Nostalgia is one of the most enduring human feelings, replete with feel-good memories of a cherished moment often shared together, and of love. For Eng Tay, the master of orchestrating such fine moments, this living-room scene captures a respite of the three women from their daily chores in the kitchen. Two of them strike up a melodious note with the harp and the violin, while the one on the right is enjoying but seemingly oblivious to the duet, all rapt in the contents of the opened book in hand, her flower-adorned head slightly tilted as if in another world. Moments like these also exude a sense of calm on the viewer. There is a kind of fairy-tale romance in the story of a strapping lad, only 22, beating his way to the United States, the Big Apple no less, to study Art of all things. It was 1969, but those Malaysians venturing abroad mostly headed to Paris and London, and occasionally Rome and Berlin. To Eng Tay, nee Tay Eng Chye, who first found fame as a printmaker, before launching into canvases, huge canvases and sculptures including monumental ones, it was a struggle that led to his being awarded a Retrospective called eng tay: The Exhibition, by Galeri Petronas in 2009. Having survived the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the New York Twin Towers, from his studio in White Street, he spooled some large cathartic works, to reinforce the bond of human relationships. After his early studies at the Art Students League, New York School of Visual Arts and the Pratt Graphics Centre, he worked as a graphic designer before deciding to become a fulltime artist travelling all over the world for visual research and to hold exhibitions – he boasts of nearly 100 solos now. Apart from well-known personalities who collect his works, the institutions are the Fukuyama Museum of Art, Hiroshima in Japan; the Frankie Valli Estate (United States); the Merv Griffin Estate (United States); the New York University; and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. His commissioned monumental sculptures in Kuala Lumpur adorn the Kiaraville SENI Condominiums in Mont Kiara and the Zehn condominium in Pantai Hills.