welenia studios

Celebrating 4,500 days of witnessing countless personal, family, community, organisational and national stories & journeys through visual scribing!🎉 Thank you all very much for your support and friendship, encouragement and counsel. And for so many opportunities to practise love by paying attention to your narratives of who you are and are becoming🙏🙂

"The act of paying attention is an act of love." - Simone Weil

welenia studios is 12 today! 3 full leaps. Thank you all very much for gracing the past 12 years with your dependable presence and timely help, wise counsel and delightful humour, warm encouragement and firm challenge, faithful friendship and generous love. Thank you for journeying with me - and this unlikely little practice - as partners, teammates, fellow creatives, friends, mentors, neighbours and family. Thank you for sharing your stories and moments with me, and for telling stories and creating moments with me. In your own ways, you have helped me keep my pen in the write hand, my heart in the right place.

Looking forward to more stories, scribing and sketches written on minds, hearts and lives in a new leap cycle 🙏❤️

Happy to support the SGUNHiLUGP this week, which was helmed by a great team🙂 First time reading up on 16 Latin American cities! Besides learning about technical challenges and development opportunities, I also took time to explore their histories and cultures. Read and listened to some of their poets and writers, musicians, artists - and chefs! Savour the rich flavours and vibrant colours of these lands😄

https://www.clc.gov.sg/capability-development/international/sgunhilugp

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"𝘜𝘮 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰 а 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦 𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘤к 𝘯г𝘰 𝘦𝘴𝘵б 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘮𝘰 𝘭𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳"
(A step forward and you’re not in the same place anymore)
- Chico Science (Brazilian composer; taken from the tune 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘪𝘰 𝘯𝘰 𝘔𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘰 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘳𝘦)

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭’𝘴 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳
𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳,
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳’𝘴 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭
𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘯,
𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘩𝘴
𝘖𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩
-- 𝘖𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴
𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦?"
- Octavio Paz (Mexican poet and diplomat; 𝘗𝘪𝘦𝘥𝘳𝘢 𝘥𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘭 ("Sunstone"), Stanza 21)

[A description of how we as humans see each other. ... But Paz gives us a glimpse of hope in the last two lines. ... telling us that perhaps those same eyes that we use that may bring us a spiritual death can be the way back to life. It is one’s discovery of self first is the key to seeing what is truth in this world. If we see one another as a bringer of joy, a bringer of peace, and live for one another, that is true life.]

"Without them it wouldn’t be what it is:
the open mouth of a wolf,
the apathetic look of an eye socket.
Light combusts,
cooking laughter and meals.
Shadow hides, in the closets, dresses
that, like handkerchiefs,
have been wiping off tears and fears for centuries.
Both light and shadow battle for life.
Amidst the combat, children fall into their arms
who are crying for the first time
and parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents,
dogs, cats, and various birds are all devoured.
The house, never still, creaks and shakes,
and with its walls like sails
moves through time.
We, inside the house, are just dust
that some wind blows along now and then,
and disappears."
- María Tabares (Colombian poet and writer. 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘜𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, translated by María Clara Cadavid)

welenia studios is 11 today! Thank you all very much for your support and belief, presence and practical help, counsel and humour, encouragement and challenge, friendship and love❤️ Thank you for sharing your stories and moments with me, and for telling stories and creating moments with me. Am grateful that I still love this work I’m given to do - which is also a work being done in me. The habits of showing up, paying attention, being curious, listening with love, mirroring with honesty, acknowledging without fear, trusting the process, waiting for emergence, having a loose grasp, and embracing negative spaces etc, are joyful disciplines for professional finesse and personal formation. It’s a great blessing to live undividedly, firmer and fuller in the direction and depths of congruence🙏

“At the heart of gratitude is the acknowledgment that even that which we do is a gift. … I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve been given good work to do, and I’ve been given good friends to be with me in that work. … How wonderful it is to have a life that makes possible a glimpse of the truth. It humbles me.”” - Stanley Hauerwas (Eleventh Anniversary Letter: Humility (and Humour). The Character of Virtue: Letters To A Godson, 150, 155-156)

A milestone for welenia studios 🙏🙂 4,000 days of meaningful work, unexpected thrills and spills, interesting adventures, precious learning. Have heard so many stories, witnessed so many journeys - individuals, couples, teams, organisations, communities, even countries. So grateful for blessings of friendship, support, encouragement, counsel, correction and love along the way, freely given by so many people ❤️ Thank you all! #

Celebrating 10 years of TFLUGP* with the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) & Temasek Foundation; grateful to be part of this journey/story over time🙏🙂 There are heartfelt moments in every cohort. This time, a few participants came up to chat and share about their children who love drawing and/or are artists-in-the-making. One lady described her teenage daughter's artistic flair; and how her daughter is thinking of giving up on her art in favour of more "practical" livelihood options. She told her daughter firmly and lovingly, "You have so much more art(istic) talent than you know, I can see it. Do not let it go."😍 How's that for parental support?😍 Even as we seek to govern cities, provinces and states well, we must (first) check our own households and nourish all with love and encouragement ... For each cohort, I also relish the opportunity to pray specifically for the cities and communities represented, through the urban challenges they bring to class for learning and peer support 🙏❤️ "Seek the welfare of the city"

*Temasek Foundation Leaders in Urban Governance Programme

📷: with the CLC working team

Since I began professional visual practice a decade ago, the NTUC has been an encouraging part of the studios' story: as a membership body and resource (I initially took up membership in the Educational Services Union, then switched to NTUC U FSE (freelancers and self-employed persons) when that was set up); as a client (our first project was the Labour Movement Our SG Conversations in 2013); and now also as sandbox co-experimenters.

Our latest play-learn comes under UFSE's Be Your Own Breakthrough (BYOB) series. We will be offering a short, simple and shoestring craft activity for self-examining personal/work habits. It's also the first time that UFSE is bringing the BYOB back onsite! 🙂 We'll take time and create space to explore:

• Good trees bear good fruit, but bad trees bear bad fruit. What habits can we cultivate to help us flourish like good trees?
• What ways of thinking, feeling, choosing and relating are we rooted in - and what kind of fruit do they bear?
• What might we need to prune from our everyday work and personal lives, in order to bear good fruit?


If you're a freelancer/self-employed person, do consider joining us that Monday to pause, play and ponder🙂 If you're not, feel free to share and invite your friends who are FSE to this session 🙂



http://ufse.org.sg/Pages/AboutUs.aspx

10 years old 🙏❤️ Thank you for being here and staying on as partners, teammates, fellow creatives, friends, encouragers, advisors, mentors, neighbours and first-hand witnesses to a story of drawing ever nearer to Love in faith with hope. For gracing the past year with your presence, love, support, generosity, counsel, and encouragement 😊 Still a day-by-day “long obedience in the same direction”, labour of love, space for leaky markers, and zone for long Zooms. Carry on with a loose grasp 🙏💖

Aslan,” said Lucy “youʼre bigger”.

“That is because you are older, little one” answered he.
“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
- C.S. Lewis (Prince Caspian)

“Our task is not to somehow inject God into our work but to join God in the work he is already doing in and through our vocational lives." ― Tish Harrison Warren (Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life)

"He leads us step by step, from event to event. Only afterward, as we look back over the way we have come and reconsider certain important moments in our lives in the light of all that has followed them, or when we survey the whole progress of our lives, do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us.” - Paul Tournier (Reflections: A Personal Guide for Life’s Most Crucial Questions)

"The meanings that God calls us to in our lives are never abstract. Though the call may ask us to redefine, or refine what we know as life, it does not demand a renunciation of life in favor of something beyond it. Moreover, the call itself is always composed of life. That is, it is not some hitherto unknown voice to which we respond; it is life calling to life." ― Christian Wiman (My Bright Abyss: Meditations fo a Modern Believer)

#心路历程

Picturing some aspects of mental wellbeing with the Singapore Anglican Community Services (thumbnails, in comments below). Fuller albums at their page:

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I and Mental Health
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=SupportSACS&set=a.249257490471801

Work and Mental Health
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=SupportSACS&set=a.253557143375169

Hope and Mental Health
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=SupportSACS&set=a.258118679585682

Caregiving and Mental Health
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=SupportSACS&set=a.262367539160796

Faith and Mental Health
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=SupportSACS&set=a.270747298322820

#无惧的爱

Singapore Anglican Community Services

Established 5,040,000 minutes ago 🙏

Had the pleasure of being with St. John's - St. Margaret's Church (Anglican) at their SJSM Village Engagement Weekend last Sunday. (I've lived in Dover for most of my life until recently; quite marvellous to see the site go from sloped carpark to what it is today!! :D ) Scribed Dr. Arthur Chern's message on letting God's Light shine in and through us. https://vimeo.com/616549702

“Faith makes all things possible. Hope makes all things work. Love makes all things beautiful.”


* Our faith is not an academic subject - it must flow in life with hope and love.
* Every soul matters to God. Every act of love is invaluable.
* God looks at our hearts. What we need to do is just to follow Him. He will do the rest.


(Matthew 25:31-46; Mark 12:30-31; Isaiah 6:8. ESV)

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Hi-res photo of the completed visual recording, at SJSM Chaplaincy: http://www.sjsm.org.sg/chaplaincy.html

Learn more about SJSM Village: https://sjsmvillage.org.sg

And their Village journey, through Project Spring-Winter: http://psw.sjsm.org.sg

SJSM Village Engagement Weekend - live illustration of sermon This is "SJSM Village Engagement Weekend - live illustration of sermon" by SJSM Church on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love…

Recent Jurong GROs community conversations. My fave bit: spontaneous rempah recipe as a timeless parable about being hands-on, having patience, coming of age, complexity of experiences, and savouring essential sameness.

A little sketch album with highlights from this year's National Day Rally (NDR) speech by PM Lee. For the fun of it. For love of country.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10157691045476627&type=3

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The Malay, Chinese and English speeches:

https://www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/National-Day-Rally-2021-Malay

https://www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/National-Day-Rally-2021-Chinese

https://www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/National-Day-Rally-2021-English

Dialogue 2 of 3 😊

A hard-earned and heart-learned 9th birthday candle 🙏❤️ Thank you for witnessing, encouraging, and supporting my little practice - a life experiment, labour of love, and space for leaky markers 😊 #破釜沉舟 #心路历程


“One summer, this middle-aged man set out on the classic pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago, walking thirty one days to travel five hundred miles. I climbed mountains and wandered through valleys. I sauntered in sunshine and trudged in drenching rain. I moved through old, abandoned villages that looked like ghost towns and through big and busy bustling cities whose noise overwhelmed me after hours of rural solitude. Sometimes the path was dirt of compacted mud, sometimes paved. At times I trekked over ancient cobbled and rutted Roman roads or smooth sandy tracks. 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲.” - Arthur Paul Boers (The Way Is Made By Walking, 26)