I have never been a great fan of art, mostly because I have yet to learn how to appreciate art, unless comics can be considered as a form of art. But last Sunday, after I stepped out of the Singapore Art Museum, my perception of art changed. Well, not exactly changed, but went back to the basics.

I have always found it embarrassing to look at art pieces and try to figure out what it was all about. And adults also tend to read the interpretation of the artwork meant by the artist. Rarely would my interpretations coincide with that of the artist, which really dampens my enthusiasm for art and my confidence in my ability to appreciate art.

But children are different. To them, art is simply a matter of having fun, getting their hands dirty and letting their creative minds go wild and free. To them, lions can be red in colour, rice can be purple in colour, the sea doesn’t have to be in blue, and the grass doesn’t have to be green in colour.

Just look at the colourful, if unconventional colours that the children have applied to their pictures while doing Finger Printing Art! I see orange and yellow pandas!

But art is not meant only for children. As my friend and I walked past a group of people doing printmaking, my friend who got interested dragged me into the room with her. I was handed some Styrofoam, pieces of white paper, paint, paint brushes, and pen to start off.

First, we were told to design our Styrofoam with patterns by making lines or dots in Styrofoam. Next, we painted our Styrofoam with various colours, and finally we printed our design and colours onto a piece of white paper. I learned the hard way that words are the hardest to print, because the letters are too close together, and when printed on the paper, they turn out being mirror images of the words you have designed!

But in the end, we managed to come up with simple designs and colours, but the final product seemed pretty good to me! We even came up with more than one design!

This simple activity that we have no doubt attempted many a time during our Primary School days was so much fun! We even got ourselves really dirty. I had paint on my T-shirt and my hands, and my friend got paint on her arms and even her neck! But despite getting dirty, look at how much fun children and adults are all having!

After cleaning ourselves up, my friend and I took a turn around the Calligraphy and Chinese Painting room. Calligraphy and Chinese Painting masters were guiding children along, while parents stood around observing. I would have liked to try calligraphy – I’ve always been interested in that – but I have too little patience to join the queue.

I saw a little girl drawing on an umbrella. Why would there even be an umbrella on the table? But my friend took a step forward and told me she wanted to do her part for Singapore too. Ah, the umbrellas were meant for the Istana Art Event imagiNATION. My friend grabbed hold of a marker and started doodling on the transparent umbrella.

What more fun can one get at the museum? Not only are there interesting activities, my friend and I also went to take a look at the donated works of Wu Guanzhong that were showcased in three galleries. We also enjoyed free popcorn, candy floss and music performances!

To top it off, just across the street at 8Q sam, there was also a flea market being held. There was a variety of products being sold. Not only were there things I expected to find in a flea market, I even saw some products that were beyond my expectation! There were clothes, accessories, books, plushed toys, bags, shoes and even a guitar, an old typewriter and G-strings! In fact, take a look at this cute pair of mouse-like shoes!

Now that I’ve had so much fun at the Singapore Art Museum, it’s a sure thing that I’ll be back again with more friends to explore the less mature, but definitely more fun way of art appreciation!