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:))

IDEAL LIFE

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

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

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

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".

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 :)

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:)