Hello from Singapore

[Mike McCarty]

Greetings Marcus,

I wish you well in your art studies. I like your image above and believe you will have many opportunities, not only to learn on this forum, but, to teach as well.

[Marcus Lim]

Thanks Mike, that meant alot for me from someone who's been an artist for such a long time. I've been reading your other threads and they've opened so much thoughts for this "eager schoolboy" here...haha.

[Michele Rushworth]

Welcome to the Forum, Marcus.

What a fascinating and powerful image you have posted. Can you tell us more about the subject? (The amazing huge red hat, what he's holding, are those scratches on his legs, etc.)

[Marcus Lim]

Hi Michele,
This is one of the four paintings in my "Samsui Woman" series shown at New Finds 2004, a show i was in recently. It tells a story of a 90-year-old lady, who was working as a construction labourer in Singapore during the 30's till the 80's.
A Bowl of Water depicts her early days as a labourer, donning her signature red-cloth headgear. She was in her late-teens and had no money for food. So all she had was a bowl of water during lunch, and off she goes to work again, carrying average 30lbs of sand and water up and down the constructions, and earning only 60 cents a day. Though we know locally these women are really resilient and tough, secretly they bottled up much sorrow and pain. So i included a drop of tear in the bowl of water, to depict that silent tear she had and refused to be seen with; the hunger, the loneliness and missing her hunger-stricken family she had left in China, to come to Singapore so she can work and earning more money for them.
Hope i've described aptly the story behind this painting.

[Michele Rushworth]

What a stirring story, Marcus, and a very evocative painting. Thanks for sharing it with us.