Time and weather are daily challenges, sometimes friend, sometimes enemy. With the darkening skies, the farmers are trudging back from the fields, and the fishing boats are all strapped to shore. Another day is done, and tomorrow is another day. Nothing like the warmth of home to look forward to, a nice hot meal and some family time. Such is the mundane chore of the fishermen or farmers in Kuala Penyu, Sabah, during Awang Damit Ahmad’s growing up years. Yet, such daily struggles of Man working with and against Nature, are not all about toil and hardship. They have a heroic quality about it. It is about hope and sustenance, about resilience and diligence, and eking a living. Off-centre, loose droopy shapes emanating diagonally and in tiered parcels from the top left exude a sense of abandon, while a shimmer of light balls on the top right. Struggles and respite, these facts of life form the mainspring of Awang Damit Ahmad’s maiden painting series, Essence Of Culture (Intipati Budaya), spanning 1985 to 1995. More than memories, they are also nostalgia personified. From a Telekom Malaysia technician, Awang Damit Ahmad took up Art at a relatively late age of 27, and was vindicated when named Best Student (1983) at the Mara Institute of Technology. After obtaining his Masters at the Catholic University in Washington (1989-1990), he taught at his alma mater and retired in May 2011 as Associate Professor. He was in the artists’ delegation in the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia exhibition at the Asia-Pacific Museum in Pasadena, Los Angeles, in 1988. Among his awards were 2nd Prize in the Malaysian Bank Association art competition (1988), culminating in the Major Award (plus the Consolation Award) for Painting in the highly prestigious Salon Malaysia III competition in 1991. His art prices have been skyrocketing in recent years at local and international art auction houses.