The ‘limar’ has become one of Datuk Dr. Siti Zainon Ismail’s hallmark series in her painting repertoire. She obviously seized on the limar as a symbolic parchment of identity and beauty with a beguiling intrinsic toughness. The silky limar, woven with the double-ikat technique based on the Indian patola, is said to have been concocted after the Malacca Sultan, Mansur Shah (c. 1458-1477), expressed disappointment with a batch of silk from India. It looks lembut (soft and gentle) but has a satin gloss and is taut when stretched. What is fascinating is Siti Zainon’s imagery seemingly derived from plantscape and perhaps even, cultural artefactal attributes, but it is mainly a paean to Nature with the play of geometric light. Poet, novelist, artist, academician and cultural activist, Datuk Dr. Siti Zainon Ismail was made National Laureate in September 2019. Though trained at the Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia (Asri), Yogyakarta, 1969-1974, she was best known as a woman of letters, having won the coveted SEA Write Award (Bangkok, 1989) and the DBP Literary Award for Poetry (1915-1976, 1978, 1984-1989, 2000-2005), and Short-Story (2006/2007). Her notable novel is Pulau Renik Ungu (1995). Her BFA was at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and her PhD at Universiti Malaya (1985-1990). As an artist, she had been with Angkatan Pelukis SeMalaysia and Anak Alam, and her first solo was at the Shah Motel in Petaling Jaya in 1969, and last at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) in April 2017.