Painting in Oil 

For anyone who's wondering what I have been doing with my time -- since I don't have a job, or a kid, or even a pet, here are some samples of one of my activities in the past few month: oil paintings.

I have always liked art. Even as a little child I liked doodling on paper, producing pages and pages of drawings. In a family of scientists and engineers, this activity was viewed as somewhat of a novelty, a childish fancy to marvel and poke fun at good naturedly, but never encouraged. My drawings of what I would call human figures were jokingly called "ghost" pictures. Admittedly, I was the only person in the family who had shown any interest in drawing. But so what? An artist, I was told, requires immense and obvious talent. That I apparently do not have. So why bother? Though I was also apparently not a genius in Math or science, had shown no interest in those subjects whosoever, these are fields where talents and/or interest are less important. So I never took art seriously, never took any art classes besides the mandatary ones in elementary school, and in time stopped doodling on paper altogether...

Wait! I am getting carried away here and starting to turn this simple report of my oil painting class into a history of my art development. Let me get back to my original intent and leave the other story for some other time.


Before this year, I had only painted in watercolor and tried my hands briefly at Chinese brush painting, which is a little like watercolor in a way. I like watercolor, but I have always been curious about painting in oil, the media of all the great masters. Once I enrolled in a community center oil painting class. But the teacher was an 86-year-old lady who had passed her teaching prime. She spent most of the time selling us paint, then ordering us to add up the amount of money we owe her, and rechecking our math. She was astonished to find that I could add acurately, but taught me next to nothing about oil painting and I left the class without finishing a single painting.
This year I actually learned something about painting in oil, from a wonderful teacher named Rebecca Alex. We started painting basic forms in black and white, then progressed to painting in the Grisaille method, glaziing colors over a monochramtic underpainting. This is the method practiced and perfected by old masters since the 17th century. A bit tedious, but it produces a luminous effect, which unfortunately was not captured well in this photograph.
Next we practice painting a series of still life. This I found challenging -- now that we are applying colors directly, the painting tends to lose it's value contrast. I also found it difficult to paint fast. Amazingly, time went by rapidly when painting, and I did not really finish any of the still lives. I was not particularly interested in still life painting to begin with, but seeing the works of some of my fellow students (who were not beginners), I am inspired to learn and practice more in the future.


At the end of the semester, we were ready to copy a master painting, then create our own in the same style. I chose "Oriental Poppies" by Georgia O'Keefe, one of my favorite painters. Several years ago at an exibition, "The Poetry of Things", I became completely mesmerized by her images of larger-than-life flowers and haunting Southwest landscapes. Her paintings are both abstract and figurative, with an expressiveness and evocative beauty that I admire. Her goal, "to fill space in a beautiful way", is exactly the way I want my art to be.
To create my own painting with her style was more difficult than I had expected. Rebecca wanted me to choose a subject matter that is not a flower, so that I would not be merely copying through the subject but understand the essence of her style. As a lover of water, I chose a picture of tropical waves as my inspiration. I found my painting process went through the following stages: first, excitement at this project, of painting something I love in a style I love; then came apprehension: could I really do this? I felt I knew so little! Then as the painting slowly took shape, I became alternately excited and depressed -- depending on the progress or the mess I made. I had fun playing with the waves, then had a lot of trouble defining the clouds -- they just never seem to look like what I imagined. Again, I am learning to have patience. The painting is still not completely finished (the clouds are still somewhat more like Van Gogh than Georgia O'Keefe), but I learned a lot from it. Even though it is not perfect, I still think I want to paint.


What next? I already mentioned that I was impressed and inspired by some of my fellow students' paintings of still life and portraits (unfortunately I do not have photographs of their works). I want to paint in a more painterly style, also to explore non-representational art. I am especially interested in learning to paint portraits, to return to my childhood theme, and finally producing something distinctly recognizable as human -- live ones, not ghosts.
(If you are wondering why I've been going on and on, it is because my classes are over and I finally have time to write long articles such as this for the blog... hope I am not scaring my readers! :) I must also say that it is so much easier to write in English!)
cat 2:24 下午

Ballerina 

Oops! I forgot to mention about the ballerina. Michelle's ballet school had its annual performance. She played two dances in the show: Little Chicks and part of Nutscracker.
Here is a picture from the Nutscracker.

Jia 10:24 上午

Astronaut and Ballerina 

Earlier of May, Michelle visited JPL during its open house. This was the first year she actually enjoyed JPL open house other than eating in the cafeteria. She wrote another journal about the trip, but no one has typed it yet... Anyway, her biggest impression was seeing astronaut's diapers and learning that astronauts wear diapers while walking in the space in order to avoid leaving any waste in the space.

It did not bother her a bit to try on an astronant's suit.


She Liked being run over by a Mar's rover so well that she went back to the line and did it twice.


Well, Tiffany has been busy as well. Somehow most of the kids in her class have birthdays in spring so she has birthday parties almost weekly. Here is a picture of Tiffany on a birthday parth.

Jia 10:02 上午

my mother's visa 

hello everyone, there is a good news. My mother finally got her visiting visa to Canada. 大块头和我正在准备买机票的事. There is no definated date yet. we will let everyone know after we purchase the ticket.
xiaorong
xiaorong 6:30 上午

从海湾到海滩 

旧金山是个七英里见方的"小城", 东临海湾, 西靠太平洋。 一年一度的Bay to Breakers长跑赛，就是自东至西横穿旧金山。 号称世界上最古老的长跑比赛，Bay to Breakers自1912年开始至今没停过一次，今年已是第93届了。每年五月的一个星期天，长跑爱好者和爱看热闹的群众便蜂拥旧金山街头，从海湾大桥下起跑，穿过旧金山著名的大坡小坡，冲向太平洋的浪头。别说看热闹的，光是正式登记参赛的选手，每年就有成千上万（今年大概有七万）。可谓历史悠久，场面壮观。


当然，这七万名“选手”不是人人都能真正跑下这高低不平的七英里的。Bay to Breakers之所以盛名远扬，是鉴于其”开心第一，比赛第二“的特点。虽然有世界级的长跑运动员，大多数参赛的是来”party"的。 有的来显示五花八门的服装，有的举着各试标语，有的推着啤酒桶边“跑”边饮。。。最出名的一景，还要算众多裸体运动员 -- 光屁股的参赛者了。

Matthew作为我们的运动员代表，一大早就到起点排队去了。 Jean的新家正好在路线中点。我们刚喝了咖啡，便接到他的电话--他快到啦！ 赶紧跑到街上去给他加油。还不到九点钟，人行道上已排满了助威的观众，扶老携幼的，拖儿带狗的。。。街角上还有个小乐队，唱着节奏明快的民歌！

这时世界级的运动员们已经在向终点冲刺，跑得快的业余选手也多半过了我们的街头，但是象潮水般跑过的人群还个个精神抖擞，没一个喘气的。要知道这些人已经跑了6-7公里的大坡小坡，每个坡都能让我走得喘气，别说跑了。我们深感佩服。大多数的人穿着普通的衣服，偶尔也跑过一个戴假发的“Elvis"，挂羽毛的印第安，裹着虎皮的Tiger woman, 还有个大风车。也过了两队“centipede" -- 一群栓在一起跑的运动员，象只大蜈蚣。 时而一两个光屁股在人群中闪过，吸引观众的注视。有的爸爸妈妈推着小车跑过，车里的孩子个个睡得很香的模样。

Matthew终于出现了，他也没一点累的样子,笑嘻嘻的向我们招手，接着跑向终点。我们也动身前往终点，不过是开车去的。等我们终于找到停车位，Matthew已胜利的跑过了终点！他以一小时三分的成绩，名列第一千三百二十五。在七万人里，也可算是名列前茅了，而且破了他去年的记录。 他的名字将光荣的出现在下周的旧金山报上（前一万名都有份）。跑得最快的是七个来自肯尼亚的选手，女子冠军则来自俄罗斯。最快的蜈蚣（centipede）队，竟快过了女子冠军。

接了Matthew我们又回到了街头，这时才是大队人马经过的时候，街上气氛大不相同。大家已经不是在跑，而是在慢悠悠的散步了。街上满是五颜六色的奇装异服，推着着啤酒桶的也出现了。看热闹的挤满了街头，真是人山人海，宛如过节。小孩子们人手一把水枪，”弹“无虚发。大人们手持酒杯，对各类服装（和没有服装的）品头论足。我的照像机偏偏没电了, 只好羡慕的看着Jean频频按下快门... (Jean的照片)

热闹看得差不多了，我们的肚子也咕咕叫了。走到附近的嘻皮地区Haight and Ashbury, 著名的早餐部Pork Store Cafe门前已排起长队，倒有一半人是刚下了赛场的。吃着大盘的美味早餐，我们想象到明年的Bay to Breakers，Matthew可以穿什么精彩服装，说不定我和Jean也能参赛--虽然跑不动，走还是可以考虑的吧！

cat 7:51 下午

Gnocchi 

Last night, while browsing through my Italian cooking book, we had a discussion of what the big deal is with gnocchi -- the Italian potato pasta/dumpling. It puzzled us that it is such a celebrated food item, since neither Jean and I have ever tasted any gnocchi that doesn't resemble a lump of solid dough (somewhat like a 面疙瘩). Matthew claims that he likes gnocchi, but he is the only person I know what's ever praised cafeteria food in U. of Waterloo, so his opinions don't really count.
This morning as I was browsing through a magazine, a description of the subject of our conversation caught my eye:

...gnocchi, the potato-rolled pasta which, when ill-prepared, can make one feel like a 10-year old after a rock swallowing dare.

"Ha!" I thought, "I suppose I've only ever had ill prepared gnocchi then." The article went on an explanation of the history and lore of this pasta:

Gnocchi is generally consumed on Thursday afternoons throughout The Boot. This tradition was born out of the neccessity of having to sock back a dense enough confection on Thursday to get the populace through Friday's religious fasting. Gnocchi, being a heavy pasta, allowed folks to obey the laws of the lord while keeping their appetites at bay. The noodle's name is derived from the Venetian "gnocco", which comes from an old Lombard term, "nocca", meaning "knucklehead". As with most Italian dishes, the nomenclature of gnocchi varies from region to region; in Florence, for instance, they're called topini ("little mice"), while in Naples, they're known as strangula prievete, so called for a high-ranking priest who choked to death on a mouthful of the fat, plump pasta (south of Naples, they're called strozzaprete, "priest strangler").

Interesting. Now I wonder what stories are behind other forms of pasta, dumpling, or for that matter, any type of food. Here's a web site about all sorts of dumplings, rather simple, but still educational...
Diverse Dumplings

cat 3:31 下午

playful cats 

for the cat lovers.

xiaorongfunny_cats_1.wmv
xiaorong 11:16 上午

Gui, Here is new photo of Boba. This one she dosen't look like a baby.


nairong 11:34 下午

Happy Mothers Day... 

...to all the mothers in the Zong family!

Here's a little history of this holiday:

The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday". Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter*), "Mothering Sunday" honored the mothers of England.
Read more...

cat 12:44 下午

  Since there is no action going on here, I am posting some photos to entertaining you guys. Hope you like them.


Jia the new comer on snow


Two girls. Sorry I don't have a good photo of Michelle.


Rong and John,


Gui and Matthew,


She loves smile for camera,


Camera shy Emily,


Remember this place?


new picture of my cat--- Boba
nairong 9:31 下午