Artwork inspired by Kat's story

Inspired by the life lesson of Kat from Norway, "Take one thing at a time and focus on finishing the small tasks that together make the final goal."

The artist Kitty Ritig shares about the work, "All of us are aware of how overwhelming challenges can be, either academic or in personal life. The dad from the story was creative to use the analogy of how to eat an elephant, that imagery struck my mind. I visualised it as how overwhelming it would be if a person is requested to finish a heap of food. Yet the only sensible thing to be done is one bite at a time. There's no other way around it, isn't it?

Process for this illustration started with reading the story and asking myself what I feel, what I see and me storing those visuals in my memory, for a while. Later, I would read them again, while sketching. I would keep it away for a while and would look at it later, listening to the story and adding anything I felt like missing. My rough sketches are digital. But my final sketch starts with pencil, just because how pencil on paper is beautifully fragile, sentimental in my perception. I add colours digitally, looking into variations and different palettes. Lastly, after I settle on how the final artwork would look like, I would add my signature, more like a parting gift for the work I created.

Kitty Ritig is a new media artist and an illustrator who experiments with a variety of traditional and non-traditional media as well as augmented reality. She explores through the dynamic between the audience and the work by objectifying emotions and investigating the duality that develops through different interpretations. Psychological comfort, home and acceptance, intimacy and belonging are the main themes in her works. She currently lives and works in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

World Wisdom Map is a unique project that documents the life lesson and story of people from each of the 195 countries in the world. The collation and exhibition of human wisdom is presented on a digital, artistic and interactive world map. The data has also been designed into education and art resources. This consciousness project combines visual, and wisdom anthropology that exists in the world and further sparks awareness about the diversity of lifestyles, as well as the coping mechanism that people employ to create a meaningful life. Using the tool of technology, it is easier to connect and exchange information to ignite hope and global participation in an unbiased and creative way.

World Wisdom Map is conceptualised by Project FUEL, in association with Singapore International Foundation.