Page 85 - KCN 2020

FADING COLOURS being thrown at her, Michelle tried to keep her head high and smile through it all,

as if it were just a passing gust of breeze.

Thian Yi-Ming Despite playing it cool, the miniscule scars continued to widen. Having being

constantly reminded of the unpleasant things in store for her slowly but surely took its
toll. Michelle became more and more anxious. She started to question her own decision.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, indigo...
She clenched her sketchbook tightly until her knuckles hurt, the paper

Michelle was tucked in a corner of her dim room, illuminated only by crinkling beneath her grip.
the faint lamplight under her door. In her eyes, all the colours which once adorned
her room were now a dull gray. The exam finals were staring her in the face. If she didn’t put in enough effort
to hone her skills, she’d be left in the dust far behind the already fearsome competition
She was one of the star students in her class, passing her exams with in the art industry. Failing before even setting foot into the industry wouldn’t be an
flying colours. Her stellar conduct granted her the well earned position of option for Michelle, not when she had already come this far.
president in her multiple extra-curricular activities. She never failed to make her
teachers and parents proud. Well, in the past, anyway. She desperately grabbed her brushes and tried to calm herself down by painting,
but her mind conveyed her anxiety through her brush and onto the canvas.

Her first visit to an art gallery was the soil that cultivated her budding Nothing came out, nothing right at least. Her frantic strokes reflected the current
fascination in art. A multitude of extravagant paintings staring down at her state of her mind, messy and conflicting.
from white marble walls left her dumbstruck.
Michelle struggled to rediscover her real identity. Was she to continue soldier-
The artists’ emotions are embedded in an alluring mixture of hues on ing on the harsh, risky path to become an artist, whom might not even be noticed? Or
the canvas! What a bold use of expressive colours! was she to shed her past efforts and start anew as a student who focused solely on achiev-
ing credits and joining the ever growing crowd of future engineers and accountants?

One day she was an ordinary student trying to excel in her studies. The next, Which was more important, facing the stigma attatched to her by this conservative
she was intrigued by the fascinating world of art. and unimaginative society just to be herself, or murder her own aspirations to fit into
society’s mould?
Since then, she continuously honed her own skills in art, armed with numer-
ous brushes and trays of watercolour paints. Gradually, like a butterfly moulting The impact of the sketchbook she flung towards the wall reverberated throughout
from its cocoon, Michelle learned from scratch the techniques and skills required the room.
to create a beautiful piece of art— perspective, foreshortening, and the blending of
colours. It was then that she realized that in her glorious past, when she spent her school What gives them the authority to decide my future path for me? What lets them
years amassing gold and silver to collect dust atop her shelves, she never had a sense of mark the art industry as the path to poverty? What allows them to label others as a failure?
satisfaction or accomplishment, only bottomless hunger. But now, she felt free,
her pent-up feelings and frustrations all expressed through the tip of Michelle’s breathing got heavy, as if lead had filled her lungs and was
her brush. drowning her.

Even so, her family had voiced their dissatisfaction of her pursuing a future in Calm down, Michelle thought to herself. Just picture the colours blending
art, claiming that such a path held no way of success. It wasn’t just them— plenty of together in harmony. That always puts me at ease.
her older relatives had expressed disappointment and doubt over her choice of career.
They constantly made subtle remarks about the harsh road Michelle would have to Red, orange, yellow, red, red......
trudge through if she wished to continue. Despite having many conservative ideals
Red.
81 82