Writing this in a hurry before I leave for Kandy.

Sudden unexpected news about a death of someone who lived a short yet colorful and inspiring life.



Impermanence.

Chris Al-Aswad, ( altheabashar ) founder of the online arts journal Escape Into Life has passed away. He was 31.

He wrote extensively about art, literature and culture and inspired thousands of like-minded souls around the world. If you haven't visited Escape Into Life yet, you really should now. It's a gigantic effort, very informative and inspirational.

In addition to Escape Into Life, he blogged at The Blog of Innocense, wrote poetry and other forms of creative literature. Being a firm believer of the power of web 2.0 media he never hesitated to publish his creative work online, free for everyone's consumption.

His collection of poems, Purposeless Solitude is available here.

I really hope that the good work he started will continue. I will miss his gentle soul and "good mornings" from the other side of the planet.

Twitter users are posting tributes with the hashtag #TYCHRIS

Yes. Feeling productive after several weeks ;-)

And there's Asia Cup Cricket to watch later today. Not a coincidence. For some reason, watching more and more cricket and my painting process has some inexplicable connection.

And I am NOT a football fan.

A Possible Sunrise, Acrylic on canvas, 2010 May

So it continues...

some blues

yesterday :)

Five years ago this month I decided to burn my boats and start painting full time. I quit my "job". I was firm on not doing anything else for the next ten years. Other than that, I had no plans, no targets whatsoever. If that doesn't work I can do something else. It wasn't smooth sailing. In the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, so many things, including my own life, were falling apart. Life wasn't easy. By then I had my website/blog up and people who read my posts were the first to know what I was up to. People couldn't come to terms with it if I said I am painting. I had to lie to people in my real life about what I was doing. Sometimes I said I was freelancing and doing report writing, translations etc. But seriously I did very little translations for money, and earned very little.



I knew it was going to be a long, tiresome journey. And most probably I'd end up bankrupt. And I surely had my fair share of downtimes.

Positive? Negative? Neutral? I do not wish to judge. It's difficult. It's beautiful. I will not swap places if I am given a chance, that's for sure. I like it here :)

A Darker Symphony, Acrylic on canvas, March 2010

Last year was dark. Can't do much about it now. I hope I'll be able to get something musical out of it, at least.

Thanks everyone for your kind words, gifts and birthday greetings. I'm sorry I am so late to respond. I was away, offline most of the time.

It's the traditional Sinhala and Tamil new year here in Sri Lanka.

And there's an auspicious time to eat and start work in the new year. So I took out a painting and took photos of it. It's the most recently finished piece. I will upload those pics soon :)

Rex, my beloved dog, died today, so suddenly.

He was with us for almost 15 years.

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Some yellows for Rex.

I don't think I handle criticism well. Normally I tend to get stubborn when criticized and stick to my own view. On the other hand I am more critical of myself and it slows down my work. Not good.




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