how will you know the difficulties of being human

                                                         If you are always
                                       flying off to blue perfection?

where
will you plant your
grief-seeds?
             we need

Ground

to scrape and hoe, not the sky of unspecified desire.

                                                                 -Rumi
                                                                  the illuminated Rumi pg 75
                                                                  translation Coleman Barks

is the title of the current issue of LEAP magazine devoted to the place of abstraction in China's recent art history.

Pace Beijing's current exhibition until Feb 12th is Beijing Voice: Leaving Realism Behind "a discussion of abstract art's progression in East and West and the interplay between the two." Works exhibited are those from western abstract artists including Donald Judd and Mark Rothko, and Chinese artists working in abstraction.
Two artists whose work I particularly like in this show. Wang Guangle 王光乐 the first time i saw a piece from his coffin series I was compelled to walk right into it. Liang Yuanwei's 梁远苇 work is exquisitely beautiful and has a similar pull of the viewer.

A Chinese abstract artist whose work is not part of this show but whom I greatly admire:
Liu Wentao 刘文涛

                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                     It is difficult to
talk when you have         something to say             precisely because of        the words         which keep making us               say                         in the way                 which the words need to              stick to                     and not in the Way which      we  need for living.           For instance:              someone said,                          "Art should come from        within;                 then it is profound."  But it seems to me             Art goes within,         and I don't see the need             for "should" or "then" or "it" or "pro-found."

                                                                                                      John Cage
                                                                                                      lecture on something
                                                                                                      pg 129  SILENCE
 

I have been looking at andrew wyeth. and that led me to look at antonio lopez garcia. I cannot find anything anymore in the impressionists. and the expressionists. picasso, even my hero de kooning, knew that emotions played out on canvas was an easy bait.

garcia's paintings are a quiet       complex   emotion.  we no longer want courbet or de kooning's origin of the world. even twombly's ferragosto III is too much. 

i want garcia's woman in the bath.

ours is a liberated society looking for reserve. the word Private carries more than just power, but intrigue.    

less is more but you can't fool anyone anymore
with a blank     white canvas

matisse will forever soar
               picasso is dead.

i need to move back to the chaos
to get my quiet brushstroke.

OKay so i lied about putting up the three books of portraits i have done of locals on the web. And half of 2009 2010 is missing. Maybe all of it is missing. I dont know. All i know is right now it is -12 plus windchill and freezing. If you have never been in a gyarong tibetan house; it has a giant stairwell for carrying harvest to the roofs for drying. This stairwell runs from the first floor up to the roof and is NOT ENCLOSED. ie snow falling comes down into the house and any bit of warm air generated by the rodents and people,   poof it goes up up away.

The snow is  just reluctant to fall and we are trapped in a cold haze. Not good for photographing paintings or painting. When the snow drops and the skies clear up, i will upload 8 new pcs on here.

Meanwhile i am eating ice cream and warming up with some minimalist art, take a look at Lee UFan

To see more of Heavy Industries
 

From mid September to early October, I finally pried myself away from my easels and went on a sketching trip for 20 days. I was still in the region where i live, in the Garze prefecture. But I went to Ganzi, Dege, and beyond. My plan on just staying in 2 places didnt work out, as i always want to see more. My trip was filled with good fortune, met many kind people, and came away with some of my best portraits to date. I have more to report, as usual, running into some interesting things.

Since my return I have been glued to my easel. Yes, the trip has affected my painting. I am working much faster than a few monthes ago.

I am also working on fattening up for winter. And the much overdue scans of my sketches. I have 3 full books from the last year i dont even know where to begin. I promise that once you see them, you will be amused :)

It is now almost a month since I have been in Hong Kong. This is where i lived for 12 years of my life, where I first started sketching the street scenes. My favorite things about Hong Kong: the ocean, the wet markets, the harbour, the cocktail buns, the quirky cantonese, the tram, the double decker, the skyline, the contrasts. The green buses! How dangerously addictive. Compared to my monthly 12 hour snooze ride over slippery snow passes in Kham, a five minute ride on the Hong Kong green bus is like a bucket of redbull vodka. Something about going full speed between the narrow steep streets filled with people, especially if you take the elevated seats near the back.
I am learning to love this city after more visits in the last 7 years. This time, by far the longest stay since I left 14 years ago. Yet I am always antsy when I am away from my work, my art, nature. I am also uncomfortable in low elevation. Maybe a lack of oxygen to my brain keeps me at a certain high.
The two things that I shall take advantage of while i am here: swimming in the ocean and eating fish. The radiation water from Japan sounds probable, but i cant help jumping into the ocean while I can. And the fish that is holy, rarely caught and eaten in the Tibetan village where i live, hehheheh         is free reign here...!

On keats letter
“The excellence of every art is its intensity”
the world now, so intense I dont want to capitalize that a, or any letters infact. When sms’ arrive I get blinded by the capital letters. And yet, the opposite, those intellectuals who gather around and drink scotch and haha at their subtle cynical jokes also disgust me with their and my prententious air. Is it that our world is so far apart, so deepened by this gap that we cannot meet in the middle? The indie films make it hard for a wider audience to appreciate, with their dark, overly intellectual underthings. Yet underneath we are all the same.
Sometimes in protest I walk around silent with wide eyes and the tourists think I am some robot and that I dont speak mandarin. I better get rid of that look I may be guilty of carrying in my eyes ....becoming one of those dreary boring indie films. In the end it is still better to present yourself as a hallmark card than a frankenstein. As long as you know what is in you.