Story 00

"Story 00", Acrylic And Marker On Canvas, 76cm x 76cm, Year: 2010. (Private Collection)

"Out Of The Grey" Series - Work #11: God's Effort, Man's Effort

"Series #11, God's Effort, Man's Effort", Acrylic On Canvas, Year: 2005.(Private Collection)

"Out Of The Grey" Series - Work #05: The Timeless Jonah

"Series #05, The Timeless Jonah", Ink And Acrylic On Canvas, Year: 2005.(Private Collection)

My Favourite Drawing

Ink On Paper, Year: 2003.(Private Collection)

"Out Of The Grey" Series - Work #02: The Timeless Adam And Eve

"Series #02, The Timeless Adam And Eve", Ink And Acrylic On Canvas, Year: 2005.(Private Collection)

Story 13

"Story 13", 132.5cm x 142.5cm, Acrylic On Canvas, Year: 2010.

Remember in the old days when I was a primary-six schoolboy, I was very curious about ghosts and also always imagined that I was not afraid of those “dirty stuff”. As you can see in the painting, I painted myself on the left, below the word - “COOL!”, acting like a “Ghost-proof Hero”!

But in reality, deep down I knew that I was very afraid of those “dirty stuff” then - painted in the middle and bottom of the canvas, where a group of school boys was shown visiting the haunted house. Ha! Ha! Can you recognize which boy was me?

Whilst I was painting halfway, one question popped into my mind - “Why was it that we only wanted to look for ghosts at that time, but not God???”

Story 10

"Story 10", 76cm x 76cm, Acrylic On Canvas, Year: 2009.(Private Collection)

This painting is all about my calling from God.

Before I got to know God, I knew there was a hole in my heart needed to filled. Finally God found me and I started to know that He could really fill my heart and cup full!

In early 90s, I received the calling from God, where He wanted me to use painting to witness him. However at that time, I chose not to follow His will as I was too afraid to live an artist life that seemed unstable...!

Eventually in late 90s, I decided to obey God will because after all these years, I concluded that following God's will would be the only way to lead me to happiness, joy, success and stability.

“My Story”- my 7th solo exhibition had just started last week, and I had already sold out more than half of my paintings... Isn't my Father God good?

Thank you so much, my Abba Father God!

TV-Man

Ink & Marker On Paper, Year: 1994.

Rest!

"Rest!", Ink On Paper, Year: 2010.

Bounce Back

Ink & Marker On Paper, Year: 1994. (Private Collection)

Take It Easy!

"Take It Easy!", Ink On Paper, Year: 2010.

"My faith is about taking from God!"

Story 12

"Story 12", 76cm x 76cm, Marker & Acrylic On Canvas, Year: 2010.(Private Collection)

In the past, there were times when I came to a stage where almost everyone thought I was doomed, or no one wanted to say a single word to me anymore... The only thing that could refresh my heart were the words from a 4-year-old child - Daryl (my nephew).

Many people said that I was a failure, but Daryl would say, “You are good! San Shu (Third uncle)!”

When people thought that I was a nobody and treated me liked crap, Daryl would say, “ I like San Su!” When most of the people regarded me as a useless person, Daryl would always look at me and give me a sweet smile!

All these things happened years ago when I really did not know how to move and live on... This little boy, whom I knew was sent by God, really encouraged me a lot! Of course, I had a great breakthrough eventually...! Thanks to my Father God and Daryl...!

Grow From Pain

"Grow From Pain", Ink On Paper, Year: 2010.

Billy Goat???

Have you ever been hurt by someone and eventually you found out that the person who hurt you was also a victim hurt by others really badly as well? Antlers (seen from the above picture) growing from the head show that the painful experience he(she) carries slowly transform into anger, and become a weapon used to protect themselves when they feel threatened!

Well Life! Well Life!

"Well Life! Well Life!", Ink On Paper, Year: 2010.

Money

Ink On Paper, Year: 1993 & 1994.(Private Collection)

Money is not evil nor angelic...

Sometimes, having money can help a person build up his confidence, but sometimes it also can make a person go crazy!

Some people say that a serious artist should not create artwork for money... Ha! Ha! But sometimes I have to... for survival! If not, what does an artist live on??

Some people also say that the most beautiful painting in this world is Mona Lisa, but sometimes I think even the artworks printed on the dollar notes also seem beautiful...

Nothing is wrong with having a lot of money, but something is seriously wrong when money have you!

Durian Man

"Durian Man", Ink On Paper, Year: 1993.(Private Collection)

I hate eating durian since young – because I just cannot stand the heavy smell and muddy flesh!

But in reality, I seem to behave like the “durian” with spikes - I tend to defend myself because many people in this world are not really nice! I could choose to live in my own world and stop interacting with people who may hurt me (often through harsh words); I could also choose to spend my time watching DVDs at home while I am working; I could also choose to walk out of my house to go shopping, or sometimes get some books and read them at a quiet restaurant or inside the train...

Ha! Ha! Of course when teaching time comes, I will talk a lot with my students, and I guess this will help me balance myself for keeping quiet too long; otherwise, I may end up becoming a block of stone instead of a durian...

Big-Headed Doll #01

"Big-Headed Doll #01", Ink On Paper, Year: 1996.(Private Collection)

"Do you need help?"

Hunting

"Hunting", Ink On Paper, Year: 2010.

"What are they hunting for?"

Black Cat

"Black Cat", Ink On Paper, Year: 1999. ( Private Collection )

Grey Cat

Ink On Paper, Year: 1999. (Private Collection)

Story 11

"Story 11", Acrylic On Canvas, 76cm x 76cm, Year: 2010.(Private Collection)

Few years ago, I wanted to deal with my stress problem as I often could not sleep well and easily got anxious. Therefore I went for counseling in church and finally decided to practice praying in the spirit – “praying in tongue”. After praying in tongue for a couple of days, I began to realize that every night I could fall into sleep with a peaceful and happy heart. Most importantly, I did not have to struggle or force myself to go into sleep anymore...

Deep sleep is God's blessing! Thanks be to God!

Be Happy

"Be Happy", Mixed Media On Canvas, 112cm x 122cm, Year: 2009.

God's comforting words of “... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14: 27) always reminds my heart to be child-like – simply trusting and receiving from Him, regardless of what situation I am in... Only then will I be happy and stay happy, knowing that God will always be with me and overcome all circumstances in victory...

AK-47

I had an experience to use AK-47 for firing at Cuchi Tunnel during my Ho Chi Minh trip. However, the moment I reached the firing point, I was disappointed that many things (I wished I could do before I pulled the trigger) had been handled on my behalf. Firstly I never had the chance to hold or touch the real bullets after I had bought them; Secondly I also could not put any (10 in total) of the real bullets into the magazine; Thirdly, I also had no chance to cork the weapon... All these things were handled by a soldier who attended and stood next to me, and all I could do was just to aim and pull the trigger...

I did not fully enjoy the firing! Yes, on the other hand I also know the reason why they would not allow me to do many things by myself - I guess mainly was to make sure no mistakes were made before or after the firing - especially for people like me who do not know anything about AK-47 weapon... They surely need to take some safety precautions. Anyway, thanks for their concern.

When I got back to Singapore, sometimes when I recall the experience, I know deep in my heart that I love AK-47 a lot, especially the cool outlook! (The above picture was taken by my wife, who was so afraid while taking photo for me, as she said the firing sound was very loud!) By the way, do I look cool in the picture? )

Few weeks later, I was amazed to come across an AK-47 toy weapon in a toy shop, and of course I had to buy and keep it as one of my toys collection! He! He!

Story 9

"Story 9", Acrylic & Ink On Canvas, 122cm x 122cm, Year 2009.(Private Collection)

I can still remember earlier in year 1991, I first showed interest in bible (maybe it was because my best friend had done a lot of sharing with me about Jesus Christ), and I even bought my first bible from the bible house.

When I first read it, I found difficulty understanding most of the stories written in the bible... (it was after I became a Christian that I began to realize it was all because I did not believe in Jesus at that time, therefore I could not understand why Jesus could perform miracles, heal people, walk on the sea...). Only until I believed in Jesus, that everything written in the bible became real, true, alive and made sense! Amazingly, at the moment I believed Jesus and accepted him as my personal saviour, I felt somehow somewhere a perfect peace appeared deep in my heart, proving to me that I was already being saved, and had also become the son of God.
The above painting shows that all my sinful acts and behaviours (past, present and future) have been covered by Jesus blood, and God would not comdemn me and my lawless deeds anymore, because all my sins' punishments have already been put into Jesus' account.
Thank you, God!

Story 8

"Story 8", Acrylic & Ink On Canvas, 102cm x 122cm, 2009.

I can't live without imagination... It has become part of my life since young.

Sometimes when I turn on the imagination mode of thinking, I tend to put God aside, because if I put God in my imagination and let him become part of the picture, I feel somehow limited in my day-dreaming and fantasy. Therefore, as you can see in this whole painting, there is no image of God shown.

Recently, I keep imagining that I am an alien-killer (the right-hand side soldier with green uniform). Sometimes it can take me quite a while to think about what kind of weapon I am carrying, any water bottle hanging by my side, how much army food I have and how many army friends to go for so-called 'alien' war with me, and so on...

I also used to imagine that I was the best basketball-player during my school days (shown on the left side of the painting), with a lot of fans supporting me while I was playing...; but in reality, I could not play basketball then and was even afraid to play with my classmates, as they might scold me if I could not handle the ball well (many of them were school-team players)...

Two years ago, I was thinking that I was a 'living-dead'-killer (shown on the left-top area), mainly because at that time I often watched the movies - “28 days later”, “28 weeks later” and some other 'living-dead' shows...” These wild fantasy thoughts seem to leave God out of the picture... I feel a sense of emptiness...

My Favourite Photo (2)

My Favourite Photo (1)

Children In Vietnam (8)

Children In Vietnam (7)

Children In Vietnam (6)

Children In Vietnam (5)

Children In Vietnam (4)

Children In Vietnam (3)

Children In Vietnam (2)

Children In Vietnam (1)

Story 7

"Story 7", Mixed Media On Canvas, 102cm x 122cm, Year: 2009.

Since primary school days, I started to work at my mum's office...

I had to be there after school because firstly, I needed to take care my brother during his school (near the office) recess time: to make sure he had enough food to eat and water to drink; Secondly, I had to help my mum do some printing for her clients' orders. Besides, I also needed to help collect money from other companies... But I guess the main reason that I had to do all these things was that – since I would not be doing any school work at home after school, my mum insisted I had to stay in her office...

Yes, the whole painting shows that though I had been a good boy who helped my mum do this and that (acting like an angel), eventually I still needed Christ to save me...

Testing 21A

Testing 06

Testing 16A

Story 6

During my secondary school days, especially in secondary 4, my complexion was terribly bad, filled with pimples all over. No matter how hard I tried to wash my face (hoping to clear the pimples), they remained
and sometimes even grew more. I was down and depressed at that time.
My school English teacher was very mean then - he always insulted me and even gave me a nickname - “sky filled with stars!” I could also sensed my classmates and other students from different classes always seemed to be afraid of my outlook.
Finally, I decided to leave school because I could not stand it anymore. I mentioned to my mother and one of my school teachers that I wanted to quit school. Of course both of them disagreed with me, so in the end everything went back to 'square one'.
The English teacher continued to 'abuse' me with bad comments, and sometimes I even thought of pointing a knife at him to warn him not to do that to me again, but it was only a thought..! Anyway, my final year in the secondary school was the most terrible year!
Two years ago, I happened to meet one of my secondary school teachers in the MRT. We had a chat and he incidentally mentioned that the English teacher might have already died of cancer.
Hearing this, I pondered and could not help feeling sad for him, despite the unhappy memories he left in my mind all these years...

Testing 12A

Testing 12

Testing 10A

Testing 05B

Story 5

"Story 5", Acrylic & Marker On Canvas, 102cm x 122cm, Year: 2009.

12 years ago I worked at one of the entertainment companies in Singapore.

I had worked as an artist and was working very hard to try to proof to my boss and people who were surrounded me that I was capable. Of course my effort was not in vain because I had my promotion very fast! From then on I began to use money to get what I wanted and what I needed. Deep in my heart I found that money was everything at that time, eg: money could bring me friends, could let me go on holiday, could let me eat and drink , could buy people... ( As you can see in the middle of the painting- my hand was holding a hammer with a word “power” on it, that represented money & high post.) All these thoughts came because many “friends”, some “family member” and “relatives” always looked down on me, kept saying things like - I did not have money, “no money, no face”... things like that, therefore I wanted to show to people that I could use money to control many things...and also at that time I had left God, stopped going to church...
In the end, I felt empty...
And I knew that Jesus was very sad...(The side-view of Jesus is also shown in the middle of the painting.)

Watching

Abraham & Shirley

Colourful World

Fat Boy 12-605

"Fat Boy 12-605", Year: 2009.

故事三

“故事三”，92cm x 76.5cm，混合媒介，2009年。

多年以前我帮人打全职工而月底却拿不到薪水，无奈之下只好到住家附近的一所超级市场打“暂时”工！ 
在那里，老板要我帮他卖鱼-这活虽又脏又腥，但又不做不行（不做没钱！），就只好抱着“试试看”的心理做做看吧！
真正做起来是挺苦的！每天都得扛一桶桶各从其类的鱼，还得从运输车上下载一篮篮的不同菜类，身上的每一寸肌肉都用上了，经常搞得汉如雨下！除外，当时也由于没钱，所以吃的也少，体重严重下跌！（见上图右上角。）
工作期间最为令我印象深刻的要算是在“杀鱼”的时候从鱼的肚子里挖出鱼钩（有的还挺大的呢！）-想必是鱼儿未上钓前连饵带钩都吞到肚子里啦！（见上图中间部分。）
当然最令人头痛的便是经常会与同事出现沟通问题，又或是遭到“老”同事们的欺负！（见上图左上方。）哈哈！顺便在这里提一提，当时老板和老板娘是挺欣赏我的，还有意思想提拔我成为“头手”呢！
做满三个月，我便离职了。