Kaleidoscope Art Studio
Kay Kok: Composition of transformation, growth, and self- reflection
Candace Osmond, “Kaleidoscope symbolism.... Change, growth, self-reflection...”.

Kay Kok is an interdisciplinary artist who believes that her creative journey and achievements are bestowed by God. Kay’s creative journey began during her childhood days because she enjoyed drawing and colouring with crayons on white drawing papers. Her parents thought that Kay’s creative interests were just part and parcel of a child whereas Kay had already decided to be an artist since then. However, her parents were not in favour for Kay to be an artist because they believed that her decision was not pragmatic enough to support a livelihood and career.

Kay pursued a diploma program in architectural technician at Singapore Polytechnic after she completed her secondary school education. She continued to paint during her leisure moments.

Transformation

Kay did not give up her ambition as an artist. She continued to paint and participated in various art competitions to gain experiences while she embarked on her career at SMRT, and MINDEF. Kay received a highly commendation award for her painting, “Moving Ahead” for the Ministry of Communication Information Art Competition in 1987. After working for 12 years, Kay resigned from MINDEF and pursued a diploma program in visual arts at LaSalle-SIA. At LaSalle-SIA, Kay explored abstract painting, and this led her to receive a highly commendation award for her painting, “Let there be light” for the United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year Competition in 1999. Kay continued to pursue a degree program in fine arts from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, which was carried out at LaSalle-SIA. Kay took interests in examining artworks by Russian Advant Garde artists such as El Lissitzky and Malevich. Both artists utilised geometric shapes to depict their artistic themes. Kay began to explore integrating architectural draftsmanship in precision, lines, and shapes to create her degree graduation project on history of SamSui Women. Gradually, Kay transformed her visual language from literal painting, abstract painting to integrating geometric shapes and lines to create abstract paintings that depict history and culture of Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Growth

Kay embarked on a master’s degree program in art education at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA. Her thesis was about using mathematics and geometry to create cultural artworks as an art curriculum at an elementary school in Chicago. Her research led her to explore Chinese lattices, which were used as designs in ancient Chinese windows and doors. The designs of Chinese lattices are based on geometric shapes such as square, circle, oval, and triangle. Some of these Chinese lattices have symbolic meanings, for examples, a square represents earth, and circle represents heaven. Subsequently, Kay integrated Chinese lattices to create a series of artworks based on a book on history of Rickshaw Coolies by Professor James Francis Warren. These paintings were exhibited as Kay’s first solo exhibition at Utterly Arts Gallery in 2004. 50 percent of her works were purchased by Ms Indranee Raja, Second Minister for Finance, and Second Minister for National Development. Kay taught at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) for 5 years. Kay continued to create artworks despite having to juggle between work and family. Kay’s painting entitled, “Natural Selection” was selected (by the jurors) to exhibit at the first Singapore Art Show 2005 at Singapore Management University. In 2007, Kay won her entry, “Virtuous Cycle” （Circle Line, CC10: Macpherson) for the Land Transport Authority (LTA) Integrated Art Competition in 2007. She was awarded $50,000 as the grand winner and commissioned LTA artist for Macpherson MRT Station. Her work is installed and exhibited at the platform level of Macpherson MRT Station.

Self-reflection

Kay resigned from NAFA and pursued her doctorate’s program in education at Durham University, UK. While she was working on her doctorate’s thesis on the rationale of visual art education in Singapore, she realised the importance of studying art history because it enables artists and students to examine and appreciate how artists were influenced by specific cultural identities and heritage to create specific styles. This becomes a useful creative resource for artists and students to examine how they could reinvent new styles appropriating their past creative processes. This motivated her to reflect on her creative process in terms of creating her visual language or art style that influenced by her culture and heritage in Singapore. Gradually, Kay delves deeper into Singapore history such as History of Ah Ku and Karayuki-San, and history of Singapore River. This creative mode propels her to investigate forgotten history and heritage, from cultural festivals, food, designs, and songs in Singapore as she desires to use her visual language to revive and depict Singapore culture and heritage for local and global viewers to appreciate more about Singapore.

Apart from being a visual artist, Kay facilitates art and design programmes to students. She presented in international conferences, and published journal articles.

万花筒艺术工作室
郭钟爱: 改变，增长与自我反省中的成分
Candace Osmond， “万花筒象征主义…. 变化, 增长, 自我反省... ”.

郭钟爱是一位跨学科的艺术家。她相信她的创作之旅和成就是上帝赋予她的。郭钟爱的创意之旅从她的童年时代就开始了，她从小就喜欢在白色绘图纸上用蜡笔绘画和着色。她的父母以为她对创作的兴趣是每个孩子都会经历的过程, 但郭钟爱从那个时候就已经决定要成为一名艺术家。但是, 她的父母并不赞成, 他们认为这个决定不够务实, 无法维持生计和职业。

郭钟爱完成中学教育后,在新加坡理工学院就读建筑技术员文凭课程。她在闲暇时间中便继续绘画。

增长

郭钟爱在美国芝加哥艺术学院就读艺术教育硕士学位课程。她的论文有关于在芝加哥的一所小学使用数学和几何学来创作文化艺术品作为艺术课程。她的研究使她探索了中国格子，这些格子被用作中国古代门窗的设计。中国格的设计基于几何形状, 例如正方形, 圆形, 椭圆形和三角形。其中一些中国格具有符号含义。例如：一个正方形代表地球, 一个圆代表天堂。随后,郭钟爱整合了中国格子, 根据詹姆斯·弗朗西斯·沃伦教授撰写的关于人力车酷派历史的书创作了一系列艺术品。这些画作是郭钟爱于2004年在 Utterly 艺术画廊举办的首次个展。她的作品中有一半都是由新加坡国会议员 Indranee Rajah 女士购买的。 郭钟爱在南洋美术学院( NAFA )任教5年。虽然她不得不在工作和家庭之间挣扎, 但她仍继续创作艺术品。郭钟爱的作品“自然选择”被陪审员挑选, 在2005年新加坡管理大学举行的首届新加坡艺术展上展出。 2007年, 郭钟爱的参赛作品“良性循环” (地铁环线, CC10:麦波申) 在陆路交通管理局 2007年综合艺术比赛中获胜。她被授予 $50,000 的大奖, 并收麦波申地铁站委托担任陆路交通管理局的艺术家。她的作品在麦波申地铁站的月台上安装并展出。

转变

郭钟爱并没有放弃她想成为艺术家的野心。她在SMRT和MINDEF就职业的同时, 她继续绘画并参加了各种艺术比赛, 以累积经验。郭钟爱的作品在 1987 年新加坡通讯及新闻部所举办的艺术竞赛，“前进”中获得了高度表彰奖。在职场工作了12年之后, 郭钟爱辞去了她在国防部的工作, 并在LaSalle-SIA攻读了视觉艺术文凭课程。在LaSalle-SIA, 郭钟爱探索了抽象绘画。过后，她的作品也在 1999年, 大华银行年度绘画比赛中获得了高度赞扬的奖项, 。她继续在LaSalle-SIA进行的皇家墨尔本技术学院攻读美术学位课程。郭钟爱对检查俄罗斯前卫艺术家(例如El Lissitzky和Malevich)的艺术品感兴趣。两位艺术家都利用几何形状来描绘他们的艺术主题。郭钟爱开始探索将建筑制图技术与精确度, 线条和形状相结合, 以创建她关于苏梅岛妇女历史的学位毕业项目。她逐渐将她的视觉语言从文字绘画, 抽象绘画转变为整合几何形状和线条, 以创作描绘新加坡和东南亚历史和文化的抽象绘画。

自我反省

郭钟爱辞去了她在南洋艺术学院的工作, 去到英国达勒姆大学攻读教育博士学位。在新加坡准备有关视觉艺术教育原理的博士学位论文时, 她意识到学习艺术史的重要性, 因为它使艺术家和学生能够研究和欣赏艺术家如何受到特定文化身份和遗产的影响, 从而创造就特定的风格。这对于艺术家和学生来说是一种宝贵的创作资源,可以研究他们如何重新发明适合他们过去的创作过程的新风格。这促使她反思自己的创作过程, 以创造受新加坡文化和遗产影响的视觉语言或艺术风格。郭钟爱逐渐深入研究新加坡的历史，例如：Ah Ku 和 Karayuki-San 的历史, 以及新加坡河的历史。这种创造性的模式促使她从新加坡的文化节, 美食, 设计和歌曲中研究被遗忘的历史和遗产。她希望使用自己的视觉语言来复兴和描绘新加坡的文化和遗产, 以供本地和全球观众欣赏有关新加坡的更多信息。

郭钟爱除了是视觉艺术家外, 还为学生提供艺术和设计课程。她还在国际会议上发表演讲并发表期刊文章。