Sunset shot out the window in Bali.
Waiting for the cremation procession to begin, in Ubud, Bali, April 2024.
WHY WE RETURNED
Half a life-time ago we traveled around SE Asia for several months. We made friends in Bali with folks we’ve been traveling with ever since. This was a reunion trip, of sorts. We added on Singapore, which was new to us. In the past it didn’t seem so interesting to us as travelers – too cleaned up and rigidly regulated. I’m glad we visited this time.
Bali and Java were return visits, with lots of new experiences added, as well as the expected shock and awe at all of the changes. Now there are so many cars, scooters, paved roads, foreigners (including sooo many Yoga practitioners)…And yes, much of the land and the fields are filled in. This time, our laundry wasn’t dried on the grass for all to see – in the area surrounding our rice field huts – but at a conventional laundry, smelling of strong soap.
Don’t ask me about beaches in Bali, as I’ve never been to them and never intend to. Like the Balinese, I prefer believing that the sea is filled with sea monsters and it’s best to look inland toward the mountains and rich green rice fields. I’ll head to the sea elsewhere. The hotel swimming pools were perfection.
Dripping with beauty, humor, and art, there are so many reasons to visit, get to know and understand the people, places, languages, and cultures.
This is a selection of images from dance performances, our Ubud hotel room and pool, a coastal restaurant, public art, temples and ceremonies, holy offerings, an antique shop, and that Bali-Aussie sense of humor, street vendors (heads piled high), a holy spring water ritual. We witnessed so many romantic scenes of beauty, strength, hard working, friendly people, with a sense of humor and lightness and brightness. The lush greens and cement grays are punctuated by hot colors – pink, lilac, orange. Everything is drenched, like the flourishing rice fields, in an intense, dripping wet heat.
A bagful of marigolds sits on a concrete step in Bali. The bag is a classic black and white pattern. The flowers are ready to be carefully placed around the temple for a full moon ceremony. These are decorations and offerings to the Hindu gods are ubiquitous in SE Asia (and in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mexico during Day of the Dead celebrations).
WHY BLACK AND WHITE
Everything goes back to the Balinese philosophy of balance called Rwa Bhineda. This philosophy of balance and harmony can be found everywhere in Balinese everyday life and it is symbolized in the black and white trademark textile of Bali. This textile is called saput poleng. Saput means ‘blanket’ and poleng means ‘in two tones’. In the cloth there is an equal number of alternating black and white squares. Together they symbolize the coexistence of opposites and the ultimate goal of harmony. Some of the saput poleng cloths will also include some grey or red squares. The gray squares symbolize the transition between black and white or the transition between good and evil and the red squares symbolize energy and passion.
At Threads of Life we enjoyed a textile talk by the co-owner, William. Much more than a shop, they also hosted our 3-day natural dye and batik resist workshop.
Day #1 in Ubud we were lucky to experience a once in a lifetime event – an important royal funeral cremation ceremony and procession.
THE CREMATION PROCESSION
We had a bird’s eye from a cafe’s second floor, but we occasionally dove back into the crowd for the full experience. With over 60,000 people thronging the streets to watch and/or participate, our two friends got jostled, but as in large crowds when knocked over they were pushed right back upright!
Amazing to see all the important people arrive in limos, dressed in their finest, and the crowds of tourists, some were dressed and covered in lovely, correct Balinese ceremonial attire, while others remained clueless, in skimpy clothes.
The body is ready for cremation after the procession where it’s carried through town inside the bull.
BEAUTY
I couldn’t get this word out of my head. While we were on this trip I read the book Beauty is a Wound, and highly recommend it – its historical fiction and its magical realism helped me change my own thinking to understand Indonesia’s culture a little better, including some of the differences and similarities between Java (a Muslim island, and the capital) and Bali (Hindu, and a more recent addition to Indonesia). The country was unified to speak one language. Bahasa Indonesia is the official language of Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,508 islands that is the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, with a total population of nearly 242 million. Over 300 different native languages are spoken in Indonesia..
Bali connotes different things to different people. Our trip was about art and culture. People go there for yoga and beach retreats though. So for those who believe it must be ruined by its popularity, it is not.
The traditional culture and rituals appear to be intact. The people are genuine and sweet, and their ingrained attention to beauty is ever-present. Fresh food and flower offerings and meals carefully wrapped in banana leaves are intrinsic to Indonesia. What an incredible sense of color and composition! You see it everywhere, from food and textiles to offerings and architecture. Large and small, attention to detail is still foremost.
ACTIVITIES IN BALI
We visited tiny villages, family compounds, temples, fresh water springs, artists’ studios, art residencies, local artisans, farms, museums, day and night markets, and we watched dance performances. We heard artists’ talks and demos, and we had well-informed guides at each spot. We traveled comfortably by bus, van, and even by horse and buggy.
We enjoyed many gorgeous, festive meals and tasted lots of strange new foods and drinks. I loved a vivid blue-purple tea and water, made with butterfly pea flowers. The most unusual drink I tasted was a coffee made with live coals, served street side. I explained how to make cocktails to several servers – which was an amusing way to engage. Throughout all this is was steamy hot and often rainy.
I saw this world through a veil of sweat. I don’t do well in humid heat, as you may see by my deep red face.
Our dyed pieces were hung out at the studio of Threads of Life, a large indoor/outdoor space with dye plant gardens. We had to wait for the air to oxidize our newly dyed and batiked fabric to evaluate what to do next.
DYING, BATIKING, AND WEAVING
Our Threads of Life three-day natural dying and batiking workshop started us out with three colors: red-brown (plants), black (mud), and indigo (plants). We mixed up the dyes, then dipped, dried, and dipped multiple times. This process was interspersed with tie dying (with coins, marbles, and string), then batiking – drawing with hot wax and/or using large metal stamps. We made our own textiles to take home. It was messy, difficult, and a great learning experience – all led by local men.
WEAVING IN BALI
We had the opportunity to visit a number of weavers and learn about the different techniques and types of weaving. As with most of our educational adventures we were offered the chance to experience weaving hands-on, on various types of looms. I’d experienced backstrap weaving in art school way back when, but I was remembering that on my first trip to Bali I started learning about textiles from Alida, who is a long-time textile collector.
VILLAGE VISITS
We spent several days visiting tiny, traditional Balinese and Javanese villages. We were shown around by the village leaders and guides. In one village we watched two women making food items – tempe and crunchy snacks – in their homes. In another village we were invited to play Gamelan.
We watched while artisans carved books and masks, created shadow puppets, spun thread and wove it into one-of-a-kind textiles. We had an adventure at a coconut farm, watching the process from tree climbing to cooking and serving us coconut sugar and sampling virgin coconut oil. We stirred the pot over a flame outdoors, cooking it down the old way, and it tasted delicious. We toured their orchards and gardens, sampling fruit off the trees. We were shown how to weave reeds that make the containers for offerings and food. Like so many lovely hosts we met, they cooked a meal for us too.
We observed preparations for a full moon temple ceremony with a huge array of offerings including ducks. We descended a very long, steep set of stairs to be blessed in cold rushing water from a holy spring. We visited a lovely colonial compound housing a huge collection of masks and puppets.
Charming village woman had us into her rustic home to show us how she makes these crunchy snacks.
MEETING ARTISTS
We visited an art foundation with artists-in-residence, a few exhibiting artists, an artist’s studio, a beautifully curated shop-restaurant-gallery compound, a design shop with household goods made of handmade paper, stone, metal, and fabric, and more. Our travel group included many artists and curators, a museum registrar, and a costume designer. Most folks were coming to Bali for their first time and mainly live in the Seattle area.
At the the art foundation we saw the most artistic shadow puppets I’d ever seen, being used as inspiration for a sculpture project by this artist: https://www.saatchiart.com/imams. The artist couple who we spent time with founded their own art foundation and serve in art residencies there as well. One of these artists is Mella Jaarsma, where we saw her current project ready to ship to a show: https://mellajaarsma.com/. We also attended a Balinese artist’s talk and demo, show below, at Threads of Life.
A traditional Balinese artist with his own style, gave an ink painting demo at Threads of Life.
Mella, the Dutch artist in residence (wearing black in the middle) with her finished floor cloth piece at her feet.
Artist, designer, and Japanese papermaker, speaking about their work in their showroom.
A pile of fabulously painted shadow puppets being studied at the art foundation/residency.
A village master working on his shadow puppets.
At the art residency/foundation where this artist (right) is sculpting with tanned cow hide.
NATIONAL TREASURES – TEMPLES
Borabudur and Prambanan are two of the most important historical and religious sites in the world, yet many people haven’t heard of them. We visited them 34 years ago, and again on this trip, taking us back to Java (East of Bali) and in and around the major city of Yogyakarta. We had some wonderful guides and the tourism and care of the sites has been refined, including sandals specially-woven so as not to damage these ancient sites. Our guide was extremely well informed and articulate, telling us the stories represented by these well-preserved, sophisticated stone carvings and wall paintings. We stopped at a few smaller temples nearby. Traveling with friends in the know makes a big difference from the days when we were just winging it on the cheap, without a guide and just our Lonely Planet SE Asia book.
Additional ancient temple sites we visited were Candi Mendut, Candi Pawon, Kalasan Temple, and Candi Brahma. Each site unique in its way, and all with incredible carved narratives, and sometimes painted stories. I remain a huge fan of the complex, realistic carvings at Borabador.
Our day at Prambanan was accompanied by a prolonged downpour that flooded the grounds we waded through. The original carved downspouts are proof that the temple construction was made for such intense rain storms. Umbrellas were useless. The Seattle crowd felt right at home!
BORABUDUR: Built during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty, the temple design follows JavaneseBuddhist architecture, which blends the Indonesian indigenous tradition of ancestor worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining nirvāṇa.[3] The monument is a shrine to the Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. Evidence suggests that Borobudur was constructed in the 8th century and subsequently abandoned following the 14th-century decline of Hindu kingdoms in Java and the Javanese conversion to Islam.[4] Worldwide knowledge of its existence was sparked in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, then the British ruler of Java, who was advised of its location by native Indonesians.[5] Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project was completed in 1983 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, followed by the monument's listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[3] Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world,[6][3] and ranks with Bagan in Myanmar and Angkor Wat in Cambodia as one of the great archeological sites of Southeast Asia. Borobudur remains popular for pilgrimage, with Buddhists in Indonesia celebrating Vesak Day at the monument. Among Indonesia's tourist attractions, Borobudur is the most-visited monument.[7]
PRAMBANAN: The temple compound, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia and the second-largest in Southeast Asia after Angkor Wat.[1] The Prambanan temple is the largest Hindu temple of ancient Java, and the first building was completed in the mid-9th century. It was likely started by Rakai Pikatan and inaugurated by his successor King Lokapala. Some historians that adhere to dual dynasty theory suggest that the construction of Prambanan probably was meant as the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty's answer to the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty's Borobudur and Sewu temples nearby, and was meant to mark the return of the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty to power in Central Java after almost a century of Buddhist Sailendra dynasty domination. Nevertheless, the construction of this massive Hindu temple signified a shift of the Mataram court's patronage, from Mahayana Buddhism to Shaivite Hinduism.
SEEN ALONG THE WAY
People, signs, temples, fields, roadside shops, drivers, vehicles, vendors, cats, birds, and walls – glimpsed from a car window, from a horse carriage, or walking by, there were so many sites that grabbed my attention. Here are a handful of images including some walls I’d love to turn into paintings.
NEW FAVORITE MUSEUM
We took an excursion to Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets just outside of Ubud, a new favorite museum. It is in a cluster of elegant buildings both colonial and traditional, set amidst gorgeous grounds, with an extensive collection. These are just a few favs below. Masks are made to express. Here’s an example of the expressive masks used in Balinese dance performances, often with an open mouth area to speak through.
SINGAPORE SITES
Singapore is an ideal stop over on the way to Indonesia. I’d avoided it for fear of its strict government regulations, but I love this region. Singapore is a small, dense republic with a parliamentary system of government. It’s an interesting example of an independent sovereign state that separated from a larger country, Malaysia. Signage in SE Asia is quite strong. We saw forceful signs in both Singapore and Indonesia. But there are still old, charming, funky, arty parts of Singapore, including many wonderful murals. There are wonderful public works of art, architectural gems, a lit-up river cruise and gardens for night viewing. Cultural and religious diversity abound, so there are mosques, temples, and great food districts. There are upscale galleries and shopping.
Incredibly, we learned that most of the population live in public housing “With more than 1 million flats spread across 24 towns and 3 estates, the Singapore brand of public housing is uniquely different. The flats spell home for over 80% of Singapore's resident population, of which, about 90% own their home”.
VERDANT
What I enjoyed most in Singapore were the acres of public gardens, both the Orchid Garden (private) and the Botanical Garden (public). It rained hard on us there, but so what? It was intensely hot and humid and gorgeous, with dripping plants, it was simply scrumptious.
We didn’t see them in action as they don’t enjoy being out in the rain!
These were the only otters we saw!
FELLOW TRAVELERS
There were lots of new folks to meet on this trip. As in all of our travels with Alida and Christopher, many friends are fellow arts professionals. A few of the artists who came on this trip:
Cappy Thompson is a Seattle-based painter: https://www.cappythompson.com/objects/vessels-color
Marita Dingus makes her own clothes and textile-based sculptures and dolls out of found materials: https://www.travergallery.com/artists/marita-dingus/
Kelly Lyles (we first met at Miami Art Basel) is an artist, designer, and art car star. Like Marita, we were treated to her daily art outfits: https://www.kellyspot.com/
Here we are at Borabudur - note our special sandals to help preserve the stone.
BARBIE COMES ALONG
What’s my ongoing Barbie series about and why is she with me? My on-going series Barbie on the Cusp continues to grow and change with me. Each trip since my art residency at Pacific Felt Factory with Black and White Productions under my mentor and friend Rhiannon Evans-MacFadyen (my art coach since 2016-on), I’ve since taken Barbie with me traveling.
Although Barbie started out as a vehicle to tell my story about my realistic fear of impending adulthood, she has become my buddy, partner in crime, and has helped me enlist friends and strangers to participate in our drama. I shot the picture below, while one of the folks working at our hotel art directed me.
Barbie received this gift in Java, a Vespa just her size, made of weighty metal from a stall at a temple site that also had lovely crafts, masks, and puppets.
Thank You!
…For perusing my long, image-laden blog! Just so you know, this isn’t simply a travelogue, though it is partially that. What you’re seeing here is my fuel, my inspiration, and it reflects one of the main ways I want to spend my time – and I do! Travel gives me new experiences which I can savor and translate into my art and every day life. It holds me in its sweaty palm, while I sit in the chill of a windy, cool San Francisco summer.
Please visit me this month and next at my studio. I’ll be there several June-July weekends with cava (a lovely brut bubbly), snacks, and digital demos.
Or stop by the SFWA Gallery, in the Inner Sunset, where I’m showing work in “Radiating Pride” followed in July by two pieces juried into “Illuminations” in the main gallery.
In case you didn’t hear, we’ve been caring for two senior, sick cats who continue to amaze us with their multiple lives. They are brilliant companions and earn their keep. Doing better, fingers, crossed.
And in case you didn’t know, I post much of my new work, including art in progress and life drawings, weekly. You can check out my travel photos, exciting food, gorgeous plants, and walks – all in real time. Our aforementioned cats, Nigel and Reginald, make appearances there too. Instagram is my preferred social media. I promise you will still see a lot of top-notch visuals shared there. I love you all (if you’re on this list) and I would love to hear from you.
What Else?
NYC, Spain, Open Studios, more group shows, and two biggies – The Invisibility Collective, which has evolved quite nicely, will launch a group exhibition in Dec ‘24 in SF, and, I will curate another figurative show in Sausalito, at SCA, in Jan ‘25.