SMR Reads: What's Your Hobby? Arts & Crafts with Ms. Yunos.

SMR Reads contacted Ms. Rozi Yunos who is a talented in art & crafts. She is known as a fantastic artist and has been running classes for those who want to learn book making. Ms. Yunos was gracious enough to share with us about her passion.

T: Tell us more about yourself.

MRY: Firstly, thank you for this opportunity. It is great that your school is encouraging students to read more. I think youngsters nowadays miss out a lot on great information. as you know, my name is Rozi Yunos. I am a multi-disciplinary artist and a programme development officer for Art & Design Department in Department of Technical Education. My hobbies are physical activities and of course, reading! I also love art & crafts.

T: When did you start your passion?

MRY: As far back as I can remember, I had always been a creative kid in one form or another. If I wasn't not busy reading my story books, I'd be drawing or making something.

I remember I building a Lego house and I filling it with furniture which I made from mosaic tiles which were plenty around at that time, and all I needed was glue. One time, I wrapped up all my books and dolls and gave them away to my friends just because I like to wrap things up all neat and tidy. Needless to say I got scolded for that, I was only eight that time.

T: Did you learn some skills at school?

MRY: Yes, I did art in school from primary all the way to post graduate level. I was fortunate to have gone to an international school overseas during my secondary years, as it gave me the opportunity to be exposed to many forms of art unlike just paintings and drawings that they did in government schools back home. And during that time, I was involved in many of the school's drama productions to make props and paint the stages. The subjects I took that time were all the sciences and art.

When I came back to Brunei, I did my A levels at MD. I was disappointed that Art was not offered as a subject. I was doing all science subjects but I kept on pestering the Academic Principal for Art as well. After a year of annoying her, one day she called me up and said the school had got a new English teacher, and he also qualified as an art teacher, and from there on I was able to do art as my fourth subject. When we first started there were only two students. By the time I did the exams the numbers went up to four. Now, there's a full fledged art department in MD.

T: Did you continue doing Art after A-levels?

MRY: I had a big decision to make after A levels, where do I go from here? I knew the next stage in my life involves being independent, in my family it is expected you are to do your degree. I was an OK science student, but it didn't come without studying alot. I enjoyed the subjects, but it wasn't what I would like to do for the rest of my life, although I wished I knew about forensic science I would've probably paid more attention then. But I digress, knowing I'll be overseas, living and studying on my own, no one to help, whatever course I do better be soemthing I'll enjoy, or else it will be a miserable time overseas, and I wasn't going to waste the time and money it cost to send me overseas.

So that was when I decided to go down the path of doing arts. The frame of thought was, I choose to do this, and I couldn't blame anyone if it didn't work, so I better make it work. While waiting, I got a job at an outdoor advertising company as a junior graphic designer, I thought, yeah, this is what I'll like to do. I was so wrong....

I applied to do an Art and Design foundation and then I did a degree in Visual Communication where I specialised in Illustration, and during that time I did an elective called Book Arts that spurred me on to apply for a Masters in Book Arts.

Throughout the years, I noticed that I had moved from doing flat two dimensional art work to three dimensional art work. And I always liked to make things with my hands. I chose the medium of paper as it was plentiful and I have always found origami fascination, creating a three dimensional object out of a flat piece of paper.

For my foundation finals, I did an instillation of origami pieces which were hung to look like a store display. For my degree finals, because of the elective I did I produced another instillation alongside with the books I made, which are not like the books I make now.

During my time when I did my Masters, I was fortunate enough to work part time for an artist in London, he started off being a graphic designer and through major changes in his life he became a sculpturer and book artist. Working for him made me realise that being an artist doesn't mean that you stick with one discpline, because of the nature of your creativity you are allowed to move from discpline to discpline just to help make your ideas come true.

Not surprisingly, I did another instillation for my finals, this time with me as part of the instillation where the whole idea was I'm constantly creating and making, on opening night instantly I could see people's reaction towards my work and it was an eye opening and rewarding experience because I also get to interact with the audience and some even chose to be part of the work which was fantastic.

After graduating and coming back, I got a job as an instructor in Interior Design in a technical college. I had no training in Interior Design as it was a whole other aspect of art, they are more of the formal and technical side. And I taught subjects that I knew like Visual Studies. From there I was pulled to the Department of Technical Education, MOE to help set up the proposed new art school they have planned in the pipe works.