THE art and geek worlds met at the Kerinchi Foyer, with the launch of the Magic Mirror charity art exhibition on 18 December.

The month long event is sponsored by ICT security solutions company Extol MSC and organised by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

The exhibition features many paintings as well as hand-drawn, hand-painted and computer printouts of illustrations by young and talented artists such as Sarah Joan Mokhtar, Nur Azmi a.k.a. Nurazmi Mohter, Anuar Hassan better known as Sireh, Nor Emila Mohd Yusof, Mischele Mariam Nazmi, Fathana Mohd Tajalli, Khairul Azuwan Ishak, and others.

Award-winning children’s book illustrator and Malaysia’s foremost niave artist, Yusof Gajah graced the occasion to provided support and encouragement to young and budding artists there.

Yusof Gajah who’s well known for his exquisite paintings of elephants is also an avid philanthropist who’s actively raised funds for charity and who’s worked closely with children.

The Kerinchi Foyer which fronts Extol MSC’s new office was originally conceived to display its security solutions to its guests.

“However, with its ample space coupled with the fact that we acknowledge our local artistic talents, we decided that this can also be an additional venue for budding artists to display their works of art,” said Justin Tan, EXTOL MSC chief executive officer.

Technology and the human touch

“I’m very excited about the exhibition and am very happy to meet other artists involved in this genre,” said Sarah Joan Mokhtar, a comic artist, illustrator and a member of the organising committee.

“We’re very grateful to Extol MSC for this space, the opportunity to display our works and other help for our society,” she added.

Sarah’s works of illustrations for children are a fusion of the pure human touch with technology. They are hand-drawn, then scanned into a PC and edited using Adobe Photoshop, printed out, further touched up by hand and the process is repeated until they are ready.

Some of the artwork by various artists were on sale at prices ranging from RM700 for a relatively small sized work up to RM3,000 a more for a full sized work.

Some of those selling for RM700 included works by Anuar Hassan which featured humourous depictions of the human-computer relationship and alternative depictions of technology-related concepts.

One of them called Computer Abuse shows a PC flogging its user with a whip, as if to say how computers have become slave-drivers of their users in our technology dominated lives, while another called Computer Security shows a turbaned security guard with a shotgun guarding a PC chained to a desk.

Most of Anuar Hassan’s works feature illustrations of people in domestic settings, while those of other artists featured scenes of urban and rural life, of animals, jungle settings and scenery.

Anuar teaches the design process, drawing skills and storyboarding at Multimedia University, Film & Animation Department and to teach his students creativity, Anuar tells them to look around and discover what inspires them most, then think of different ways to portray it.

“For example, Yusof Gajah was inspired by elephants and all his works feature elephants in different ways,” said Anuar.

He was also on hand to sketch a caricature of anyone for RM10 for a sketch in black and white and RM25 for one in colour, with the proceeds going to charity.

Workshops on open source design tools for designers and artists, the Malaysian children’s book publishing outlook, Reading aloud and story telling, Overview of popular children’s books and Copyright for writers illustrators took place throughout the duration of the exhibition. More information on these is available on Extol MSC’s website at http://www.extolcorp.com/.

The aims and objectives of events such as this exhibition and the workshops is to bring together Malaysian writers, illustrators, publishers, librarians and bookstores together to provide a market for the artists and also to help raise their skills level and while our artists draw, they reflect Malaysian culture in their works,” said Linda Tan, the society’s regional advisor.

An editor of magazines on business and information technology by profession, Tan approached the society with the view to establish a Malaysian chapter and she was initially appointed its regional advisor and expects the Malaysian chapter to be registered by March, 2009.

Established in Los Angeles around 1975, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators now has over 70,000 chapters worldwide, including several in some countries.