life. Though later on in my life I was exposed to different artistic styles such as the New Art Movement in Indonesia, my principles when it comes to art have more or less stayed the same. I remain classified as a social realist, and I continue to paint in a style laden with symbolic meanings with themes that I draw from my immediate surroundings.

On to an average day in my life.

Sosok Diantara Beton
1995
Oil on Canvas

To paint something like this, I spend a lot of time at construction sites, just observing the structures, the workers, taking in the mood and atmosphere of the moment. I would wander through construction sites with a camera, taking in the sight of workers hauling, pushing, lifting, carrying and hammering together yet another part of the city's scenography. I do this at a leisurely pace, because this isn't something that can be rushed. I need to take in all the details of the sight, get the feeling right before I can start painting.

Once back in my small loft-studio, I seclude myself from the outside world, sit cross-legged on the floor and sketch directly on a large canvas, either from an on-site sketch or from photographs, before starting to paint. I can remain absorbed in the act of painting until my presences is demanded from the room down below, which is dedicated to a gallery showcasing my works. I repeat this process until I finish the painting. Sometimes, the paintings will find themselves onto the gallery walls if I am adequately satisfied. Most of the time though, paintings which find no place on the walls get stacked against each other in a corner.

Not exactly the most exciting career, isn't it? Other than the exhibitions I take part in, and the odd interviews I take now and then, this is about how my life goes. But this is also how I gain experience and maturity in my art. For now, I am firmly grounded on this course which I have chosen to take. I can envision myself doing this for the rest of my life.