WHO
MaryAnn Loo (also sometimes known as PenguinGirl)
WHAT
Visual Artist (Murals, Paintings, Illustrations)
Voice Coach & Singing Instructor
Creative Coach & Instructor
WHEN
Artist since 2013
Coaching since 2015
WHERE
Singapore mostly when I’m not painting Dream Tree murals elsewhere
HOW
With the encouragement and support of clients, patrons and friends like you!
WHY
Hmmm… this part will take more than a few sentences to answer, so read on to find out 🙂
I’m MaryAnn Loo, born 1983 in Singapore, and pretty much spent all my life in this developed, modern, and clean city-state-country-island place. My Singaporean chinese parents grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, during a time where growth and progress of this newly independent nation (since 1965) was all around them, and they learnt English in their late teens. They speak to each other in Mandarin, and they speak to me in English, and when they want to say something they don’t want my siblings and me to understand, they speak in Cantonese, and we don’t find it strange at all.
When I was really young, drawing was my way of expressing myself, and since the age of 8 I wanted to be an artist. My parents (who grew up in a Singapore that was all about economic development, and they really meant well for me) told me that artists don’t make money, and I should pursue something else more practical instead. Back then I had a thing where I needed to be a good girl (still do, sometimes), and I listened to them, and I completely forgot about my childhood artist dream.
But the need to creatively express myself persisted, and emerged in the form of writing stories when I was 11, which turned into songwriting when I was 15, and in my early twenties (while completing my BA in Psychology at the National University of Singapore), I also explored creativity as a TV/film/stage artiste and production design assistant. In 2008 I pursued my second BA (Songwriting and Music Business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee), believing I was to be a singer/songwriter… until my final semester when I enrolled in “Introduction to Drawing”.
While working on a tough drawing assignment, I randomly recalled that 8-year-old moment when I said I wanted to be an artist, and this awakened the artist dream I had forgotten for 20 years.
After graduation, I lived a year in Brooklyn, New York, and struggled with several media to express my ideas through art. I felt completely uncertain about myself as an artist, and returned to Singapore in June 2012 feeling extremely lost. Later that year, I enrolled in a life-coaching program that allowed me to reconnect to my creative side, and regain the ability to express myself authentically.
With the support of a life coach, I organized and curated my first solo exhibition within 2 months, a feat that included creating 30 new paintings and raising US$2,000 to cover the event costs – with no formal training in art or prior experience in managing events.
While painting for this exhibition, these 30 paintings told the stories of penguins who wanted to live in the sky, and found ways to get themselves there and finally learn to fly, even though in reality they are not birds of flight. Thus I saw that these Dreamer Penguins represent all of us, because like them we have the potential to fly too (i.e. live our best life and make our dreams come true), and we have forgotten how to do it.
Over the week-long exhibition in February 2013, 17 paintings were sold, and I was also commissioned to illustrate a series of 3 children’s books. I was also interviewed on the local news and in an article by Reuters about young Singaporeans pursuing their passion. It was so surreal that just two months earlier I was struggling with my identity and uncertainty of myself as an artist, and now I had sold paintings, and would soon become a published children’s book illustrator. And it didn’t stop there…
In 2014 I organized and curated my first group exhibition, where seven aspiring artists showcased their works for the first time.
I also began my training as a life coach with Executive Coach International in Singapore.
In 2015 I designed and painted my first mural, and was also commissioned for the “Studio of Wonders” installation as part of the Noise Singapore Arts Festival.
To my surprise, I was also contacted by Kidari Gallery in Daegu, South Korea, to represent my paintings at their art gallery and at local art fairs.
In 2016, I was one of 3 artists who was commissioned to create designs for the 2016 Special Edition National Day EZ-Link cards (Singapore’s public transport fare cards).
I also started teaching workshops for adults to reconnect to their creative side once again, through activities such as doodling and creative support groups.
In 2017, I painted my first public piano as part of Play It Forward Singapore.
In 2018 I attended my first artist residency in Spain, during which I painted my first mural outside of Singapore.
It was another surreal moment for me as another big dream of mine is to travel and experience life in different places around the world, while being a traditional media visual artist.
A few months later this dream of becoming a traveling artist inspired “Project: 100 Dream Trees”, my long-term project to paint 100 Dream Tree murals with different communities around the world. (I get to travel, I get to make art, and I don’t have to lug canvasses around with me!)
For six months in 2019, I installed seven Dream Tree murals in five countries: Singapore, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Macedonia.
As an artist, I stand for realizing my dreams, pursuing my passion, and cultivating freedom in creative self-expression. And not only do I want this for myself and my art, I believe this is something everyone in the world can have too, if they believed in their dreams and themselves again, and take action to manifest their inspiration and ideas into reality.
Thus I’ve trained as a life coach, as a leader, and most recently in 2018 as a voice coach and singing instructor (returning to my love for singing once again!).
I believe that as long as you have a desire to create something, you are a creator, and I stand for empowering you in unfolding your creative journey, whether it’s merely to express your artistic side, or to develop your career as an artistic professional.
ARTIST CV
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 Dreaming Penguins, Kidari Gallery, Daegu, South Korea
2016 Dream Party in PenguinLand, Capitol Piazza, Singapore
2015 Visual Voices 2 Artist Showcase, ARIA Arts Café, Singapore
2013 Dream From the Heart, Artistry, Singapore
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 International Mural by Mail, Elisabeth Jones Art Center; Portland, OR, USA
2019 De/Constructing Perspectives, Structura Gallery; Sofia, Bulgaria
2019 Utterly Women, Utterly Art Gallery; Singapore
2019 Singapore World Water Day, Orchard Road; Singapore
2018 Faber-Castell Art Festival 2018, Marina Square (Singapore)
2017 Affordable Art Fair (with Utterly Art), F1 Pit Building, Singapore
2017 Duo Exhibition: Two Worlds, and the Spaces Between, Utterly Art (Singapore)
2017 Gyeongnam International Art Fair, Kidari Gallery, Changwon Exhibition Convention Centre (Gyeongnam, South Korea)
2017 Kidari Contemporary Art Show, Great White Gallery (Daegu, South Korea)
2017 Art Apart Fair (with Utterly Art), Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel, Singapore
2016 Affordable Art Fair (with Utterly Art), F1 Pit Building, Singapore
2016 Affordable Art Fair (with Kidari Gallery), Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, South Korea
2016 Seven Deadly SINs by Band of Doodlers, Capitol Piazza, Singapore
2016 Passage, SPRMRKT, Singapore
2016 Artists Anonymous: Creative Self-Help, That Spare Room, Singapore
2016 Affordable Art Fair Let Art Speak Charity Feature Wall, F1 Pit Building, Singapore
2015 Daegu Art Fair (with Kidari Gallery), Daegu, South Korea
2015 Noise Festival 2015 Open Category Exhibition, ION Orchard, Singapore
2015 Kidari Mini Open Collection Exhibition, Kidari Gallery, Daegu, South Korea
2014 Bricks and Clouds, Claire Loves Gallery, Singapore
SELECTED REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
2019 Interview about “The Sofia Dream Tree” mural, Bulgarian National TV, Stella Radeva
2018 Interview about my participation in Riu d’Art Residency, TV3 (Catalonia, Spain)
2018 Interview about artesan market during Riu d’Art Residency, Canal Terres de l’Ebre (My segments can be found at 02:50, 05:38 and 07:25)
2018 In Only Two Months, This Artist Managed To Hold Her Very First Exhibition, YP SG, Eudora Chuah
2017 Artist Profile: Mary Ann Loo, Art Business Institute
2016 Zooming in on Creativity, Youth SG, Anna Fernandez
2013 Youth turning their backs on “Singapore dream”, Reuters, Eveline Danubrata
2013 Interview about crowdfunding for my first solo exhibition, Singapore Channel 8 News
SELECTED AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2021 Best Short Animation Film for All Is Not Lost… Yet, Halicarnassus Film Festival; Bodrum, Turkey
2019 Brashnar Creative Project, Skopje, Macedonia
2019 The Old School Residency, Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria
2019 World of Co Artist Residency, Sofia, Bulgaria
2019 Kintai Arts Residence, Kintai, Lithuania
2019 Rucka Residency, Cēsis, Latvia
2019 Arts Fund Grant, National Arts Council, Singapore
2018 Riu d’Art Residency, Riba-roja d’Ebre, Spain
2016 Arts Fund Grant, National Arts Council, Singapore
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2016 Dream Party in PenguinLand, Capitol Piazza, Singapore
2016 Artists Anonymous: Creative Self-Help, That Spare Room, Singapore
2015 Visual Voices 2 Artist Showcase, ARIA Arts Café, Singapore
2014 Bricks and Clouds, Claire Loves Gallery, Singapore
2013 Dream From the Heart, Artistry, Singapore