Introduction
I am a 25-year-old Biology graduate that throughout the years, somehow managed to keep a hold of my passion for the arts. From a young age, I have always been very creative, and I loved taking all my arts and crafts classes from primary school up to the years before pre-university. Going along with my mother’s advice, I dropped art and instead studied and graduated with a degree in Environmental and Life Sciences, but thankfully, that interest never faded. Thus, most of my art and design skills have been self-taught, trying and learning through trial and error.
Achievements
I took my first ever design task when I was elected to be the designer for my high school sports house. It was my first time having a big project on full display -it included designing our sports house notice board in front of the school library- and being seen by the whole school! From there, I have done odd design jobs here and there, where one of the biggest pieces I have done was an ombre wall mural of a world map for Geo Eats restaurant, as well as another mural of the map of Asia for Asian Shack.
Inspiration
All three of the designs are based on my favourite Sanrio character, the sad egg called Gudetama. I thought that Gudetama was totally cute and relatable, and started collecting Gudetama merchandise whenever I could, from cups, buttons and even going to the Gudetama shop in Universal Studios Japan to get a hold of some memorable tokens!
Budetama
So, I made the first version of Budetama for Brunei’s National Day earlier this year when I just started getting familiar with Adobe Illustrator, and it got a good response from my online followers. I decided to sort of pay a tribute to it for this t-shirt series, only with a different style of illustration. As the name suggests, Budetama is a cross between Gudetama and Brunei’s own beloved national mascot, Awang Budiman. Even though Budetama’s face might seem sad, it is holding up a flag with our Bruneian colours to express its sense of nationalism.
Sototama
This is another spin on Gudetama, which can be in multiple forms such as a boiled egg, a sunny-side up or even just the standing egg yolk. In this illustration, Sototama -in the form of half a boiled egg- is having a wonderfully mellow time spinning around in the delicious soup of soto kuning, which is one of my favourite Bruneian dishes growing up.
Nasigoretama
The third and hopefully not the final installation of the Gudetama series, is based on another favourite dish of mine. In this illustration, Gudetama is being held up by chopsticks as a sunny side up egg, which is a delightful and not to mention, the absolute best addition (in my opinion, at least) to some delicious nasi goreng topped with the classic frozen carrots and peas.
Closing Remarks
I really hope that I can continue to make art that inspire me and make me happy, and that the art industry in Brunei will continue to flourish and expand with the never-ending support of the Bruneian community, artists and otherwise.