I always want to do art but im not the one born with skill. Mine is so rusty and need thousand hours of practice to hail it back. That's why last December when someone posted a story about Watu Gunung Cafe and after went down a rabbit hole, I decided to join the upcoming workshop at that same cafe in 3 weeks. 

Watu Gunung

Watu Gunung Cafe is located in Watu Gunung. The cafe were not there when we went there back in 2021. Not a lot has changed. What I remember about that place is the grass color. It went lighter. It's not as green. But the pool is still there, the big rocks are still there. Well, Watu Gunung is taken from big rocks, duh! But that day, everything was dark and moist.

The clock strike 25 minutes after the midday when we gathered on the square table. Rainfall was in forecast on the night before, so the cloudy weather was expected. The wood beams and furniture set the right mood for art therapy, albeit rather dark. The cafe was semi-outdoors and the yellow light was lit anywhere else, but our table.

Mbak Afif started the workshop with mini meditation and asked us to close our eyes. Imagining what's on our mind and tried to put it on the canvas. As usual, with the command, my chaotic mind started to change images several times, from the flower vines outside the Angonjiwo with blue sky in the background, and some other things in blue.

The canvas was 20 x 20 and with acrylic paint in 5 primary colors. I still had no idea on what to paint but I quickly dived my brush on blue paint since it's my favorite. The mindless stroke became a heart shape side. Yeah, one side in blue and one side in red. Hot & cold. Contrast. Paradox.

There were four of us. Mbak Apip, the artist, was stalling on color, she worked on watering the canvas instead. Gita, the artist's friend, took the darkest color she could find and moved in abstract manner. While Fani, I left her doing her things, turned out she picked her favorite too: purple and green, the colors in which didn't match together but she loved it side by side.

The highlight of the day is that I realize, so many impulsive decision lead me to the things I really need to do. Like, when I look back, I directed myself to this very moment: doing arts, having sweet time by cafe hopping, keeping close to the ones who wanted to talk about what matter the most, trying to grasp this life a little clearer.

The art workshop is the tilting point, the beginning, the half-remembered mystery reaching out to me. Genuine interaction is rare, it's just I have to put myself in the right place and right moment. As someone who is from a psych major, sometimes I know more than meets the eye. I roll my eyes when people ask me to do mind-reading when they know im from a psych major, but I cannot help to psycho-analyze people in the first encounter.

My life is just the accumulation of little impulse of doing this and that. I just wish someday it'll make sense.