springtime in beijing

three days, two nights...one last trip to beijing before i leave china.
overnight trains, peking duck, crowded subways, summer palace, skewer of fried scorpions, speakeasy bar, meeting up with friends old and new.
delightful.

 our lovely courtyard hostel

 beautiful day - outside forbidden city

 forbidden city

 lovely old door in a hutong neighborhood

 first bite!

 eating our way through the famous wangfujing night market

fabulous spring afternoon at the summer palace

beijing - i admit you've won me over. but i'll always be a shanghai girl at heart.

cups of coffee: 2 + 2 green tea

mood:  going strong

do good

just returned to shanghai after a packed weekend trip to beijing. on sunday, our gallery participated in 'the gift' charity bazaar, put on by friends from "stage one productions", a start-up events production company. artists, boutique stores and galleries set up tables to sell their wares while donating a portion of their proceeds to an NGO of their choice. we were able to sell some pieces from our functional ceramics collection (and even one small glass piece!) and donate 10% of our earnings that day to bethel, a non-profit orphanage and training center for blind orphans in china.

there were some amazing vendors represented at the bazaar, and it was very exciting to meet folks and hear more about what they do. i am constantly impressed by the people i come across in china doing inspiring, excellent work. i had the chance to find out more about starfish project (and buy some earrings!) and witness the launch of short+savage, started by a couple of friends. i love my friend matt's t-shirt designs - thoughtful, edgy, and just plain well-done. here's the design of the t-shirt i purchased from "short+savage"-- a modern day take on the "5 loaves plus 2 fish":


seeing the exciting work that other folks are doing always fills me with inspiration and, i admit it, a twinge of envy. i know the grass is always greener somewhere else, but i still get a bit restless and impatient when i hear of other projects that i'm dying to roll up my sleeves and dig into. there is so much GOOD that can be done and is being done....and i want to be involved with it all.

at these moments, i suppose i also wonder if i am at the best place of intersection of my talents, skills and passion. are there other positions and projects that i'd be better suited for than my current station? how do i know my calling isn't elsewhere? and then the spiral of questions and restlessness begins.....

the past couple of months have been rough. a lot of work, very little play. feeling at the end of my rope in various capacities, knowing i need to pause, pray and breathe but also feeling too busy to do that (which is all the more reason to make time).

before flying back to shanghai today, i had a terrific lunch with jamie (adjunct curator with the hammer museum). he had some wonderful insight on both the professional and personal levels, good food for thought that i'm slowly chewing. i know i feel a bit lost lately, like i'm in some cobweb of confusion. not to be confused with a "glass case of emotion."


cups of coffee: 2

mood: achy, tired...please don't be the f-l-u.....

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

music lesson at the blind orphanage

little fingers
that tap and rub and glide and search,
running gleefully along smooth arms and over bumps
of unfamiliar nose and cheeks.
"what is that scent?"
"what color is your shirt?"
small face tilted up,
sunflower soaking light, sound, warmth,
eyes pinched shut in two crescent curves,
sewn by some invisible Hand while bones and skin and teeth
were still being knit in the womb.

the music starts,
ripples of notes that rise and fall,
bouncing off walls,
tumbling like colorful rockets spiraling through a field at night.
head bobbing, arms waving,
hands swatting and cupping air
as if trying to catch the notes--
fireflies on a cool summer evening--
or perhaps they are dancing--
dancing with angels that ride each note,
each iridescent swirl
a twirl
out of present darkness
into ever-growing light.


cups of coffee: 1 (but instant, that doesn't count)

mood: ahhhhhhh......