Studio Ikigai Ko was a small brick-and-mortar art studio that was running from October 2020 to December 2022.
I offered a small handful of art classes for children and teenagers, while also creating and conducting classes outside.
It was a real time opportunity for such a small scale yet immersive marketplace experience that I embraced along, during the covid-19 phases.
These days, I strive to engage in creative and educational work that cultivate our individual authenticity as well as our collective development.
Gratitude & Grace
We cross path. It may be the length of time. It may be the depth of life.
The name Ikigai Ko was so spontaneously created out of a deep sense of curiosity and adventure that was sitting at the core of my heart space. It was that silent whisper from a higher power that was telling me to go beyond where I was and to go further into the uncharted waters to experience what I had to experience in a very real and connected quantum.
The name was born at the inital stages of the Wuhan outbreak into Singapore. During that time, the malls were already limiting the number of patrons and I was sitting at a corner of a library in downtown, just following through the steps to get the name out.
Art classes and farm work had to come to a halt, and then I found myself being placed at a community club at my residence. With a team, we were supporting the needs of the outbreak and days were basically living within premises rather than the usual going out and about.
And then one fine day, I woke up from bed saying “my heart is so tired”, and then shortly after my day routine, I went out in a swift to survey places around the neighbourhood, with the idea of a space to do art classes.
And then I remembered that my friend from art college was running a small space doing leather craft while also serving as an adjunct lecturer in our college. I reached out to her and found that she already had plans to move out of the physical shop space she was at, and to further her endeavours in another land.
The physical space was move-in ready and this was how I got myself into this small and beautiful space. For the two years and two months, I had been creating, taking care of and conducting a small handful of art classes in the studio.
Put it all out. It goes round and round …
Way back during the farm days, whenever I was walking home along the park, I had so many ideas that I knew I needed to put them out real time; out of brain, out of my heart, out of my soul, out of my body, and to fulfil that yearning for, being with, and letting go of a new little universe that my entire self was materialistically and spiritually needing to go through in order to come out connecting even more with myself.
It’s all about the journey and the memories …
All in all, it’s the journey that counts. The entire process was supremely filled with uncertainties, challenges, achievements and a whole new level and series of learning, exploring, failing, doing it over and over again, creating and connecting the dots.
It’s the studio stay-overs, the late nights, the long hours, together with the adventure and the autonomy that count. It’s the joy and curiosity of the children that count. It’s seeing the progress in their motor skills, creativity and thinking that count. It’s the little things that we have to learn from one another and how to make it better that count. It’s feeling how one another feels while having to go through the process of everyday life and sharing the cosmic cells that count; the children, the parents, the caregivers, the neighbours and the souls from around that co-exist. it’s the sweet sacrifice and service that count.
Progression not perfection …
It’s not easy to learn to be an observer and see things as it is all the time. In our own lives, we often have a few qualities running through us concurrently; being in a flow state, being stuck, being in denial etc.
The attachment in the very first place, the detachment upon realisation of a higher good, and the liberty upon softening and getting closer to our hearts.
No wonder, as what Deepak Chopra in his books said (they are so awesome, so mind opening, thank you for being born) the billions of years of the whole cosmos have generated us humans and souls a very complex, scientific, mystical and powerful body-mind system.
Thank You …
I keep these as treasures in my heart. There chapters and off-the-mat practices have been so essential and fundamental for the body, mind and soul, discovering more of and being in touch with our true nature as one.
STUDIO ARCHIVE 2020 ~ 2022 | Studio Ikigai Ko | Children's Art Studio | Visual Arts | 183 Jalan Pelikat, Singapore