Lee Cheong Ivory Arts Fty.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Gold Coast and took pictures with a bunch of friends. We ran into a stall selling ivory sculptures. The old man saw my manual camera and told me he took his sculpture pictures with a film camera too. Then he showed us his sculptures using mammoth task and ivory, and patiently explained to us the composition of different sculptures, with full knowledge that we are not buying. A small piece of his ivory sculpture costs HK$3000!! He has a webpage for his sculptures here.

香港藝術館

今天去逛了香港藝術館，雖然國寶級的清明上河圖和其他字畫的展覽已經完結，但每位入場也獲贈張擇瑞《清明上河圖》的小卷軸。

其實藝術館的長期展品也不錯，其中較有名的有乾隆的《三果圖》和唐寅的《抱琴歸去圖》。

乾隆皇帝（1711 - 1799）
三果圖
1760年作，水墨紙本手卷，25.4 x 82.7厘米
_____________________________________

《抱琴歸去圖》

抱琴歸去碧山空，
一路松聲雨鬢風。
神識獨遊天地外，
低眉寧肯謁王公？

Ndebele Art

I was strolling in Page One and flipping books. I came across a few interesting books, one of which is a illustration of the house paintings of Ndebele.

Ndebele is a tribe in the central plain of South Africa. The women started painting on their war as an expression of their grief over a defeat from a neighboring tribe Boer back in the 18th century. The art passed down through the mothers, and a well-painted periphery is a show-off of the good wife and mother residing inside.

The book I came across is named Ndebele: The Art of an African Tribe, illustrated and written by Magaret Countney-Clarke, a photojournalist who has devoted much of her career to the people and culture of Africa. It was first published in 1986 and that was a new edition I was reading. I was so impressed by the coloration and geometric features of those house paintings. As wikipedia put it:
The patterns and symbols can be seen today with a rich black outline and a vivid color inside. There are five main colors represented in these wall paintings which are: red and dark red, yellow to gold, a sky blue, green, and sometimes pink. The colors give an intensified symbolic meaning to the Ndebele. They can mean status or power of the home's owners, offer prayer, announce a marriage in the home, or can even represent a current protest. These wall painting express an abstract meaning with no real reference to any specific characteristic of their homes.

Although the author states clearly that the book is not intended to be an anthropological study but a plain record of the form of art, the book indeed inspires people to pay more attention to this unique and colorful form of art, which is one of a few living art in Africa.

My Glass Works

Today we had the last glass crafting lesson. Time seemed to have flied for 8 whole weeks. We needed to finish the unfinished works we had been doing. The stained glass was one of them.

We made our own designs and then cut the stained glasses into appropriate sizes and shapes. Then we polished the edges and wrapped copper strips around the edges. We then wedged the pieces together using nickel. Then I stained the nickel lines with bronze coloration.

It seemed simple, but it took a lot of time to polish the edges and wedge the pieces together. We only had 4 colors to choose from, and I think I have made good use of them. This is my stained glass: A tree standing in the wind.


We were also provided with an Italian glass for etching. I wanted to etch some Chinese icons. I looked up the web today and found some nice ones. At last I decided to etch the word "福" in 篆書 at the bottom of the glass only, leaving the body untouched, just like a stamped icon. Our instructor suggested me to etch it real deep for the effect.



Sue etched her glass with lines of different thickness on the body and the bottom. Very retro in style.

Paper Crafts

I bought a paper Gundam a couple of months ago. I was looking up the web for its info, and I stumbled onto a blog with links to plenty of paper models. Man, I love you! I need to buy a new printer for them!

Rally cars

Paper crafting can also be taken seriously to the level of art: pingmag.jp
__________________________

3:32 am. I finally managed to stop myself from downloading those papercraft templates from the web. Things that I have downloaded includes Gundam, Star Wars, Macross, some cute characters, cars, trains, ships, the time machines of Back to the Future (yes, the TWO time machines - Delorean and the Train!!), and even Nike Air Force I sneakers. I stopped only because I had opened over 12 tabs in one Firefox window and the last one tried to start a Flash movie, which crashed the Firefox.


Men, I adore you all who share your hard work for free online.

無題詩

今日無意中在網上讀到唐末李商隱的無題詩，很有意思。這是其中大家可能讀過的一首：


收錄於唐詩三百首

Scull

Too much violence in my mind.

Gotta neutralize it with some calm views.


Thomas Eakins
Max Schmitt in a Single Scull
1871
Oil on canvas
32 1/2 x 46 1/4 in. (82.6 x 117.5 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Angelus

This is probably the only piece of art that strikes me on the first sign. The Angelus of Jean-Francois Millet.

The Angelus
Jean-Francois Millet; 1857-59; Oil on canvas; 21 3/4 x 26 in. (55.5 x 66 cm); Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

The church has rang the evening bell in the far background. A humble peasant couple prays at their potato harvest in the field.

A masterpiece is a masterpiece because it touches the audience's soul. This is a masterpiece.

Dolphins

I found something interesting from my collection of pictures and paintings.

A few years back we invited a writer who had written a book about visual illusions to give a talk at work. He explained to us that our brains are trained by our perception and experience, and then interpret what we see so that we can recognition the same car or the same person from different angles of view. This extraordinary ability serves us very well but can also does tricks. Here is one funny example.

He said that young children only saw dolphins. I saw something else of course, and I needed to stare at it for 5 minutes to locate the dolphins.

I know.. I know.. I am far from being innocent.

Scream

Yvette has hung the Scream of Edvard Munch at home.


And I happened to come across this on the web today..


It seems like the Simpsons people are escalating our dear Homer into the classics...

Mati Gallery

We ran into an art gallery in Fira, Santorini. There are a few art galleries there, but this Mati Gallery is most interesting.

This Galllery is owned by Yorgos Kypris, a Greek artist and a Canadian art dealer. The gallery itself is only about 600 square feet big, but your attention will be caught immediately to one of its walls, where over a hundred of silhousette of fishes carved out of thin aluminum sheets were posed like a flock of fish swimming down from the upper right corner.

Among the other works of Kypris's, the Gallery features some impressive bronze casts: A 3 feet long shark head sticks out of the wall into the street, and a full-size man sits on the roof, looking out into the Aegean Sea. He might have the best seat for the famous sunset of romance, but he has also taken the best spot to look at the joy and misery of the visitors of the island.

Mati Gallery, Fira, Santorini, May 9, 2006

Alex Gerasev

We have a gallary here at work. Artists are invited to show their works for 2 months.

A while ago the works of one artist caught my eyes and my soul. His name is Alex Gerasev.

He has most of his works shown on his web site: http://www.alexgerasev.com/


Alex Gerasev, Waiting, 2001, pencil & oilstick, 22" x 28"

My Fourth Halloween

Although it was the fourth Halloween I spent in the US, it was the first time I carved pumpkins.

Sophie and I bought a pumpkin for each of us from Russell Orchids. Yvette bought a kid's pumpkin carving tools.

I looked up one of the books of Phoenix, and carved the Japaneses Sacred Guide against the devils on the right.

PUMPKIN CARVING, Oct 22, 2006