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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

My Birthday Post

Time is passing by soooooo fast these days (typically after 21). I feel very fortunate to have lived this far (consider many of us don't ). Before digging into the cake, I would like to make a wish:
I wish people I know or know me have a peaceful, happy and fulfilling life.

Many thanks to friends and families, without you life would be like pancake without maple syrup :)

A sweet thanks to mother who gave me life and taught me well. I wish your uncoming graduation
is not on the same day as mine so we can get together and celebrate:) Kiss~Hug

Last but not least, a very special thanks to my boyfriend, you gave me so much encouragement and you make me feel loved even for the smallest things. How can I ever think of anything remotely bad to say about you even if you were Iraq and I was Israel. (Oh but I will conquer you on that board game:))


Monday, March 29, 2010

IDEAL LIFE

This is something I just saw on Huffington post, what an IDEAL find:)


Hope you enjoy the IDEAL-NESS in the post :)

Sunday, March 28, 2010

That blogger who can't spell

A while ago I was looking up some reference on Google, when I spotted a mis-spelled word "Caricature", it was spelled as "Caracature"(or something to that effect). I felt sorry for the person and decided to check his/her's blog out. Anyway, I was directed to my own blog which some caricature works were posted by me last year. I then went back to Google "Caracature", all results showed my blog being the only link associated to it. I should probably get off spell-check and try to get things right the first time so my kids won't laugh at me in the future :p


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Unseen Dance by A Fellow Artist Friend



This graphic/video work is by Kai QinZhang, a fellow artist and a friend who is completing her MFA this semester MFA at PAFA. When Kai Qin first described what she wanted to accomplish, I was really puzzled. In the beginning, I was uncomfortable with the fact that, I could not use my eyes as they were blind foled. I felt I was lost without the help of my eyes, to see where and what is coming from the other side--that is exactly what Kai Qin intended to do.
The unique subject of this collaboration of video fragments depicting hands touching and searching, gives us a sense of vulnerability and ambiguity, without the help of the eye, we can feel a great deal of weakness.
Indeed we use our eyes to receive and judge information everyday, but do we really see or do we only see what is being presented. Sometimes we can be lying next to a person for 50 years and not knowing who that person really is. A blind person sees more than a person with healthy eyes--I remember always reading that off of somewhere. How often do you touch a person's hand, and what do you intent to do when you touch that hand?
When I watched this video with my boyfriend, as we collaborated on the closing scene, we witnessed the searching, the touching, the connecting and the separating, all of which described the virtue of life. As Kai Qin quoted in her bio-- "you can't predict what will happen next with life, but you can always count on the virtue of life".

Monday, March 22, 2010

The Art of Steal----About the Barns foundation





"The Art od Steal"depicts the on going saga of the moving of Dr. Barns's private collection from Marion, PA (35 minutes from downtown Philadelphia) to JFK Boulevard (Downtown, Philadelphia). Dr. Barns and his famous, exclusive art collections that is worth hundreds of millions of today's dollar, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse. The collection also includes important works by Pablo Picasso, Chaim Soutine, Henri Rousseau, Amedeo Modigliani, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Edouard Manet , and Claude Monet. The extraordinary fact about Dr. Barns, besides the fact that he became rich and famous by selling snake oil, is his vision in art. At the time when Edgar Degas and Van Gogh were rarely known to the American people, even to the most of the European countries, Dr. Barns supported the painters by purchasing their works. His collection influenced the expressionist movement in America and he became the first Non European art collector with substantial numbers of expressionist paintings. If he's alive today, he would be very glad to see how many people have been benefited by his collection.

So why the saga?

While I am really, really happy for not have to spent 30 or 40 minutes in transit, in order to witness the collection each time, I am in serious question about the integrity of the trustees and the trust lawyer's efforts to make the move legalized. Imagine this, you set up a trust based on your Will, and you specifically instruct the trust NOT TO do certain things, no matter what the circumstances are. While you are alive, things are fine and dandy, but once you are dead, you will is invalidated "for the best interest of the trust". And everything you've said not to do it's now being done, how would you feel about that?

It's a matter of breaking the Law, in the name of the Art.


The thinker--I call it.
This is a four week pose in Alex Kanevsky's class. One more week to go. Obviously I am not depicting exactly what is there and who is posing, but it's fun to be creative :)


Monday, March 15, 2010

Urban Niose, No?

Alex Kanevsky + in class sketches



This semester I am taking Alex Kanevsky's painting class. Alex's has a quite croup of fans and follower. (See paintings below) Although I don't see myself painting that way, it's been a interesting experience. First of all, Alex only teaches ONE class per semester, so whether you get chosen under the current "fair" lottery system it's up to your Karma from past life. Second, the size of class is usually filled with people (17 people/class this year). Sometimes you barely see Alex twice during the class time. Lucky, Alex is very kind and generous with his time, and he will construct a conversation in both encouraging and challenging ways. Finally, he is giving away one tube of paint given by
Antonio Lopez Garcia, may the best compositions win!!!!!!!!!

Alex Kanevsky





Now back to sketching more random stuff:)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

What is going on in the studio



Made some major changes to the painting, now it looks more like a under painting than before :o) May the force be with thou who are also under going changes in life!


Something I meant to start long time ago, it finally happened. People are funny, sometimes when you have all the resources at your disposal, you end up doing nothing...

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Walking and observing4

Bikini on the museum steps at Philadelphia Museum of Art (P.M.A)

Yesterday on our usual route of jogging, we spotted a bikini hottie by the museum steps, "Must be an art school chic doing her final project", my boyfriend said. That reminded me of my film class final project (can't seem to find it anywhere) which I was "strangled" to death by a woman (Role played by our art history teacher as a part of the plot, then I "turned" in to an angry ghost, and for no reason(at all), started hunting (for blood maybe) my roommate). For hours, while I had to "laid dead" by the staircase, people dodged around me on the floor, no one complained, though :)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A SENIOR MOMENT

We received this from a friend from Scotland today. After reading it, I though I outta share it with you. Especially read this if you have had less than positive experience in dealing with your bank :)

- An elderly lady actually wrote this letter to her bank. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in The Times and this newspaper thanks him most sincerely.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three 'nanoseconds' must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my Pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only thirty eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, re-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan payments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope...

Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Solicitor, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.

In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows:

1-- To make an appointment to see me.

2-- To query a missing payment.

3-- To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4-- To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5-- To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6-- To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7-- To leave a message on my computer (a password to access my computer is required. A password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorised Contact.)

8-- To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 8

9-- To make a general complaint or inquiry, the contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an
Establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement. May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous, New Year.

Your Humble Client



Addendum from The Editor:



IMPORTANT to REMEMBER that this letter was written by a 98 year old woman.

DOESN'T SHE MAKE YOU PROUD!!!