When I first had my eyes checked I was surprised to learn that I needed glasses. I remember how astounded I was when I first put them on. Suddenly I realized how blurred my vision was. In that second, for the first time everything seemed more in focus, and the world seemed clearer to me. Like those glasses I can recall three events that influenced my creative perception, three Epiphanies.
Learning to see
The first thing I remember is a scene from Mistral’s Daughter mini TV series from 1985. In the scene Mistral, a well known painter, reveals the fundamentals of drawing to his daughter, by drawing an apple. I have recently watched it again for the second time and I was amazed to how detailed I remembered that scene. I think it was Mistral’s passion for his work that struck me as extraordinary. For me it was the beginning of consciously understanding how to see…how to draw.
Loving to draw
20 years later I still didn’t get it, the ‘drawing thing’. I was drawing here and there, I drew many life models, but it was never part of who I was. Then I took a technical drawing course with Michael Joyce in the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. As you can only imagine technical drawing is one of the more restricted and controlled types of drawing (some may even say boring), but Michael Joyce was very exited about it, and managed to some how give me some of his passion for drawing. He used to talk about lines and shading as if they were aged red wine and bittersweet chocolate. I specifically remember that one time we went on a field trip to draw at the Science Museum. I was sitting outside the museum drawing what was in my view, the Salt and Pepper Bridge over the Charles River in Cambridge. Suddenly I realized that I enjoy this very much, it was cold and gloomy but there was no other place I wanted to be or other thing I wished I was doing. Drawing was finally part of who I was. I didn’t learn much about drawing perspectives or casting shadows, oh well…
The need for making something out of fabric
The movie “In the mood for love” by Kar Wai Wong is breathtaking. I was struck by the beauty of the movie in general but more specifically with the dresses that Su Li-Zhen played by Maggie Cheung was wearing. A couple of days after watching it, I was coming back from New York City (I was living in Boston at that time), Oren was driving and I was enjoying the soft sun with my eyes closed. Thinking of the movie and those dresses, I realized I needed to go back to sewing, and visit a fabric store as soon as possible, something I didn’t want to do since high school (I was a fashion major). I went and got a sewing machine and I haven’t stopped sewing since. Going into a fabric store really makes my day. My favorite fabric store is Mood in NY. I recommend the movie 
In the mood for love: Su Li-Zhen played by Maggie Cheung, directed and written by Kar Wai Wong
