Panaga Club is hosting a solo art exhibit in the Main Hall this weekend (January 28th and 29th)! John Chin will be showing and selling his paintings from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
John Chin is an impressionist painter who was born and raised in Miri but has lived in Canada since 1998. The exhibition this weekend is entitled “My Impressions of Canada” and features works that depict the beauty of a clean habitat—healthy, sustainable, and protected from pollution.
John began his pursuit of art when he was only 9 years old. In 1980, at the age of 23, he had his first solo art exhibit at the Gymkhana Club Miri. Following that, he had another show at the Panaga Club. He moved to Canada to attend Simon Fraser University and further his art education at the University of Saskatchewan under the renowned artist Otto Rogers.
Upon completing his education he came back to Malaysia to set up the Art Institute of Miri, where students of all ages have learned various skills from the artist. During the 15 years he ran the Art Institute, he showed his work at various art exhibitions, including some in Australia and Japan.
He went back to Canada and settled in Saskatchewan in 1998, and over the past 25 years has had many exhibitions in various galleries there. He is back in Miri for a month-long visit to show his work inspired by his travels in Canada.
In the future, he plans to showcase paintings of Borneo scenery and culture.
Life as an accompanying partner can be full of amazing experiences and privileges, however one perennial problem is how to pursue meaningful personal development opportunities. Often careers are put into hibernation when setting off on the expat journey, often with no idea of when or if they will be awakened. When time and family commitments — and desire — allow for them to be re-started, there are often obstacles of employment visas, managing family logistics in challenging global locations, travel, language or cultural barriers — the list goes on.
Whether you want to un-pause a career, or are seeking a fresh challenge, one thing that is certain is that expat life will have equipped you with an impressive range of transferable skills, whether you are aware of it or not.
Laura Sheehan, a Career Strategist, addresses this in her TEDTalk ‘Career Change: What you need to ask yourself now’. As an accompanying partner herself for many years, she realised that there were many ambitious people out there like her, that didn’t know how to find their purpose whilst still maintaining the responsibilities of an accompanying partner. She took that opportunity to change the direction of her career, capitalise on her acumen, and start coaching accompanying partners who were struggling to find ways to maximise their opportunities.
Laura also spoke at the Families in Global Transition (FIGT) conference in 2019 and facilitated workshops where she highlighted how to recognise and give appropriate value to the skills that are accumulated during expat life. Laura was emphatic that the average experienced expat accompanying partner has a CV of skills that are commensurate with that of a CEO, but often we undervalue them just because they haven’t been earned in a traditional employment scenario. What this means is that new opportunities that have no direct connection to previous education or employment, are actually now a really great path to pursue.
But often finding the path that is right, that compliments your personal circumstances and commitments as an accompanying partner, can be baffling, create inertia and a sense that maybe finding a fulfilling new challenge, that critically can travel with you, isn’t realistic. Everyone’s circumstances are a unique combination of education, previous work experiences, talents, skills and value sets. Often that may mean that people within your expat community are on a completely different journey to you, and this can also mean that the personal development trajectory can feel isolated and lonely — no matter how close your support network may be in other aspects of life.
Elena Kersey, an expat in Kuala Lumpur and host of The Purpose Effect podcast, identified this aspect of life that was particularly challenging, and she sought to create a space where listeners can hear stories from like-minded people, and be challenging of themselves, when seeking to answer the question that is so frequently posed: ‘If you could do anything, what would you do?’.
What is common amongst the people Elena interviews is that each has encountered a time of change in their lives, and has responded to that by seeking tofind and fulfil a purpose that is specific and authentic to them. Elena explained that almost all of her interviewees have ended up finding their purpose as the result of having to solve a problem in their life.
When asking herself the question about what she wanted to do, and faced with the opportunity to potentially ‘do anything’, Elena drew inspiration from the quote of Mark Cuban, the American entrepreneur who advocates for following your effort rather than your passion; the idea being that where you are prepared to spend the most time is inevitably the thing you are most likely to be good and succeed at, rather than just talking in general about the things you like or love.
Elena said that she kept being drawn to storytelling, both for herself and for others, and therefore creating a platform for people to share their stories ultimately became the project she has pursued for thelast two years, and which is now opening doors for her into other digital applications and freelance work.
But Elena advises that we need to be kind to ourselves. Careers are not linear and often the axis of health and wellbeing/success and wealth/love, life and family are not at all balanced; accepting that and valuing the parts of life that are going well can help to relieve pressure on the desire to get every aspect of life going successfully, especially when it can be the career aspect that drops off the priority list. From her experience she said it is easy to slip into ‘analysis paralysis’ trying to identify the ‘perfect opportunity’ but in reality it gets you nowhere; discovering a purpose is not the ‘end destination’ but something you find on the journey – sometimes by design but often accidentally.
Here, Elena and Laura, (although they don’t know each other) overlap in their advice when approaching finding your purpose, and that is the importance of weaving your values into the way you approach your personal development opportunities whether that is parenting, wellness, sustainability, creative arts — if your core values are at the heart of what you pursue then you are halfway to doing something authentic for you.
Podcasts like The Purpose Effect can be a fantastic source of information — not to provide a ‘one size fits all’ solution to a personal development conundrum, but to draw on as inspiration and motivation along the journey of how to use your time as an accompanying partner in a way that provides the stimulation specific to your needs.
Elena explained that it was when she started exploring podcasts and online communities — geographically remote to her — but all interested in the same values and career space, that her project came together and the support of those communities was what gave her the confidence to make it a reality. Elena recommends Digital Nomad Girls as a really supportive community that helped her progress her ideas.
There are a plethora of podcast resources that seek to specifically support accompanying partners in their journey to maximise opportunities of a global lifestyle. Many take a less philosophical approach than The Purpose Effect, and seek to provide practical support in entrepreneurial matters such as The Expat Career and Lifestyle; Tandem Nomads looks at ways in which expat partners can find autonomy; The Remote Nomad hosted by career coach, Kate, seeks to provide a supportive forum for anyone looking to build a professional life they can take around the world with them. Love your Expat Life also tackles how to achieve personal balance in the face of constant change. For a non-expat specific take on trying new things, and providing a dose of comedy along the way, is How to Fail by Elizabeth Day.
When some barriers to finding fulfilment seem insurmountable, or you simply want an intimate exploration of your specific journey, then talking to a career or life coach can be money really well spent. Whilst there may be a stigma that those people exist for C-Suite types, there are really wonderful coaches who specialise in working with people looking to use their life experiences with a different approach.
Families in Global Transition is an expat forum and think tank that has devoted the last 25 years to research about, and support of, expats and their communities around the world. They have a wealth of online resources and opportunities to connect with people that may share your ideas and/or have answers to your questions. FIGT also hosts an annual conference that is a vibrant few days of discussion, debate and learning.
The take-away from all these podcasts and life experiences shared online, by expats and others alike, is that the journey to finding what you love doing can be neither straightforward nor obvious nor linear. However, with digital communities now just a click away, it doesn’t matter whether we are based in Brunei or Port Harcourt or Houston we can find inspiration from people who, like us, live a life that has change and challenges a-plenty; and their fresh perspective might just take us in an unexpected but welcome new direction.
Do you have any podcasts you like? Share them with us at panaga.pages@gmail.com and we will spread the word!
For me, the need to feel at home in a strange country is paramount. With no close family nearby, my house is a sanctuary, somewhere to feel safe and feel at home, a place to relax and take time to unwind. I’m not going to tell you what to do with interior design — because I just make it up as I go along. I’m just going to tell you what my approach is to a new house or a new posting. This is my way.
Who am I?
You can follow Elle on Instagram at @elleforddesign
I’m Elle. I’m Dutch. I love being creative. I followed an interior design course years ago, and after that I took a Degree in Fine Art followed by a Masters in Fine Art. I’ve also had plenty of practice with moving, from the Netherlands to Oman, Sakhalin to Houston, Kazakhstan to Dubai, Trinidad to the UK and now to Brunei.
Maybe we have not all been given the choice of houses we would prefer, so we have to make the most of what we have been given and see how we can make it work. So how can we make these houses, our homes, just look that little bit better?
What do I do?
Emptying: I always find that less is more. You don’t have to have loads of things you brought from your previous posting. When I move to a new country, I empty all the packing boxes and spread the contents throughout the new house. My house becomes fuller and fuller and I then totally lose focus. I realise that this does not feel at all like a new start, and a new posting is supposed to be a new start. Not everything has to be placed in the same way as my previous house or location.
I find that to be motivation enough to change things up. I’m not doing myself any favours by unpacking absolutely everything, but I have to do it so that I am forced into the conclusion that it is time to declutter. I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks about decluttering after a move, instead of being sensible and doing it before moving! Maybe there’s a little voice in my head thinking that all the old junk I drag around may be useful in the next location. Wrong!
Keep it or bin it?
I struggle with unpacking the same things time and time again. All those framed items like an Omani dagger, maps from the Middle East, matryoshka from Russia, that I have collected during my travels over the years. No doubt you know what I’m talking about: we all have a personal globetrotter collection — I seem to have lots of them! Ideally, I would sell them or give some of them away, but I have to keep everyone else in the household happy. Throwing or giving away those items is not an option because they are, in all fairness, memories from our past adventures. However, my perspective has totally changed over the years when it comes to bringing back souvenirs from postings or holidays. While I was never a fan of bringing back a little Eiffel Tower or a tea towel, from my last posting in Trinidad and Tobago I decided to buy more day-to-day items for the kitchen, like a large cutlass, which is useful — for opening coconuts and scaring visitors — as well as being a souvenir.
You don’t have to have everything on display. Based on the season, you can put things away for another time. You can also try an alternative way of displaying them, or an alternative location from how they were kept at your previous home. I tend to display them in smaller clusters, which gives them a more cohesive, curated feel, rather than spreading them throughout the house. I even repaint frames in the same colour — for example, all black – then I can bring the countries and cultures together in a modern, cohesive way but still reflecting the journey we have been on.
It’s also not necessary to have all these collections displayed in the lounge or central living space. It’s nice to place them in an office or study, in a hallway or on the way to the bathroom.
Another problem I have encountered over the years is moving from a location where houses are huge to a new place where houses are usually smaller. The furniture just doesn’t fit! So another reason to offload it — but maybe before you leave the first location!
Bringing local flavour inside
My interior aesthetic is a combination of old and new, modern and traditional, with a harmonious feel and a strong link to where I am living, so I’m now looking to evoke the Borneo jungle vibe. I bought a machete from the local hardware store and now I go into my garden on a weekly basis to get some fresh foliage. I look like a complete idiot when I go out there in the wild, covered from head to toe in body armour because I’m scared of absolutely everything that lives in the jungle, even the geckos. But the end result is fabulous and worth the risk and danger.
Once I have a good harvest of banana leaves or other foliage, I give them a good rinse off outside so that they’re bug free before I take them inside. Then you just have to put them in your house and it will look fabulous. Find a nice vase or bucket for the new foliage.
Recycle and reuse
I try to bring different elements of our travels into our house. The wooden packing crates used during transfer are great to recycle. What you can do is add some wheels or castors under them, and used them as side tables (or they could be storage boxes for your kids toys). With a little bit of DIY they turn into designer pieces of furniture and look fabulous.
What I particularly like about our wooden packing crates is that they are stamped as being from Port of Spain, West Indies, and now they have made it all the way to the East Indies. It adds interest to a piece of furniture, gives it a little bit of character and a story. Dec 2022/Jan 2023 18 Bringing foliage inside the house. Using packing crates as tables.
Settling in
It’s all about a fresh start, drawing on the energy of my new surroundings. I’ve been given the opportunity to start over and over again in every new country for the last 20 years. Honestly this can be really, really hard, I’m not going to lie. But 90% of the time being surrounded by a new environment and culture gives me energy and fresh inspiration from absolutely everything around me. Let the Borneo adventure begin!
John Chin is an impressionist painter who was born and raised in Miri but has lived in Canada since 1998. The exhibition this weekend is entitled “My Impressions of Canada” and features works that depict the beauty of a clean habitat—healthy, sustainable, and protected from pollution.
Upon completing his education he came back to Malaysia to set up the Art Institute of Miri, where students of all ages have learned various skills from the artist. During the 15 years he ran the Art Institute, he showed his work at various art exhibitions, including some in Australia and Japan.
Elena Kersey, an expat in Kuala Lumpur and host of The Purpose Effect podcast, identified this aspect of life that was particularly challenging, and she sought to create a space where listeners can hear stories from like-minded people, and be challenging of themselves, when seeking to answer the question that is so frequently posed: ‘If you could do anything, what would you do?’.
When some barriers to finding fulfilment seem insurmountable, or you simply want an intimate exploration of your specific journey, then talking to a career or life coach can be money really well spent. Whilst there may be a stigma that those people exist for C-Suite types, there are really wonderful coaches who specialise in working with people looking to use their life experiences with a different approach.
My interior aesthetic is a combination of old and new, modern and traditional, with a harmonious feel and a strong link to where I am living, so I’m now looking to evoke the Borneo jungle vibe. I bought a machete from the local hardware store and now I go into my garden on a weekly basis to get some fresh foliage. I look like a complete idiot when I go out there in the wild, covered from head to toe in body armour because I’m scared of absolutely everything that lives in the jungle, even the geckos. But the end result is fabulous and worth the risk and danger.
I try to bring different elements of our travels into our house. The wooden packing crates used during transfer are great to recycle. What you can do is add some wheels or castors under them, and used them as side tables (or they could be storage boxes for your kids toys). With a little bit of DIY they turn into designer pieces of furniture and look fabulous.