on the road

crazy travel schedule this month...

two weekends ago, i traveled to my favorite ceramics city, jingdezhen, for a mini-music festival and ceramics fair. my first visit to jingdezhen was a year ago, and i blogged about it here. lovely weather, lovely people, and of course, beautiful music and art. though i did a fair share of running around to meet and visit with artists, there was enough beauty and respite for the soul that the time proved to be refreshing as well. a few images from the trip:

front row fans at the music festival

chelsea and i with our favorite inner mongolian bluegrass musicians, tom and jerry

fun ceramic figures by an artist we work with

a couple of rockstars :)

this past weekend, i spent three days in beijing. i traveled up mainly to speak to a group of christian chinese artists and to attend an event called 'illume', which can be best described as a performance of multi-disciplinary arts built around a theme. the performance i saw included drama (in english and chinese), dance and music. my favorite segment was a live, spontaneous, synergetic performance of music and painting. the theme for the evening was "smell and taste" (the "illume" series had been working through the five senses), and for this segment, the three painters and one yangqin player were given blind taste tests of various foods. they then had to create art simultaenously inspired by the flavor and also by the work being created by one another. creative and amazing to watch!

i also had a mix of other meetings including lunch with james elaine, a friend and adjunct curator of the hammer museum currently studying and working in china, and jonathan hursh from compassion for migrant children, an organization that seeks to improve the education and social conditions for migrant children in china's urban centers. my meeting with jonathan was very encouraging - lots of exciting collaborative projects coming up!

also had some time to see some friends and relax in the city a bit. i have to confess, i am slowly falling in love with beijing despite being a proud shanghailander. there is an enjoyable comfort and, how should i say, "normalcy" to life in beijing, particularly post-olympics.

a mysterious smoking mushroom...ok, it was just a steam vent but i thought it was very creative. and that steam is HOT--practically burned my neck getting this photo.

hanging out with daniel

next on the schedule: america! taking off for the states this sunday - 10 days in boston, one quick trip to nyc....let the madness continue. :)


cups of coffee: 2

mood: busy but content