In Continuum.

Like Da Vinci's Paintings

Friend,"Why arent we attracted to each other?I mean,we like the same things,we listen to the same type of music,we have the same interests and stuff."
Me,"My parents are very alike at all,and they got married."
Friend,"So you believe in 'Opposites Attract'?"
Me,"Yeah,i guess so.My parents are perfect examples."
Friend,"But we know each other so well,it's just strange that we arent attracted to one another."
Me,"I dont think you know shit about me,though you already know everything."

I single thought reminded me of a conversation that i had with the above friend.It's strange how a certain conversation comes back to you only about four days after it happened,and when it was happening it didnt mean anything more than a friendly interaction between ordinary friends.Well,just one of my little 'priceless' quotes back there,something that's both oxymoronic and contradicting,senseless and yet so meaningful altogether.I know i am boasting myself a little bit,putting myself a little too high,but i guess if i am not going to appreciate what i said,who else will?

It's true that,despite having known me for such a long time,i dont think anybody in my social circle can truly say,"Yeah,i know that guy inside out.I know him like the back of my palm".But at the end of the day,you find a little scar at the back of your palm between your index and middle finger,you wonder where that came from.I'm THAT kind of palm,the kind which is always there but never taken notice,with the details usually forgotten or never noticed.

It's strange in a way,how i am always the one in a group of friends chattering away,and yet people know so little about it.If there is a sort of chart in this world that ranks the people who KNOWS me,with number 40 billion a strange in the middle of Greenland,then i will be at the top of the chart,or even on top of the table with a line through my own name.Because really,if i cant safely say that i am my own master,that i am the governor of myself,then would it be strange to say that i am,in that way,dictated by others?Isnt it sad,to say that however i behave is dictated by the views and opinions of others,and none of those came out from yourself?

I read somewhere before,concerning paintings by Da Vinci.I dont think this man needs any further introduction,especially with the Dan Brown book selling almost as much as the bloody Bible,his name is suddenly as famous as say...Jesus Christ.Okay,maybe not Him.Perhaps just BIll Clinton,or George W. Bush.But anyway,i read about a certain interesting habit of his - amongst his other oddities - when it comes to painting a picture.

As we all know,Da Vinci is a painter cum scientist cum architect cum...well,yeah.A hell lot of things.He's the kind of person you can brand as "Disgustingly Talented",and nobody would blame you for the misuse of word.Because whenever somebody actually comes down and talks about this man's talents,by the end of the long list they'd probably have a tongue stuck out,rolling their eyes and cursing the unfairness of God during the creation of men.Because really,this man is a bloody genius.

Aside from the fact that he likes to write his notes in a mirror image,he also has a strange habit when it comes to painting.I'm not certain if i have blogged about this before,but please bear with me if i have.But anyway,this is what an ordinary artist would do to a canvas before painting any picture.First of all,before you is the canvas,and before any colour is applied to it,there is such a thing as a "Wash".That is the base colour that painters apply to the canvas,and that colour is usually white.Because other colours are easier to apply on the colour white than any other colour,which is common sense.If you are painting say,your room from the colour white to the colour yellow.It is going to be radically easier than to paint yellow over black,right?

Anyway,so that's what an ordinary painter would do.Shadows would be added upon white,and subsequently covering the white areas with the desired colours.But Da Vinci takes a totally different course when it comes to the "Wash" of a painting.He starts off,instead of the colour white,he used the colour black as the base colour.It is a strange practise,because it is more difficult to apply other colours upon black,but that's what he did with all his famous paintings.He applies black upon the canvas,and covers the desired areas upon with colours other than black.The shadows of say,a tree on a hill,would be left untouched,with the Wash underneath showing.

I read that from a book i recall,and remember the person telling the strange habit of Da Vinci relating that to the personality of a person.Everybody starts off like a white wash,plain and pure.As you progress,you add black spots and parts to the originally pure aspects of yourself.The end result is the painting - or,yourself - out there in the gallery,revealed to the world of your secrets and your mysteries,in front of people because you chose to place them there,to allow them to dig into you,the dark shadows under the tree or beneath a rock.That is the kind of painting most people are,we put ourselves out there,the good and the bad.And once you strip away the darker aspects of oneself,there is nothing left but an empty,plain white wash underneath.

But i guess some people,like myself,we are like paintings of Da Vinci.We start off on the canvas full of mysteries,things that we might not necessarily understand ourselves.The colour black represents mystery,secret,the unknown,the untold,the questionable and so much more.The colour black is synonymous with so many aspects of human personality,that it is commonly used to describe characters in books.Anyway,you start off with that,and then you cover yourself up with the plainer,ordinary,pure colours,the vibrant ones people accept,the ordinary colours.But underneath those,the darker tones,unrevealed to the world but only to yourself.You show,in the gallery,what you want to show the world.And the ones you dont,you hide them underneath layers of colours.The power to choose,to pick what you want to tell others,that is the difference between other paintings and Da Vinci - my kind and the rest of the world.

They say that "Mothers know Best".I guess my mother ranks rather high in my "How Well do you know Weilien?" chart.In fact,she might very well be right below myself.But i guess she is a distant second in a way.Because the understanding of my personality goes two ways: The one my friends know and the one my mother knows.For example,my mother probably dont know much about my political views,or my thoughts on certain lyrics of a song,or what i went through in a typical week in camp.On the contrary,my friends probably dont know what i prefer to go with orange juice during breakfast.Why eat the bacon first and then the eggs.What i am looking for when i am at the balcony.Or how bad it was when i puked all over my mother's chest halfway to the clinic during one of my asthma attacks.

The truth is,only i know such things about myself.Everybody else,they are just pieces of puzzles,with my face broken up into a million pieces.You take a picture and slice them up into the same amount of pieces,and the person or object in the picture is the only person who knows who he or she is,and not the person who opened the box and starts with the first piece of the puzzle.But i guess that is what makes every puzzle unique,every person different.Pieces of everybody placed together on this great glass table of life.When pieced together,we are all unique,different,and ultimately,beautiful.Da Vinci,or not Da Vinci.