Year of Birth:
1950

Disability:
Tetraplegia

Art itself takes the long hours off magically, a great panacea for boredom and loneliness. His Watercolour paintings are gradually replaced by the cleaner, easy to wash water-based Acrylics.

“You will live like an Emperor, ” a fortune-teller once charted Soon Seng’s future. Strapped to the bed, phlegmatic Soon Seng laughs off life’s irony as nurses, volunteers and relatives serve him hand and foot in his daily chores, from toothbrushing, bathing to getting into a wheelchair.

One obstacle, however, prevents Soon Seng from becoming a more diligent painter: he cannot paint independently without assistance. A friend has to squeeze his paints from the tubes, fetch his water and clip his papers to the easel board.

It felt like yesterday when he had a head-on fall in the showers. Not aware of the fracture in his skull, teenage Soon Seng merrily went to school and proceeded for his routine dip. His body soon gravitated to the bottom of the pool. He was drowning and frantically gasping for air. It must have been months of coma for by the time his eyes attune themselves to light, Soon Seng has awakened to a fulfilled prophecy.