THINGS happen for a reason – a popular adage which has been variously attributed to luminaries from Albert Schweitzer to Marilyn Monroe.
For art-educationist-artist-activist Cheah Yew Saik @ Chia Ah Yoke, the period around June 2002 was his darkest hour and a life-changing turning point. He reclaimed himself as an Artist with a capital “A” and the array of large works in his Retrospective at the Penang State Art Gallery reflect his accomplishments in skills, input and manifestations.
Still, having to resign in 2002 as director and principal of the Kuala Lumpur College of Art (KLCA) he founded and painstakingly built up over 38 years, took a toll on Cheah. He did nearly two years of therapeutic gardening before he painted, aided by his wife of 47 years, Wong Choon Chew, a nurse who had gained her Bachelor of Psychology degree in 2015, and who had helped out as student coordinator at KLCA in happier times.
Quitting, without even the remuneration promised, proved fortuitous, however, and saved him from being saddled with the mounting debts of T.H. Koid. Koid, who took over KLCA as a majority “shareholder” in 2001, spectacularly caused its demise in 2004.
