A farmer's work is never done. He faces perennial problems from soil, weather and pests all year round. Parched, dessicated, and dried up, in the dry season from April to September in Sabah, what more with open burning, bush fires and drought. He has to deal with diseases like the padi blast fungus (pyricularia oryzae) and the pernicious Lalang, Imerata cylindrical, or illui grass, with a resistant rhizome that could withstand fire, what more with the acacia mangium. There’s also the added expenses of fertilisers and mechanisation with the phasing out of buffaloes. These are Awang Damit Ahmad’s farming dirge when young, yet the labour and hardships are celebrated with stoicism, even alacrity. Yes, there is beauty even in the conflagration of the lalang weeds, in the process of overcoming the obstacles of life. A comparative late-starter in art at the age of 27, Awang Damit Ahmad is a success story of an erstwhile farmer cum fisherman turned Telekom technician and then art academician and an artist of growing stature. His promise was evident during his studies at the Mara Institute of Technology when he was adjudged Best Student (1983). In 1984, he won the Minor Award in the coveted Bakat Muda Sezaman and in 1988, 2nd Prize in the Malaysian Banks Association art competition. He also won the Gold Awards in the Ecorea Jeonbuk Biennale and the Olympic Fine Art in London (both in 2012). In 1988, Awang was among an elite group of artists selected for the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia exhibition at the Asia-Pacific Museum in Pasadena. He got his MFA from the Catholic University in Washington DC, United States in 1990. In 1992, Awang won one of the nation’s biggest prizes when he clinched the Major Award for Painting (and also a Consolation Prize) in the 3rd Salon Malaysia III. He taught Art at his alma mater, heading the Fine Art Department for a year from 1977 to 1978, and retired as Associate Professor in May 2011. Prices of his artworks often soar high in auction houses locally and abroad. In Henry Butcher March 2021 art auction, his Apa Khabar Ledang (from the same E.O.C. series) was sold for RM 224,000. His recent solo exhibitions include Garismega New Journey, Art Stage Singapore 2017; Special Tribute: Awang Damit Ahmad, Art Expo Malaysia 2017; From Payarama To Garismega (organised by Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers), Galeri Prima, 2021. The exhibitions received great responses.