What makes some of these local or global creatives tick? In this weekly column, Aida aka YellowMushMellow shares her many inspirations and obsessions.

1.Yellow: My favourite colour is obvious. I love yellow because it’s bright and sunny, and that’s the kind of person I want to be. Although I’m not sure if choosing to include “yellow” in my brand is wise because I’m now setting myself up for a lifetime commitment to that cheeriness…we’ll get to that problem when it comes!

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2. Her sisters: I have them on my phone wallpaper at all times because I love them so much! My two younger sisters — Sheila and Aisha — have special needs. They’re a big inspiration in my art because they show me different (mostly exciting!) ways to make sense of the world, which is the essence of creativity — isn’t it?

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3. Patterns: I love observing “accidental” patterns in everyday objects. For example, I really love the floor textures on the SBS buses, and secretly want to wear them on a shirt. Back when we had those colourful temperature-taking stickers when COVID-19 first broke out in Singapore, I was obsessed with how people pasted them everywhere, because they looked like confetti — a chaotic explosion of colours that’s frankly quite delightful to see around “clean and green” Singapore!

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4. Sewing: I took up sewing recently and I’ve been so hooked, it’s pretty much my new personality. I turn everything into bucket hats and masks (unfortunately, the few items I know how to make as of now), and my wardrobe has been reduced to shreds because every piece of fabric I own suddenly becomes material for experimentation. Help!

On a serious note though, I am used to creating things digitally, so it’s really fun to work with your hands for a change. Super excited about making my illustrations wearable someday!

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5. Live, Laugh, Love: We laugh about it being the most “vanilla” slogan you can ever put up in your home (in flowery lettering, no less), but I’m quite keen on making “Live, Laugh, Love” cool again. I keep thinking about what if we got artists to remix “Live, Laugh, Love” in their own ways and make it really, really badass? Imagine “Live, Laugh, Love” in a rap or on a really funky graphic tee.

Or an algorithm that collects data from a set of people and then maps where they live, what they love and how they laugh (think hahaha-s, lmao-s and, rofl-s). Anyone interested in exploring this with me?

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6. Looking at ads everywhere she goes:  I work full-time as an art director in an advertising agency. I’m pretty new to the trade, and although doing work for corporations and brands is seemingly at odds with my “playful” illustration work, I do enjoy it and appreciate the opportunity to learn how to communicate better. So yes — you may call it a job hazard that I’ve started to tune in a lot more to the bus stop posters I see around me, or the sponsored videos I get served on social media.

I find it so fascinating that there are so many ways to tell the same stories and when I look at those ads, I’m thinking about what works and what doesn’t work for me as a consumer. Then I think about how I can use those lessons as someone who creates and communicates — as an art director, an artist, a fellow human being — on this Earth.

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7. Reading: My favourite places in Singapore are our libraries. I sometimes spend my whole Sundays holed up in a book at Bedok Library, and my inner aunty delights in the fact that you can do this absolutely free! It’s quite nerdy lah, but I love escaping into worlds of fiction. I read a lot on my public transport commutes.

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8. The Mexican petunia: I walk past these flowers on my way out every day because there is a small bush near where I live. I describe them as aggressively optimistic because these Mexican Petunias bloom in the morning and wilt by late afternoon. They do this every single day! In that vibrant unapologetic purple! What zest for life! I want to grow up to be the Mexican Petunia.

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9. Sketchbook-hoarding: My sketchbooks are messy — you won’t find drawings in them like you might expect, but instead, a whole lot of scribbles, seeds of ideas and notes. I like to keep them as documentation of my changing thoughts, styles and influences over the years. It’s nice to revisit them from time to time. You’d be surprised at how an untapped idea hastily scrawled in 10 years ago might be inspiration for new ones today!

Once you’re done with this story about Aida aka Yellowmushmellow’s obsessions, click here to catch up with our April 2021 issue.