Refill Space hosted another solid exhibition launch, this time around, French Grafitti artist Tilt is on show. Click image to view.

Change This have some great manifestos for your reading pleasure. My current favourite How to be creative. I think it takes itself a bit too seriously but there are some great truths in there.

Another nifty mini Flash app from the guys at Airtight. Check out my sample here

Sith Sense is cool, I thought of a horse and it came out right.

Saw Star Wars on Saturday, by far the best out of the 3 part trilogy, no annoying 3D characters, less cheesy lines and more sword play. Apparently there is a book trilogy after episode 6?

I went to my first church service today at Arncliffe Uniting Church, no I’m not converting to Catholicism, it was for a special event for Family and Friends of Missing Persons Group. The Christian service was very nice though, they played inspirational songs and sang praise to god. Being a Buddhist by family, I never once felt uncomfortable standing up and listening to everyone sing. The service it wasn’t in your face at all.

They read from the Bible, Genesis 37 to 50, the story of the family of Jacob. The story of Jacob is of how Jacob, the father, and his favourite son Joseph and how Jacob thought his son had been killed and mourned his death all his life until once day finding out that Joseph was alive. The story goes into much more detail than my recollection, but its about finding your lost loves ones alive after all hope is lost.

I was invited to speak about my story of finding my missing mother, one of the organisers of this F&FofMPG had been to the Fall of Saigon exhibition and thought my work was very appropriate and that I should show part of it at the special service. My work for the exhibition was titled, Lost and Found / Mom & Me.

I talked from memory about my experiences, about how meeting my mom felt to me and telling about my feelings, everything came out easily because it was from the heart, and because I’ve told the story a number of times now. I added a bit about how meeting my mother for the first time felt like, it was like a Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker moment, where Darth goes “I am your father”. They appreciated the humour in what was a very sombre day where everyone talked about and reflected on their missing loved ones.

Meeting the parents and family members of missing people afterwards, talking to them and hearing their stories really hits home on you how lucky we are; we still have our loved ones around to talk to, to play with, to fight with, to hold and love. I was constantly reminded of how my little cousin is no longer with us.

People go missing for various reason, wether they’ve met foul play, because of mental illness or they just wanted to be missing and not be found (living another life). The results are still the same, they leave behind families in despair, who are saddened by the loss but are always passionately hopeful that the missing are still alive. The term for this as coined by the organiser, is “missingness”.

The ladies at the Arncliffe Uniting Church make the best scones, scones spread with jam topped with cream, yum! It was a lovely sunny day, talking about my experience and giving people hope felt very meaningful.

A Thank you email from AUC.

Good Morning Kevin,

I want to add my words of appreciation to those of Paul - for your gracious, intimate, and inspiration sharing of yourself at the Missing Person’s Service on Sunday. I know that you would have heard on the day from others who were moved by your story and the ways in which it resonated with the stories of their own lives. The open expressions of emotion were an indication that we were able to be real with one another, a real hope in our planning of the service…

In my own case, I was particularly moved by your statement ‘I am 26 (?) years of age and I have only been with my mother for 4 hours of my life’. Amanda, my partner, was moved by your statement ‘even migrating birds, find their way home’ and was taken completely by surprise, about her own deep feelings of ‘missing’ a cousin, she has never known.

Kevin, most of all, I was deeply touched that you came, as a person from outside the Christian tradition to what was essentially Christian church service, to share a common story of searching and finding and hope, that brought ‘good news’ to our gathering, as a high point of our service.

All of this confirms my view that when we share those things that are most personal, we are connected most deeply to that which is common - in naming our aloneness, we discover we are not alone! I am sure this is something you find repeatedly as you express yourself in story, art and design! (I am reminded of the story of the Six Blind Men and the Elephant)

Thank you Kevin, for the many ways your life and art, adds to that great body of good in the universe! Both in the upfront ways that you share your gifts - story and art - and in the simple ways, you roll up a piece of paper, pull a beacon in place, and play cricket with some young boys.

Thank you also for sharing (in your email to Paul) of your own emotion and experience, after having heard my reading of Nigel & Ruth’s Poem for Brenton. That was an encouragement to me and will bring joy to them also!

I am sure that we will meet again, and I will look forward to that moment.

In the meantime, at our meeting at Arncliffe UCA on Wednesday night, we will make a commitment to Amnesty International, as you have requested, and as a small token of our appreciation, for your gift to us.

Warm regards, fellow traveller,

Terry Ayling
Resource Minister
Arncliffe Uniting Church

There are two Red Roasters within driving distance of my home, one of them has been gutted by fire, rooted. I prefer KFC.

My dad turned 49 today.

May the Farm be with you, Store Wars

Going to see the premier of Wong Kar-Wai’’s 2046 at the opening of his Dendy Retrospective. Should be good as I loved “In the Mood for Love”. I have 2046 in digital form but haven’t watched it yet, better to pay and see it on the big screen.

Posting on and off to WoPiSoMo again.

Interesting article in the SMH today, My Career section.

Short-term jobs are fine - until you hit a certain age.

Careers are a bit like sex - some of us find a compatible partner early on, many are serial monogamists and others never commit. “The danger of window shopping careers is it’s a bit like casual sex; it becmes empty - or so I’m told, because very often immersion in something is where passion comes in,” says career development psychologist Dr Jim Bright.

Maybe you’ve been too busy seeing the world or pouring your efforts into other passions (such as an artistic project or social cause) and a career just hasn’t been your focus. But what to do if you’re 30 or older and already feel like your ship has sailed? Is it too late to find a career?

You’re going to have to buy the paper to read the rest, as I’m a lousy typer and can’t be bothered typing it all out.

The two things that set of alarm bells for me in those two intro paragraphs were “artistic project or social cause”. I’ve been doing them for the last 3 years! Ever since I quit a well paying job to do some art exhibitions, publish a magazine and work pro bono for a variety of Vietnamese human rights organisations. It really questioned what I am doing right now, wether freelance design is a career?

To me, design is a life time career, you are constantly learning new things, acquiring new skills, creatively thinking and searching for inspiration. So diverging to do art or social projects really falls into one of the career requisites of a designer. I’m sure everyone has heard “find something you love to do and you’ll never feel like you are working”. Freelancing is great, the flexible hours, not having to get up at the crack of dawn, not having to deal with peak hour late running trains. But the money isn’t so regular and you tend to work late at night, which is fine by me because I work better at night. I’ve managed to do pretty well freelancing, balancing arty/social stuff with client jobs and starting up Keep Left Studio. Its certainly a lot more satisfying knowing you’re doing something creative and meaningful.

I guess the reason why the article struck me is because I’m starting to question wether I should start looking for a full time job… nah, I can manage for a few more years or until I finally move out of home and start having to pay rent!