Walking into the studio of Sasya is like strolling into a garden with flowers all abloom. But take a close look and you realize the flowers are cultivated not by an ordinary hand but by a sensitive and spirited watercolorist with big vision and strong assertion of things simply beautiful, like flowers.

On a regional exhibition-tour, "For You My Lord" is Sasya Tranggono's celebration of her life's new experiences and experimentations in big and striking colourful flowers. From the title you can surmise the source of her inspiration. "God is the real artist," she confirms. "It is to Him that I offer my art, my everything."

Sasya's works for this collection is of a different genre: she has a simpler choice of subjects although magnified in character. Evoking her new-found conviction about herself, her beliefs, as well as her art. In the past, Sasya used indonesian subjects and icons as reference to her works which clearly depicted her search for identity in her Javanese roots. Her preoccupation with flowers today can only be deemed as her fearless assertion of her individuality as a woman and person in her immediate society. On the other hand, her use of religious, quotes in the subtitles is a way of making a religious testimony, if not a confrontation or her past and the milieu into which she was born "I have found the Lord and I want to tell it to everyone." It is in this context that Sasya's present works has to be regarded.

Why flowers and what about them? Flowers are the only uncomplicated objects in this world whose essence and existence are purely dedicated to pleasure and beauty. To conventional thinking, flowers represent women; ironically women are not uncomplicated at all. Given the purpose and form of flowers, the challenge of painting them is a matter of rendering the colours of their essence, a unique skill that Sasya has mastered. To that she has added and taken on another challenge: painting flowers using watercolor on canvas.

Unconventionaly indeed, In but Sasya derives artistic pleasure from the unpredictability of the response of watercolor on canvas. Watercolors are suited to paper, which is absorbent. The formation of color values in her flower paintings, therefore, Is the result of the freedom of the watercolor to flow on the canvas which brings out an effec t of spontaneity, and in the multiple lavering of colors. Even the process of watercolor layering is yet another challenge as one color has to dry up before another can be added. "It is a test of patience," she says, "but the whole procedure has taught me discipline."

Sasya Tranggono was born into a Javanese family that has built a large enterprise in beauty products in Indonesia. Concepts of beauty -scientific or philosophical- have therefore played a big influence in Sasya's life. Although Javanese culture can generally be described as restrictive, Sasya was taught early on to be open to new thoughts and ideas, an attitude that helped her graduate with a degree in engineering from the Syracuse University in New York and with an MBA from the Erasmus University in Amsterdam.

For her trademark watercolor on canvas and large but beautiful portrayal of commonplace things, Sasya received the prestigious Jakarta CP Biennale Art Award in 2003, which has brought her works to prominence since then on the Indonesian and regional art scene.

Written by Noreen M. Flores