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Canyonteam Forum » Recente berichten http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Het Canyonteam Nederland Forum nl Sun, 20 May 2012 15:33:47 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Zoek]]> q http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/search.php xiaomei op "As China's Role in the World Changes, So Does Mandarin's Role in China" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1557#post-1580 do, 17 mei 2012 09:57:51 +0000 xiaomei 1580@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ As China's Role in the World Changes, So Does Mandarin's Role in China <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Oil-Paintings-shop">famous paintings</a> There's an experience common to many first-time visitors to China, who often recount it with surprise, delight, and a sense of discovering something uniquely Chinese. It happens when they utter their first sentence in mandarin to a Chinese stranger -- a taxi driver, a watermelon vendor, or an old man practicing water calligraphy in the park -- and see the person's face instantly light up in amazement. That amazement might turn to reverence if the speaker can demonstrate even a shaky comfort with the language. Waiguoren -- foreigners -- are no longer a rare sight in many parts of this briskly modernizing country, and with the worldwide boom in studying Chinese, an increasing number of them bring language skills. While the novelty is wearing off, Chinese continue to be fascinated by foreigners able to speak their mother tongue. It's a fun moment of cross-cultural bonding, but it's also a product of China's complicated relationship with its own language, which for centuries has been tied up with its national identity. As China and its place in the world are changing, so is the meaning of the Chinese language for natives and foreigners alike. Most recently, this fascination manifested in Chinese web user's reactions to (and obsessive viewing of) a viral Internet video, in which a young half-Caucasian, half-Asian American impersonates 12 different characters, among them a Beijinger, a Hong Kong Chinese, a Taiwanese, a New Yorker, an African American, and a score of non-Chinese foreigners speaking English with exaggerated native accents. His immaculate Chinese and jarringly precise grasp of the slangs, accents, and subtleties in the language's regional variations amazed his Chinese audience. "What are you trying to do?" Some users, pinching a line from his skit, asked on Weibo, where the video, which has over 5 million views on Youku, has been forwarded more than 435,000 times. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a> The Chinese language has long been a point of pride for its people, a sense that often comes through when they tell foreigners, smilingly, that Chinese is too hard to learn as a second language. They're telling the truth, which they have lived themselves through years of hunching over their desks in school, scribbling thousands of characters and memorizing Chengyu, special four-character Chinese aphorisms that gives one's speech a cultivated air. For foreigners, learning Chinese can require even more fortitude and patience, a subject eloquently explained in this essay famous among Chinese learners, "Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard." The author, an English-speaker struggling to learn Chinese, posits that native speakers "generally become aware at some point of the Everest-like status of their native language, as they, from their privileged vantage point on the summit, observe foolhardy foreigners huffing and puffing up the steep slopes" Exploring the growth of a massive economy See full coverage A deeper reason for the extraordinary pride that Chinese people take in their language lies in their view of it as a symbol of the nation's glorious history and blooming civilization. Chinese is one of the oldest known writings in the world, inscribed on animal bones that date back to 4,500 years ago, possibly earlier. It is one of the only logographic languages still widely used in the world, a writing system of pictorial symbols, each intended to look like the thing or idea it stands for. The language's consistent structural principles allow the modern descendants to converse directly with their distant ancestors, and create a remarkable sense of historical continuity that smoothes over the wrinkles of wars and dynasties. At any point in history, it has also been a powerful unifying force, tightly weaving ethnic groups under the rule of the empire and a common national identity. To neighboring countries that admired the civilization of the Middle Kingdom, the langauge was a form of soft power that they absorbed, incorporating Chinese into their own languages. Modern Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese all contain some linguistic traces of China's cultural influence. Recent history, however, complicates Chinese people's relationship with their language. After repeated defeats by foreigners in the early 20th century, the Chinese began to question the traditional ways that had not saved them, including their sacred script. Scholars in the 1910s called it the greatest impediment to literacy and democracy, and even discussed switching the language to Esperanto or adopting the Latin alphabet. Most ambitious of them all, Mao Zedong, famously told the American journalist Edgar Snow in 1936, "Sooner or later, we believe, we will have to abandon characters altogether if we are to create a new social culture in which the masses fully participate." He might have replaced all Chinese characters with the Latin alphabet, had Joseph Stalin not convinced him that a nation as great as China should have its own form of writing instead of borrowing another culture's. The chaos of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution further exhausted the momentum for language reform, and by late 1970s, people had lost all interest in radical, top-down change. Chinese characters, saved by a foreign dictator and a series of domestic anti-traditionalist movements, survived to be passed on to the next generation. China's centuries-long status as the superpower of Asia, followed by its still-fresh memory of the century of humiliation imposed by foreign nations -- a trajectory epitomized in the fate of the Chinese language -- help instill in its people a strong national identity and an "us versus them" mindset. When foreigners speak Chinese, they are crossing this invisible identity boundary, still largely demarcated by the Chinese language. It is a phenomenon that can be fascinating, and perhaps a bit disorienting, for a Chinese listener to experience. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> As flocks of foreigners enroll in Chinese language schools and universities, Chinese people often read this as a positive statement about their modern society, proof of both China's expanding international clout and the resilience of its culture; proof that, even after being trampled by foreign powers and destructive political movements, China still has not lost its appeal, its place in the world. This reassurance carries special significance at this moment in China's history, a time when Chinese students are pouring hours into English lessons instead of classical Chinese poetry, when Chinese workers are building American products for foreign consumers, and when, for example, Chinese movie-goers are spending more money on foreign blockbusters like Titanic 3D. "I am sad that our predecessors destroyed our culture ... but did not build a beautiful new world," the well-known blogger Han Han recently wrote. "As one from the younger generation, none of us know if we are ever able to make up for everything." The Chinese government, too, seems to realize that its aggressive campaign to push soft power abroad must also deal with the difficulty of the Chinese language, which is once labeled "a Great Wall erected between the masses and the new culture." It has established Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms -- government-run cultural outposts that teach Chinese language and history -- in more than 700 locations worldwide, including many American universities, and supplied them with a steady stream of Beijing-trained and -financed language teachers. Many universities in the U.S. turned down the offer for fear of government censorship, but others, wishing to expand their Chinese education on the cheap, embraced them. "The Chinese are very clear on what they are trying to achieve," Martin Davidson, chief executive of the British Council told the New York Times. "They want to change the perception of China -- to combat negative propaganda with positive propaganda." When the first-discovered piece of animal bone inscribed with ancient Chinese characters was found in 1899, China was disintegrating into the hands of Western powers, and the proto-nationalist Boxer rebels were slaughtering missionaries and diplomats in retaliation. More than 100 years later, these events have become history lessons in China's classrooms, as the government courts the West with Chinese language and culture. "Sanshinian hedong, sanshinian hexi," as they may have taught the foreigners, "30 years east of the river, 30 years west of the river." Or as the Americans say, every dog has its day. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a> When left to the hands of its speakers, Chinese becomes the cursive characters tumbling down the red scrolls on families' front door during Spring Festival, or the snarky, catchy phrases that fill its modern pop music. Or it is the syllables uttered by a foreigner to a taxi driver, a watermelon vendor, or an old man practicing water calligraphy in the park, and instantly lighting up his or her face. xiaomei op "The ABCs of chalkboard projects" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1556#post-1579 do, 17 mei 2012 09:54:04 +0000 xiaomei 1579@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ The ABCs of chalkboard projects <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">home decorators</a> KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chalkboards may be old-school, but they’re the newest accent in home decor. “Look what I made,” said Kelly Sims of Liberty, Mo., holding up her smartphone during an unofficial show and tell during a chalkboard paint class at Be Here Now, a store in Independence, Mo. She flipped through pics: A picnic basket with a chalkboard top for playfully listing its contents. An old mirror converted into a message board. The fronts of a few kitchen cabinets for meal planning and writing quotes. Sims finds pieces in thrift stores, garage sales and even the trash, then transforms them with chalkboard paint into gifts and home-entertaining accessories. Sims may be a kindergarten teacher, but she was a pupil that Thursday night in chalkboard paint class. The instructor was Meredith Martin, an interior designer who lectured on how to mix custom colors and what you can make with it. Results included a table setting with a chalkboard-painted paper runner and flower pots with chalkboard labels. Next to her sat a chalkboard-painted desk, storage boxes and a child’s play table. She led the class in a craft project, a large metal charger with the decorative border taped off. With paint, the center of the charger became a chalkboard. Here’s an array of chalkboard paint information: Apply paint thickly with a foam craft brush for small pieces or a regular paintbrush for furniture and walls. For glass bottles, apply thinly. Spray cans of chalkboard paint are available. Black — as in blackboard — is the most typical color of chalkboard paint, but it can be any color. Chalkboard markers, available at craft stores and at Chalk Ink (chalkinkworldstore.com), are an alternative to dusty, smearing chalk. Decals with chalkboard surfaces are another way to go if you don’t want to commit to paint. Large-format shapes include rectangles, squares, airplanes and coffee cups, to name a few at All Modern (allmodern.com). Little labels are available at Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery at Staples (staples.com). Erasers like you had in elementary school are adorable. But if you want the surface to be super clean, see Letter T (clean it with a damp cloth). Furniture, such as the top of a desk or a dining table, works well for chalkboard paint. But the paint can be used on the entire piece. Artist Tiffini Killgore painted a dresser with chalkboard paint and wrote the names of Kansas City neighborhoods on the drawers in chalk. Good gifts can be made with chalkboard paint. Paint an empty wine bottle, et voila! A vase. Great gift tags, too, can be crafted. The best part: they’re reusable. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">craft stores</a> How to mix your own chalkboard paint: buy your favorite color of latex paint, says interior designer Meredith Martin (she used a no-VOC variety). Buy unsanded grout ($3 from a hardware store). For a gallon of paint, mix in a quart of grout. (The ratio should be two-thirds paint to one-third grout). Stir. Add drops of water to make it thinner. After painting, allow to dry an hour. Often only one coat is needed. Idea for parties: use a chalkboard-style oilcloth as a runner on the table. Give guests chalk or chalk pens and tell them to go to town. Jot down anything on a chalkboard surface. It can be erased. Kraft paper can be covered with chalkboard paint to create a tablecloth. Great for writing pairing suggestions for tasting parties. Let your kids draw on the walls. No problem with a chalkboard or chalkboard paint. Make a Monday-through-Friday message board out of an old five-panel door using chalkboard paint in the panels. New idea: painting the surface of a deck with chalkboard paint. Obvious choice: cheese trays. Not so obvious: your car. (We’ve spotted a VW Bug). Pictures on Pinterest.com are inspiring us. We especially love walls with chalk drawings, such as a family tree in a nursery. A hint for precise outlines: rent a projector and create a transparency at a print shop. Quotes on chalkboards = instant inspiration. Resources for chalkboard paint include craft stores, home warehouses, paint shops and Be Here Now, Independence, Mo., 816-461-7819, b-here-now.com. Be Here Now also sells chalkboard paint in a variety of colors by the pint, $15. Spray surfaces with polyurethane to make chalk-art creations permanent. Tired of the mess or the design? The best way to clean it is with a damp cloth. Understand that when you apply chalkboard paint, it goes on gritty. When it dries, sand surfaces with 150-grit sandpaper before you first write on them. Variety. Think beyond white chalk on a blackboard. Chalk comes in a crayon-assortment of colors these days; Crayola has a 52-count pack. Wet chalk is a secret for creating large-format designs, says Annie Huff, the 18-year-old daughter of Restoration Emporium owner Chrysalyn Huff. Annie Huff does chalkboard creations on doors and walls at the store. She dunks sidewalk chalk in a bucket of water. “It doesn’t look like anything when it’s wet on the surface, but then it dries vibrantly.” Xpiration date of chalkboard paint: Six months from date of purchase or after it’s mixed. (Yes, creative spelling is permitted on creative chalkboards.) <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">asianwallarts.com</a> Yummy surface for appetizer trays? To be on the safe side, use a nontoxic food-safe clear coat (available at craft stores) on top of chalkboard painted plates and platters. Zero writing. Chalkboard surfaces look great even with nothing on them. They’re full of possibilities. xiaomei op "Artist of the handmade fan" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1548#post-1571 di, 15 mei 2012 11:05:25 +0000 xiaomei 1571@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Artist of the handmade fan <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> Zhao Qiaofa never imagined traditional fans would bring the winds of change to his life. The 63-year-old lived as a poor farmer - both in the sense of not earning much and not having a green thumb - until he discovered there was money in handmade folding fans. "The fan is more of a symbol of Chinese history than something people use to cool down," Zhao said. "A scholar must wield his folding fan like a warrior wields his sword." Today, in a different way, they're raising the status of Zhao and his neighbors. He sells more than 10,000 fans a year for between 40 ($6.35) and 480 yuan apiece. They range in size from 33-120 cm. "I can make 20 to 30 of the smallest fans or one of the biggest fans in a day," he said. Since Zhao rediscovered the tradition of making folding fans in 1986, Fuli town in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has become celebrated for the trade. In 1994 - the industry's heyday - more than 100 of Fuli's households were engaged in the business. Distributors from around the country started to travel to the town in Guilin city to purchase wholesale supplies. Tourists bought fans as souvenirs. Zhao receives 50 to 180 tourists a day during the spring and autumn tourism peaks. He teaches them how to paint and make fans for 20 yuan a person. Many are foreigners and students from Hong Kong, he said. Zhao's wife also makes fans. His two sons and daughter also learned the craft and worked for the family business when they were students. Now, his sons earn their living from painting. Zhao started to learn to paint in 1975 after he met the Guangxi Theater Troupe director who taught Zhao for more than a year. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Oil-Paintings-shop">famous paintings</a> The director, who was once a painter, was laboring in Zhao's village as punishment during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), and Zhao took care of him in return for learning the skill. "I'd always been interested in painting but never thought I could make money doing it," he said. "Meeting the theater troupe director and learning to paint from him was fate. It changed my life." Zhao started selling his paintings in Yangshuo in 1984. Two years later, a customer asked if he could make some folding fans for Japanese tourists. Zhao spent three days dissecting folding fans to figure out how they were made. He then made many 1.2-meter fans because tourists like to hang the large fans in their living rooms. He took a two-hour bus ride downtown to sell his wares to venders at the wholesale price of 80 yuan a piece. In the following years, he also went to Guangdong province's Shenzhen and Zhuhai cities, and the capital, Guangzhou, to promote his fans. Business boomed. In 1988, he used his 80,000-yuan savings to build a two-story house. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a> The house has become his workshop, where tourists visit, and he and his wife ply their trade. Their subject matter includes flowers, birds and bamboo. The most popular is Guilin scenery because the area is celebrated for its karst peaks and rivers. A famous poem says: "East or West, Guilin senary is best." "I must paint vividly so tourists know it's Guilin the instant they see it," he said. "It's important to leave some areas blank because Guilin is misty in springtime. The unpainted area depicts the fog surrounding the mountains." Zhao's 64-year-old wife, Mo Xiaofeng, pastes the painting rendered on the delicate rice paper to three sturdier paper layers. "The process is complicated," Mo said. "I must stand for the whole day. My hands often hurt." When the paper dries, Zhao folds and trims it. Then he lines the edges with blue paper. Next, he inserts bamboo ribs and glues guards to the paper. The final step is to press the fan beneath a brick to tighten it. "It's more difficult to make smaller fans," Zhao said. "It's a more intricate process." Sometimes, Zhao paints directly on the mounted paper to save time. It's tedious but rewarding work. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a> "I'm not worried about the survival of the craft because my sons can do this," Zhao said. Huang Feifei contributed to the story. xiaomei op "Cape Town Shines in London" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1547#post-1570 di, 15 mei 2012 11:00:46 +0000 xiaomei 1570@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Cape Town Shines in London <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">craft stores</a> LONDON — The walls are patterned with leaves, as if this were a spot of verdant, sun-kissed nature in a rain-soaked city. And in a way it is. For Hanneli Rupert has planted her African offerings in a pop-up store in the Shop at Bluebird — a multi-brand concept store in the London neighborhood of Chelsea. Hanneli Rupert, the designer of Okapi bags, who headed the African pop-up store initiative in London. The Collection: A New Fashion App for the iPad A one-stop destination for Times fashion coverage and the latest from the runways. Download It From the App Store Follow Us on Twitter Follow @NYTimesfashion for fashion, beauty and lifestyle news and headlines. Ms. Rupert has brought a range of African designs to the Shop at Bluebird, including scarves from African Strings. Enlarge This Image Printed clutches by NearFar. Ms. Rupert has brought over from her own Merchants on Long store in Cape Town more than a taste of her native South Africa. Alongside her own Okapi brand of bags, made from skins sourced from sustainable farms and each identified with a Springbok horn, a South African talisman, are the fruits of African designers she supports. There are tailored tribal print jackets, hip T-shirts and Liberty print scarves, their patterns hand-beaded. That handcraft goes too into an intricately beaded painting, a funky radio, enlisting silent auction bids, and Mohawk cuffs in bright colors from shocking pink through green, blue and yellow. Add lip balm from Allan Schwarz, bold jewelry from African Strings, a miniature perfume from Frazer Parfum and African exercise books from Sawa. The pop-up store is open through mid-June. “I moved back to South Africa after several years of living in Europe to start my Okapi handbag line,” explained Ms. Rupert. “I am very interested in the ‘Made in Africa’ brand and the challenges of creating a brand entirely made on one continent. “It was through doing this that I discovered several artisans who I felt could be given better representation locally and abroad,” she continued. “I also knew of African brands that were selling well internationally but were not available in Africa itself. I am very patriotic and this does tie into why I would only be interested in marketing African brands. There is also an ethical consciousness to my thinking.” <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">home decorators</a> The shop owner has a humble approach, considering that she is the daughter of Johann Rupert, the executive chairman of the Swiss luxury goods company Richemont. Her own bags sell from £500, or about $800, but, apart from some sculpted silver from the London-based designer Patrick Mavros, the prices in the store are reasonable: the bold, patterned shoulder-throw sweaters from £220 are typical of fair demands for careful design and craft. The Bluebird concept store itself, in its striking Art Deco building at 350 Kings Road, is a temple of intriguing objects, the clothing mix including contemporary, urban and slightly off-kilter brands with a youthful chic, such as Guillaume Henry’s Carven or the digital patterning from Peter Pilotto and the Spanish-born, British-based Emilio de la Morena. Paul Baptiste, the store’s sharp-eyed taste maker, says that he sees a change in young shoppers, who are drawn towards craftsmanship and fine fabrics. The pop-up Merchants on Long store gave Mr. Baptiste the opportunity for a cross-cultural celebration. Guests from the young generation of British royal princesses to the Zimbabwean Chelsy Davy, a former flame of Prince Harry, came to party at the opening. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">asianwallarts.com</a> Will Ms. Rupert take her project on tour? “I don’t envision Merchants becoming a franchise,” she said. “But I would like to host more pop-up shops, and I am planning one in Lagos later this year.” xiaomei op "Turn Your Instagram Photos Into Works of Art on Canvas" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1546#post-1569 di, 15 mei 2012 10:56:32 +0000 xiaomei 1569@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Turn Your Instagram Photos Into Works of Art on Canvas <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/">canvas prints</a> Dream of hanging your Instagram photos in your living room? A new service will allow you to do just that, printing your best snapshots on “museum-quality canvas.” The service is called Instacanv.as, and it officially launches Wednesday. With Instacanv.as, you first choose which of your images you'd like transferred to canvas.Users sign in with their Instagram accounts and choose a photo from their Instagram profiles, or browse through shots from other contributors to the site. The canvas prints come in three sizes: 12 inches by 12 inches, 16 inches by 16 inches, and 20 inches by 20 inches. Your photos can be printed on either black or white canvas. Pricing starts at $31.99 plus shipping. Virtual Gallery for Sellers If you fancy yourself an Instagram photography pro, Instacanv.as allows you to set up your own virtual gallery and sell your prints to site visitors. Each time the service sells one of your prints, you receive 20% of the purchase price, and the rights to the photo remain yours. The company touches your photos up using a proprietary algorithm that allows the site to resize photos up without making them blurry, which is done in order to ensure quality prints, it says. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Leonardo-da-Vinci-Shop">Leonardo Da Vinci paintings</a> While Instagram photographers may be itching to sell their works of art right away, the early success of Instacanv.as has the site struggling to catch up. The gallery waiting list is “tens of thousands” of users long according to the company, and it may be a while before you can sell those first prints. There is a way to jump in front of the line and get your gallery sooner: Ask friends and family to like and tweet your gallery’s “coming-soon” page. Each like, tweet, Google +1, or Pinterest Pin will give you a point. The galleries with the highest number of points each week are given priority by site administrators. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Scroll-painting-Shop">scroll</a> While Instacanv.as seems fresh, it’s actually not a new idea and already has a fair amount of competition. Prinstagr.am will print your photos on t-shirts, cardstock, and even in poster form, while Bumblejax offers a similar service to Instacanv.as, printing photos on a range of materials including acrylic, bamboo, and aluminum. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/">canvas prints</a> Instacanv.as is one of the cheaper options out there though, and Matt Munson, the company’s CEO, says the company is focused on keeping the sometimes fickle Instagram community happy (just look at the hub-bub over Android users being left in). That may be a task in and of itself. hailan op "Fado, Updated but Still Intimate" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1539#post-1562 ma, 14 mei 2012 10:33:58 +0000 hailan 1562@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/   Mr. Zambujo paid obeisance to <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com" title="christian louboutin">christian louboutin</a> fado’s history. His set included songs associated with fado’s two most indelible singers, <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com/prodtl.html" title="official christian louboutin outlet">official christian louboutin outlet</a> Ms. Rodrigues and Alfredo Marceneiro. Yet he is discreetly pushing fado in directions of his own. He connects fado both to the regional music of southern Portugal, where he grew up, and to Brazilian pop that shares some of fado’s grace. He also makes subtle use of technology. Mr. Zambujo is not a cafe belter like some younger fado singers. His tone is always intimate as he sings about solitude and lost love. The microphone is his ally. It picks up every nuance of his small yet utterly expressive voice: a high, clear, precise yet melting tenor that suggests both Mr. Marceneiro and, from across the Atlantic, the Brazilian songwriter Caetano Veloso. Most of the songs in the set came from two albums: “Outro Sentido” and “Guia,” both available in the United States on the World Village label, <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com" title="christian louboutin official store">christian louboutin official store</a> rather than the one Mr. Zambujo has just released in Europe, “Quinto.” Mr. Zambujo lightly plucked chords on a guitar, accompanied by Ricardo Cruz on string bass and Luis Guerreiro on guitarra, the traditional fado instrument that sounds like a mandolin or a harpsichord. The string instruments provide a restrained, nearly transparent frame of rhythm and harmony, with glimmering obbligatos from the guitarra, but they always defer to the singer. And Mr. Zambujo’s voice, <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com" title="christian louboutin official website">christian louboutin official website</a> quiet but riveting, teased out all the sorrows, yearnings and occasional wryness of the songs.   danke op "A high definition cross-eye 3D technology, specially engineered for motion viewi" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1538#post-1561 ma, 14 mei 2012 09:07:00 +0000 danke 1561@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Having a health expert at hand is crucial for anyone suffering from ADHD and intends to buy adderall online. This ensures that should anything arise then the doctor can always ass <a href="http://www.vibramfingershoes.us/">five finger shoes</a> ist with unpleasant effects of the drug especially if they are serious. 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By availing the drug via the internet the sellers ensures that those w <a href="http://www.aviatorsunglassescheaps.com/">ray ban sunglasses</a> ho require using the adderall have it available at the touch of a button whenever they need it which is more convenient to its users. xiaomei op "Art & Soul: Josh Yu's work challenges best of East and West in Savannah exh" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1535#post-1558 ma, 14 mei 2012 08:29:54 +0000 xiaomei 1558@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Art & Soul: Josh Yu's work challenges best of East and West in Savannah exhibit <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> Josh Yu attended medical school in China, but he always yearned to be an artist. “Before the Cultural Revolution in China, we had no choices,” he explains. “In America, I had many more choices, so I decided to move here and to become an artist and an educator.” Yu moved to the U.S. 45 years ago and ended up becoming an artist at Epcot Center in Orlando, painting portraits of tourists and creating art at the China Pavilion for two years. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in painting — and exhibiting his work in dozens of international shows — he began teaching painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 1992. Over the years, Yu has skillfully blended Eastern and Western aesthetic influences, experimenting with various media, formats and creative approaches. He combines traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy with western approaches to abstraction and expressionism, offering a variety of interpretations of the natural world. “Transformation,” a solo exhibit currently on display at Gallery S.P.A.C.E., showcases Yu’s wide-ranging approach to art over the past 25 years. The exhibition reveals his ongoing experimentation with oil paint, watercolor, gouache and mixed media. Unlike many artists who find one niche and stick with it, Yu loves to expand his repertoire and try new things. “Creating art is my way of pursuing absolute freedom,” he says. “My whole process of making art is like meditation. It’s not just about me expressing my anger or my happiness.” <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Oil-Paintings-shop">famous paintings</a> “Cloudy Mountain,” a 6-foot-tall Chinese-inspired painting, offers a dazzling view of clouds settling like smoke upon a verdant tree canopy. Using delicate brushstrokes and extensive use of green and white, Yu emphasizes the verticality of the trees, land and sky. In keeping with traditional Chinese painting, the human imprint is light and almost negligible. “Chinese painting focuses more on natural elements than the figure,” he says. “In Chinese painting, connecting a tiny human figure with a huge landscape connects back to the Tao. The human imprint shouldn’t fight against or damage the natural order.” One of the highlights of “Transformation” is Yu’s mixed media work, like “Impermanence,” which arranges a series of 30 oval “faces” in a geometric 6-by-5 grid that suggests the interconnection of human experience and hints at the fleeting nature of life itself. “I always emphasize spontaneity, even thought the work is complex and has multiple layers,” he says. Color serves as a critical element in Yu’s work, whether he creates Chinese fan paintings, watercolors, still lifes, Asian landscapes, abstract experiments or expressionistic compositions. He alternates between the deep, natural greens of the forest and more intense lime, magenta and crimson hues. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a> “Color is a very strong language for artists to use,” he explains. “It’s very important.” The artist describes his “Bridge Series,” which focuses the eye upon the silhouette of bamboo leaves against topaz, emerald or raspberry backgrounds, as an attempt to connect Eastern and Western culture. A series of detailed, almost mythic portraits on the gallery’s south wall reveals thoughtful meditations upon Asian spirituality Ultimately Yu’s training in the medical field has come in handy, although not in the ways he may have originally expected. “My medical background helps me look at things in a scientific way, not a just in a romantic way,” he says. “It makes me a better observer.” ABOUT THE ARTIST <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a> Artist Josh Yu was born in China and graduated from medical school before moving to the United States and earning a BFA from the Memphis College of Art and an MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has worked as a painting professor at SCAD since 1992 and has exhibited his work in international solo exhibitions and group shows. xiaomei op "Celebrate American Craft Beer Week locally" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1534#post-1557 ma, 14 mei 2012 08:27:07 +0000 xiaomei 1557@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Celebrate American Craft Beer Week locally <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">home decorators</a> With the growing number and continuing success of our area’s craft breweries, Houstonians have plenty to celebrate during this year’s American Craft Beer Week, which kicks off Monday. And a number of fine bars and restaurants are making sure we have plenty of opportunities to make those celebrations memorable. You can support U.S. craft beer and the multitude of stores, bars and restaurants that are doing such a tremendous job of getting those beers into the local market, where we can all enjoy them. A sampling of the opportunities that have crossed my desk: BRC Gastropub, 519 Shepherd: Daily events include the tapping of a dry-hopped Breckenridge 471 double IPA firkin at 5 p.m. Monday and a Saint Arnold beer dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Other featured breweries will be Buffalo Bayou on Wednesday, Rahr & Sons on Thursday, New Belgium on Friday, Karbach on Saturday afternoon. The week closes with a North Coast Brewing brunch from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday.713-861-2233 Flying Saucer-Houston, 705 Main: Featured breweries include Clown Shoes on Monday (tapping a cask of Blaecorn Unidragon Russian Imperial Stout); New Belgium on Tuesday (Clutch Pale Lager and La Folie Sour Brown Ale tapping in the company of a brewery representative); Rahr & Sons on Wednesday (Houston launch party, with a cask and other draft beers); Real Ale Brewing on Thursday (three rare casks); and Allagash Brewing on Friday (“Side by Side” tapping of Victor and Victoria Ales). Things wrap up Saturday with fire-sale prices on the following canned beers: Fat Tire, Abita Purple Haze, Big Sky Brewing Trout Slayer and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Flying Saucer-Sugar Land, 15929 City Walk: Featured breweries include Dogfish Head on Monday (Red & White and Black & Blue); Stone Brewing on Tuesday (Cali-Belgique, Stone RIS, Vertical Epic 11.11.11 and Sublimely Self Righteous Ale, plus a limited number of Stone growlers for sale; Ommegang Brewing on Wednesday (Witte, Art of Darkness and Abbey Ale); <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">craft stores</a> New Belgium on Thursday (Lips of Faith party, with tappings of Tart Lychee, Prickly Pear Saison and Super Cru, a glassware giveaway and a featured Fire Sale of New Belgium Dig); and Avery Brewing on Friday (tapping the Holy Trinity: Avery Reverend, Salvation and Hog Heaven). at 7 p.m. Saturday will feature a Hophead Party, with a lineup of double IPAs of Moylan’s Hop Craic, a cask of Moylan’s Hopsickle, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Laughing Dog Sneaky Pete, Stone Ruination and Great Divide 18th Anniversary Wood-aged Double IPA. Then Sunday wraps up with Texas Brewery Day, with all Texas pints $3 all day, and specials on leftover (as if!) from the week’s events. He’Brew, The Chosen Beer: Jeremy Cowan, founder of Shmaltz Brewing Co., with its new-to-Texas He’Brew and Coney Island beers, will be in Houston Wednesday and Thursday. Meet him Wednesday at Petrol Station, 985 Wakefield, from 7-9 p.m. for Shmaltz Pint Night. On tap will be Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah (13), which is brewed with 13 malts and 13 hops and delivers a Petrol-worthy 13 percent ABV. On Thursday, you can find Cowan at the Montrose Whole Foods, 701 Waugh, for a meet and greet from 4-6 p.m. After that, he will be at Onion Creek, 3106 White Oak until 8:30 or 9 p.m. From there, Cowan and company will head over to The Hay Merchant, 1100 Westheimer, for a rare tapping of Jewbelation 10 (10 malts, 10 hops, 10 percent ABV). You can talk to Cowan about beer and his new book, “Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah.” <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">asianwallarts.com</a> Again, this is by no means a definitive list. Check your favorite spots to see what they have going on, then get out there and support craft beer — next week and every week. hailan op "Making Room for the Locals" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1527#post-1550 vr, 11 mei 2012 11:23:43 +0000 hailan 1550@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ A wholesale hub for local f<a href="http://www.air-jordan2012.org/Nike-air-jordan-2012-t1-56.html" title="air jordan 2012">air jordan 2012</a> armers could help improve their viability and preserve farmland that is disappearing in New York at a rate of almost 70 acres a day. These farmers tend to manage their land and crops in a more environmentally sound way, and, for consumers, locally grown produce can be fresher than that shipped from afar. New York City is negotiating with the <a href="http://www.air-jordan2012.org/Nike-air-jordan-4-t1-55.html" title="jordan 4">jordan 4</a> cooperative that controls the market on how to renovate the 45-year-old facility, <a href="http://www.air-jordan2012.org/Nike-air-jordan-4-t1-55.html" title="air jordan 4">air jordan 4</a> which needs an estimated $350 million in work. The city and the state are considering providing about half of that amount in grants, loans and other incentives. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg should make sure that a deal with the cooperative owners, mostly affiliated with big agricultural operations, include a central place for local farmers. For the past three decades, many regional farmers with smaller operations have trucked produce to the 53 green markets around the city, with most of that sold directly to consumers. Mr. Cuomo made a pitch last year for the importance of creating “a major wholesale farmers’ market” to meet the demand for locally grown <a href="http://www.air-jordan2012.org/Jordan-3-t1-54.html" title="air jordan 3">air jordan 3</a> food. He and Mr. Bloomberg should work to make it happen.   hailan op "Aviva Chief Resigns Over Shareholder Pay Revolt" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1523#post-1546 do, 10 mei 2012 11:35:04 +0000 hailan 1546@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/     A shareholder revolt against executive pay gained <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com" title="christian louboutin">christian louboutin</a> momentum on Tuesday with the unexpected resignation of Andrew <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com" title="christian louboutin official outlet">christian louboutin official outlet</a> Moss, the chief executive of Aviva, the British insurance company, after its pay practices lost investor support. Investors balked when Mr. Moss was poised to receive a raise from the board for this year despite a slump in the company’s stock price. Although he turned down <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com" title="christian louboutin wedding shoes">christian louboutin wedding shoes</a> the 4.8 percent increase in salary on April 30, at a turbulent meeting last Thursday, a majority of shareholders who cast votes still opposed the company’s remuneration report. The vote followed recent protests of million-dollar executive pay packages at Barclays, UBS and Citigroup. Shareholders have been annoyed by companies that they contend are awarding large paychecks even as shareholders’ returns have fallen or <a href="http://www.christianlouboutin-officialwebsite.com" title="christian louboutin official website">christian louboutin official website</a> remained dismal.     xiaomei op "Tapping into the booming craft beer business" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1516#post-1539 do, 10 mei 2012 07:35:29 +0000 xiaomei 1539@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Tapping into the booming craft beer business <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">home decorators</a> MINNEAPOLIS - The history of beer brewed in Minnesota dates back well before prohibition. Back then it was hand poured, bottled and shipped - much like Lucid Brewing of Minnetonka does today. Owners Eric Biermann and Jon Messier quit their jobs back in June of 2011 hoping to tap into the growing success of craft beer. Bierman was an international accountant and Messier an aerospace engineer. "We call this Cammo; it's nine percent alcohol, double pale ale," said Biermann while wrapping the label on a bottle of Lucid's new beer. It's the first bottled venture for the two. They raised $400,000 to build a brewery in an unassuming business complex in Minnetonka. They've sold kegs before, but Cammo is the first batch to hit store shelves. "Definitely taken us longer to fill the bottles and ship them out the door than it is to actually sell the bottles," explained Bierman. The suds do sell. They simply cannot brew it fast enough. Sales entail the plainest of phone pitches. "Would you be interested in sampling it and carrying it on your shelves?" that's the question Biermann asks when calling liquor stores, "And we have like a 90 percent success rate with that little schpeel." A few hours of calls and the demand for beer brewed in our own backyard is so great stores purchase it taste and sight unseen. "We're at capacity; we're selling it as fast as we can make it right now," said Kevin Welch of Boom Island Brewing Company. The boon can be found at Boom Island as well. Kevin Welch is one mean brewing machine. Tucked away in a corner office building in north Minneapolis, Boom Island also brews, bottles and labels every batch. Four months in and Welch is totally tapped in. "We've just hit the ground running and I can't slow down that's why I'm here until midnight tonight," said Welch. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">craft stores</a> Boom Island and Lucid are two of the 12 new breweries in the state to open last year. It brings the total number of breweries in Minnesota to 43 and counting. "I think it's just going to get bigger and bigger," added Brian Lonberg of Barley John's Brew Pub in New Brighton. The growth is thanks in part to brewpubs like Barley John's, which opened 12 years ago and has been able to tap into its own craft beer success. But despite craft beer's growing popularity, Minnesota lags behind other states with similar populations. "You go to the city of Portland, absolutely every bar, brewpub you go to is serving nothing but craft beer," explained Jason Alvey of The Four Firkins craft beer store. The city of Portland alone has 40 breweries. And, in 2011, the state of Oregon counted more than 150 craft breweries. Brewing is big business in Colorado as well, where there are more than a 100 breweries - twice the amount of Minnesota today. "At one point before prohibition Minnesota like almost every other state - had hundreds of breweries - in fact they're were over four hundred, little tiny regional breweries," described Alvey. It's a history Alvey says is proof that Minnesota is a prime spot for more breweries. Four Firkins only sells craft beer. No wine, no hard liquor. Only brown bottles in the 22 ounce variety or by the six pack. "It was just a matter of time until people realized that beer doesn't have to be yellow fizzy stuff with no flavor," said Alvey. These days, with more flavorful beers and more selection, it seems like there is an endless stream of people who are just getting into it. Add Minnesota to the list of the growing craft beer popularity, built on the state's history of beer brewed, bought and sold locally. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">asianwallarts.com</a> Lucid Brewing is making a limited edition Saison that will be available in June. Through a contest run on KARE 11's Twitter and Facebook pages, the name Summertide was chosen as a name for the beer. Part of the proceeds raised from the beer's sales will be donated to a local non-profit organization. More information about Summertide will be posted on kare11.com when it becomes available. xiaomei op "Jo-Ann Rewards Teachers with Special Teacher Appreciation Discounts" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1507#post-1530 di, 08 mei 2012 09:48:22 +0000 xiaomei 1530@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Jo-Ann Rewards Teachers with Special Teacher Appreciation Discounts <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">craft stores</a> HUDSON, Ohio, May 07, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores, the leading fabric and craft specialty retailer in America, is celebrating the invaluable work that teachers do during Teacher Appreciation Week. This exclusive event happens Monday, May 7, through Friday, May 11, at all Jo-Ann stores, and teachers enrolled in the Jo-Ann Teachers Rewards program can save substantially on a wide variety of fabric, craft and decor items. Teachers will receive 20% off the brands they purchase most like Crayola(R), BusyKids(TM) and Elmer's(R). To qualify for the discount, teachers must present current teacher identification along with state-issued photo identification upon checkout. Throughout the year, teachers enrolled in the program receive 15% off their total purchases. Some exclusions do apply. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">home decorators</a> ''At Jo-Ann, we value the dedication of our nation's teachers, and understand that, in many cases, teachers pay out-of-pocket for classroom supplies," said Beth Shivak, manager of special events for Jo-Ann. ''That is why we feel that teachers deserve more opportunities to save. The special Teacher Appreciation Week savings and the year-round Teacher Rewards Program are our ways of saying 'Thank You' to them.'' Teachers can enroll in the Teacher Rewards Program in-store by visiting Guest Services or asking a Team Member for assistance. Teachers can also sign up online at Joann.com/teachers. For more products, projects and inspiration, visit your local Jo-Ann store or log onto Joann.com. About Jo-Ann Stores, Inc. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">asianwallarts.com</a> Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores, the nation's largest fabric and craft retailer with locations in 49 states, was founded in 1943 as a single retail store. Today, more than 770 Jo-Ann stores across the country provide consumers all the fabrics, craft supplies and inspiration they need, conveniently under one roof. For additional information, visit asianwallarts.com   xiaomei op "Rock analysis suggests France cave art is 'oldest'" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1506#post-1529 di, 08 mei 2012 09:46:25 +0000 xiaomei 1529@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Rock analysis suggests France cave art is 'oldest' <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Oil-Paintings-shop">famous paintings</a> The oldest footprints of modern-day man are seen in the Chauvet cave discovered in 1999. Experts have long debated whether the sophisticated animal drawings in a famous French cave are indeed the oldest of their kind in the world, and a study out Monday suggests that yes, they are. Experts have long debated whether the sophisticated animal drawings in a famous French cave are indeed the oldest of their kind in the world, and a study out Monday suggests that yes, they are. Brain Training Games - Improve memory with scientifically designed brain exercises. - <a href="http://www.lumosity.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.lumosity.com</a> The smooth curves and fine details in the paintings of bears, rhinoceroses and horses in the Chauvet cave in southern France's picturesque Ardeche region are so advanced that some scholars thought they dated from 12,000 to 17,000 years ago. That would place them as relics of the Magdalenian culture, in which human ancestors used tools of stone and bone and created increasingly advanced art as time went on. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> But scientists have previously shown through radiocarbon dating evidence of rock art, charcoal and animal bones in the Chauvet cave that the drawings are older than that, likely between 30,000-32,000 years old, befuddling some who believed that early art took on more primitive forms. Now, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a US journal, French scientists believe they have confirmation that the paintings are "the oldest and most elaborate ever discovered." Their findings are based on an analysis -- called geomorphological and chlorine-36 dating -- of the rockslide surfaces around what is believed to be the cave's only entrance. The research shows that an overhanging cliff began collapsing 29,000 years ago and did so repeatedly over time, definitively sealing the entrance to humans around 21,000 years ago. That would mean the drawings had to have been done before that, bolstering the notion that they were created by people in the Aurignacian culture, which lived 28,000 to 40,000 years ago. "Remarkably agreeing with the radiocarbon dates of the human and animal occupancy, this study confirms that the Chauvet cave paintings are the oldest and the most elaborate ever discovered, challenging our current knowledge of human cognitive evolution," said the study. According to lead author Benjamin Sadier, the findings put an end to any debate over when the drawings may have been done based on their style. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a> "What our work shows, and other work that will soon be published, is that the method of dating by style is no longer valid," he told AFP in a phone interview. "By proving that this cave was closed for good 21,500 years ago, we completely eradicate the hypothesis of a more recent painting of the cave, and we also confirm the age of the cave which was already known through radiocarbon dating," he added. "Before we were pretty sure. And now we are sure. It's a way of gathering independent proof, meaning we can figure out the age of the cave by geological means, not archeological ones." The cave and its remarkably well-preserved paintings were closed to human access by the rockfalls and were only recently rediscovered in 1994. Researchers involved in the work came from France's University of Savoie, Aix Marseille University and the Centre National de Prehistoire. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a> More information: “Further constraints on the Chauvet cave artwork elaboration,” by Benjamin Sadier et al. PNAS (2012). xiaomei op "Simsbury, West Hartford designers, landscapers selected for 2012 Decorator Show" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1494#post-1517 vr, 04 mei 2012 11:12:33 +0000 xiaomei 1517@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Simsbury, West Hartford designers, landscapers selected for 2012 Decorator Show House <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">home decorators</a> WEST HARTFORD - The Junior League of Hartford is pleased to announce the names of the interior decorators and landscape professionals that have been selected to participate in it's 12th Decorator Show House. The 2012 Decorator Show House is located at 68 Scarborough Street, Hartford. It will be open to the public from May 5 to 27. "The Junior League of Hartford is proud to offer our community an inspiring Designer Show HOuse," said Laura Hughes, Show House Council co-chair. "The Show House raises proceeds for JLH programs and projects in addition to providing a venue to promote an awareness of our organization and highlight the talents of many Connecticut designers and local businesses." Amy Schuster of Stone House Designs in Simsbury is one of the designers selected for the 2012 Decorator Show House. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">craft stores</a> The following designers and landscapers were selected from West Hartford: Cynthia Dodd of Glorious Gardens; David Gugliotti of Gugliotti Brothers Lawn Care; Carine Hoye and Andrew Huber of Hoye & Huber Design; Robin Jones and Peter Robbin of LCR; Laurie Elizabeth Nilsen of Nilsen Design/The Well Dressed Window, LLC; Lauren Zeligson and John Dussault of Labrazel Home; and Remy Schwartz and Merle Trager of Remy Interiors. Every three years the Junior League of Hartford takes over a unique home or estate in the Greater Hartford area, selects regional designers to decorate the interior spaces and landscape the surrounding grounds, and sells tickets to the public for viewing of the completed house. The Junior League of Hartford has held 11 Decorator Show Houses over a 33-year span. They have raised more than $1.35 million for JLH programs and projects. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">asianwallarts.com</a> The Decorator Show House is the League's largest event-based fundraiser. Proceeds from the Show House are used to fund its community projects and programs, which currently focus on the alleviation of hunger. xiaomei op "Through war and peace, their love always grows" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1493#post-1516 vr, 04 mei 2012 11:08:04 +0000 xiaomei 1516@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Through war and peace, their love always grows <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> Robert and Guan Wing Sang were married April 1, 1942, in Kaiping in China's Guangdong province. Over the years, the couple and their growing family--they have seven children--survived the Japanese invasion during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War and subsequent Communist purge, and the Dominican Republic's civil war. The family found their way to Portland in 1965. Robert, 94, and Guan, 89, owned the Chinatown Restaurant in downtown Portland -- in the space now occupied by Voodoo Doughnut -- until 1979. The couple have 14 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Guan speaks little English and the couples' two daughters, Jean Eames and Margaret Sang Rake, helped translate. Q: How did you meet? Robert: It is, maybe, I believe fate and opportunity. 1938, September, we begin school . . . First, I know her younger brother. Actually, I am with three roommates, sharing an apartment, across the street of (Guan's family's) apartment. Her brother come to look for my other roommate. But he was not in. I told him, 'May I help you?' Her brother says, 'I have some school work problem. I hope somebody can help me.' And I help him . So we begin the friendship. . . . During the war time, these airplanes come to attack, to bomb the small town. The school closed. They moved (it) to Hong Kong. So I go to Hong Kong. So we met again at Hong Kong. . . . Furthermore, her mother saw my (photo) and my writing. They appreciate me very much. She thought that I am trustful. So they keep me in mind to choose me to marry (Guan). Margaret: It wasn't (an) arranged (marriage). Her mother appreciated my Dad's assistance with her brother. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Oil-Paintings-shop">famous paintings</a> Robert: During the three years before we married, we (were) just like ordinary friends. We did not have dating. We did not have (time) together (in) private. Just ordinary friends. Margaret: (My father) became a family friend. (In) China, the villages were pretty far apart. In those days, it was rare for someone to marry outside of their village because of the distance. But her mother made the trek to visit his family and to see where he lived. (She) took the initiative to go meet his family and then in a sense, to see whether or not there was any interest, to find out what his intentions were. (laughs) And so that's why my father thinks that, since she took the initiative, that she had it in her mind that he would be a good son-in-law. Q: What do you remember about being newlyweds? (Guan answers) Margaret: She remembers that before she got married, she was held in high regard because she's an only child, only by virtue of the fact that her older sister died at the age of 14, and then she had a younger brother also who died. Medical care in those days was pretty non-existent. My grandfather and my grandmother and her grandmother also, they spoiled her rotten. My grandfather was in the United States then, and he was sending goodies back to China for her. Since she just got to be spoiled, after marriage she had to move to the village. Jean: His village. Margaret: His family had rice paddies, and it was a lot of work. (Guan laughs) She had to harvest the rice and feed the animals on the farm . . . and cook three meals for the whole family. Because the new bride would have to assume a lot more work. The older in-laws that had married into the family previously, then they sort of stepped back. So it was sort of punishment! Q: Were you living in the same house as his family? Guan: Yeah. Robert: My parents' house. We had two stories. We were on the upper floor. My parents on the ground floor. Q: How did you come to the United States? Jean: When my dad went to Hong Kong in 1952, my mother took my older brother to see him leave. Then she heard that the Communists had made it to (our) village. But my younger brother and I were left behind. She went back to get us, and they wouldn't give her travel papers to come back out. Margaret: My mother risked her life to go back. Jean: She reminds me of that all the time. (the family laughs) Margaret: They were going to hold her for ransom, because they knew that my grandfather was in the U.S.. So she did something very smart: She pretended to join the revolution. . . . She gave all of (her jewelry and belongings) over to the revolution--because they were going to take it anyway and kill them. So they thought, okay, she's one of us. They trusted her. Then she fled with my sister and my brother. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a> Robert: I went to the Dominican Republic in (the) West Indies. I left them in China for two years, with three children. Then 1952, I sent for them to join me. We stayed in Dominican Republic for 15 years. We lose everything in China, but we build up again in Dominican Republic. We have a business and I have a job in the Chinese (Nationalist/Taiwan) embassy. We're doing well, and I send my three oldest children to study in the United States. But 1965, about May, civil war broke out. A civil war just like in China. This is the communist party and the government party. They fight against each other. And we were living in the section of the rebel group. Margaret: The section that was controlled by the rebels. Robert: The government cut off the water supply, cut off the electricity supply. Every day you can hear the machine guns and the bombings. The government sent airplanes to drop bombs. By this time Mr. Johnson is the (U.S.) president, and he sent in American soldiers to intervene. And they try to negotiate a solution. But no solution, day after day. . . . And then the United States government, they consider our safety. They said we are at risk. They can provide transportation to ship us to Puerto Rico. . . . The immigration officer offer(s) us a choice. We can go to the United States anywhere. We choose to go to New York (in) June 1965. And then another opportunity. We get (to) the headquarters of a Presbyterian . . . Jean: The Presbyterian Council of Churches. Robert: The church helped people to get resettled in the United States. . . . And (they) send the inquiry to all the other churches . . . to sponsor us to stay in the United States. A few days later, he get the offer from the church here. Margaret: Rose City Presbyterian. Robert: They offer to sponsor us to come to (Portland). They offer us a house, and help all the children to go to school. (Oregon) Senator and Representatives--three of them--write to the director of immigration to tell them to let us stay in the United States. . . . So we stay in Portland. To begin here, we need to work hard to support the whole family. Nine people, you know. We work hard. So we just tell the older children to help to take care of the younger children, to teach them, and then to do all the housekeeping work, so that we solved the problem of the living in the United States. Three years later, we have our own restaurant business. And (the children) grow up and they all graduate from college. Q: What do you think about your adopted home? Robert: I have a great great affection for American people. No other place, can't be better. . . . I want one day to make some contribution back to the United States. My family, if not in the United States, they won't be able to be so good, well-being. We also think the person should (have) good conduct, good behavior. Honest people, dedicated to study and hard working. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a> But a country is important. Without country, (is) without home. There is so many country in the world, the United States is the best. So many people are critics. But without the United States, how the world would be? Yeah. Unthinkable. xiaomei op "Iconic painting 'The Scream' sells for $116 million at New York auction" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1490#post-1513 do, 03 mei 2012 11:53:54 +0000 xiaomei 1513@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Iconic painting 'The Scream' sells for $116 million at New York auction <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Oil-Paintings-shop">famous paintings</a> ONE of the art world's most recognisable images - Edvard Munch's The Scream - has sold for a record $US119.9 million ($116.4 million) at auction in New York City. The 1895 artwork - a modern symbol of human anxiety - was sold at Sotheby's. The price includes the buyer's premium. The image of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked, blood-red sky is one of four versions by the Norwegian expressionist painter. The auctioned piece at Sotheby's is the only one left in private hands. The previous record for an artwork sold at auction was $US106.5 million ($103.3 million) for Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust, sold by Christie's in 2010. "The image has become part of pop culture, "used by everyone from Warhol to Hollywood to cartoons to teacups and T-shirts," said Michael Frahm of the London-based art advisory service firm Frahm Ltd. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. Recommended Coverage Munch's 'The Scream' may fetch $80m End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. "Together with the Mona Lisa, it's the most famous and recognised image in art history," he added. Sotheby's said its pastel-on-board version of The Scream is the most colourful and vibrant of the four and the only version whose frame was hand-painted by the artist to include his poem, detailing the work's inspiration. In the poem, Munch described himself "shivering with anxiety" and said he felt "the great scream in nature". <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a> Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and patron of the artist, said he sold the piece because he felt "the moment has come to offer the rest of the world the chance to own and appreciate this remarkable work." Proceeds from the sale will go toward the establishment of a new museum, art center and hotel in Hvitsten, Norway, where Olsen's father and Munch were neighbours. The director of the National Museum in Oslo, Audun Eckhoff, says Norwegian authorities approved the Munch sale since the other versions of the composition are in Norwegian museums. One version is owned by the National Museum and two others by the Munch Museum, also in Oslo. Sotheby's said a total of eight works have sold for $80 million or more at auction. Only two other works besides Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust have sold for more than $100 million at auction. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a> Those are Picasso's Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice) for $US104.1 million ($100.1 million) in 2004 and Alberto Giacometti's Walking Man I for $104.3 million ($101.2 million) in 2010. xiaomei op "Eatontown Michaels Craft Store Opening May 20" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1487#post-1510 do, 03 mei 2012 11:43:53 +0000 xiaomei 1510@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Eatontown Michaels Craft Store Opening May 20 <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">craft stores</a> Residents who drive down Route 35 on their way to the Parkway have seen the sign, but finally, Michaels Craft Store will open its doors this month. The store is replacing the Office Max which closed last September at 178 Route 35 South in Eatontown and will hold its grand opening on Sunday, May 20. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 9:45 a.m. and the store's doors will open to the public for the first time at 10 a.m. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">home decorators</a> Michaels is the country's largest arts and crafts specialty retailer, according to a release from Michaels Craft Store, and will fill a rather large hole left by Office Max in Eatontown. “We look forward to welcoming the community in to our new store and showing support for local kids and families,” Store Manager Debra Burgess said in a release. “In addition to our grand opening events, customers will find everything they need for any creative project from DIY home décor, baking and jewelry to kids’ crafts, fine art, custom framing and more.” As part of its grand opening, Michaels will also give the Starlight Children’s Foundation's local chapter a $200 gift card for craft supplies to provide fun activities for children and their families. The foundation help seriously ill children and their families cope with the illness by setting up entertainment, education and family activities. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com">asianwallarts.com</a> Michaels has stores located on 2135 Route 35 in Holmdel, 2325 Route 66 in Ocean Township and 4345 Route 9 in Freehold and over 1,000 throughout the country. xiaomei op "Discovering the art of volunteering in the remote Northern Territory" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1479#post-1501 za, 28 apr 2012 08:00:36 +0000 xiaomei 1501@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ >THE women of Nauiyu on the Daly River in the Northern Territory were carefully stripping and dyeing the merrepen palm fibres as Deidre Black looked on. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">silk painting</a>Using the richly coloured fibres as their base material, they set about weaving exquisite baskets and dilly bags -- traditional Aboriginal bags woven from plant matter, in this case the elaborate, fan-leafed trees that decorate the landscape. Black was struck by the precision with which the women worked, and by the stories that flowed as they did so. "The women told us their dreaming stories [and] we learned . . . about their craft techniques, and observed them painting works with painstaking, intricate detail." The retired teacher from Melbourne had come to the Daly River -- a region renowned for its scenic beauty and good fishing -- with her husband, Peter, to work as a volunteer on the Merrepen Arts & Sports Festival, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Elegants">Elegants Chinese painting</a> an event held annually to celebrate cultural pride and indigenous knowledge. They were two of nine volunteers sent by Mary Ward International Australia, the justice and development arm of the Loreto Sisters, which supports the festival host, the Merrepen Arts Centre. It was a good fit for the couple. Deidre is a former Loreto student and Peter chairs the MWIA Board. "[We'd] travelled through areas of the Northern Territory twice previously and were keen to . . . engage with members of the Aboriginal community not just as tourists," Deidre says. "This was our first experience of volunteer work outside our own community, and [MWIA] was committed to ensuring that we were as well prepared as possible for the cross-cultural experience by meeting some of the sisters who had worked for many years with various indigenous communities." In Nauiyu the Blacks discovered a community rich in artistic tradition where about 20, mostly female, artists produce etchings and lino prints, transform fabrics through screen-printing, silk painting and batik, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Waiting-For-Mommy-Bird-Feeding" title="Bird Chinese painting">Bird Chinese painting</a> sculpt bowls and figures from papier-mache, and weave dilly bags, fishnets, baskets and sun mats from merrepen and pandanus leaves. The arts centre serves as a studio for established and emerging artists such as Gracie Kumbi and Patricia McTaggart. The festival -- now in its 26th year -- is a celebration of this artistic output and gives members of the public the opportunity to meet the artists and purchase their work. And for volunteers such as the Blacks, it opens a window on to a whole new world. "We worked together sewing labels, labelling and pricing articles for sale, cataloguing the artworks and helping to set up display areas for the sale and auction of art," Black says. "We also assisted . . . by selling craft products, artworks, mango smoothies and coffees." For the people who live on the Daly River, 250km southwest of Darwin, the volunteers have become an invaluable part of the festival. "Without volunteers it would be difficult for us to stage [it]," says Lizz Bott, chief executive of the Merrepen Arts, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Two-Playing-Horses" title="Horses Chinese painting">Horses Chinese painting</a> Culture and Language Aboriginal Corporation. "Everything they bring to it we appreciate so much. "We hope they will see how our community operates and learn something from the people here." Checklist The Merrepen Arts and Sports Festival will be held on June 1-3. More: merrepenfestival.com.au. The MWIA Volunteer Program works on justice and development projects in Australia and abroad. More: <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Staring-Eagle" title="Staring Eagle Chinese painting">Staring Eagle Chinese painting</a>loreto.org.au/Home/Mary-Ward-International/Volunteer. xiaomei op "To the Max: Iconic painter Peter Max visits Hilton Head Island" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1478#post-1500 za, 28 apr 2012 07:58:15 +0000 xiaomei 1500@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Most mornings, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a>the artist Peter Max will travel to his studio just a few blocks from Central Park in New York City. He has an in-studio deejay who play his favorite music, anything from Chick Corea to The Beatles. He'll open the lid of the case that contains 70-some paints, dip in a brush and touch it to the canvas. "I don't know where I'm going. It's like a pianist composing music. He'll play a note or two and before he knows it he has a song," he said. The name Peter Max became synonymous with psychedelic art in the 1960s. His work became so ubiquitous that it would be seen on phone books, stamps, posters. He's an icon, but hasn't settled into icon status. He still paints most days. He travels most weekends out of the year. He still holds exhibits, such as the one that runs through April 29 at the Karis Art Gallery on Hilton Head Island. "It's my work; it's my life," he said. "It's what I've always done. I'm happy that I can live a creative life." Max's family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Shanghai, China. His early childhood memories are of the monks next door painting Chinese characters on rice sheets, colorful parades with gigantic paper dragons, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a> trips to the market to buy American comic books and visits to the cinema to see American musicals. His parents nurtured his artistic side during his childhood. His mother would lay out art supplies around their pagoda house and tell him to start painting -- don't worry about the mess. After several moves, his family settled in Brooklyn, his dream of coming to the United States finally coming true. Once in America, he started formal art training in Manhattan, initially focusing on realism. He started a small arts studio with friends and started doing advertising work. Inspired by the counter-cultural movement, Max's work started to move more into psychedelia. He capitalized on new developments in print making and turned his original art into vibrant, colorful posters. "Colors are beautiful, like music is beautiful," he said. "We love sunsets; we love flowers. It's just very attractive to the eyes." By the late '60s, his work had become mainstream, like the counter-culture itself. He had become a rock star in the art world. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Tonight Show. His face adorned a cover of Life magazine with the headline "Portrait of the artist as a very rich man." Max licensed his work to corporations, showing up on everything from socks to clocks. He helped spearhead the restoration of the Statue of Liberty with portraits of the American icon. He's painted on the White House lawn and has been the official artist of the Super Bowl, Grammy Awards and the World Cup. He figures he's painted about 150 celebrities, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Leonardo-da-Vinci-Shop">Leonardo Da Vinci paintings</a>most recently a portrait of singer Taylor Swift that he presented to her. He's 74 years old now, but doesn't have plans anytime soon to slip into a leisurely retirement. "I feel like I'm 42 years old," he said. "I feel like I'm in good shape." And he'll do exactly like he did when he first started painting as a boy in China: Wake up, take a brush, find paint and start creating. Copyright 2012 The Island Packet. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Scroll-painting-Shop">scroll</a>All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. xiaomei op "Not to Be Missed Japanese Paintings at the National Gallery of Art" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1477#post-1499 za, 28 apr 2012 07:55:39 +0000 xiaomei 1499@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ One of Japan's most celebrated cultural treasures, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Camels-Through-Snowing-Desert" title="Camels Chinese painting">Camels Chinese painting</a>"Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings" by Itō Jakuchū (1716-1800) is on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through April 29. The 30-scroll set of bird-and-flower paintings, painted more than 250 years ago, are shown together for the first time outside of Japan, having been lent to the National Gallery of Art by the Imperial Household. Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art said, The National Gallery of Art is deeply honored to present this exquisite set of 30 scrolls to visitors from around the world who will be in Washington for a very special National Cherry Blossom Festival. This is the centennial celebration of Japan's gift to Washington, D.C., of 3,000 cherry blossom trees. I was in Washington, D.C. for Arts Advocacy Day, an event sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts at the White House. I landed just after the space shuttle Discovery flew over the Mall. It was a poignant experience, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Wobbling-Ducks" title="Ducks Chinese painting">Ducks Chinese painting</a>as I had been commissioned by NASA (one of my four NASA commissions) to paint the Discovery shuttle return to flight after the Columbia tragedy, and my painting of the Discovery shuttle is also on exhibit in Washington, D.C. When I landed in D.C., I went straight to the National Gallery of Art, where I was fortunate to see this exhibit. The renderings on silk are breathtaking. There is a wonderful simplicity in the design and details. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> I had lived in Asia for a year, the recipient of a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, and I spent that year painting and studying Chinese brush painting. Although these are Japanese masterpieces, there are similarities to a western novice of Chinese brush painting. I thought it would be fun to study Chinese brush painting and I thought it would be a breeze, as I was a painter. How wrong I was. I was taught classical painting and struggled with the bamboo, my flowers looked anemic. The brush is held in a very different way and holds the pigments differently than our western brushes. I quickly realized that something that looked so easy and simple to do was really a lifetime of work and study. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Koi-Fishes" title="Koi Fishes Chinese painting">Koi Fishes Chinese painting</a>I did continue with the painting and eventually incorporated the brushes and brushwork into my own watercolors. The exhibit is beautiful. The technical expertise and brush handling is exquisite. The flower painting -- peonies with butterfly -- was perhaps my favorite, maybe because I finally learned how to paint the peony and butterfly. This is the last few days of the exhibit and well worth a visit if you are in Washington, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Roaring-Tiger" title="Roaring Tiger Chinese painting">Roaring Tiger Chinese painting</a>D.C. xiaomei op "Alliance director" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1471#post-1493 vr, 27 apr 2012 08:35:58 +0000 xiaomei 1493@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ The installations are in three different passenger areas of the airport and will be changed quarterly. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a>At the end of each exhibit cash awards will be given to artists for the most outstanding works. The current exhibit will remain up until August 2012. “Today airports all across America are showcasing art,” said Susan Steiner, ArtsinStark Board Chair. “We so appreciate the efforts of airport president and CEO Rick McQueen and his staff in making ‘Air at the Airport’ possible.” Artists in Stark and Summit counties have a new canvas on which to feature their works of art – the walls of the Akron-Canton Regional Airport. With a special grant from the GAR Foundation, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Koi-Fishes" title="Koi Fishes Chinese painting">Koi Fishes Chinese painting</a> “Art at the Airport” was created by ArtsinStark in collaboration with the Akron Area Arts Alliance. Curated by Michele Waalkes, the objective is to showcase artists from both counties and to encourage regional cooperation. “There is great art going on in Stark and Summit counties and we need to work together in promoting it,” <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Roaring-Tiger" title="Roaring Tiger Chinese painting">Roaring Tiger Chinese painting</a> said Robb Hankins the president and CEO of ArtsinStark. ‘Art at the Airport’ is a step in that direction.” ArtsinStark has hosted artwork at the airport before but this is the first effort featuring artists from both counties. The Summit County artists featured in “Art at the Airport” are Katina Pastis Radwanski, Sharon Frank Mazgaj, and David Bryan Lile. The Stark County artists are Russ Ensign, Liz DeBellis and Tim Carmany. “I hope this Sum-mit/Stark collaboration is the start of many more to come between our arts communities,” said Jessie Raynor <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Wobbling-Ducks" title="Ducks Chinese painting">Ducks Chinese painting</a>Akron Area Arts Alliance director. The installations are in three different passenger areas of the airport and will be changed quarterly. At the end of each exhibit cash awards will be given to artists for the most outstanding works. The current exhibit will remain up until August 2012. “Today airports all across America are showcasing art,” said Susan Steiner, ArtsinStark Board Chair. “We so appreciate the efforts of airport president and CEO Rick McQueen and his staff in making<a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Camels-Through-Snowing-Desert" title="Camels Chinese painting">Camels Chinese painting</a>T Air at the Airport’ possible.” xiaomei op "Laying the Tracks Others Followed" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1470#post-1492 vr, 27 apr 2012 08:29:52 +0000 xiaomei 1492@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ The handsome show of Frank Stella’s early paintings at L&M Arts could not be better timed. Abstract art, especially of a Minimalist mien, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese calligraphy</a>is on the uptick right now, with a few too many young artists acting as if they have invented the wheel, especially where brushy or severely simplified monochromes are concerned. Breaking news about the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia and more. A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics. 2012 Frank Stella/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Frank Stella: Black, Aluminum, Copper Paintings “Telluride,” part of this show at L&M Arts. Perhaps this is to be expected. Art is not a science; it does not proceed in a neat, linear progression. Artists often circle back, picking up ideas that their predecessors left undeveloped and trying to push them further. Still, a blast from the past never hurts: the artistic present can never know too much about what has come before. The rare museum-quality exhibition that is “Frank Stella: Black, Aluminum, Copper Paintings” is just that kind of blast. It features 13 of the adamant, quietly pulsing, exceedingly frontal paintings that Mr. Stella made in New York in the three and a half years after he arrived here in the summer of 1958, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Calligraphy-Shop">Chinese brush painting</a>fresh out of Princeton. This amounts to more early Stellas than have been exhibited in New York since the survey of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970. They provide a heady sense of the first few fastest-moving years of his development, when he helped bring the Abstract Expressionist chapter of New York School painting to a close and lay the foundation for Minimalism. On view are examples of the Black Paintings series, with which he announced himself to the New York art world in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1959 “Sixteen Americans” exhibition, as well as works from his Aluminum and Copper series, unveiled in his first and second solo shows at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1960 and 1962. All the paintings feature repeating bands or stripes of a single color applied to canvases that start out rectangular and end up emphatically shaped, resembling big letters. Also included is “Delta,” a wonderfully shaggy, black-over-dark-red predecessor of these more classic stripe paintings. These works represent the cornerstone of Mr. Stella’s reputation, the Stellas whose historical importance, as with Picasso’s Cubist paintings, is most widely, if somewhat predictably, accepted. And just as the decimated forms of Cubism introduce an integration between image and surface, the Stellas here progressively articulate a new agreement between painting as image and as object. They hark back to a time when flatness was abstract painting’s primary goal, and the physical facts of the medium were starting to be endlessly parsed — beginning with shaped canvases — in a process that continues today. No artist’s work embodied these pursuits as rigorously as Mr. Stella’s; in the paintings at L&M he laid down the tracks that others followed. But in this show you also see a young painter edging his way, with some setbacks, toward his first mature statements, making progress that is at times as much physical and technical as anything else. The unevenness and general handmade roughness of the Black Paintings is especially striking. Greatly influenced by Jasper Johns’s flag paintings, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Leonardo-da-Vinci-Shop">Leonardo Da Vinci paintings</a>Mr. Stella sought an even more rigorous logic between physical and visual by using parallel bands of black that either reiterate or run diagonally to the edges of the canvas. But the Frank Stella of the Black Paintings was not yet the Frank Stella who famously said, in 1966, “What you see is what you see” — the epitome of a literal, nothing-but-the-facts approach to the medium. Beyond their apparent logic, these early works are also broodingly Romantic, their mood underscored by titles that flirt with darkness, chaos and otherness. “Bethlehem’s Hospital” takes it name from the London mental institution sometimes known as Bedlam. “Die Fahne hoch!” (“The Flag on High”) echoes a phrase from a Nazi marching song. The most famous title is “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Makes You Free”), the words that were splayed demonically above the gates to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Some of the Black Paintings are much stronger than others, with “Bethlehem’s Hospital” and “Arbeit Macht Frei” being especially murky. Their stripes, painted over black washes, are sometimes barely discernible; <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Scroll-painting-Shop">scroll</a>in certain areas they seem all but monochromatic, which gives them a youthful awkwardness and a reliclike, not-quite-alive aspect. xiaomei op "Janet Biggs creates an active art experience with ‘Kawah Ijen’" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1469#post-1491 vr, 27 apr 2012 08:24:30 +0000 xiaomei 1491@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ As the movie-exhibition business is cannibalized by TVs, tablets and smartphones, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Elegants">Elegants Chinese painting</a>there’s still one category of moving-image producers who insist on controlling the presentation: art-video makers such as Janet Biggs. Her “A Step on the Sun,” running at Conner Contemporary Art, can’t be reproduced on a pod or pad. Actually, the single-screen version of it (in Conner’s small media room) could be. But the centerpiece of this exhibition, “Kawah Ijen,” is the five-screen version showing in the main gallery. It puts the viewer at the center of images that move in and out of sync, and shift in place and mood. Sometimes the screens show the same thing; at other times, they offer contrasting pictures — or none at all. Watching the video is an active experience, as different elements compete for attention. The bulk of the video was shot at Kawah Ijen, a volcano in Java, Indonesia, where poorly outfitted workers endure poisonous sulfur-dioxide gas while collecting sulfur crystals. (The site, featured in Michael Glawogger’s 2005 documentary, “Workingman’s Death,” is popular with photographers and filmmakers seeking worst-job-ever images.) To heighten the unearthly vibe, Biggs has intercut footage of a weather-balloon launch by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The soundtrack also pits the terrestrial against the cosmic, mixing noises from the mine with stark string music. Weigh In Corrections? Recommend Tweet Personal Post The political aspect of the nine-minute video is ambiguous. Like Sebastiao Salgado, who makes alluring photographs of abject workers, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Waiting-For-Mommy-Bird-Feeding" title="Bird Chinese painting">Bird Chinese painting</a>Biggs risks submerging human struggles in epic visuals. The piece’s featured miner would probably prefer a state-of-the-art respirator to these artful views of blue water and yellow smoke. Whatever Biggs’s intended message, however, her compositions and editing are worthy of the video’s eerie location. Wilmer Wilson IV’s “Domestic Exchange,” also at Conner, finds a congenial shade between the imprecise racial designations of “black” and “white.” It’s the brown of the common paper bag, associated with workingmen’s lunches and refreshment sipped on street corners. A photo of Wilson, nude from the waist up except for a necklace of inflated bags, shows that the paper is not a perfect match for his skin tone. But it’s pretty close, and when hung in clumps from the ceiling — an installation that resulted from an opening-night performance piece — the air-filled bags do suggest flesh and hair. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">silk painting</a> i Wilson is one of those artists who uses his body as his canvas, and the ordinary paper bag proves an elegant stand-in for him. Photographing nature Like Biggs, Miori Inata is drawn to dramatic vistas. But the photographs in “American Landscapes,” the Japanese-bred artist’s small show at Hillyer Art Space, depicts an American West that’s largely untempered by human influence. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Two-Playing-Horses" title="Horses Chinese painting">Horses Chinese painting</a> Only one photo contains any artificial objects; the rest show exquisite natural forms and vivid colors. All are printed on washi (handcrafted Japanese paper), and most depict desert regions. One striking view of a stream snaking through grassland, made in Wyoming, features lush greens and blues that suggest Inata’s rainy homeland. But the principal hues are those of sand and crusty minerals, sometimes illuminated by light so hot that, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Staring-Eagle" title="Staring Eagle Chinese painting">Staring Eagle Chinese painting</a>when trapped inside caverns, it turns red. xiaomei op "Leveson Inquiry: Rupert Murdoch grilled over papers' influence" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1463#post-1485 wo, 25 apr 2012 11:46:15 +0000 xiaomei 1485@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch faces a two-day grilling under oath at <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Camels-Through-Snowing-Desert" title="Camels Chinese painting">Camels Chinese painting</a>the Royal Courts of Justice Rupert Murdoch's testimony at the inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson is under oath and will last two days. BBC business editor Robert Peston said he would be asked whether he sought and bought commercial advantage by offering the support of his papers, especially the Sun, to the Tories and Labour. Our correspondent also said Mr Murdoch's relationship with Les Hinton, the former News Corp executive in charge of the newspapers in many of the latter years, was bound to be put under the spotlight. He said Mr Murdoch would be asked the big question of whether there was a "giant cover-up or a catastrophic governance failure at his organisation".<a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Wobbling-Ducks" title="Ducks Chinese painting">Ducks Chinese painting</a> It is the billionaire's highest profile public appearance since he gave evidence to MPs last July. He told the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee that he met UK Prime Minister David Cameron "within days" <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Koi-Fishes" title="Koi Fishes Chinese painting">Koi Fishes Chinese painting</a>of the 2010 general election. He said he was invited to Downing Street by former prime minister Gordon Brown "many times". Tony Blair is godfather to one of his children. The tycoon apologised for the phone-hacking scandal and told MPs it was the "most humble day" of his life. He was pelted with a foam pie at the hearing by a protester. News Corp still owns the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Roaring-Tiger" title="Roaring Tiger Chinese painting">Roaring Tiger Chinese painting</a> and has a 39% stake in BSkyB. The Leveson Inquiry was set up after it was revealed Mr Murdoch's<a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">Chinese painting</a> now defunct tabloid newspaper the News of the World hacked into the voicemail of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler xiaomei op "Ai Weiwei Retrospective at the Hirshhorn" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1462#post-1484 wo, 25 apr 2012 11:43:08 +0000 xiaomei 1484@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ So much attention has been paid to Ai Weiwei the Chinese rebel that it seems to have eclipsed Ai Weiwei the artist. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Waiting-For-Mommy-Bird-Feeding" title="Bird Chinese painting">Bird Chinese painting</a> A major retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington this fall, as well as a recent installation and acquisition there, may shift the balance. Enlarge This Image Courtesy of the artist Ai Weiwei’s “Cube Light,” a 2008 work from a series of large-scale installations using glass crystals that he began in 2002. Breaking news about the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia and more. Go to Arts Beat » A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics. Go to Event Listings » “It all began two years ago, before he was ever incarcerated,” said Kerry Brougher, the Hirshhorn’s deputy director and chief curator. “Because Washington is the national and international nerve center of the world, we really wanted to hold an Ai Weiwei retrospective here at the Hirshhorn.” As a prelude to the retrospective, “Ai Weiwei: According to What?” — which runs Oct. 7 to Feb. 24, 2013 — the Hirshhorn has just installed his “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” around its fountain. New Yorkers may remember the piece on display around the Pulitzer Fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel last year. It consists of a dozen bronze sculptures, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Staring-Eagle" title="Staring Eagle Chinese painting">Staring Eagle Chinese painting</a> each about 10 feet tall, that represent the signs of the Chinese zodiac (snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit and dragon). They are reimagined versions of the Qing dynasty heads made for the fountain clock of an imperial retreat outside Beijing. The heads disappeared during looting by British and French troops in the Second Opium War in 1860, an event that in China remains a symbol of national humiliation. Some of the heads began to resurface in 2000, but five are still missing. The heads are a symbol of Mr. Ai’s quest to democratize public space. “Before, only a pope or an emperor could see these kinds of things,” he wrote in a statement about the installation. His retrospective, which will include 40 major works filling 16,000 square feet of the museum, originated at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2009. The artist gave it the title “According to What?,” a nod to Jasper Johns, whose seminal painting with a nearly identical name from 1964, a mural-size pastiche of coded signs and symbols, was an inspiration to Mr. Ai. The retrospective will include a new acquisition made by the Hirshhorn: “Cube Light,” a 2008 work from his popular chandelier series: large-scale installations composed of thousands of glass crystals that he began in 2002. This work is particularly large, about 14 cubic feet. “The show at the Mori had another chandelier that was not coming here,” Mr. Brougher said. “And when we asked his studio if they had another one to take its place, they showed me this one, and I was totally blown away.” ‘THE CLOCK’ TO RETURN Christian Marclay’s much-loved “Clock” is returning to New York. The work, a 24-hour montage of clips from movies and television that depict particular minutes in the day, synchronized with the moment they are shown, has become one of those classics that people never tire of as they catch a snippet here or recognize a familiar scene there. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Two-Playing-Horses" title="Horses Chinese painting">Horses Chinese painting</a> “The Clock” will be shown free from mid-July to early August at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium, on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets. The work is on loan from the New York collectors Jill and Peter Kraus, who have promised it to the Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Kraus, the chairman of Lincoln Center’s art committee, said that about five million people a year stroll through the Lincoln Center campus. “Public art should play a more important role there,” he said. When “The Clock,” first shown in London in 2010, made its New York debut at the Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea in the winter of 2011 people waited in line for hours in the bitter cold to see it. Last summer at the Venice Biennale it was a big draw, winning the Golden Lion award for best artwork. The film has also been shown in Seoul, Moscow, Paris, Boston, Los Angeles and Ottawa. WHITNEY PRIZE AWARDED The choreographer Sarah Michelson is the winner of this year’s Bucksbaum Award from the Whitney Museum of American Art. The prize, given to an artist who is in the Whitney Biennial, comes with a $100,000 stipend and a solo exhibition at the museum. At this year’s Biennial the British-born Ms. Michelson presented “Devotion Study #1 — The American Dancer.” The nearly 90-minute piece, performed by six dancers, one of whom wore a horse’s head, took place on the museum’s fourth floor, which was cleared of most of its walls. They danced on a white-painted surface depicting blueprints for the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer-designed building. The work was taken from another piece by Ms. Michelson, “Devotion” — a counterclockwise circle traced backward — and inspired by a text written by another Biennial artist, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Elegants">Elegants Chinese painting</a>the director and playwright Richard Maxwell, the founder of New York City Players. APPOINTMENT IN HOUSTON Gary Tinterow, the new director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is carrying on a mission started by his predecessor, Peter C. Marzio, to extend the institution’s global reach. He has just appointed Mahrukh Tarapor to be the museum’s senior adviser for international initiatives. Ms. Tarapor is someone Mr. Tinterow knows well from his years as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she was the longtime associate director for exhibitions and director for international affairs until her retirement about a year ago. Her first priority in Houston will be to help secure acquisitions and loans of works from the Islamic world. “She will help us create a significant display of all the various traditions of Islamic art,” Mr. Tinterow said. Ms. Tarapor, who is based in Geneva and Mumbai, India, will also help organize exhibitions and establish relationships with governments and cultural institutions worldwide. ROBIN RHODE IN CHELSEA The South African-born artist Robin Rhode has joined the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Chelsea. The gallery’s booth at the New York edition of the Frieze Art Fair next month will display a work of his that depicts a South African Brewing Company beer crate with hand-blown, elongated beer bottles placed inside. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop">silk painting</a> “His work is all about identity and his place in the global world,” said David Maupin, one of the gallery’s founders. xiaomei op "Sally Falk Nancrede: Blice Edwards takes visible, bold approach" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1454#post-1476 ma, 23 apr 2012 10:27:53 +0000 xiaomei 1476@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" hangs in the Louvre in Paris and is perhaps the most-visited piece of art in the world. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Scroll-painting-Shop" title="scroll">scroll</a>The artworks of Chris Blice and Jon Edwards are on the exterior of Good Morning Mama's Cafe on East 54th Street, in Hoosier Park Winner's Circle Pub and OTB Downtown, the exterior of Angie's List headquarters and along Mass Ave. It's not quite the Louvre, but they are high-visibility destinations for Indy. Blice Edwards Inc. (www.bliceedwards.com) started out doing decorative and faux painting in homes. "We did the McMansions being built all over Carmel at the time," Blice said. Now in its 19th year, the business has evolved into more commercial work with big doses of murals. "We like the commercial jobs because more people can see the results," explained Edwards. The two recently finished an interior mural for the Johnson Board Room in Robertson Hall at Butler University. The 2,120-square-foot mural surrounds the room with seven of the most iconic images on campus, from Hinkle Fieldhouse to the Persephone statue in Holcomb Gardens. They worked with Sarah Marr-Schwartzkopf, president of Rowland Design, and Craig Hardee, senior project manager at Butler. The artists transformed the room from Colonial red, yellow and blue that was as traditional as a striped tie, to a sophisticated and updated palette of soft blues, grays and taupes. The effect is calming, but definitely Butler as Blue II poses in pregame decorum. Bob Frist, principal of Rowland, called Blice Edwards "a very talented group of decorative artists." Blice said, "We're old-school. Jon is the designer. Everything is designed by hand -- with pencil and paper." Blice Edwards currently is working on designs for the Robertson Hall lobby depicting the history of Butler, from its founding at 12th Street and College Avenue to Irvington on the Eastside to the current Northside campus. "We offer things a lot of artists cannot," said Edwards. "All of our work is commissioned. That takes us in directions we might not ordinarily go, like the 3-D mural we did in Westfield." Designed so it can be taken down and moved, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop" title="silk painting">silk painting</a> the city of Westfield mural is made of PVC plastic with laminated aluminum that can be cut and bent. "We love what we do," said Blice. "We're opening a new public design studio at 1101 E. 54th St. behind Surroundings." Currently under renovation, the studio will occupy part of the Thorp Awnings manufacturing facility. And it will include a pastry kitchen since Blice recently attended The Chef's Academy to learn how to make petit fours and tortes. Art, though, continues to be their signature. "Oftentimes, the artwork in a room is meant to be the focal point of the room," Edwards said. Sometimes, though, you don't see their work. "This year, our contribution to the Decorators' Show House is very subtle. If you don't notice it, we've done our job." <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Leonardo-da-Vinci-Shop" title="Leonardo Da Vinci paintings">Leonardo Da Vinci paintings</a>Decorators' Show House opens April 28 at 5 E. 71st St., so keep an eye out for a faux-painted fooler. xiaomei op "Archeologists unearth 3,000 ancient Buddhas in China believed to date back 1,500" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1453#post-1475 ma, 23 apr 2012 10:24:10 +0000 xiaomei 1475@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Archaeologists digging in Handan, China have unearthed nearly 3,000 ancient statues of Buddha. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/Statue">buddha statues</a>,Researchers in January salvaged artifacts believed to be up to 1,500 years old during an excavation outside of Ye, the ancient capital of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties. The discovery is believed to be the largest of its kind since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Others feature Buddha with a 'knowing smile', while broken full-length statues show the spiritual teacher wearing a monk-like robe. Experts believe the statues may have been collected and ritualistically buried after the fall of the Northern Qi dynasty in attempt by later emperors in an attempt to purge the country of Buddhism. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/">craft stores</a> Katherine Tsiang, director of the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago, told National Geographic Daily: 'It may have been that some of the ruins and broken sculptures from the past were gathered from old temple sites and buried in a pit.' Others, Ms Tsiang said, appeared to be 'respectfully buried in an orderly way', suggesting burials were done by Buddhists in times of danger. The statues range from approximately eight inches long to several feet high. Most of the artifacts are made of white marble and limestone. Some, like one sculpture of a bodhisattva, or enlightened Buddhist being, <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/">home decorators</a>,appear to have been decorated with ornate designs and high expense. Buddhism began in India around 500 B.C. and was introduced to China during the Han dynasty, dating hundreds of years before the newly-discovered ruins were created, researchers believe. As National Geographic reports, while the discovery is rare, it is not unheard of. More than 2,000 artifacts at the site of a temple in Dingxian in China's Hebei Province in the 1950s, Ms Tsiang said. 'Many sculptures from these sites are similar in style to those found recently at Ye,'<a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/Statue">laughing Buddha</a> she said, adding that this 'may be the largest find'. xiaomei op "Residents, churches upset over Little Italy 'pagan' mural plan" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1452#post-1474 ma, 23 apr 2012 10:15:53 +0000 xiaomei 1474@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ MA giant mural of a human figure with a peacock head and a tiger groin, planned for the side of a five-story building on Mulberry Street, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Bamboo">Bamboo painting</a> i has created an inferno in the tradition-minded enclave. “That’s not going up in my courtyard,” Father Fabian Grifone exploded when he saw a rendering of the huge painting that Little Italy merchants have commissioned for a wall overlooking the Most Precious Blood Church — the heart of the annual Feast of San Gennaro. The image by street artist Tristan Eaton is part of a sweeping scheme to reinvent Little Italy as a hipper neighborhood and “attract a younger demographic,” business leaders say. Tristan Eaton WHAT IS IT? This mural destined for the wall adjacent to the Most Precious Blood Church has upset Father Fabian Grifone and others. Helayne Seidman Father Fabian Grifone But Grifone, 87, the church’s priest for nearly 20 years, is furioso. “It looks like an accident of nature,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the Catholic religion or Italians. It looks like pagan art. I don’t want it.” The sanctuary of the 124-year-old church, with white marble columns, gold trim and stained-glass scenes, is filled with religious art and sculptures. Last year, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Lotus">Lotus painting</a>a Wall of Honor listing 400 local war veterans was erected in the courtyard — next to where the whimsical mural would rise. Eaton, a graduate of the School of Visual Art in Manhattan, said his style was inspired by comic books. He agreed to paint the mural pro bono, calling it “an honor” to display his work at such a prominent place. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Purple-Orchid">Purple Orchid painting</a> The human figure is a child, he explained. The animals woven into it symbolize emotions and qualities — like a tiger’s courage. Monkeys represent his parents and siblings. Eels suggest “darker, submerged” feelings about his father’s death. “The theme of family is deeply rooted in Italian culture,” Eaton said, but he added that he wants to leave the art open to interpretation. Little Italy old-timers jumped right in. “I see tiger’s teeth in the crotch — that’s dangerous. It looks like Armageddon. This is the devil,” concluded Luigi Cicenia, a retired jeweler-turned-Sinatra-esque crooner. Basil Grieco, 92, who wed in the church in 1953, shrugged in puzzlement, saying, “I’m old-fashioned.” But his great-grandnephew Colin, 6, gave a thumbs-up: “I like it. I see a snake, a coyote and an octopus.” The Little Italy Merchants Association envisions a series of murals by Eaton and other artists on walls throughout the historic district. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Tabby-Cat">Tabby Cat painting</a> They say it will inject a contemporary vibe, draw visitors — and drum up business for their eateries and souvenir shops. “We want younger people to come to Little Italy,” said Ralph Tramontano, the group’s president, who owns Sambuca’s Cafe in the building next to the church. He is thrilled that landlord Ray Wong agreed to host the mural. "Art and Italians go hand in hand," Tramontana said. He insists the modern mural juxtaposed to the church works: "The old and the new -- that's what it's all about." The group plans a ribbon-cutting for the mural on Memorial Day weekend, kicking off the closure of Mulberry Street for a summer pedestrian mall. The event also includes a seminar on manners for traveling in Italy featuring comic "Aunt Chippy" from the Jimmy Kimmel TV show, a drawing for a grand-prize two-night stay at a Tuscany resort, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Monkeys">Monkeys painting</a> and satirical skits by Daniel Franzese, who dons a dress and wig for his YouTube hit: "Sh-t Italian Moms Say." xiaomei op "Pop art for the pilgrims" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1445#post-1467 do, 19 apr 2012 10:09:45 +0000 xiaomei 1467@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ The Kalighat Paintings show at NGMA, in collaboration with Victoria &Albert Museum, represents a visual record of traditional Indian art dating back nearly 200 years. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Chinese-Paintings-Shop" title="silk painting">silk painting</a> P Ila Sankrityayan reports Among the many Indian art forms that made their mark on the worldsphere, the Kalighat paintings find a prominent place. The art of Kalighat (translating as the ‘home of Kali’) in Bengal, emerged within the vicinity of the famed Kali temple of Kolkata between 1800-1930. As an artform, it gained instant popularity, varying in style, colour composition and subject matter. “The Kali temple was a centre for thousands of devotees. It also served as a focal point for artistic activities like clay figural sculpture, wood and ivory carving and pottery making. This led to migration of the Patuas (professional Kalighat painters) during the early 1800’s, from rural areas to Calcutta,” explained Moira Gemmill, Director of Projects at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The museum is showcasing Kalighat Paintings, a collaborative exhibition featuring works from its own collection and several from the Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH) in Kolkata. It is the first time that the two have worked together. Gemmill added, “The Patua painters joined artisans at Kalighat, creating sources of income with their skills. They produced images of Gods and Goddesses, and also made social commentaries, imbibing British and European influences. Becoming chroniclers of the period they lived in.” The show is part of V&A’s ongoing programme of exhibitions that will tour India. Kalighat Paintings comprise over 100 canvases from V&A’s collection, including 22 pieces from the Victoria Memorial Hall. And fifteen contemporary pieces by artists now working in rural Bengal. Gemmill explained, “The exhibition documents the development of the Kalighat styler during the 19th century, till its decline during the early 20th century. These bold, colourful and vibrant paintings dominated the pilgrim and tourist markets in Kolkata for close to a century. The exhibition is arranged chronologically. It picks out themes characteristic of particular periods. “Not only are religious and mythological scenes depicted. The Patuas present lifestyle and social events of Bengal at that time,” said Rajeev Lochan, Director, National Gallery of Modern Art. Links between Patachitra and Kalighat pats appear in scrolls depicting Krishna’s life and scenes from epics. Gemmill shared, “Ramayana and Mahabharata figure prominently. This is natural as the Kalighat style developed in proximity of the temple. But unlike others, Kalighat painters experimented, with water colours from Europe, to create vibrant tones and also depict characters like Hanuman.” With the impact of contemporary art, Patuas began painting single or pairs of figures, instead of the traditional, narrative scroll. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Scroll-painting-Shop" title="scroll">scroll</a> “Kalighat paintings’ subject matter began to change during the late 1800s. Western culture began to manifest. This was visible in changing ideals of upper classes. Kolkata’s so-called ‘Babu Culture’ emerged. The 1870’s saw many Kolkata babus with their typical fancy western shoes, umbrellas, bags and pleated dhotis. The exhibition also displays works by several contemporary artists whose forebearers were Kalighat painters during the late 19th century. Explaining the material and technique, Kalam Patua, an artist from Murshidabad informed, “Most of the paintings were done by Patuas in Kalighat, for mass sale to pilgrims. The medium used was initially water colour. Later artists used wood block prints and acrylic on cloth and paper.” Kalam Patua said the form declined in popularity in the 1930’s.“The technique demands that one be extremely swift. And the paper used back then was poor quality. So artists abandoned it. “Later, some like me continued to paint, because the paper had improved. But subjects have moved to new themes like the tsunami, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Leonardo-da-Vinci-Shop" title="Leonardo Da Vinci paintings">Leonardo Da Vinci paintings</a>9/11 and corruption. Kalighat is still done on scrolls using silk cloth, because it has sale value overseas,” Kalam concluded. NGMA and the V&A will collaborate on a “huge project that will take several years,” but they aren’t revealing the details. xiaomei op "Painting through the pain" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1444#post-1466 do, 19 apr 2012 10:07:11 +0000 xiaomei 1466@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ UPPER LAKE -- The Lake County Wine Studio in downtown Upper Lake is showing colorful, acrylic-on-canvas paintings by Margaret "Peggy" McCamant Alexander, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Peonies-Fan-Art">Peonies Fan Art</a> an artist battling a life-altering disease. Doctors diagnosed Alexander, 64, of Hidden Valley Lake with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in October 2010. The condition, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, "is a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles," according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website. Alexander simply describes ALS as "hell. It's awful It is a continuous, ongoing loss of yourself." But as she wages her fight against one of the world's fiercest diseases, she finds relief in something she's known most of her life: art. Alexander, who was born in Texas, raised in Seattle and lived for many years in Hawaii, studied painting and earned her degree at the University of Washington. She moved to the Napa Valley in the 1980s and relocated to Hidden Valley Lake in the late-1990s. Alexander said her artworks were exhibited in shows and featured in competitions from the '70s until about 2000. She also spent time working in journalism, management and hospitality. Her original technique differed greatly from the thick-stroked paintings she developed after ALS symptoms first presented. "I used to do, did this for years, fairly small, very finely detailed drawings in pencil or in silverpoint," Alexander said of her previous works, which she described as "scrapbook vignettes" with several related images incorporated into one piece. She completed those artworks using her right hand the body part first affected by her disease in December 2009. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Rattan-Fan-Art">Rattan Fan Art</a> Alexander remembered physicians being initially perplexed about why she had problems gripping with her hand. "Different doctors thought it was carpal tunnel syndrome or a pinched nerve in my neck or arthritis or a mini-stroke or even Lyme disease," she said. The Upper Lake showing includes a painting Alexander finished after the preliminary ALS diagnosis came in: "Self-Portrait: This Damned Hand." She relied on both hands to complete that artwork but soon shifted to left-handed only. As the disease progressed, she lost the ability to grip steadily with either hand, so she used a wrist brace to hold the brush in place. The "ALS and Me" exhibition features two series of works. The first is a group of eight self-portraits depicting Alexander's reactions to ALS. "Her paintings educate the public about ALS in a way words can't, bringing feelings of hardship and hopefulness to life on canvas," Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), who attended a reception at Lake County Wine Studio in early April, said. The paintings help Alexander release emotions and realize a sense of accomplishment. "It allows me to face a challenge and succeed," she stated. "The disease says, you can't do this,' and I say oh, yes I can. Just watch me.'" Seven other paintings are part of her "Bucket List" series, which she called a catalog of "places I want to go or that I have gone or things that I have done or want to do." Alexander said she's completed a variety of items from her personal bucket list, including traveling some last summer, reconnecting with old friends, meeting up with family members and even reading Henry James. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Plum-Blossom">Plum Blossom painting</a> The most recent painting, "Bucket List: Self-Portrait with Kate and Hats at Saratoga (dnf)," depicts Alexander and her daughter at the horse track for race day in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The "did not finish" acronym represents Alexander's inability to complete the piece, which she said has "a blank spot up in the corner because I could no longer control my hand to finish the painting in that style." Another goal of hers was to host an art show -- something Annunziata van Voorene, of Hospice Services of Lake County, encouraged and helped organize. "I am in awe of Peggy and her approach to her disease; she takes each new limitation and manages to find a way to overcome and adapt," van Voorene, Alexander's Hospice social worker, said. In addition to Hospice, Alexander credits the assistance of Lake County Wine Studio, the ALS Association's Golden West Chapter and the Dream Foundation, an organization that grants wishes for adults with short life expectancies. The Upper Lake gallery hosted a two-night art and wine reception for Alexander's paintings April 6 and 7. "Most of our connections are Napa Valley, Santa Rosa and they had to travel a long way to get there. That was pretty impressive, that we drew from such a wide area," Scott, Alexander's husband of almost 31 years, said about the events. Dr. Bob Gardner, of Hospice and Lucerne Community Clinic, attended one of the evenings and stated, "It was easy to see the pain of her painting upon diagnosis, and it was a pleasure to see paintings on a happier, more positive note." The public can view Alexander's recent paintings and two older, pencil drawings through April 29. Susan Feiler, owner of Lake County Wine Studio, said Alexander's pieces make her think "that you can't live your life as if you can put things off until tomorrow." Four of the paintings have sold so far, according to Feiler. Alexander plans on giving half of the proceeds to the ALS Association and the Forbes Norris MDA/ALS Research and Treatment Center in San Francisco. As for any future artworks, she said she has some ideas in her head but may have to consider "mouth painting" in order to get them on a canvas. The disease currently affects her arms, legs, speech and ability to swallow. It has also begun to impact her breathing. Alexander said she keeps two mottos in mind during her battle: "Never give up" (a phrase that appears on ALS awareness bracelets) and "run until tackled" (her own saying). <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Eagle">Eagle painting</a>.For more information about ALS or the effort to find a cure, visit webgw.alsa.org or call 415-904-2572. To learn more about Alexander's story, check out her blog at alsandme.blogspot.com. The Upper Lake studio is located at 9505 Main St. For more information call 275-800 xiaomei op "Watsonville Celebrates the Birth of Buddha" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1443#post-1465 do, 19 apr 2012 10:03:14 +0000 xiaomei 1465@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ Hanamatsuri is the celebration of Buddha's birthday, which is April 8, 563 B.C. Each year, for as long as any of its members can remember, <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/Statue">buddha statues</a>, Watsonville's Buddhist Temple has held a celebration to honor Buddha's birthday, embracing the colorful traditions of Japanese culture, from food to bonsai to flowers and dance. The festival began with a ceremony surrounding a beautiful flower shrine built around a statue of Buddha. Then, the party began. Festival goers feasted their eyes on an extensive display of Ikebana, a Japanese flower arrangement style founded by the buddhist priest, Ikenobo Senkei in the 15th century. There was also a long row of bonsai trees on display. On the main stage, five students of Watsonville Taekwondo put on a pumped-up martial arts performance—an awe-inspiring show of psynchronized dances, <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/Statue">laughing Buddha</a>, combat moves and a few flips. Amanda Akiyama, 16, also performed a classical Japanese dance. The Northern California Chapter of "Mataro Miyabi Kai" displayed hundreds of Kimekomi and Mataro Dolls, which are traditional Japanese wooden dolls dressed with Kimonos. "There's not one stich involved; it's all glue," explained Masanori Wasano, who heads the Chapter, whose purpose is to teach and share the tradition with as many people as possible. The Mataro dolls are made from pressed wood which has been molded into the doll's shape. The wooden doll is then decorated with the "Kimekomi" method: a small spatula is used to apply glue into its grooves and then the cloth is pressed into the grooves. "So we open it up for people to come in and see the Japanese culture but also have the different organizations that are involved with the church and helped support the church," said Phyllis Nakano, <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/">home decorators</a>, a church member from Hollister. "The festival is a big part of the Church, and how we celebrate." A group of church members were also selling a cookbook "Family Favorites" which is hot off the press and benefits the church. "The original was done in the 60s, so by popular demand we brought back a second one," said Barbara Shingar, who helped put the cookbook together from various recipes from around the community, including Abalone and Egg Flower Soup. Yum! To purchase a cookbook from the Watsonville Buddhist Temple, call the Temple Office at 724-7860. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/">craft stores</a>.In July, the Watsonville Buddhist Temple will be sponsoring a Japanese Folk Dance Festival, so stay tuned! astrid op "Pakistan set to deport bin Laden widows and children to Saudi Arabia" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1440#post-1462 wo, 18 apr 2012 10:37:10 +0000 astrid 1462@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ <a href="http://www.louboutinsshoes-us.com" title="christian louboutins">christian louboutins</a> ISLAMABAD: Osama bin Laden's family is expected to be deported from Pakistan today, their lawyer and an intelligence official said, 11 months after the US raid that killed the al-Qaeda kingpin. Bin Laden's three widows and their children were detained by Pakistani authorities after the Saudi was killed in a US Navy SEAL operation in the garrison town of <a href="http://www.louboutinsshoes-us.com" title="cheap louboutins shoes">cheap louboutins shoes</a> Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, last May. The news came as Washington and Islamabad try to patch up their relationship, which was badly damaged by the revelation that the world's most wanted man was living a stone's throw from Pakistan's elite military academy. Advertisement: Story continues below Two weeks ago a court sentenced the widows and two of bin Laden's older daughters to 45 days' detention on charges of illegal entry and residency in Pakistan, and ordered their deportation as soon as possible. They were due to complete the sentence, served in an Islamabad villa designated as a ''sub-jail'', yesterday, because it officially began when they were formally arrested on the charges on March 3. ''They will go tonight or tomorrow early in the morning,'' their lawyer, <a href="http://www.louboutinsshoes-us.com" title="cheap louboutins">cheap louboutins</a> Muhammad Aamir, told AFP yesterday. ''After 12 tonight they can be deported any time.'' He said the family - who number 12, including bin Laden's three widows, eight children and one grandchild - would probably initially go to Saudi Arabia. He said bin Laden's youngest and reportedly favourite wife, Amal Abdulfattah, who is Yemeni, may be sent to Yemen afterwards with her five children. A Pakistani intelligence official confirmed to AFP that the family was expected to be deported ''sometime around midnight'' and said ''most likely they would be flown to Saudi Arabia <a href="http://www.louboutinsshoes-us.com" title="louboutins">louboutins</a>''.   xiaomei op "Killer of 77 goes on trial in Norway" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1429#post-1451 ma, 16 apr 2012 09:49:04 +0000 xiaomei 1451@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ OSLO, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Tabby-Cat">Tabby Cat painting</a> Norway (AP) – The terror trial against an anti-Muslim fanatic who confessed to killing 77 people in Norway starts Monday amid worries that he will use the proceedings to showcase his radical views. After opening statements, Anders Behring Breivik is set to testify for five days, explaining why he set off a bomb in downtown Oslo, killing eight, and then shot to death 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a Labor Party youth camp on Utoya island, outside the Norwegian capital. Since Breivik has confessed to the July 22 attacks — claiming they were necessary to protect Norway from being taken over by Muslims — the key issue that remains unresolved is his mental health. The 33-year-old Norwegian was found insane in one examination that recommended committing him to compulsory psychiatric care, while a second assessment found him mentally competent to be sent to prison. It's up to the judges in Oslo's district court to decide which diagnosis they find most believable. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Purple-Orchid">Purple Orchid painting</a> If deemed mentally competent, he would face a maximum prison sentence of 21 years or an alternate custody arrangement under which the sentence is prolonged for as long as an inmate is deemed a danger to society. Those who survived the shooting massacre are bracing for the horror to return during the trial. "I do not know how I will react, I do not think you can prepare for it," said Stine Renate Haaheim, a 27-year-old Labor Party lawmaker who survived the Utoya massacre by swimming away from the island. Haaheim said she is concerned that Breivik will use the intense media focus during the trial to draw attention to his extremist views. Although she is curious about what snapped inside Breivik to turn him into a mass killer, she said "I don't think it will give any meaning to what has happened." Police will seal off streets around the court building, where journalists, survivors and relatives of victims can watch the proceedings in a 200-seat courtroom built specifically for the trial. Thick glass partitions have been put up to separate victims and their families from the defendant. Norway's NRK television will broadcast parts of the trial, but is not allowed to show Breivik's testimony. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Bamboo">Bamboo painting</a> In a manifesto he published online before the attacks, Breivik wrote that "patriotic resistance fighters" should use trials "as a platform to further our cause." Breivik surrendered to police 1 hour and 20 minutes after he arrived on Utoya. The police response was slowed by a series of mishaps, including the lack of an operating police helicopter and the breakdown of an overloaded boat carrying a commando team to Utoya. Breivik claims he targeted the government headquarters in Oslo and the Labor Party youth camp to strike against the left-leaning political forces he blames for allowing immigration in Norway. <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Lotus">Lotus painting</a> Breivik told investigators he is a resistance fighter in a far-right militant group modeled after the Knights Templar medieval crusaders, but police have found no trace of the organization and say he acted alone. Anxious to prove he is not insane, Breivik has called right-wing extremists and radical Islamist to testify during the trial, to show that there are others who share his view of clashing civilizations. His defense lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said Breivik's only regret is that the death toll wasn't higher. "It is difficult to understand, <a href="http://www.asiaartshop.com/Monkeys">Monkeys painting</a> but I am telling you this to prepare people for his testimony," Lippestad said. xiaomei op "Soldier Crabs Used to Create Computing (Sort-Of)" http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/topic.php?id=1428#post-1450 ma, 16 apr 2012 09:45:53 +0000 xiaomei 1450@http://www.canyonteam.nl/bbpress/ No, the next computer you purchase isn't going to be powered by crabs. <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/">home decorators</a>, Nor will any physical computer on this Earth likely construct its logic from a series of slow-moving crustaceans. But that's not to say that it's impossible to do so. Researchers at Japan's Kobe University and the United Kingdom's University of the West of England have conjured up a system for defining computer logic based on the real-life movements of a bunch of crabs. Soldier crabs, specifically, whose natural tendency for swarming can be exploited in a maze-like environment to serve as living representations of AND, OR, or NOT functions. Lost yet? Here's how the experiments worked: The researchers first built a series of gates – two "walled" tunnels that fed into a single walled tunnel. Crabs would be placed into each of these walled tunnels and, <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/">craft stores</a> as a result of their natural movement, follow the walls up to the point where both combined into one. The crabs would then combine their individual swarms – and velocities – and continue down the new, single tunnel. In other words, the crabs recreated an "OR" function: The two tunnels the crabs were first placed in are analogous to saying, "Show me pictures of kitties or puppies." And the merger of the "kitty" and "puppy" tunnel would be the direct result of the query, which the crabs – analogous to data – would walk down. The researchers found it a bit trickier to replicate the experiment with an "AND" gateway – two paths converging into one, <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/Statue">laughing Buddha</a> with the crabs ideally ignoring two other paths representing the outputs "NOT AND" as well as "AND NOT." They didn't go quite as great a job on the "ignoring" part of the experiment, but the researchers believe that results can be improved, "by creating a more crab-friendly environment," writes Wired's Olivia Solon. The crab experiments are the biological equivalent of billiard-ball computing, or the idea that the collision of balls and walls (assuming they never lose energy) can mimic various computations. The crabs needed a bit of a head-start in their computational sessions, however. Researchers used shade, <a href="http://www.asianwallarts.com/Statue">buddha statues</a>, or the crabs' natural fear of birds swooping down to eat them, to encourage the crabs to get computing. Now how does one go about overclocking a crab…