Childhood memories

During my childhood I was exposed to various forms of art from drawing, to painting , to craft-making. Creativity has always been my childhood play ground.

I remember when I was 7 years old, I was overwhelmed with joy when I received my first box of color pencil that my mom has bought me in preparation for my very first school day (standard one). Back then, I had a cousin sister who was 2 year older than me who has borrowed my color pencil to draw a lovely girl with center parting hair. I was so fascinated that I copied her drawing, and that was the very first time I drew a proper picture.

Back then during my childhood there are no Barbie Dolls or computer games. I would draw different paper dolls, and cut them out. I would then trace the dolls’ silhouette and drew lots of pretty dresses. With the paper cut dolls and dresses, I would then play with my sisters or neighbors. I was like a little fashion designer.

We play lots of other games too, such as hopscotch where we drew on the sandy floor in front of my wooden house. We would use all sorts of item like hair pin, stone, key, bottle cap etc, as keys for the games. The winner will get a chance to decorate her house, and as a reward, she will be allowed to draw pattern on the square of the hopscotch.

I remember seeing my father dug a well for water. There were lots of white clay that was dugged out. I would use the clay for pottery, as I have seen it done somewhere near my village in Jinjang North where workers in the cottage factory used clay to make piggy coin box.

During my primary school years, I would always scribble and sketch on my textbooks while my teacher was teaching. My textbooks are never tidy and clean. Naturally my favorite subject is Art.

I used to imitate painting I saw on calendars, magazine or books. I even did portrait drawing on pictures of Chinese celebrities I saw in newspaper. I would use scale to draw as I have seen a portrait of celebrities’ drawn using scale by a secondary school boy which is my cousin’s friend.  I was so happy when the picture turn out 70% look-alike.