Family is family –needless to say we were more than thrilled (ecstatic to say the least) when the stars aligned, and an OG member of The Standard family, NYC artist Romon Yang aka ROSTARR, who is now based in Bali, was able to come and apply his vision and epic brushstrokes to The Standard, Huruvalhi Maldives, our first island resort in Asia. In 2014, over three chilly days in November, he painted his rooftop mural masterpiece, “Ceci N’est Pas Une Grosse Pomme” ("This Is Not a Big Apple”), which featured RO’s signature interlocking calligraphy in zen-like black strokes on white at Le Bain at The The Standard, High Line. For the Maldives, he did something totally different, no less epic, with a crew, bamboo scaffolding, surrounded by the clearest water on Earth, he painted ‘Nest Of The Rising Sun’.
To start off the journey, Ro made a pitstop in Singapore to paint the gallery of Siri House during the launch of The Standard, Huruvalhi Maldives in Singapore. It would be an understatement to say the guests were captivated, watching Ro was like watching a live meditation. It took three hours for Ro to cover the walls in his own kind of poetry. And from Singapore, off he went with his family to start the mural of The Standard Spa, unless you were there watching him in motion – it’s hard to picture what went on – so just before leaving on a seaplane from what was his island home for 10 days, we caught up with him to see what it was like to paint a mural in the middle of the ocean.