a day after.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all!

New York has been a little bit gloomy and warm these days. It's not depressing at all, but the atmosphere is surely unusual. It's been awhile since I brought my camera during short trips to museums or hang outs; it's heavy and I wanted to try to focus on the quality time as much as I can, whether with artworks or human beings. But today I wanted to see if I could capture the somberness of this city.

And so Diana and I went to the Morgan Library. It used to be the private library of a financier called Pierpont Morgan back in the 1800s, but now it's open for public as a museum. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the special exhibition –we went to see Martin Puryear's drawings which were beige and beautiful– yet we enjoyed a lot of the illuminations and relics in the permanent exhibition. The library itself looks very regal and red. Rich people back in those days seemed to be so fond of velvet colors and dark oaks, but instead of darkening the atmosphere, there's a sense of intelligent festivities within every room.

Ok, surely I am going all-out-nerd explaining about the library. But if you ever go to NYC and wants to have a bit of a time travel, go and check out the permanent collection of this library.

Enjoy the rest of the year!

bali + jogja '15.

The one question that I kept hearing every day during my ten days trip was: dateng ke sini sendiri aja? (You came here alone?) It makes me wonder if there's an existing stigma on traveling alone, but I could not care less, since I was having a great time taking control of my own trip.

The trip this year consisted of three episodes; three days job in Uluwatu, four days thesis prep-related activities in Ubud, and natural dyeing workshop in Jogja.

Briefly about the thesis prep, the trip's purpose was to gather as much skills, conversations, inspirations, and materials that'll assist me throughout this upcoming Senior year. The amazing thing is that not all of the things I've encountered and find inspiring were related to the art nor the creative industry. Something worth mentioning would be the hospitality of the locals, which makes traveling a lot better when you end up knowing more about these people and their ways of living. They become the heart of the cities you visited, and the aspect that makes foreign places to feel like home.

If you have any questions about who they are and where I've went during my trip, feel free to hit me up with an e-mail or a coffee convo invitation.

Be back in NYC by next week's Sunday.

And so I'll see you then :)

coffee break w/ bea.

Yuhu, hello!

Good friends of mine would know how lazy I can be when it comes to exploring or finding new places to hang around at. The only way to get me going is to really drag me out of bed and keep me off of it 'till the day ends.

Well, today marks the end of my second week in Jakarta, and Bea happened to be in town. We were in the Cipete area in the Southern part of the town, and somehow got lost. While searching for the shop that we wanted to visit, we stumbled upon a nice coffee place called Tuku. So we went in, bought iced coffee, exchanged a few coffee shop banters with Citra the barista, and sat around for awhile.

After that we continued our way to Älska, a concept store selling things that the owner has curated during her trips to places like Turkey, China, etc. The store consisted of a small café entrance, then tables and shelves filled with things, and a plant nursery on the back. It was quite amazing to see this kind of space that is filled with cultural thingamabobs, and on top of that, in Jakarta, and not exactly mass-produced --unlike other concept stores I've seen in the states.

So yeah, I had a nice afternoon, observing things.