Bright As Day

Tell us more about yourself.
I’m from Australia, travelling here with my gorgeous boyfriend, Tom. This is our first time out of Australia in a while since the border’s opening! Back home, I’m a teacher. I teach visual art to kids and pottery to adults.

Why did you choose to visit Singapore?
Because Tom wanted to come to Singapore (laughs), and I’ve never been here apart from a stopover in the airport, so it’s my my first time outside in Singapore. The food is also definitely one of the reasons we came here. I felt pretty sick on our first night here because I overate. I kind of had to waddle back to our hotel (laughs).

What are your plans for the day?
Today we’re going on a walk around Chinatown and visiting the temples. We’re going to go to the Buddhist temple and just kind of meander about and eat lots, basically (laughs).

Being an art teacher and working with art so often, what’s your favourite work of art that you’ve personally created?
I really like doing botanical drawings and paintings, and I painted a magnolia for a friend for her 30th birthday. So that’s one of my pieces I’m most proud of.

If you could be a plant, what would you be?
I’d probably wanna be a sunflower (laughs), because they just make people happy, and that’s what I like about them.

As a teacher, what is one lesson you’d like to teach your kids?
Just be unashamedly yourself, because expressing yourself is one thing that you can always find a way to do well. Also, don’t try to compare yourself to others, because they’re not you (laughs), and they’re not gonna have the same gifts that you have.

You mentioned you enjoy thrifting. What’s your most prized thrifted item in your wardrobe?
Ooh, so it’s really hard to find shoes that fit in thrift shops, and I found this pair of shoes that fit me perfectly. They were a really nice, soft, yellow leather, and I think it might have been handmade actually. Plus, they were $7! But they actually just started splitting, so I need to learn how to repair leather shoes so I can keep wearing them.