My friend came soon after and we then started to work on the painting for the last time. Along with my father's arrival, my team is complete. Operation Must-Complete-Painting-By-Today commences!
The URA staff came early today as well and they started taking photos even earlier. Now I realise that they probably wanted to take pictures while the lighting wasn't disrupted by the tents (that they were going to set up later on).
My to-do list for today was to paint on the line details on the sides of the bench and then touch up both that and the lines on the top. There's also the issue of painting the front side where I plan to place my title and name but I pushed designing that to after I'm about done with the touch ups. Basically, other than what's already on the design, I have absolutely no idea what I should be doing. But first things first!
Like the first two days, the cameras were always somewhere near, but this day in particular gave no mercy. The photographer literally stationed himself right in front of me and at times along with a group of tourists. "This is the most photogenic spot" he says, pointing to the open space and one lone tree right behind me. I felt smaller than anything today. But still flattered.
Roles reversed? The hardworking assistant and the playful artist
For lunch, my father and I headed to the closest cafe for relief from the merciless sun. I then recognised one of the workers there whom very voluntarily rolled up the rain curtains for us this morning and gave us encouraging words which was really touching - she even thanked me for contributing to Singapore's art movement!
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| I ordered a vegetarian linguine and I loved the presentation with the bright-coloured and angular vegetables complementing the pale yellow of the smooth and curved pasta. Taste-wise wasn't much to my liking however.
My father left shortly after lunch for a well-deserved sleep at home before another tiring day at work and I was then joined by my friend whom left earlier on for classes.
I entrusted the job of touching up the black lines on the top to her while I continued to work on touching up the sides and the colours on the top, When I finished the touch ups, I was at a loss for the name board(front side of the bench that's reserved for the title which I have not designed). One idea was to paint it yellow(definitely not just because yellow's my favourtie colour) which I thought would make a good contrast to the top that makes up of mostly blues. The problem was the design and how I should present it.
I went for it with a faint idea that I liked and this was the result:
My friend wasn't all too happy about my writing her name there(or that's what she said but I'd like to think she was even a little proud of it) because she didn't do much work but I still added her in anyways, for taking up her time and efforts, and to serve as a good memory.
As a result of trusting my unreliable intuition, I messed up the lettering and lines in the background of where the names are but I managed to layer some yellow over them to blend the colours better so they won't take the spotlight from the names. One of my greatest weaknesses is my incompatibility with fonts - I can't come up with pretty fonts; So that's what my bench has to make deal with.
To blend the name board into the bench so they look complete, I dabbed the sides of the bench with a sponge to add some yellow into it. However much it pleases my obsession with the colour, I layered over some white to tone the brightness down a little.
Just a short story: For the span of three days given to complete this bench, one particular person comes to my tent to look at my bench in the evening. He dresses formally and carries around a briefcase, so he definitely belong to one of the office workers in the area, His appearance on the very first day struck a big impression on me: I was concentrating on painting until I looked up for a break on straining my eyes and mind, and spotted this gentleman staring with his already big Caucasian eyes opened wide - so wide they look like they were about to pop. I looked at him in surprise and interest at his reaction, while he stood there for a good few minutes in silence before walking away.
I didn't think much of it, but he returned the next day and I didn't recognise him right away, but he spoke to me about how he likes it and made me think if they were the same person.
However, on the last day, he of course appeared again, but this time he said something different - he gave his opinion at how he did not see the other benches by the other students as appealing(his words were rather harsh) and I could not help but think about how embarrassed and humiliated I would be if I were one of the students he was talking about, so I couldn't genuinely feel happy about his 'compliment'.
On the topic of passer-by's, there was another Caucasian lady who stopped by and asked about the project - what we were doing and why. She also asked if my bench painting was inspired by stained-glass paintings, and also explained that she herself did stained-glass. I was really honoured for my design to be liked even by someone who was experienced with the medium. We also explained that the final outcome of the bench will be introduced in the Singapore Night Festival on Friday, but she unfortunately had to return to her country in the day, which was a huge disappointment for I definitely would have liked her to see it.
The last day was quite the relaxed one, which I even got the luxury of having blueberry muffins my friend bought for me.(Other than the sudden downpour and I had to do my work while holding an umbrella so that water wouldn't get onto the paint)
The completion of the bench was gave a surreal feeling - these three days were quite the rush and definitely busy, but I enjoyed every moment of it. I took lots of photos and even videos because I'm quite the sentimental one - but my playful self couldn't be contained.
A tearful farewell with my bench.
 Please move your eyes away from the mess around the bench and focus on the bench itself 
And that marks an end to the best three days of my life.
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