YaYa Chou 的周鴨鴨

between Sandy Owen and his piano

2012-01-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

There was a bag of joy, carried on my shoulders.
Flied with it, we sailed.
Somehow it grew heavy, mixed with judgement and self criticism,
filled with fear, doubt, expectations of the world the fame the wealth and the reputation.

It is a spot light went dimmed.
Like an over indulged addiction, it drooped.
Treasured as marvelous jewel, I held it close to my chest; hard to breath.
Heavy as a ton of gold, I wore it as a crown; never to look up again.

My bag of joy is now a wagon loaded with resentment.
Pushed, I trekked the dry spell of truth.
Dragged, I crawled through the desert of sorries.
joy. suffering.

I no longer talked to my art,
I no longer listen to my heart.

It's time to leave, it's time to shut.
Shut the fabricated sense of world,
shut the pretended story of me.

When it no longer chatters, I hear the sound of pure honesty,
that is
what it was
between Sandy and his piano,
between me and my art.
If I don't hear this conversation,
who is to listen to it.

inspired by Sandy Owen's interview on Between the Lines with Barry Kibrick, Sat. 01/15

Transcending materials

2012-01-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

I was admiring the artists on Walter Maciel Gallery's website. Suddenly I broke through the eggshell which has been encasing my brain for years, realized that I have been a slave of materials.
It may seem like I see what other don't see when it comes to working with daily materials. The truth is that I've been on a leash lead by these mundane products. They dictate what I will make and cage me in the name of "sculpture." That is tragical, no wonder many artists no longer associate themselves with the title of sculptors or painters.

I thought I have seen the unseen, but actually I have only seen what was taught to me to see. To truly be free, I must transcend the function, history and nature of the material. If I were able to transcend the form of the material, I'd be marvelously successful.

Materials are simply tools, like a computer, one must not build lives, believes or conceptions on them. I am enlightened. Thank you, fellow artists!

Moon Rabbit was born in fast speed!

2012-01-06T12:53:00.000-08:00

One sculpture in 7 days! It looks as fun as it was to create my moon rabbit!

To adopt the Moon Rabbit, please visit http://eliminateregifting.com/
under Los Angeles >>> YaYa Chou link. You have until Jan. 15, 2012, to bid on this bouncer!

Patrón residency on Hollywood Blvd.

2011-12-28T22:24:00.000-08:00

Patrón Spirits Company created an artist residency program, “Simply Perfect,” which transforms vacant storefront windows into artists studios. Across the country from NYC to Chicago, SF and LA, artists are invited to create works live for 7 days and all finished works will be auctioned off to benefit local art organizations.

Here is a brief account of my journey from Dec. 20-26, 2011

Dec. 20, 2011 Tuesday

Sliced a chuck of my right thumb off last night. A great way to start a sculpture when one is right handed and needs to use power tools.
Reclaimed one of my previous sculpture and carved patterns on it. The rough plaster texture reminded me of a moon. A moon means a moon rabbit to me because I'm a Chinese, and rabbits living on the moon is the most ridiculous thing I've heard yet my favorite folklore in the world.

Dec. 21, 2011 Wednesday
Tourists are aimlessly naming what they saw on Hollywood Walk of Fame outside the window. My favorite Meryl Streep is right there, very close to me. That is an auspicious sign.
More carvings today: rabbits x 3 and mushrooms x 2. Seeing through a mushroom cutout, there is the hopping rabbit!
Sanded all rough edges, created enough plaster cloud to bury me.

Dec. 22, 2011 Thursday

There are a lot of movie characters standing in front of Kodak Theatre so tourists can take photos with them. Today I spotted a Bumblebee from the movie Transformers, whose costume probably has stilts built in to elevate him. He walked like he has injured hips... perhaps stung by a real bumble bee!
Back to the studio, finished carving, primed surfaces, started weaving the main rabbit with chicken wire. Oh gee, I left home exhausted, especially after seeing how odd that big head is.

Dec. 23, 2011 Friday

There is an increasing degree of excitement on the streets today. Liquor, Christmas, plus Hollywood Walk of Fame, even a soul will get lost.
For a whole night, I debated between faith and free will. You may think me as silly, of course that big head does not work on that rabbit, but life has played so much tricks on me that I no longer can tell what is natural or unnatural. "Free will" is what I chose this time.
Chopped off the head and made a new one!

My favorite conversation from the other side of the window today:
Girl: What's this?
Boy: Arts and crafts... engineering...
(Silence.)
Girl: Is that an upside down rabbit she cut out? Look, it is. It's a rabbit on the globe.
Boy: All I see is bubbles of chicken wires, lots of bubbles of chicken wire. (laughter)
Girl: She's making a rabbit, look! look! She's making the ears now! You See?
Boy:...
Girl: Apparently you don't know anything about this.

Dec. 24, 2011 Saturday
Did a lot of art supplies shopping in the morning. I swear I need to have a weekly updated inventory of everything Home Depot, Lowe's and local art/craft supply stores carry so I can be pre-warned if they stop carrying a certain item.
Today's job is to stretch fabric over the rabbit form. Primed the globe more. Tested the lamp base before I left... hm... jolly good! I left the light on for the night so Santa can see some art!

Dec. 25, 2011 Sunday
Cut into the left thumb this morning while sculpting the mushrooms, with 10 fingers left, I returned to work with pressure from the deadline.
Painted the rabbit with iridescent paint, very pearly! Started playing with acrylic paints on the globe. I name the purple-cobalt turquoise-maroon Palette of Urban Winter, perhaps inspired by the Hollywood locomotion.

Dec. 25, 2011 Sunday

Lobbying for husband's help, we installed the mushrooms. Epoxy clay all around and underneath to attach the mushrooms to the globe, I bet they won't budge. Continued painting, glued some fabric cutouts, finished 92% by the time I left.

Thank you, Roosevelt Hotel and Patrón, for a lovely and surprisingly productive time! Thank to all the pedestrians who stopped by, offered encouragement and/or entertained me with your conversations! Yes, I can hear you!

More updates on where to bid for this sculptural lantern, stay tuned!

Color Based launched on USA Projects

2011-11-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

Come explore a new online community of America’s finest artists!

USA Projects is a new on-line community where America’s finest artists and those that love and support them can share their latest work, discover new artists, enter into a dialog with each other, and make direct donations (of any size, all of which are tax deductible) to new projects created by each artist. This is the first website in our knowledge that allows direct public donations between art patrons and accredited artists on the Internet.

I was honored to be selected by USA Project and recently launched the second phase of my installation project "Color Based." Moving from galleries to public places. I am transforming this project from sculptural installation to public education. Please join me and make this happen!

For a quick link, please visit the project at
http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/color_based
If you click on my name, you will see my profile and other works.

I have some great perks available for anyone that’s interested in supporting me in this effort, and if you can’t support the project financially, I’d love it if you helped to spread the word and tell your friends about it.

Thank you!

Email campaign reorganization

2011-11-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

Recently reorganized my email campaign with MailChimp. It is free and lots to learn. A pat on my back for sitting in front of computer for hours torturing my mouse with millions of clicks!

End result is worth it. The future arrives with ease; now that is one more routine simplified.

Steady

2011-09-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Continue the preparation of a solo show in den contemporary. Some works need to be remodeled or cleaned, new works are being born everyday. It is a blessing to have something to look forward to, yet carefully I tread the water of ego boosting. It is crucial to remain balanced so the ego doesn't blow up in my face.

Much growth happen this year, able to weld with little help from my teacher, able to keep busy in a slow time, able to stay with my work until it is done right, able to be calm in fear. Through a good opportunity like this, I see the path travelled, understand myself from the view of the world. Works seem different in appearance, yet all summed up my interests in organisms. For it be my concern in food safety, fantasy in animals' emotions and observation in the thinking process, I'm intrigued by how beings live.

You, as a being, are invited to experience the exhibition

"Soft Tissue"

at
den contemporary art, Los Angeles, CA

Sept. 22 - Oct. 28, 2011
Opening reception: Thursday, Sept. 22, 5-8:30pm

Solo show exhibiting gummi bear sculptures

glass sculpture in a large installation

works on paper

and other secrecy sculptures!

Come claim your surprise! Thank you!

Trinosaurs installed at Flag Stop 2011

2011-08-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

Mommy and baby Trinosaurs are in for the Flag Stop event at Torrance, CA.

FLAG STOP is a new, alternative contemporary art event featuring shows by 50 exhibitors around the world, including Howard Fox, Emeritus Curator of Contemporary Art, LACMA; Scott Canty, Director/Curator of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Lily Siegel, Curatorial Assistant at Moca, Los Angeles and many more noted galleries and curators.

DATES:Friday, September 2 - VIP Reception 6-9pm ( I will attend the Reception as well as live sculpting in one of the PODs... what is a POD? come and find out!)

Saturday, September 3- free public admission 12-6pm

Sunday, September 4- free public admission 12-6pm

LOCATION:South Bay Lexus

24777 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90505

Visit FLAG STOP's facebook page to sneak preview the art and artists!

My favorite view of the Trinosaurs are their eager behinds:

In such eagerness they follow their mother, towards a world unknown.

The concept of this piece came from my observation that higher social class people have more access to nutrition knowledge while the lower class were left behind regarding the access to fresh and affordable produce as well as knowledge to the ingredients in foods.

A 1992 Finnish report concluded that "Men and women of lower social class follow trends set by upper social classes with a time lag of about ten years." This was in the 90s, as more food deserts looming in the US now, I think the 10 year gap is in no doubt widened to 20 years. Yes, some families still eat like dinosaurs and all that artificial ingredients are doing their job fattening the defend less people.

Not just the refined sugar one should be concerned about (they are now made of GE sugar beets), FD&C Yellow 5 is derived from coal tar. They are the main ingredients in gummi bears. Do you still love gummi bears as much as I do?

a tunnel in progress

2011-08-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

Caught a glimpse of the new gummi bear sculpture in progress. My devoted assistant Anna strung countless gummi bears, I'm now in my own endless minutes of tying them onto the armature. Four baby ones are waiting on the assembling line, while two petropods are drying.

It is in an empty time like these when hands are busy but mind is idle that I see stillness.

It is understood that something agreeable is arriving and the expectation is staggering high.

This is the silence before the storm hits.

It reminds me that I was once a greedy one, like large egos I see everywhere I turn. Politicians are no longer the ones who want to be at the center of our lives. Artists crave to be celebrities more than ever in human histories. Unfortunately the world is a larger puzzle now, meaning each of us plays a smaller role.

Based on the fear of not having, not being, we behave like adrenaline facing death. When the stillness arrives, I ponder, if one will not be famous, will not make a difference in the world, will not make great works defined by others, nor will she make a living, what is she?

That day I came down from a hill just burned by a wildfire, the voice told me, "you may never make it," then, "But that is ok."

"Is it ok?" I ask the perfectionist in me, "what are you?"

Introducing Be.Bee.

2011-08-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

Mr. Be.Bee. maintains 8 hours of work hours per day without lunch or bathroom breaks. His target market is to serve oregano nectar to the colonies. He is polite and grateful for the garden I supplied. He would make a great candidate working in the studio!

Face lift and Heart lift

2011-07-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

This is exciting, my molasses speed finally catches up with the new and pretty template designs. Blog is getting a face lift! Since the body turns sleek, the heart must not be too gloomy.
Time to pretend life is an endless stream of satisfaction!

All these happen because something exciting is coming. Watch out, a boat is sailing to your river, catch it and hop on board!

call myself an artist

2011-07-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

11 years ago this month, I graduated with a MFA, armed with an unfinished film and no fine art trainings at all... All I wanted was to become a real artist.
So I started taking drawing and sculpting lessons and called myself an artist.

11 years later this month, I'm in the midst of reconfiguring my art career, work directions and struggling to differentiate my own truth from society's truth.
Life seems more interesting back then when I was a phony artist dreaming a dream.
A phony artist I was, but a real self knowing who I am.

Perhaps it is time to go back to the very basic, sculpting.
After all, it had never failed to break the curse of a chattering mind and idle fingers.
In 30 days, I shall call myself an artist again!

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days Video on TED.com

seize new opportunity

2011-05-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

I have repeatedly missed many good opportunities because I was afraid of commitment. Freedom is over emphasized in my spoiled memory perhaps. Jump on it when I see it coming from now on, even when I am not ready! This delightful event could be one that you don't want to miss:

"A New Day" exhibit at Bellrock Media, this Friday, May 6, 6:30pm - 11:30pm
100% of artwork proceeds donated to charity:
American Red Cross - Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami

Bellrock Media

2917 Santa Monica Blvd

Santa Monica, CA

30+ artists exhibit to help Japan relief and you will see this new piece from my studio

"Encrusted" barnacle sculpture with miniature seaside mountain landscape inside

and another oceanic piece, watercolor drawing of octopus "Mothers in their Den"

Those pieces are part of “A New Day” this Friday.
100% of the proceeds to benefit Japan relief.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161993067193128

New York City journey II

2011-04-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

A visitor.

I spent a summer in NYC studying English while I was 17. My eldest sister was working on her PhD in NYU at the time. It was a liberating summer which rooted my fond memory of Manhattan. Returned to Manhattan again several times in my adult life, I grew to love Queens for its humble scenes and the cutting edge art venues.

PS1 is my must visit and every trip I was blown away by the artists/works they shown. It is my charging and challenging station, never fail to question me what contemporary art is and where I want my artwork to be.

Socrates Sculpture Park is the second on the list. It fulfilled my wildest dream that emerging artists can also have a space and opportunity to create public art. Snow was deep, we carefully trekked through the park; this place worth our 20 minute walk from the subway station in 30 degree wind and getting our boots wet.

This is a lovely piece named "Argyle" by Daniele Frazier. Look at how the colors on the sides create this very flat shadow, so 2D and 3D at the same time. Marvelously standing in snow against the busy skyline. Thumbs up, Artist!

Another piece that fed my appetite, "Sponge Piece for Socrates" by Jory Rabinovitz. Yes, made of sea sponges and concrete, metal. NICE! It is innovation and originality. Also, it turned out that there is a floor element that was buried by the snow.

And David M. Scanavino's “16 ft. Rope in Three Positions: (catenary, taut, and coil).” The impressions left by the rope on concrete shaped these three pieces. Smart and good looking, as art should be!

It was as joyous as winning a lotto when we walked into Ursula von Rydingsvard's exhibition at Sculpture Center.

You know once a while you run into a master sculptor's work, all you want to do is to curl up right next to it, sleep inside it, touch, rub, lean on it or lay on it. I lingered, and while nobody is watching, I laid inside this oceanic tidal mouth "Droga"! Ahhhhh... the ceder aroma, soft like Ursula's voice, I float on top of marks left by her...

In a side room, we discovered this "Ocean Floors." "Breath came out of one's life" was what I felt when I first encountered this piece.

Look at the layers and how she "scooped" the cedar. Mark by mark, chisel by chisel, the texture is just magnificent. After finishing my cardboard pit in Bisbee, I just love the shape in this scale. Thank you, Ursula!

New York City journey I

2011-04-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

Feb. 2011

Visited NYC to install a piece at Broadway Gallery, plus visiting friends and some of my favorite art spaces.

Work first. Spend a few days installing the work, a series of wall sculptures in the shape of barnacle clusters with vignettes of islander lifestyle inside, lit by led lights. Mom's calligraphy studies was the background on the wall. This is a piece about the encrusted memory of my childhood in Taiwan, an island country where ocean strongly influence every aspect of our lives. I could not remember a moment when we didn't have the sea in our mind, the temperature of the ocean, breeze and typhoons from the sea, the animals in it, the tides, the smell, color, texture and sound of the water.

Collaborator choreographer Malini Srinivasan came for a preview. This was our first time meeting each other. I knew right away, I have been very lucky to have found her. Here is Malini peeking into the sculptures

We saw a sneak preview of what she has in mind for the performance. Prior to my arrival, I asked Malini if she could choreograph a short dance to the concept of islander culture and fishing villages.

Swimming, nature and ocean sound informed this dance. Malini is a third-generation Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer and teacher. On the opening night, gallery visitors and all of us had the privilege to see her in action. It was a beautiful piece and quite a meditation for all of us, as the gallery owner Abraham Lubelski put it, "it is the same feeling when one watches sunset or sunrise. It is subtle yet powerful!"

I had 6 days to locate a videographer for documenting the live performance after I arrived in NYC. Pulling out all the contacts from facebook, I found old friends from Calarts who had moved back to east coasts. Universe showered me with goof fortune once again as friends reached out helping me locating a videographer! Performance and video artist Run Shayo documented the whole performance. Next day, I picked up the DVD and set up the video projection so viewers can see what happened on the opening night.

This has been a growing experience for me. Some last minute emergencies where a cable was missing or a contact did not come thru. At the end, all turned out to be perfect. I was able to put a complicated piece together and learned again, there is no strange land, there are artists who are ready to be friends everywhere, well, at least in NYC! Thank you, NYC!

Bisbee Journey III

2011-04-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

January 22, 2011

Three weeks is a long time to germinate lots of seeds. I made friends with local artists, grew to love the land and the people and animals, settled in & felt right at home in the housing SCP provided (Thanks to Ed and Kelly Briggs!), learned where to get what I want, did a presentation at Trickhouse Live event curated by artist Noah Saterstrom in Tucson's Casa Libre en la Solana (and had a wonderful night with local artists), and went for nature walks with Pete's family. All while I juggled between the pit and a series of sculptures for a NYC show in Feb..

Finally it was born, not just the pit, but a beautiful moment made possible by participating audiences.

Here is the map projection of the 15' diameter Lavender Pit, titled "The next open door."

White portion on the right is the building across from my studio. Everyday at sunset, windows in that building reflect the copper shimmer from the sun, telling a story only a copper rich town can understand. I had cultivated my skills making little houses, boulders and cactus out of cardboard. It was fun!
This purple rock was inspired by a visit to filmmaker and mixed media artist Rebecca Barten's studio. Rebecca turned me into a mineral crazy and I discovered the unpredictability of geometry on cardboard!

For unknown reason, I love this gold rock. CSP Executive Director Melissa Holden brought her seedpods which is perfect match of colors and forms. Good eyes, Melissa!

The lampshade featured letter "B" was modeled after the "B" on Bisbee's hill which was lit for Christmas and New Year. The pit is also filled with locally found natural elements and treasures from Bisbee's dangerously addictive (luckily affordable) antique stores.

Fine moments of the pit installation:

A tall and slender man showed up at the reception. His name is Paul. Paul introduced himself to me and handed me this postcard.

I asked him if this was his stories, he nodded with tears in his eyes. "It is beautiful, Paul! Thank you!" I found a spot between two little houses where red Christmas lights shine and stood the card there. He then gave me a small sage stem, we used it as offering for the spirit of his late husband. I think his late husband had brought him to Bisbee and here to my installation. Thank you, Paul! This piece is complete because of you.

Later Ben (Pete's son) and Roman (Rebecca Barten and David Sherman's son) came with their hike finds, pretty rocks, leaves, branches and Ben's personal collections of scorpions!

Kids are inventive where they locate their contributions. They can see what adults don't see. I find Roman's placement of leaves very poetic!

Copper Donkey is a tribute to donkeys who worked deep in the mines in old days. There is a copper man statue standing tall in the city of Bisbee. I think donkeys need to be honored too. Thanks to Laurie McKenna's contribution of her chickens!

Of course, a mining town must have trucks and machinery. This section was probably inspired equally by Pete Seeger's Mrs. Clara Sullivan's Letter as well as the operations in Bisbee.

To see more and larger images, please visit my website page for this installation:
http://www.yayachou.com/installations/2011_bisbee_door.html

Thank you, Bisbee!

Bisbee Journey II

2011-04-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

January 3, 2011

Good friend Pete Goldlust, also a member at Central School Project, helped me settled in in my studio. I will be working in this 100+ year old building for the next three weeks.

Said goodbye to husband in Tucson airport, I went back to the studio, laid out all tools, getting ready to detach from California life and start an Arizona one.

Wondered to a local restaurant and located my favorite sources of materials to build the pit: cardboard boxes of potato fritters! In a week, I have this:

Another week, the pit grew:

It took a shape of a coliseum which inspired me of a positive link to the Lavender Pit. In the mean time, I met many local artists who opened their arms welcoming me. My heart felt warm, wanting to spin a promising image out of this pit. Therefore, another decision was made, this shall be a collaborative and participatory project where local residents have their voices heard.

Bisbee Journey I

2011-04-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

January 2011 I traveled to Bisbee, AZ as a visiting artist. I stayed for three weeks, created a site specific installation, befriended many great artists and fully inhaled the Bisbee creative energy. Here is a brief record of the journey.

Jan. 3, 2011

Husband and I drove to Naco, a neighboring town which borders Mexico. I had intention to build an installation related to border issues before I arrived. However, the tall dark fence running all the way up the majestic mountain crushed my inspiration.

Dark energy looming around here, cried out as innocent lives wasted. As an immigrant myself, this is an arrow aiming at my chest. Chimneys from "the other side" emitted smoke to keep January cold at bay; symbols of warm and cozy homes turned into a picture of West Bank.
Heavy border police force is an odd image in this beautiful landscape. Mountain ranges become a little angry voice in comparison to human division.

On the way back to Bisbee, we discovered Bisbee food co-op, that was a surprising joy!
Next to the food co-op sits the (in)famous Lavender Pit, one of the open pit mines that made Bisbee one of the largest towns between San Francisco and New Orleans in early days.

Mining industries bring about complicated political atmosphere, especially when they leave earth a huge hole that oozes liquids. It is as devastated to the local ecology as magnificent aesthetically. Have I not know this pit is man-made, I'd assume mother nature created another marvelous landscape. It is beautiful with alluring charms: the muscle of the slops, the scales, the colors of the minerals that floats and it's response to sunlight.

I decided at the moment, I would like to attempt creating a pit on my own, one that reflects the colors and history without ecological price to pay.

Prayer for Japan

2011-03-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

For a country so close to home
who gave me peace during our visit,
for a country whom we fought and learned to love,
we send our prayer.
We share so much how we live, what we eat, the way we talk and what quakes and ocean bring.
To all the friends in Japan,
we are here for you. Please be strong!

The mode of mind

2011-03-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

The creating mode has dominated the brain for too long, causing fingers to curse the language portions of the brain.

Today the mind finally kicks in the writing mode and wish to stay in the orbit. The more proposal I wrote, the more I can write. But that will have to happen before the creating mode kicks in.

And to tons of photos, video footage and notes to be organized, the organizing mode yells "we need to update the website, blogs and facebook before the next sculpture is born!"

No such thing, the fingers pose, we've got to work to maintain the structure of the brain.

So who's born first? the artist or the artist who markets herself.

Responsible art, I call it! Bravo, JR!

2011-03-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out Video on TED.com

Site specific installation and performance at Broadway Gallery NYC

2011-02-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

For The International Artists at Home and Abroad Exhibition Series at Broadway Gallery NYC, I created a site specific sculpture installation based on islander cultures from Taiwan and invited Bharatanatyam dancer Malini Srinivasan to choreograph a short dance for the piece. If you catch us tonight, Thursday, February 10th, 2011, 6:00–8:00pm, you can see the live video streaming of the reception here, as well as the performance of her dance at 6:30pm EST.

The show runs from February 4th-25th, 2011
Broadway Gallery NYC is located at

473 Broadway, NYC, NY 10013
The hours are Monday — Friday 10AM to 6PM
Tel: (212) 274‑8993

Hello, New York City!

Poof! Gone.

2010-11-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

4:30am, my brain woke me up and started thinking all about the installation/performance for NYC gallery in Feb., of me braving through snow and subway crowds and small hostel rooms alone, of the Jan. residency/installation/performance with my first long hour drive alone, of husband, cats, families in Taiwan and possible frost in the yard.

9:30am, fell to the ground with one leg squashed under neath the heavy trash bin I was pulling.
Immediately it reminded me of those movie scenes in which a poor baster lays under a fallen roof beam with flame all around it. Not able to pull it's leg out, (s)he watched the flame swallow her/him alive.
Luckily I was able to save my leg and went on limping.

Yesterday, they dug up the bones of my 10-year-passed sister. According to Taiwanese Buddhist custom, we would to collect her bones, cremate and store the ashes in a Buddhist temple or the family cemetery. Could not cremate her 10 years ago because mom and dad could not bear watching her burned. I wish I was home to visit her once again, a sister who no longer holds a physical form. She must have a big skull, I think! According the our eldest sister, she bio-degraded well, has the lucky tan/brown sheen on her bones and smells like lovely wooden smoke, thanks to the high quality wood of her coffin. My dear sister, melted to the soil and devotes her new life nurturing trees. As smoke, poof! she is gone. While I am still here heat-packing my leg, manifesting relationship with the material world.

New Journey

2010-11-15T17:33:00.000-08:00

Once a while, new and old works spill out like a short flood. They are sitting on pedestals, waiting for my visit on the openings. Then the shows end, everything goes back to a quiet normal. Artist's life, like frequency wave, up and down, loud and silent, rich and bleak, growth and death.

Opening November, 18, 2010

at Pacific Design Center, you will find

"Marriage is overrated" featured in 39NOW exhibition, curated by Sophia Louisa at d.e.n. contemporary. This piece is a comment on over-romanticized version of marriages. No, I don't have problem with marriages, in fact, I'm happily married. But we all know someone who lives her whole life for that one wedding day. Then what happens to life after 10 years of a marriage? This piece is made of burnt toasts over paperclay. The show runs until Dec. 17, 2010

and

"Color Based," limited edition of artists designed hand-blown glass bottles containing pepto-bismol, at Another Year in LA's Gift Shop. When pepto-bismol dries, it forms pink flake against the glass. Ever wonder why pink dye soothes uneasy stomach? or does it? The show runs until Dec. 11, 2010.

Opening November, 20, 2010

Several sculptures from the Soft Tissue show at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art find home at a local exhibition.

Old letter,

Samara (maple seed pods)

and SoCal Wildfires

will be featured in Art From The Ashes' Inspire exhibition, runs until Dec. 18, 2010.

While watercolor drawings

Sporangia,

Crab II

and Mothers in their Den will be in Los Angeles Art Association's AURORA holiday show at Gallery 825. This show runs until Dec. 3, 2010.

Feast on!

2010《少年金釵男孟母》口碑經典加演場

2010-11-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

Innovative theatre production "He is my wife. He is my mother," written and directed by my sister, Katherine Chou. So proud of her!!!

A new production "Have Wok, will travel," inspired by our mother's army and domestic life, will be playing in Taipei's Experimental Theater December 2010.

Stories

2010-09-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

so the story goes like this...

4 weeks working on a sculpture for a show, almost burned down the studio, destroyed a toaster over, the show was postponed, a cat fell from the skylight and knocked out one corner of the sculpture: collision damage.

2 weeks on family vacation, rescued a niece's wedding and three abandoned kittens. not able to find them a good home, we drove 16 hours bringing them back to LA. 1 weeks on business trip, survived!

3 weeks working on a sculpture for a show, 14 hour day and night, too stressed to think clearly, over spent on shipping, home depressed, even the sun disappears for 2 days.

Tossed out a sculpture in the trash...

In the afternoon I heard on the radio, an Indian guy once told Wayne Dyer:

"All you can do with life is to give it away."

Not about what you can get out of or what you will lose from a situation, that is all ego talk. It is not always about me, me, me. Then I realized why it is.

But being an artist is a game of ego. Self comes first so inspiration can be materialized. Balance keeps me in check, with every achievement comes a sense of doom. Perhaps it is to keep fingers busy, so the mind can freeze. Making to avoid thinking, because simply being is too difficult.

Soft Tissue catalogue is here!

2010-07-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

After months of toggle war with file formats and uploading, I learned not to assume difficulties, instead embracing the simplest method.

Here she is, the catalogue in conjunction with the solo exhibition at Fort Wayne Museum of Art in IN.

Sarah Aubrey, curator at the FWMoA, wrote a beautiful essay for me! I'm ever grateful for having everybody along the journey.

Free download available here!

Take a look, savor what is happening. If you want a physical copy for your bookshelf, contact me for a discount!

Enjoy!

because US consumers don't care

2010-06-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Inject hormone in meat,
plant virus in vegetable,
grains bear moving arms,
my soup can blow up a biological war!
I am a mutant, I eat GMO foods!
I pay the government to lie to me, I also pay Monsanto to put me on free human trial.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

To Louise Bourgeois

2010-06-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

Wish I was born at a time when I can meet Eva Hesse,
there you came along in dark grace.

I spin your threads,
inhale your red,
watch the glow in anger toward a betrayed father of my own.

They are large,
sit on heavy stumps,
we laugh as the marble spits blood.

Curl up I did,
"never let anybody put you down," you said.
A girl can swallow the pain, but she should never lower her head.
I, too, am a sculptor,
so they call us.

watercolor drawings in Soft Tissue

2010-05-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some samples of the drawings in the show, in case you visit here for all-in-one service!

"Crab," 11"X15", watercolor and ink on paper.

"Squid," 11"X15", watercolor and ink on paper.

"Clam ii,"13"X13", watercolor and ink on paper.

"Autonomic nerve system," 55"x22", watercolor on paper

"Choroid coat of eyeball," 30"x30", watercolor on paper

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 5

2010-05-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

May 14, 2010

Last day in Fort Wayne. I still have little touch up I want to accomplish today.

Docent tour guide came in at 10am to hear the artist talk. They had shown much appreciation of me being here and interests in the works themselves. Answered lots of questions, had a good time.

Finished working on the sculpture labels. Signage lady came and put up the title. It is huge... talking about ego boosting.

This piece is titled "Fort Wayne." I shipped the vessel here empty and plan on looking for local inspiration to fill it. Original idea as of Tuesday was to take a photo of everyone working with me and create a miniature scene inside. But while walking along the river Wednesday evening, I found tons of these fallen Maple seedpods. They have wings and fly like badminton. First I thought they were worms:) So here they are, because southern Californians like us don't have these falling from our maple trees.

My favorite piece "What if I fall?" air dry porcelain clay in artist designed glass vessel. John Burchetta in NC hand blown these pieces according to my maquettes. This one is modeled after pitfall traps, a kind of carnivorous plant; around the holes engraved: "what if i fall?" "what if no one catches me?" "what if i fail?" "when will the parachute open?" Now you know what I was thinking of when I work on shows...haha

this piece is a keeper, rather decorative, titled "Black Noise." Black glue on container with red beads strand inside. Jesse and I both love it so much that this will be the Only piece of mine hung in our home. I very seldom hang my own works in my living/working space because I am moving forward all the time, finished works hinder me.

5pm, finished some little vine silhouette design at the bottom of the wall to interact with sculpture shadow. Sarah is walking us out of the door while Joe is still finishing up the last few sculpture labels. We have become friends with these diligent workers and lovely people, will miss them sooo much when we leave.

The show looks great. Wish I can stay another week to play and attend the big opening of mine, Cara and Smithsonian's show. But there are two more deadline to meet, got to get back to studio. Jesse has to go back to work, too.

Joe caught up on us, perfect opportunity to take a picture. Sun broke out to warm us up! Our smiles only tell half the quality of good time I had working with these nice, awesome people~

Can't wait to go back in August when we deinstall the show.

Special thanks to Durfee Foundation for granting me ARC grant so I can fly to Fort Wayne, stay a week, install the show and best of all, work with cool people. And more thanks to Sarah Aubrey (curator at FWMoA) and Charles A. Shepard III (executive director of FWMoA), who believe in me and gave me a show. A catalougue will be published soon for this exhibition, stay on the mailing list so I can tell you about it!

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 3-4

2010-05-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

May 12, 2010

Spent all day hanging glass vessels. Jesse on the condor while I on the floor directing where they go. He ties monofilaments one by one onto hardware cloth. No time for pictures today.

May 13, 2010

Stomach protests this morning from too much outside food and tosses out all last night's dinner. I'm weak in the morning, plan on fasting all day. By 2pm, I'm already feeling better. A few pieces left to hang. Glad Jesse is here to help. I must have done lots of good deeds to deserve such a husband!

Twinkle twinkle glass vessels! Rush out of home and forgot to grab the camera battery charger... duh.

My stretchy rubber octopus resting in the globe, telling a poem I wrote if you approaches it.

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 2

2010-05-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

May 11, 2010
Put on my ski suits, headed out to work. It might pour rain today.

Joe is measuring the space for a wood bar to go up on the wall. With 2 eye hook crews in it, we can stretch the steel cables tight and straight enough to hold the hanging sculptures. I'm still feeling fortunate that he has a good brain so I can remain cloudy.

This condor scissor lift became our best (machinery) friends and irreplaceable tool in the next 3 days. Meanwhile, I and Jesse cut up the hardware cloth squares to accommodate the hanging clusters of glass vessels.

Joe knows of a way to split airplane cables and reweave them in so we can avoid using the costly ferrules to make a loop. Here Jesse is learning the eye splice and having fun. I lay on the chair and watch them making "Molly Hogan" come true. Conserve energy so I can perform when my time comes!

Curator Sarah and technical director Brian working on Cara Lee Wade's show next door. I took some spying pictures of them working together. Before I know it, all the photographs were hung. Brian is a speedy installer with 23 years of experience. I later learned that he has a military museum of his own. Cool~

Labels for the drawings came in. Ignorant me have never seen professional labels like these before, not paper nor mounted on foam core, they are hefty solid card stock themselves. I'm fascinated by the way museums make labels and how much emphasis they put on the artist. I guess when the price tag is let go, true value shows through. The question of who makes art is interesting. Some consider artists make the art, some consider the market price makes the art.

Historical moment came, Joe and Jesse each hold one steel cable, straightening the pre-woven-in hardware cloth. They pull the cables as tight as they can so the eye splits can go on to the eye hook screws (which was open at this point). Final steps is to close and twist the eye hook screws in order to tighten the cables even more. At least this is how I remembered it. Of course there are lots of details in between that my leaky brain forgoes... I had to focus on where which sculpture goes, so no distraction to what guys are doing up there:)

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 1

2010-05-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

May 9, 2010

Arrived at Fort Wayne, Indiana at 9:30pm, from Los Angeles.

May 10, 2010

10:30am: Short walk to Fort Wayne Museum of Art, weather is cool and breezy. We were greeted by the registrar Leah Reeder at the museum.

Met curatorial assistant, Joe Rohrer, who had finished painting the walls in space I'll be in. Mr. Joe will be helping us get things done in the following week. He is a brilliant artist and thinker himself. If I were a wealthy artist, he will be instantly hired with good pay to be my studio director, not studio assistant, "Studio Director" :-)
I love the color curator Sarah Aubrey chose for me. Originally I had wanted it all black, but this dark charcoal works out better. Glad I did not end up with black:)

In the mean time, I realized that the space is taller than I imagined. It is huge and my brain went blank.

Leah took us to bring the works out from vault. Drawings arrived 10 days ago, sculptures arrived last Wednesday. It is unrealistic to see them here, 2,160 miles away. Two weeks ago, some of them were still laying around in the studio like daily objects, now they are all wrapped up nicely in cozy boxes guarded by security alarms.

My curator Sarah came in, we talked about the logistics of hanging glass sculptures. Joe came up with the idea of using airplane cables instead of I and Jesse's old "hardware cloth stretched over wood frames." It will look so much more professional. "We are in a Museum," I have to constantly remind myself. What's better is that Joe will make the structure and all we need to do is to hang the pieces. Oh, I am so lucky!

While Joe went to get the materials needed, I continue unpacking the works and start sorting the clusters. Jesse went on to tour the permanent collection exhibitions in the museum.

Long time no see busy me

2010-04-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

have not stopped since coming back from my Chinese New Year vacation. so busy preparing for this show that there was no time nor space for jet lag.

Framed drawings and three large flat pieces went out today via U.S. Art. I said Goodbye to my first batch of children. "Will see you guys in 3 weeks. Be nice to each other on the road!"

at the last home stretch finishing up glass sculptures and installation components. Booked the flight and hotel tonight. Tickets are in outrageous prices. I'd really bawl in front of the screen if not for the aid of Durfee grant. Thank you, Durfee Foundation!
Feel more grounded now. Another 12-hour working day awaits...

characters from Twisted Romance

2010-01-27T22:46:00.000-08:00

friend RoO wrote and illustrated this little book titled "Twisted Romance."
I pulled some characters out and made sculptures of them. These babies have takend on a life and personality of their own, even detached from the original stories.
I find much fun turning 2D into 3D, since I can not draw well, but, man, I can see space with my fingers:)

Roots (male)

Chimney Elf

Anti-Fur Cats

These sculptures and other paintings are currently on display at Indie Collective Gallery in Culver City, CA until Feb. 26, 2010.

Stay alive, Learn!

2010-01-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

my favorite activity in this life time, except for eating, sleeping and submerging in water, is to learn new things.
I starve if I don't take a new class once a while. The topics to learn this year is machine/motor, paperclay and welding.
Also continuing from 2007 when I tasted the value of collaboration, I realized collaborating as a form of learning: learning something and someone fresh.
The first show in 2010 includes collaborated sculptures I did with one of my high school sweethearts RoO. In spring, we will go to Arizona for a joint residency~

And I was fortunate enough to squeeze in the last several spots in this project called

with a pencil in my pocket

Lea Redmond is the brains behind this Social Artwork project. Each month I will get a color pencil in the mail and do activity with the name of that color, document it and send the writing back to Lea. Back when Lea was making a project with clothes labels, I answered an ad in a magazine and exchange some of my collections with her designs. Since then, Lea had initiated a lot of fun oppoutinities for us. How exciting! If you like color pencils and creative activities as a group, there are a few spots left,
sign up here at 500 Color Pencils. If you want to exchange for her cool clothes labels and sew onto yours, you can visit here.

other than studio time alone, we can now work with unfamiliar friends all over the world. No, I'm not talking about pretending to know everyone on facebook and bombarding people to become you fans. Making friends with one's hands is more sincere and real, don't you think?

亞洲當代藝術從弱勢轉為顯學?

2009-12-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

讀了一篇關於福岡亞洲三年展的文章
第四屆福岡亞洲三年展
撰文者寫到"亞洲當代藝術從弱勢轉為顯學"
有嗎？我想著想著很疑惑
亞洲當代藝術成為顯學,那就表示亞洲人民不分階級都在學習或接觸亞洲本土的當代藝術,
亞洲藝術家不必靠政府補助金或兼職工作也能養活自己,而且後面還跟著一大群求技的學子？

亞洲當代藝術市場上的擁擠現象反映出的是全球現象,近期邁阿密的熱潮能不能算是南美當代藝術強勢呢？緊緊相繫的全球化市場中收藏家身居多洲,我們如何分析區域性表現？
曝光率高的亞洲藝術家有一大批是歐美社會培養出來的
這是不是"有自信的自我發聲"？

不論是歐洲美國或亞洲出生成長的藝術家
我們聚在一起便發現大家都是喝美國文化奶水長大的
所謂自我如何定義？

下回去看展覽,先瞄作品單上藝術家的國籍再點頭示好吧
免得把白人藝術家畫的皮卡丘當做亞洲當代藝術來尊崇了

a gift for a gift

2009-12-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

Watched Janis Ian sing on PBS the other night.
Something about seeing a grandma singing and playing a guitar moved me so much...
this is way sexier than anything I've ever seen.

Aged talents brew creative forces like a dark bottle of wine, rich yet subtle.
Although I don't dip alcohol, I would therefore describe them as the amber glowing from a barrel of apple cider, pungent yet soothing straight into the heart.
It is a beautiful dream to envision oneself arting for another 5 decades. It is romantic when you toss aside the material rewards, suddenly the world does not make sense any more, but self survives in dignity.

Janis Ian put it this way, (forgive me for not remembering the exact words)
"Aside from egos and all that, all artists are here to serve.
I am fortunate enough to have the talent to write these songs
and was alive in a time when people would listen.
I am extremely previlieged to be able to serve these songs."

I have learned about artists serving but often wonder who are we serving?
the peopl who never touch or see our art?
the artists surrounding us?
the world with dark buildings erected?
the universe with too much negative emotions?
or me me me?
I assume I could understand it in this way now,
"I am here to deliver the vision I was given, with the gifted fingers I was offered.
I am here to serve the sculptures, the paintings and the space among installation objects."
Suddenly serving people makes no sense, yet serving art expands the possibility to no end.

The gifted one, zonkey with 1/4 zebra and 3/4 donkey, who sings like a trumpet and loves so very gently. She is here to serve, serves the pretty stripes that no other donkeys have.

in the crevice of void

2009-12-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

22 months worth of questions,

twist the torso to become doubts.

I resurface to find the wave drown me once more.

was it the quality of work?

was it the frequency of conversations?

was it the location of growth?

or was it the intelligence of my neurons?

Tree with limbs so low, one can climb.

Darkness with road well paved, one can traverse.

Me, myself and I

fight the battles of volume.

I realized today, the best are not usually the loudest.

But whom is heard? The best or the loudest?

Art is a game of vanity,

didn't I know that already from the very beginning.

If I should not identify myself with what I do,

then why do I do?

What is in the do for me?

What is in me for the do?

limb is hanging by a thread,

yet time must continue.

Opening night performance

2009-09-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

hibernated for a week, here is your review of the opening night performance happened on Friday, Sept. 11, 2009.

We had a big crowd, all the standing and sitting spaces were taken by lovely audience. A good time with many hearts moved. Thank you all for coming! and huge Thank You to my wonderful collaborators~

I swear I must have done a lot of great deed in the past life to deserve such a team:)

Marathon installing. Final Rehearsal

2009-09-08T19:09:00.001-07:00

Finished our 3-day-long marathon installing, I think it's time to stop abusing my installer husband who had to stay up late standing on a tall ladder... poor guy. but hey, we still did not break my record of 48-hour installing... I'm at the end of adrenal supply, but when I saw our final rehearsal today, I had to hold back my tears.

Everything is so beautiful, the music, the dance, the energy. For the first time I see my sculptures come alive, breathing and speaking with their own pulse in Loren's music, floating an dancing with Shyamala and Cynthia's movement.

Jake came by to document the whole piece so we can project it after the opening night. Those who couldn't make it to the opening can still get a feeling of what happened in the space.

Cynthia dances with the big ball which they have not seen until the day before final rehearsal. One has to applaud these wonderful professional creative choreographers. They are another subject of my artistic abuse :) hahaShymala's facial expression is so great, we caught a lot on tape. These two ladies' Indian dance training flow naturally thru their contemporary piece. Genius, ladies!

Let's not miss it, opening is Sept. 11, Friday night, 6-9pm.

Live Performance starts at 7:40pm, live dance, live music, live sculptures, live artists, all breathing together with the live you!

Collaborators Congregate

2009-08-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Dance and writing could be a career for next life.
I have longed to work with dancers, dreaming the combination of sculpture and dance would be the perfect marriage of beauty.

The dream has come true.

Thanks to my old pal from CalArts, Doug Hudson. and his lovely wife choreographer Anjali Tata, I was connected with choreographers Cynthia Lee and Shyamala Moorty from the Post Natyam Collective. Shyamala and Cynthia brought their collaborator musician Loren Nerell on board.

It is a huge honor to be able to work with these highly professional artists.

This is our first congregation in my studio:

Loren wanted to record some sound of me working to use as materials for the music.
Here I worked at getting that balloon to unstretch so we could record the sound of rubber "stretch to pop."

Finally, after a 1/2 mile of stretch, it popped!

"That itself is worth the mission," Loren said.

We did some body movement exercises and automatic writing. Recorded ourselves reading our own writing. After lunch, I arranged some spheres around so Shyamala and Cynthia could try and feel some movement.

Fun~
and this is just the beginning...

什麼都要跟男生比嗎？

2009-08-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

每次讀到那些一定要把好作品或優秀藝術家拿來跟別人比的藝評
我就會想昏倒
尤其是當你一定要把藝術史上的偉大男性拿來當比照對象時
就令我更想吐了！
"社會,文化,歷史標準都是男生定的
所以再優秀的女性或男性藝術家一定要拿來跟歷史上的偉大男人比喔！
因為我讀的藝術史都是男生寫的
所以請原諒我知識與眼界的淺薄"
藝評說

Lies to sell the water

2009-07-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get so angry about the corporations who lie to sell water to us that I have to yell on my blog.
Does it have anything to do with art? oh yes, if they put too much fluoride in my drinking water, I'll get poisoned by the heavy metal and become stupid. Then I won't complain about them feeding me fluoride, will I?

This is a letter I wrote to Glendale Water and Power, who buys water from Metropolitan Water District of Southern Cal., who takes my tax money to put poison in my water and charge me monthly to lie to me. Nice, the capitalism at it's best!

Dear Glendale Water and Power:
Thank you for sending the WQR.08 2008 Water Quality Report. We find the information very useful. Regarding to the answers provided by GWP to Glendale residents' questions about drinking water quality, I have some comments.
In the "Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water" section, GWP did not clearly instruct people "how" to dispose unused medication should they choose to dispose it in regular household trash. Pharmaceuticals are considered Household Hazardous Waste in the county of Los Angeles, people should do their best to Not dispose them in the trash. Even if they do, it should be "Put in a sturdy, securely sealed container, then in a trash can," according to County of LA's website. http://ladpw.org/epd/hhw/nodrugs/index.cfm

EPA is now proposing to add hazardous pharmaceutical wastes to the Universal Waste Rule. It is time GWP start addressing this issue in a clear manner. The fact that medication goes into the trash will lead to their impact in the landfill, further settles into the ground water. Best solution should be considering it as hazardous waste at all time.

Regard the "Fluoridation" section, GWP only offer One source for people to read about the fluoride's impact to human health. Unsurprisingly, the link goes directly to the MWD website, who caused a huge controversial debate back in 2007 by increasing fluoridation in water. I personally consider this report irresponsible as it failed to address the controversial issue from both sides. Fluoridated drinking water is especially dangerous to infants and nursing mothers. It is GWP's duty to educate people on that. Here is what some scientists, dentists and experts have to say about Fluoridation in drinking water: http://www.fluoridealert.org/ that Glendale residents have the rights to know about.

ps. Do you know that fluoride is byproduct from aluminum industry. Back in the 30's, some genius thought of tossing it in our drinking water to defer their waste management cost while raking in some of your tax money. It makes your teeth stronger, but is also cloud your brain and poison your blood. Teeth for intelligence, way to go!

Eugenio Merino, I admire you!

2009-03-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

I admire this piece: "4 the love of Go(l)d" by Eugenio Merino, simply because Merino has the guts that i'll never have to make works like these.
Do I hate Hirst? No. but I did have to abandon a project because he's butterfly piece overlapped my idea.
Te read the piece in Chinese: http://artouch.com/artco/story.aspx?aid=2009031309484

Realization #01

2009-01-09T01:30:00.000-08:00

went to see Louise Bourgeois' show at Moca today. Everybody knows she's awesome, but in what degree, one has to see her works in person.
I followed her media and concepts one by one, suddenly realized that throughout my short art career, there is one perfect word to describe my journey.
"Stumble" or "flounder," that is what I've been doing all these years. I was afraid of speaking my mind. I followed my works instead of myself. I was pushed around by the society and the vanity of the art world. Therefore I have a hard time sticking to one media or concept, or worse, to my true desires. Can't blame on the system, I'm the one who chose to be a ass-kissing pleaser.
What a shame! But how does one ungrow what was taught to us since we were born? Aren't we supposed to be sweet little girls? Even if we are not sweet anymore, we still have to dress up for gallery openings, don't we?

The first realization of this year, I have been a stumbler.

白色的回憶

2008-11-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

聖誕節快到了,雖然不愛過節的我們忙到快翻掉了,還要盯著新家的休建進度,我手邊還欠著一本書,5件作品加上二月中的個展,過年又回不了家了,連新家八成都搬不成了...這都不算討厭,討厭的是翻譯翻一翻,竟翻出想念三姊的記憶...
想到那年我回到美國後,聖誕節時卻病到不行,還以為自己有氣喘哩!無原無故地怎麼也不會好,二姊也出國了,只剩下大姊和爸媽在台灣,寂寞的三姊偷接了一大堆大夜班,大概也覺得過節過得沒意思吧!連活著都沒意思了說...
聖誕節快到了,總是不知不覺地就想到妳,也沒有過節的打算呀,怎麼老姊妳會悄然地爬上心頭呢?是時間又讓你繞了一圈回到我身邊了吧?
好想妳呀!不想還好,想著心裡就痛得不得了,就算放聲大哭也不恰當,只是痛,乾乾硬硬的痛...
勸別人都容易,但要自己過這關還真難,想念的痛不容易釋懷,畢竟我是平凡人,我對妳的愛是平凡人的愛,是自私的,所以我想著不可能讓妳快樂但是還要妳為了討厭的人賴活著...
唉,走了也好,賞可惡的人一耳光,讓他們痛苦得不得翻身...
好吧!用我小人悲賤的想法就不會這麼傷心了,畢竟幫妳報了仇,但是我想要與妳分享的喜悅呢?妳走了之後生活變了好多,真希望妳還在,過節過得不爽也好,畢竟我還摸得到妳...

Changes have yet to come!

2008-11-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

200 years after the US congress banned slave trade, we now have a black president!

However, 25 years after Roe v. Wade, we have yet to walk out of the tunnel of abortion stigma. Congratulations to S. Dakota, Colorado and us Californian women, our voice had shed some light in the way out of the tunnel.

But shame on Californians who took the out-of-state handouts and swallowed their morality! Lesbians and gays' families fell in a shallow boat thank to the discriminating ideology.

Are LGBT humans?

Perhaps today's LGBT resemble Sara Baartman in 1814, a young African woman displayed naked as a science project in traveling circus in Europe. She was not a human, because the Bible did not mention any black skin. LGBT are aliens, because the Bible did not mention unions other than virgina and penis. Sara's brain and genitals were displayed in Paris until 1976; for more than 150 years, we did not consider this human have the same right as the rest of us. Will it take that long to admit LGBT, too, have basic rights to love, have sex, live together, marry each other and have children?

Does marriage mean a virgina and a penis? Do all non-child-bearing married women commit a crime? Do believes separate us from each other?

Until we recognize that all are equal: animals, plants, women, men, LGBT, handicapped, the dying and the young, until we learn that the majority do not have the right to exploit the minority, Changes have yet to come!

February 12, 2004, San Francisco made history by granting the first ever same-sex marriage license to a prominent lesbian couple as part of a challenge to a ban on gay marriage. Longtime activists Phyllis Lyon, 79, and Del Martin, 83, who have been a couple for over 51 years, said their vows at city hall after Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered officials to wed gay couples and issue marriage licenses in an act of civil disobedience against a state law that bars same-sex marriages.

Cow Parade in Taipei!!!

2008-10-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

My favorite Cow Parade is coming to Taipei. No excuse to not go home now:)

Event organizers did an interesting twist different than past Cow Parades in other countries.

They invited students to design some cows and the finished cows will be displayed along with professional artists' cows.

Oh, do I envy these kids! Painting a cow for Cow Parade is my dream. Someday when they come to LA crushing our silly Angels, I shall get my own cow.

The creativity in the students' cows are amazing! Though professional artists have a subtler presentation on concepts, I find students' cows connect to people on a more intimate level. Of course, the talents represent Taiwan's culture make this Cow Parade stands out and man are they all Original! Did I say, Original? What is the cool if we are painting Picasso or McDonald's? Although painting our legendary or fable characters may make foreigners scratch their heads, but I say worth the cause, this is how cultures communicate with each other! Check it out, this is my favorite cow, from a student; I not only like the idea, but also his professionalism. The cow is titled: The Monkey King. (or Sun Wukong if you want to say it the way Chinese say it)

Quote of the week

2008-10-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson 1802

sounds familiar?
It's the American spirit.
You can not trade US dollar for gold, but you can trade your smaller US dollar for a even smaller US dollar. To know more, watch clips from Zeitgeist.

can life be simple?

2008-09-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Choices, choices and a 2-mile-long list of decisions to make.

Thought art making is simple, drawing what you like, follow the line, add some color, build up the mass, and seal it with pretty glitter.

But art career swirls like a water hole, then art business throws some rocks in, do you want to break the swirls and let it flow, or jump in to catch the rocks?

Fortunately for the human race, I'm not a congresswoman who has to be responsible for people's life and death. Probably at that point, one simply ignores the responsibility anyway.

Nor am I the CEO who's responsible for a 3-million dollar deal every hour on the clock.

But I do, too, have to calculate my cost and value. What's the price, whom to bargain with, how to ship it, how much insurance to buy, call the dealer, call the museum to release works, sign cold-hearted papers, swipe credit cards... and ah, deposit checks.

This year I have a goal to treat my business as a real business. Considering if I'd run a restaurant for the past 6 years, I'd close my door long time ago. Art is unique, but has to deserves something better than a draining pipe. It is time to slowly moving out of the haunted house of funneling saving account to art supplies. So bronze price has risen sky high, I will just forget about it. Sometimes one has to compromise a bit, especially for a perfectionist like me. I always have the instinct to pick the most expensive dress in the whole store, therefore always want to most high end for my work... well, it should feel better to earn the best than spending the best.

So many decisions to make that one can never tell for sure if it is a correct choice. I can simply do my best with my little soft brain and go with the learning curve. Life strikes the bell that rings. I shall ring and ring and ring, and someday say, I can now ring on my own now, no more lessons needed. Leave me alone so I can devote my best life to everything art.

sculptor's mess

2008-08-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Studio is piled up with unfinished projects. Like an irresponsible lover, I have abandoned projects waiting in line to hate me.

Working on the mangrove tree for weeks now, results still don't meet with desires. Wanted to cast it in bronze-too expensive-maybe aluminum will be cheaper-naively thinking, sand casting is even better-can i save up the mold cost-still too expensive. Settling for less can have surprising outcome. New idea shined in last night. I'll make you electronic, that way I have a reason to not cast you.

Used to think that I'm lame to always have to struggle with new techniques. Never can come up with a concept which I know how to make it already. It seems to be a common phenomenon now that artists are constantly in need of learning new skills, especially sculptors. And the new technique can grow on you, make you addictive. Even when the project comes to a halt, I physically want to sit on the floor and continue building. It is addictive arting. Perhaps this one I will not abandon.

Leo babies

2008-08-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Today is a special day. My best girl friend's water broke. According to text message from the other friend, she's in the hospital now.
This Leo girl was past due for 4 days, I was as anxious as her mom was.
In these past 9 months, our spirit have flown high as 3 out of we 4 are going thru pregnancy. Me being the last remain free and watch their lives change. Inside me there's tremendous joy caught from them, heck, I even eat as much as they do:) Another Leo boy will arrive in the next week or two. Both grandmas are ready, standing by to start the transitional Chinese 1-month postpartum care procedure.
My blessings go to my friends who is and will go thru labor this month. Because of them, my views of life has expanded to a new horizon.
Welcome, Leo babies!

seduction of the art world

2008-08-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

There is this theory that an artist should make consistent works to establish her/himself.

I ask, do you use the same bowl to eat breakfast everyday? Do you carry the same word at the end of your every sentence?

Life is so short that I can not imagine living in the same way for ten years and expecting to get to enlightenment. I can not lie to myself today in order to please the tomorrow.

Actually in the the past several months, I could not even bring myself to openings like I used to.

I looked at my life, there is art and art making, and art marketing, and art talking, and art thinking and art sharing. It is such a BS when those career guides rule: Art is Life.

Life is such a big word, how can one defines it. Life is made of much diverse and numerous experiences. I lived as there is only art and no tomorrow, then I found myself fumbling in the dark losing my art and life.

Something's got to change, but I don't know what nor how. I lived in the dark for a few month dreading about my ignorance. Reading books helped a bit, but ego often threw me back to the pity cell. I am not out of the tunnel yet, but I am back to the studio and work my way out.

Perhaps, ironically, art is the only way out.

I realized what Judy Chicago told us years ago about the difference between female and male artists' approach to art making.

She considered male artists make art with Forms, while female artists make art with Contents. That is why it usually takes longer for female artists to work, because we need to do research, read and internalize our concept before it can come out as art. Much like a cow's regurgitating feed, only that it can take years for human artists to regurgitate certain ideas.

I was too young to understand what that means. Plus in these days, the boundary can be blurred. Now I finally understand it from another angle.

The cereal bowl is form, the cereal is content. With the bowl we consume cereal.

Meal is form, what one feels like eating is the content. With meals we materialize what we want to eat.

Sculpture is form, the concept from which it's born is content. Through sculptures we communicate the concept.

Body is form, mind and spirit is content. Body is the image which reflects our mind and spirit.

therefore,

art is form, life is concept.

Art is not life, nor life art. so, where do we go from here?

gummi gummi gummi

2008-07-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

From The Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (CAC), opens July 11~

Art for artists

2008-07-01T12:41:00.001-07:00

Richard Tuttle told a story when he came to LA last year, about his pondering on the meaning of shows and openings.
It was after the opening night of his survey exhibition in 1975 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, he was troubled by Why he needs to have such museum shows. He sat in the hotel room all night long, thinking and asking. By 6am the next morning, he had an answer: It is his responsibility to be showing in order to inspire fellow artists and help them bring out their best.
I did not quite understand that answer, but I've heard a lot of entrepreneur gurus talking about the same spiritual fulfillment from wealth. I kept that note in mind, remembering that it takes more than wanting to express to be a successful artist and somehow I too have respobsibility to the whole art community.
Being dormant for a change, I sat quietly and patiently for the door to open. Then again, I hear the same message from Tony Robbins. But this time, I understand it a little better, more on the level of my heart.

Go to school for art? or to kill art?

2008-06-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

"Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, outlines the current crisis in American education, compares our schools and universities with others around the globe, and with wit and humor, shows us the path towards a more enlightened America. Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He has advised national governments in Europe and Asia as well as and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations including the European Commission, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Education Commission of the States."
He will be talking at Hammer Museum this July 1st at 7pm!

Blow away, move out, toss in the bin...

2008-06-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

I have a very important mission these days: to declutter.

Clear all the materials and stuff I stored for years for some future sculptures that never come. They are so packed that they suck my energy like a vampire. Every morning I woke up, all I felt was sit like them on the shelf with aimless sights.

I feel clean to clean out these clutters. Even threw out some works that I no longer feel comfortable showing. This strong urge to delete the past allows new path to enter. I can now walk a little faster~

Fertile changes

2008-05-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Spent weeks preparing for the group show at VA, I said goodbye to my two babies today.

Crating company just left with the pieces, they left me good impression as the kids moved the artworks slowly and carefully.

This is the beginning for my large works to travel. I'm a mom sees my teenage kids going off on their own for the first time. It is sad but it is glorifying to know that they are proud and independent now.

My dear kids, I have wished for you to travel far, up the coast to the Big Apple, then back to the Golden Gate. Or if you wish, find a nice home to stay. I'm happy for your journey. Be safe and be yourself!

Big apple or a big tree?

2008-05-05T23:18:00.000-07:00

New York showed up in conversations lately. More than one gallery owners had hinted to me that artists have to be in New York for some time for their career to hit a new level. The fact of the art world is that more people are writing about art, more people are collecting art and more serious about art in the Big Apple.

Yet the fact of the real life is that most artists need to be stable in the mind and feel stable in their environment in order to be creative. A disoriented person remains disoriented wherever she or he lives.

I have been thinking about this career hit-and-run scenario for quite some time now. Artists in the US are looking at EU artists, EU artists are looking at the Chinese market, Chinese artists are looking at the Big Apple. Where should one go and where should one be?

Is career the major focus of an artist's life? Does career define an artist?

If I am my career, what happens when the career is no longer there?

Is an artist who does not sell or show a real artist?

I came to a loud NO as the conclusion.

So why is "career" so important that the thoughts of it can paralyze artists?

We are scared, I think. Way too scared.

Garlic. In you face!

2008-04-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

What would you change if you can change any part of your body?
Most women have wishes for their appearance, I wish for a new immune system.

My immune system is the reflective of me. She's a workaholic, over reacting to everything and doesn't know when to stop. We have had this terrible relationship to have to put up with each other ever since I was born.

Most people have immune systems that can get rid of dust and mites without the body realizing it. Mine treats pollen as a gun pointing to my head. Only that she always blows me up before the gun did.

I have experimented on all sorts of herbal remedies, diet changes, life style modifications. I consider myself pretty clean inside by now, but my immune system still remains busy overloading herself with tasks. Very much like me.

A accidental intakeof heavy dose of raw garlic helped me calm her down last night. ha, raw Galic, the most simple basic herb in the pantry. "Garlic. in you face!" I said to my immune system. Now that she can't work too much any more, she is more normal and pleasant to be with. But what about the workaholic me?

refocus rezero home

2008-04-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

Life is but a tree, we instinctively follow the sun and were born to grow toward the sky.

Somehow other things came in the way, made us grow branches that bifurcate into all directions. They bring us much needed experience in this journey but sometimes can distract us from who we really are and why we started.

The opportunities to show are my branches. They educate me and build my confidence. Every emerging artist want some of these, and I do, too, badly. But I've came to realized that I need to re zero my meter every time I finished installing a show.

It is not to dwell in the after taste, but to move on and refocus/zoom out my lens.

I've gotten jealous, resentful, greedy and unhappy the more opportunities I have. Why is that? I ponder and ponder for a long dark hellish time. It is because I have lost the original vision and blinded myself with the short sparkle right in front of this moment. The more I have, the more I want, and the more I can not get. This pity old human folklore has come to an end.

Taking the sweet gratefulness I received from the most sophisticated and open-minded audience from the NOW show, I step into a new realm, leaving behind the self-pity. I may not be good enough, but I do my best at any moment. Each day I start a new day in the studio, discarding what I don't have and embracing what I have, which is my love and respect to my art. After all, I just want to make art, and having the ability to make them happen is the only juice I survive on.

Thank you all, who came thru my works and become part of it. Your taking it slow and digesting it thoroughly made this installation the most beautiful. Welcome to my branches!

Breezy night...

2008-03-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

Felt much loved on the opening night, by friends and by strangers. Often for the doubtful me, this is the time I feel appreciated as an artist and loved as a person.

This opening reception happened on a breezy night, I, however, felt warm at heart. People came in my installation and emerged themselve in it for a long time, soaking in the emotion and processing as they walked out. I am grateful for their encouragement and open minded about personal works like this.

It was a rewarding journey, after 20 hours of installing. And it is just the beginning~

My vote for the best

2008-03-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

The best conceptual artist I have known so far in my life is Zoë Sheehan Saldaña. Go check out her website and figure why I said so.
The only word I can come up is "flawless!" both conceptually and visually. The way she approaches social issues is genius and effective.
Thank you, Zoë, for your existence. Art is more interesting because of you:)

Emotional Turnover

2008-02-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

I am the only one who can change my world.
Tossed out the dog-drowning sobbing-wet despair, I stood up to the Halliburton of pity.
Today is a better day.

Got both hands on the draft of a new installation piece. It turned out that a few fans, an audio splitter and some earphones are all I need for the design. I'm naively and officially stepping into the interactive art zone.

The love on internet circulating knowledge I need.
All the loggers and MAKE gurus, my gratitude goes to you!

The year of Rat has already taught me how to accept the changes, discard old limits which nobody but myself set upon me. The best thing on earth is to Grow!

Life is doable when I rid of stress and get back in the loop with fellow artist friends

High five to ben dalton at MIT on this wonderful piece: Rabbit Field.

"Each rabbit is self inflating using a simple computer fan, and can sense its internal pressure state by monitoring its fan speed. If a rabbit is squeezed, and partially deflated, the rabbits around it respond, as if out of empathy, deflating themselves. In this way, a wave of deflation ripples out from the squeezed centre."

What a great piece, Ben! This is one thing that made my day today~ Thank you!

Murakami's Talk

2008-01-19T22:36:00.000-08:00

No, I still don't like Murakami's works. But I think he is a very nice person who works hard at his job, and not stingy about sharing it with other artists!
A little retro-report here from last Nov. when I listened to his talk in Taipei.
Organized some interesting concepts to help understand where he's from. But don't pick my scattered notes, I was freezing cold and sick that night.

Notes taken from Murakami's talk about his art:

"There is a specific moral system in the west, therefore, pornography is forbidden. Any raw desires had to be oppressed. But people have to find a way to express the desires and put it at home.
In the west, art means expressing the raw/original elements of life.
Art, in their definition, is like pornography. It is expressing the original desire and put it at home. Porn is shown in literature, but never sculptures. This is why I made the sculpture works with 海洋堂.

Pornography is similar to religions, it is a way to release secrets or oppression, to let go the shameful secrets.
Art is the same; art is not only self expression, but showing the most shameful part thru expressing. This is the same for people with religions.

From the pornography concepts, I organized the Super flat show in LA. I wanted to show works commenting on porn culture. It drew a lot of negative criticism in Japan. But I wanted to ask, if nobody likes porn and everybody is ashamed of it, why are there still so many people buying it?

A critic talked about my works, 'He turned what Japanese are ashamed of into big profit on high-end market in the west.'

Why are people ashamed of kawaii styles? Because they think kawaii is childish, is immature. But I ask, what is wrong being childish? What is wrong being a child?

Also I ask, What are Japanese artists shamed of? The narrow art market, not enough collectors or appreciation from the society?

Originality means What you discover or observe but others don’t.
I encourage all artists Face what you feel ashamed of bravely and honestly.

About Branding

I think we’ve reached an age of retrospection. Some wealthy people start to think that the acts of consuming or purchasing is shameful after they reached a certain level of wealth. This is why I worked with LV to create a store in the MOCA show. I want to bring out what people are ashamed of and put in right in front of them."

At this point, I still don't like Murakami's works. But I have to say that I feel what he feels. Often we create works to bring out the ugliness, but people only see the celebration part of it. It is not right or wrong because art is created by artists and viewers together. It just seems funny that the art critics are writing in one way, the artists are thinking in another way, yet the viewers who go gaga for the works are totally looking at them in YET the other way. I say, that is humor!

Mouse Trap...

2008-01-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

Haven't had a chance to stop since I landed. Life's tasks are consuming me.

I found myself caught in the emotional mouse trap and not able to move forward, it is called "Grief."

Uncle Bill passed while I was on vacation. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. But he made sure that we can all come home for his funeral. It is difficult admitting someone I love and owe great deal to is no longer there when I seek help, it is even harder to see the family suffer.

Grief makes one mature. But I wonder if my heart can still take it when it happens too often. It is a familiar experience. Don't' have appetite nor desire. Once a while the body vibrates quietly from the violent force in the middle of the chest, ego is trying hard to hold back the tears. One may not be at the appropriate location to break down in tears, therefore the heavy weight lead drops on the artery to replace the releasing of sorrow.

It is like all thoughts in life. It doesn't exist if one doesn't think of it. Once you bring it into focus, it blows itself up into a giant balloon in your body. you are about to explode, not even bawling can save you from bursting.

It is therefore impossible to create when one's hollowed from inside out. A dilemma for modern people, you would to withhold all emotions and continue business, or turn your daily life into a giant healing course?

I sob so I can feel.

In the humid cold...

2007-12-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

Haven't come home in winter for years, not quite used to the humid cold.

Went to listen to Takashi Murakami's talk, with some insights to bring home but also brought on a nasty wild cold.

It was quite moving to see thousands of people showed up to listen to an artist talk. I wonder how many are young artists who can practically benefit from his appearance. Mostly fans, I think, based on their cellphone-camera-flashing behaviors in order to capture any little shots of flower wallpapers. Will they buy art from today on?

I went home cold, tired and confused. Have to finish reading his book first. It's nice we have a chinese translated version. Frances my sweet friend was working with Murakami from day one til he left. We all got a free copy of the book:) and were sent straight to the talk~ Lovely!!! She helps me to read his works at another level. If you can read Chinese, she documented the whole Murakami trip on her blog!

Coop show opened, with nice details and lots of love. I like the way it looks. It's always nice to see a show hung by ourselves, a nice switch from a gallery setting. In this cozy coffee shop, I may not be able to get the attention I used to have, but a subtle glow of our friendship warms my heart.

Spent half of the opening day laying on the chair and moaned my dizzy head. But these collaboration drawings and sculptures made me smile inside out. Roo had totally transformed them after I finished the sculpting part. With crayon, she drew the fake Burberry; with hand braided yarn, she added the long wig. Love the twist~

This is the surprise one can only receive by collaborating with other artists, even when they are your best friends!

「合作社」台北時間１２月１日下午１點開幕

2007-11-26T16:50:00.000-08:00

小孟寄來下層那張接力作品時，我正在畫器官系列作品。有時候覺得心電感應的力量真是太神奇了!!
「妳怎麼知道我在畫器官呀?? 」

要來台北看展的朋友們，我想有解釋的作品總是比自己猜猜看的作品要來得耐人尋味，你說是嗎?

像這樣的合作作品有什麼特別?

藝術家共同創作的現象由來已久，但在當代藝術中，此類活動更加頻繁。所謂合作的作品通常代表幾種不同的創作過程，最普遍的是兩位以上的畫家合畫一幅畫，有時候是雕塑家與製造業合作，複製或製造作品，或即興畫家與音樂家一同上台，畫家受現場演奏的音樂激發靈感而作畫。合作的形式種類多變，其展現媒體跨越繪畫、音樂、文學、表演…等領域。

我們的合作歷史也很漫長，從2002年王筱玲、白曉玲、沈孟儒、林明雪與周亞南五人組成「五角形」以來，我們幾乎每年都會合作一些作品。今年，「五角形」中的三角利用像猜謎般的新合作過程，呈現給您:「合作社」。

所有你在展場會看到的四幅以及六幅合併畫作都是我們在對彼此所畫之影像不知情的狀況下所畫的結果。這個主意來自沈孟儒在英國唸插畫時，她的老師Chiu帶領學生集體創作，互相腦力激盪的經驗。拿一張白紙，切成四等份，你在右上以及左下角的那兩張上畫你想要的東西，並且讓你的影像延伸出來一點點到右下及左上區，然後把剩下的這兩張空白寄給我創作。

我不知道你畫了什麼，只看得到在我的空白部份有一點點你畫超過的筆跡，我用我的想像力擴展你的想像力，我畫出來的東西會不會和你的產物有異曲同工之妙呢?

我們覺得友誼是奇妙的東西，有一種朋友隔著十萬八千里也能彼此心電感應；有一種朋友精通不同語言卻可以一起溝通；有一種朋友認識了一輩子，不用語言也可以達到共識；有一種朋友不常見面聊天，但是在彼此的生活中卻重要得不得了。我們希望你的生活裡也有這種朋友，「合作社」是為你而展，為了我們的友誼而展。

展覽詳情請由鴨鴨網站Co-op Show連結~

half way home...

2007-10-28T20:55:00.001-07:00

I am half way back to Taiwan already.

Started smelling Mom's cooking, started craving for night market food, started hearing the rain, started feeling the need to walk fast on the street, and up and down in the subway stations...

The Co-Op show is 80% ready. Feel very excited and moved about this show that Roo and I put together, just for ourselves, to celebrate our decades long friendship. Roo started drawing on parts of paper, I would then continue from the little clues she left me, without knowing what she has drawn. The result is most surprising, because we do think the same, no matter how far we are from each other.

Aside from the heartwarming artist-friendship, I am in the midst of puzzling over Takashi Murakami's omnipresent star power in the whole city. Perhaps I have not understood his philosophy thoroughly. I will have to get one copy of his new book in Chinese translation when I go back to Taiwan and study hard to clear my prejudice. But I simply feel very very sad for millions of artists in Asia who have been creating artworks like his for ages. Life is not fair, it is never fair. But we all have our own path. Comparing with others will only drive us crazy and depressed. Comparing with the me yesterday is an easier way to live.

I love how Tilleke Schwarz put it on her website, "I treasure the idea that not everything in life is for sale." She has offered me a peaceful drop of dew that I can sip into a quiet mind, much like her artworks. Thank you, Tilleke!

什麼世界呀?

2007-10-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Lilly走後幾天...
二阿姨上週一走了, 好友的爸爸星期天過世了
Uncle在癌症中搏鬥著,聲音憔悴許多
我看著死亡一波接著一波地來
心想著
唉!
你這套我早就看穿了
幾年前我就破解死亡的謠傳了
你只能讓我流淚,不能打擊我對人生的嚮往
但是何必一堆擠在一起發生呢?

前幾天讀了"家中葬禮"的文章
我想現代社會的喪禮是最令人無法承受的儀式,討厭又虛偽,
如果沒有這些擾人的喪禮婚禮出生禮禮禮儀一大堆的來打攪我們的哀悼程序
我們對生老病死就不會感到這麼尷尬了!

"家中葬禮"大意是回到原住民部落健康乾淨的喪禮程序,
讓家人與好友親自替往生的愛人梳妝打扮,
親自替他們的愛人裝飾漆畫環保的"紙盒棺", 播放愛人最喜歡的音樂歌曲,
像在家裡接生娃兒一樣,一切都以家人與親密好友為中心,
完成往生者同意或親自設計的儀式~
一切從簡,重要的是讓大家有自己的空間表達想念之情,
一堆人一起吃壹頓飯總沒有一對一單獨對話來的釋懷.
畢竟死者已去,是我們這些留下來的人要做功課
壓抑下的哀傷對往後身心健康損壞極大
我們的哀痛過程不容許社會風俗來打亂

所以我想,如果有一天我走了
我要大家眾親友來幫我慶祝替我在身體上畫美麗的圖案
要歌功頌德的人也可以, 因為我可以偶而愛面子一下,
大家都要有一把我的骨灰或遺物當做紀念品,
然後背著"帶我去旅行"的任務把我的遺物帶到世界五大洲或外太空也可以
完成各自的哀悼程序, 然後繼續你們自己的美麗人生!!!

After two days...

2007-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

After two days, I resume drawing.

Last time I drew, it was after Lilly came back from the vet on Monday evening. She was in intense labored breathing. I knew she needed a piece of quietness, no fussy emotional burden nor me crying nor worrying about her, I let her be alone to focus on breathing.

The drawing helped me focusing on something else.

She was such a considerate person that she would not create much burden on us. By Wednesday 5am, she has left us, leaving us in tears and broken hearts. It was easier when we put down our 22 year-old cat 5 years ago. I could not figure out what went wrong in this mourning process.

I think it is because we did not have a chance to say goodbye. Because we did not see this illness coming. Because she's only been with us for three years. Because she's such a character with unique personality, not cat-lity. Because she can fly like a bat. Because she always looks at you right in the eyes and sends you loud messages. Because much of her past on the street was unknown. Because she heard us talking about letting go. Because within 58 hours of discomfort, she left in a quick manner.

Like the usual Lilly, she can move in lightning speed if she wants to. We, however, was dragging heaviness and the desire to cry in every moment. The lead-weight heart was lifted after yesterday I realized that it was only because I did not tell her how much I love her before she left. Wanting her suffering to end but not expecting it to end this fast, the hypocritical us were unprepared.

But now that she knows I love her, I feel easier.

Still in broken heart, I wish her good luck on the road. With a good quality life with us, I'm sure she's happy to have her last supper of quail. After all, food is everything to her!

To our teacher and friend, Lilly the tuxedo cat, circa 1995 - 10/10/2007

My relationship with time

2007-09-10T13:25:00.001-07:00

My relationship with time is a mess. If there is only one lesson for me in this life time, it would be TIME.

I can count seconds by heart with accuracy, but the hour needle on the clock stabs my body at every click.

I was rushed to be born, I was rushed to grow up, I was rushed to create. In fact, no body's rushing me at all except for the one named Me.

A studio visit was cancelled this morning. I am at joy finishing up all things on hold. At the moment of this unplanned void, I was so moved to have a 2-hour window that I was almost in tears.

Quiet like the moss grown on tree trunks, grateful like the lizard who found the prickly pears after a 3 day long search, I face this pool of fresh water among the sand dunes, not knowing what to express on my face.

Thank you thank you my flying pigs!! It is when I let things come to me that I was given what I really need.

And I want to tell you that there is a certain type of art which makes me sweat. Skills flow freely as if one's walking in the breeze, concept realized naturally like one's memory; I saw Gregory Euclide's show at Black Market last Saturday. It is so comfortably made and well installed that I feel as easy as being in a jazz bar. It is beautiful, and I sweat because I want to be as naturally good as Gregory's works.

A phone call came, I will have 2 more hours void today. Perhaps too much void is not healthy to a person who has messy relationship with time.

My grown little pig

2007-08-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

You asked me how is my pig. You knew that we visited her in July. But you didn't know that our pig daughter is almost 3 and currently on diet.

This is my little girl, Ramona, in 2005~ and this is Ramona in 2007~

Ramona is now 360lb, a petite size compare to her farm-bred 800lb fellows.

Why can't pigs stop eating?

Because they are bred this way for hundred years. Farm pigs are raised to be slaughtered no more than 6 months; the goal is to have a breed that can eat a lot and gain their full weight before they head to our dinner table. Ramona has wild pig gene in her (her pointed ears and longer snout) which keep her smaller in size but still has the apatite for the sake of human.

She is naughty because after I gave her sweet strawberries and pears, she wouldn't touch her favorite lettuce any more. I guess I should feed children meals before snacks. She is the sweetest angel; I got to brush her with my hands and walked with her close by(which is great for territorial animals like pigs). She loves to soak in her pond and relaxes; when the right moment comes, poo-poo is a jolly move. Ramona looks like me, with black and thick hair.

She has a petite friend Wilbur, who is a pot-belly that follows you around and would eat kale over strawberries!

Do you like to have a farm animal on your family tree? Check out the Farm Sanctuary. We met some of the tallest cows, gentle sheep, shy donkeys, sweet turkeys, chicken, ducks, and your intelligent tip-toe pigs!

Censored!

2007-08-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is probably the most irritating picture I've posted here, but it is damn interesting!!
I heard of things like this happen in US a lot, but never expect liberal Euro to shut down an art show due to political/religious intolerance.

It is a portrait of the Pope Benedict XVI by Italian sculptor Paolo Schmidlin, titled "Miss Kitty." His looking like a drag queen reads to me as the metaphor of Catholic churches' non-stop molestation scandals. The title was changed before the show opens to prevent political intervention. Mayor of Milan shut down the gay show "Vade retro：ARTE E OMOSESSUALITA'. Da von Gloeden a Pierre et Gilles" in a instance; right wingers were in rage while the gallery was force to stop selling any posters/merchandises they designed for the show.

Still have to think of Euro liberal, because politicians in US don't look at art at all, with the exception of patriotic theme and Thomas Kinkade.

I assume this show does not include celebrity gay artists like David Hockey, or it will be promoted instead of demolished. Of course, again, women artists are the first one to be the target, which turned around to bring Miss Schmidlin a fortune with all the attention. It reminded me of numerous artworks that were censored due to nudity involved. Sadly for the viewers who were sacrificed by the "chosen" few, innocent people will never know what our bodies look like. It is assumed that watching violent actions on TV is inevitable, but watching one's own body is indefinitely forbidden!

年紀大了,很容易想起以前

2007-08-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

佈了個展,開幕順利! 才回到現實,承認完美的旅行已經告終,是該甘心回到工作室工作的時候了.

聯繫上很久沒見面的朋友,想起很多以前,怎麼人越老就越容易想起以前,不知道老狗是否也常常想起他們小時候的時光? 這個世界對我們進行了多少腦部調整,讓我們忘記了小時候,我們最常做的事是當下玩耍. 沒有留念過去或期貨未來的包袱是幸福的!所以我總覺得自己奇怪,做完一個展便迫不及待地想離開,到下一件作品去,沒有活在當下的健康. 像我聽人描述的,鑰匙才剛插進門鎖,你卻早就進了門了! 我得專心開門,別去想門另一邊的事...

What do you do when you are not making art?

2007-07-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

"feeling guilty about not making art."

This is pathetic.

I went thru the most hellish day yesterday, because I didn't want to make art. I traumatized myself with deadlines and far-reaching goals so I could once again approve how lazy I am.

Therefore I was irritated, by paper, by brushes, by the table, by the phone, by the peaches and the watermelon, by cats, by husband and by oxygen. Nothing mattered, I rather die.

One article in Artillery magazine saved me from my torturing hell. The exact same words my loving gallerist has told me several times suddenly reverberated in the article. At the brink of vacuuming myself into dust, I, for the first time, heard the message.

You should take all the time you need. Don't let outside pressure stop you!

That's exactly what I did in the past 2 years, let the pressure to show stopped me. Interesting how life lessons repeat themselves over and over again until we learned it. I bit down my lips to make some fundamental changes of my attitude toward myself. I have to say to the fear in me, "I'm not afraid of you any more. Thanks for the advice. Please go away now!"

So I wrote this, to share with all the fearful minds in the world:

You’re in this for a long run, correct unhelpful habits so you can last long.

Everybody has a different path, universe has a different plan for every one of us.

What am I here for?
Being stressed out while working for commitments, and missed what my heart really desire?
Or be at ease and stay true to myself so that I can hear what is being said in my heart?

Fundamental changes can help me deal with stress.
Indeed, there will be no intense moment when I’m connected.

Create what I want to create; do not live from show to show.

The order should be,
take all the time I need, accomplish what means to be me. After that, the universe will match my intention with opportunities.
The dysfunctional, deceiving order is to live from show to show, in order to empower my insecurity.
I do not feel true when I lived the latter way; I was more like a lying politician trying to win people’s approval by detouring off what I’m really here for.

Art is life, you can’t lie about it. Art is life, you can’t speed it up. Art is life, do what do you have to do now so you can still make art while you’re 92 years old?

Showing is not the answer; fame is not guaranteed; contracts don’t last a lifetime; money will be spent. YOU are the answer.

“Be a person of value rather than a person of success,” Albert Einstein.

Corporate Food, what's in your bowl?

2007-07-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

US Corporations continue to fascinate me. Where there is money, there are US corporations. Does not matter if one has to introduce illegal child labor, break human dignity or poison the innocent people.
Over 5,000 Latin American farm workers are suing Dole, Dow and Amvac for poisoning them with pesticides that caused them to go sterile. Pepsi Co finally admits that Aquafina is not spring water, but from tap water. Not surprisingly, if you eat cadmium, lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium from your food containers, you shall thank for the glory corporations!

Dr. Phil Howard from Michigan State Univ. offered us a glimpse of how the giant companies are buying out small organic food labels. Now our organic food are processed with chemical waste, pesticide, herbicide and countless of human tear drops. I guess it is only natural that humans are greedy when it comes to profit and power. Shall we just call it ORGANIC?

Permanence with no time

2007-07-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

Should have updated some photos to you from my perfect vacation, yet this article about Ai Wei Wei (艾未未)'s work in Documenta, Kassel, sparked resonance.

"I don't believe there is anything we make that can permanently stay as it is,'' he says.

Not any more, maybe used to be. What is permanence? The frozen instance in time, the stillness in space or the spontaneous pause in our perception? We consume and dispose physically, culturally, mentally and metaphysically. Forgot the specific tune from that song, didn't recall the conversation with other humans, not aware when the childhood memory got trampled, didn't care to wait for the real answer, not allow self and others to stop for a moment, why do we want things that last long when our mind lapse in time?

I no longer take too many pictures while on vacation, because the concentration on camera operation replaced my joy to feel the moment, touch the landscape, experience the once-for-all. This second can't not replace the last or next second, while we are busy texting, checking email, surfing on the web while the TV, music and stove are both on, do we hear what is inside?

His doors collapsed in Kassel; Los Angeles is still wondering about how to preserve gummi bears.

The real permanence, is in you!

last splash

2007-06-30T00:42:00.001-07:00

I'm going on a trip, again, tomorrow. Leaving the last splash before I return with fun images.

You see, the most rewarding way to visit a show is not standing in line for hours in order to get a glimpse of your celebrity artist vomiting on white walls.

I have found the savory way to revisiting a single artist's show in different time and venues. Marnie Weber makes the kind of art I want to make; she has the sort of fun I desire to possess. Love is too strong a word. When I recently saw her new works in Patrick Painter, I was so proud of myself, because as a fan, I trace the progress in her art life, I feel her growth with us followers. Not the ordinary smile people wear when they leave the gallery, I genuinely taste the satisfaction yet not the conclusion!

Let's do a guess since you've read so far. What are the common features shared by these three creature sculptures?

First Day of Summer

2007-06-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of summer, aka Summer Solstice. Historically we should celebrate with a ritual or ceremony, but now, individual like me would go outside the studio building, inhale some sunlight and then head to a museum to finish the huge exhibit that takes more than a day to see.

I spent 4 hours finished 86% of the Wack! show from MOCA LA. I wish I had the world of time to sit thru each video screening. For quite some time, I think my past life was in the 60's or 70's. I become so moved when I see feminist art that address relationship issues and/or utilizes craft materials. It probably came from the happy memory of my childhood, when mom was sewing, sisters doing quilt and knitting. A hobby meant braiding and drawing to the little me. An image of a woman working on a sewing machine directly associates to the female relatives in my brain... this is when art swarms up strong emotions, the public expression experienced on a personal level.

If you are a sensitive person having relationships with other human, this is a good show for you. It is an enriched and well-researched show which has a lot to offer. In 2003, when I was working in Judy Chicago's Envisioning The Future program, Judy told us to get familiar with the feminist art so we don't repeat what have been done already. I don't think I can read enough to stop myself from repeating without this show.

Indeed, a lot of contemporary artists benefit well from feminist artists. Neto's use of materials reminds me of Nengudi's works. Artists documenting themselves have forerunners like Hannah Wilke and Suzanne Lacy. Eleanor Antin's Domestic Peace opens the conversation between artists and their families/friends. Monica Mayer's "El Tendedero" broke down the barrier between authors and readers, giving us courage to invite audience to interact with our creation and become part of the work.

I can't leave here without mentioning two pieces. Carolee Schneemann's Interior Scroll was the first piece of art by female artists that was introduced to me by my sister. At the age of 19, I first felt that she's strange, then I grew to admire her, like her. Now as an artist, I can't help applauding every single time I see this piece! Faith Wilding's Crocheted Environment is the spot in show where I had hard time leaving. This piece looks absolutely gorgeous in a black low-lit room~

Lots of people have negative impression towards feminist art. I have to say that some strong pieces might have been picked up to generate the story. The whole movement was manipulated in the same way as other cultural misunderstandings, like a lot of world citizens assuming African Americans must play basketball and sing well, whites must be well educated and wealthy, Latinos only do labour jobs, Chinese women are submissive, Americans recycle, artists starve... Media posses powerful force when it comes to brainwash, or some called, educating the public. It is time we reintroduce the movement that redefines the definition of contemporary art and forgivingly embraces all genres which provide freedom for all artists nowadays.

Genuine Interest - Are you hitting on me?

2007-05-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

The book that broke my reluctance to social with people is The Book of Luck. While I was translating it last year, it showed me tremendous amount of dead corners which I was not able to see in myself.

One of the principle is to network with people from all walks of like. Not because I will need them in the future, but because they are my lenses to see the world. When I'm in the extroverted mode, I hold genuine interests in people. By talking to a scientist, I can dissect the society from another point of view; by talking to a writer, I get to see how dots are connected.

But I find an interesting phenomena. In this lonely society, lots of people translate genuine interests into romantic interests. I have to say that romantic interests are not genuine at all; they are more adrenaline tinted. People in urban lifestyles so seldom receive genuine interests that they run away from it, avoiding the possible commitment to a new relationship, avoiding being acknowledged as worthy attention, avoiding looking at oneself seriously......

You see, if you travel to tropical countries or places where apathy does not exist, you will find people warm and passionate about each other. That is genuine interest from one human to the other, not your typical sniffing tail instinct.

Are people afraid of others' care? Are people mistreated most of their lives that they don't believe one can be cared about by strangers? What are we afraid of?

Do we see an injured person merely another one at struggle? Do we see a dead human as usual as a dead animal to be slaughtered?

Apathy, creates lonely people who struggle inside. Apathy, creates war fought on innocent lives.

Perhaps, this apathy was created by stress to pursue everything the society expects from us, an established career, a large bank annount holdings, a big house, a good-looking family, a count-down watch, a waking bumb, a cancer tumor, a safe border, a convenient life style with no time out, a lake with water drained and a pair of shoes that can walk on and on and on, forever...

geo dance reverberates

2007-05-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

went to see Merce Cunningham's dance in Orange County last Saturday night. three repertoires in a night; to be honest, I didn't know what to think after the dance. I merely felt muscle in my legs twitching from wanting to move, in squares, in rigid turns and kicking.

I am the chosen lucky one who has paid for the cheapest seat yet earned the biggest rewards. I sat toward the back of the stage, straight facing Merce who's behind the curtains on his wheelchair. I watched him watching his dancers. He is so much more beautiful than the waves of limber young dancers, because of the history and the whole lot more movement in him . This is an artist who has been faithful to his art for more than 7 decades and still is in action. The bond, the trust, the freedom and the fluid, between an artist and his art.

One night passed, I long for dancing, starting to relive what I saw in my body. Two days passed, I get a glimpse of it. The art that you don't know how to interpret because it was not meant to be interpreted, but it lived in you for ever and deeper than you realized. It is in there, but one can not organize it, touch it or implement it. This is what I call "masterpiece." At the moment when you let go, it all come out of you from underneath the limbs.

I may not see Merce again, but I've got a piece of him. And it's still alive and growing, for ever.

Hawkinson trip II: What have I done to you, my husband?

2007-05-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

Continued...
I met this book in the booth: Installation Art in the New Millennium: The Empire of the Senses" by Nicolas De Oliveira, Nicola Oxley and Michael Petry. This is a book I've read few times but still waiting for the price to come down, or until the day I meet a friend who specializes in stealing art books:)

Husband swung his head into my view field, saying: "this book looks interesting." He stayed for few more seconds as I flipped thru the pages. He saw some images that caught his eyes, pointing fingers: "look! what is this?" and "wow, look at that." I nodded as we went along, pretending nothing special is happening.

In my mind: "What happened to him? What have I done to you, my husband? Have I turned you into an artist? oh, I don't want you to be an artist... I just want you to be the you who supports art but doesn't make art. I can't stand marrying an artist..." on and on, the controlling me ignored the fact that Tim Howkinson's works often excite the artists out of everybody.

I looked at this man who understands me and my art more than anybody else, whose direct response to a piece weighs the confidence I have on the work, I wonder how much I know him. Sometimes I analyze his subconsciousness in a way that he didn't even feel the existence. I saw the artist in him who was caged in by the social expectation on men; I feel sorry for the incarcerated soul yet afraid of his power to consume me, not the physical me, but my little soul who is already consumed by my destructed mind and memory.

Family is a group of strange power struggle. I wish Mom and Dad and sisters were all here so I can tell them about Howkinson's Bat, but I am suddenly reminded of a segment from the movie "Pollock" when Pollock was exhilarated by the review on his show and the critic comparing him to Picasso. He was vigorously reading the article while families are talking, drinking and children running around; when seeking approval, they simply replied: "Is Picasso more important than your family?"

This scene pumps my tears, the tears of struggle, loneliness and inseparable bond of life and art, as if our hair grows so long that we often step on it. Fortunately for me who lives far away from home, I don't have to know what happened to the article clippings of my review that I vigorously sent to my family.

Hawkinson trip I

2007-05-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

LAAA and the Getty offered us a free trip to see Tim Hawkinson's Zoopsia. The lovely knowledgeable Jamie spent a whole hour giving us a tour on the five new pieces by Hawkinson. I felt tremendously heavenly to be on this side of the country to be able to see Hawkinson often, so much that I would trade Chelsea for Hawkinson.

Outside the exhibition space, Getty set up the usual museum book-booth to help familiarize people with installation art, while they failed to inform viewers of the content of "Bat." As much as I appreciate Getty's offer and enjoy their new adventure on contemporary art, I still can't help bitching about this "educating the public" hypocrisy.

This is a very common phenomenon in museums. I mean, how difficult or unglamorous would it be for a museum to include a small description next to the piece? Why does it have to be people-who-paid-for-audio-tour's or people-who-did-online-research's privilege to understand the process behind the piece. Given most people in Getty are tourists or biblical-art-admirers, education or introduction to the appreciation of contemporary art must be especially emphasized.
I can see how excited people will be if they learned of the process it takes to make Hawkinson a Hawkinson. People are generally excited about art involving everyday materials, yet the listing of media is simply not enough in a museum setting.
I was so tortured that I wanted to stand by the piece and explain detailed process to everybody who was marveled by "wow, it's made of plastic bags" but still felt some missing links as to "how."
ugh... it's like having an apricot stuck in my throat but was forced to swallow down. Perhaps it is time for me to change my personal definition of "education institutes."

Strong Love

2007-04-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

Artists consider ourselves lucky because we get to do what we want. I consider more and more people are doing what they want nowadays. Artists, too, get lost in the game of money and fame, probably no less than the American Idols.

I created a tension between art and my personal life which made me hard at breathing. It stretched so far that I developed an "anti" feeling of going to openings. So I dipped, then skipped. Decided to have a day without art, eat a good meal and watch a brilliant movie.

Indeed somebody heard my intention, sent me to watch "The Lives of Others."

Did I say a day without art? How could I even control that? This movie is so well written that I don't even dare to imagine where I will be if it's a novel I'm reading... For a long time, there has not been a movie made me regret of stopping making films; yet this one strikes a chord in my heart. The writer in me wants to climb a tree!

Now that my cat is capable of making conceptual art like this one, I can move on to the writing department.

"Artists are capable of strong love," Michael Salerno told me in an opening. I could never ever erase that sentence from my brain. I saw it in the movie today, the movie that brings my art back to me. One never knows when the perfect quote will appear in an art opening. Thanks, Michael! You made the art openings worth going!

303

2007-04-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

303pm, I loaded the sculpture in the back seat and added more money in the meter. I saw the color of ocean behind me, had to go taste the blue. It's 303pm; found 6 pennies by the next meter I encountered, it's an abundant day.

Ocean smells like home; I let the sand filled my socks and shoes. The roaring waves reminded me of the high tide I grew up with in Taiwan. Our ocean is more naive, more friendly, like the uncle who's always drunk but always welcome strangers and adore children. The ocean on this side of the north Pacific wears high heels and make up, her brand new bikini can easily out perform stinky uncle's torn t-shirt.But I miss uncle's drunken stories, they are for everybody who walks by the ocean. Beach is our home, is where we belong. But when you visit the beach on this side of Pacific, it is blondes' home, it smells good but not open for your drunken stories. The flip flops look quite the same, but the ones here don't tolerate your shame.

I miss home, from this side of the Pacific.
Sending my finger prints home, by the white foam of the high tide, when will it reach home?

Sniff, Exhale.

2007-04-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Not that I like to stay in the past, but gummi bear is an ever-present subject.
I just realized that when Gizmodo blogged the Chandelier, bandit commented:

"In an environment with less than 62% relative humidity and temperature under 80'F, a gummy bear will last an average of 7.3 years. Trust me on this."

I swear I didn't pay bandit to say this. If I did, I would pay for a statement of "lasting 20 plus years." bandit is the first person to offer this scientific statement since the gummi entered my brain. Thanks, bandit!

I have been working on a series of sculptures about genetically engineered animals, the first to be born is the octopus. Then Tim Hawkinson's Zoopsia opened in Getty. I stared at his octopus, bit down my teeth, wanted to scratch it off the monitor... I delivered this news to my octopus girl, we both wept... We thought we were the first one.

Worked on the detail draft of the rose window, intended to keep it a secret. Then I ran into the image of Damien Hirst's "Aubade - Crown of Glory." Another oz. of brain juice to crush me...

Human beings live inside similar cultures often share the homogeny of experience, ideology and thinking patterns. I must have been too westernized. This is a challenge existed ever since I first started art career by making female dress forms. Everybody is making what I am making... *~#-%*^#@

I guess one can never avoid stepping on others' brain wave accidentally, since we all watch the same movies and use the same computer OS. damn those culture monopolies!

The best solution will be live deep in the sea or at the core of the earth; at that moment, my views will alter into uniqueness and exoticness. not your Polynesian way of exotic, but a real never-before-comprehended way of strangeness.

oh, well, until then, we would continue stepping on each other's toes and yell: "I'm gonna make 1000 octopuses to beat up your 1 octopus." or in a hypocritical tone: "wow! that is so genius that you came up with the rose window idea!"

Pigglet

2007-03-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

Some friends know that we adopted a piglet at Farm Sanctuary last year. Our pig daughter, Ramona, lives in their California shelter. She ran away from a farm when she's only 2 month old, but fell in a open sewer drain... (story continued at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/adopt/rescue_ramona.htm)Farm Sanctuary's NY shelter just welcomed a new piglet named J.D.. He's so cute in his chocolate color. See J.D. in action here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=farmsanctuary1
Pigs are smart and rambunctious. They are playful like dogs, curious like cats. But don't worry if you've got no space for them to run, you can always have one in Farm Sanctuary. We will be visiting our calico pig this summer, are you interested in adopting one, too?

限定,場域,再現...誰最會翻譯深奧無解的外來辭

2007-03-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

三不五時閱讀典藏今藝術的電子版,
盯著一大段明明在說中文的國字竟然組合不出一點的意義
大量的外來語透過白人學者的揣摩, 重新定義, 然後再發表, 變成新的深奧辭彙
說穿了往往就是古老文化中以一個字便解決了的單純概念
但是想要假裝有深度的人就一一地拿起來當口頭禪用
寫在自己的文章裡

這些自以為是的文章留傳到海外
我們努力硬著頭皮把自以為是的學者用辭硬坳成另一個新辭
另一個看起來很深奧卻空虛又喪失自尊的辭彙
另一個只有看過原文的知識份子才了解的高階層文化
古老有趣的中國語言變成坑坑疤疤的"後現代"拼圖

為什麼我們不能用單純的心和單純的語言來看藝術?
我以為有深度的東西和難以了解的東西之間是沒有等號的,
因為往往越深奧的理念其實就是最簡單的概念

如果你不能以簡單的一句話解釋一個理論
那你便是一點也不了解其中道理!

有些人把藝術說得比天氣還難懂
引這個德國學者說的, 引那個美國學者說的,
灌滿了字數卻讓自己的言語看起來像是翻譯來的,
喪失了"原著"的真誠

每看到這種令人傷心的文章
讓我想告訴這隻筆
您不妨寫英文,德文或法文還省事點
何必折磨自己與讀者的想像力呢?

Cyber Feature...

2007-03-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

MAKEZINE posted my gummi bear chandelier on their blog on March 8th: http://makezine.com/blog/

To answer everybody's doubts:

1. "Chandelier" turned soft in LA's 90 degree summer and hardened again in winter.

Gummi bears only melt when temperature rise above 200 degree.

I do think the moisture will post a problem.

But as my gallery pal put it: Basic vermin and, uh - flooding or fire? In which case, no art would be safe. No art material will last forever if you don't take good care of it. "Chandelier" is a piece of art, a concept, not a bag of produce.

2. I have experimented on leaving gummi bears(including the melted ones) out on the street in LA, the result is, there may be only two species on earth who consume this food: Human and Some Dogs. No, no roaches, no vermin, no ants, not even fruit flies... I wonder if mold grows on coal-tar? Artificial coloring came from coal-tar, you know.

Although sounds tough, gummi bear still can't compete with Twinkies when it comes to the forever-long shelf life. We should run a contest calling all durable snacks to come out and show us what they are made of:)

Cyber Interview...

2007-03-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

I was interviewed by Claudio Parentela from Italy.

Visit the interview: http://theextrafinger.blogspot.com/

and Claudio's other artist interview blog: http://foggygrizzly.blogspot.com/

Interesting how it is the first time I talk to people and the Chandelier was not included in the conversation. It's very refreshing! Like a parent, Chandelier is now a teenager and has a life of her own:) Thanks, Claudio, for a great experience.

damn... forgot to mention Eva Hesse and Virginia Woolf. Probably because I don't look at them as my favorite artists, they are simply my past life friends or sisters...woooo...

OK. Back to work before all the stars fall on my head and burn my hair off.

Mission in Matrilineage Symposium

2007-02-17T20:11:00.000-08:00

Had very good luck bringing some warmth to Syracuse, breaking the record long freezing temperature; Chicago stopped snowing and Syracuse raised to 30 degree!

Just finished the lecture, I wasn't sure if I offered enough to the audience. Perhaps I didn't give them enough what they really needed, or perhaps the topic was too far ahead for them, or it was too much of a mental game that they couldn't relate to it...

My conclusion is that I care too much about people's response. I should just focus on doing what I am doing.
Could I have done better?
No, I couldn't.
I did my best to arrange the lecture and put out what I see as priority in young artists' life. What we create is in our mind, not in the material world. Because thoughts become things.
How much does this mean to a fresh out-of-school artist when she has to find a job to pay her rent?
I am a very fortunate artist. Most of the times I wish I know how to make the world love artists more, not in a distant appreciating way, but a genuine supporting way...

Night are falling into the dark with a flurry. The cold fresh air feels so crispy compare to downtown LA's warm truck smuge pollution.
I found a lampost in front of the hotel. I think this is the way to enter Narnia. Will I meet Tamnus tonight?

Vancouver Sculpture Biennale

2007-02-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

Gertrud Kohler-Aeschlimann and I had short conversations on emails these days, don't I wish I had visited Gertrud and Heinz in Lucerne while I was there in 2003. But another visit to Switzerland will be a super delight to keep me smile in sparkle for months.

Gertrud and Heinz Aeschlimann are renowned artists and art patrons themselves, also run the art-st-urban community in Lucerne, Switzerland. They support International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards to sponsor young artists' residency, also show some really amazing artworks and art events on site. Plus the history of the land and the building just kept my goose bump dancing in joy, do you want to live and create art in an isolation cell in the former "Psychiatric Clinic for Unruly Male Patients." Sounds like somewhere some politicians should be. "Unruly?" Does that mean "Creative?"

Heinz Aeschlimann invites a beautiful "Composer" to Vancouver Sculpture Biennale, so poetic that birds whistle thru it! I also enjoy the Engagement by Dennis Oppenheim, the kind of sculpture I love to create. I wish Sophie Ryder's "Minotaur With Hare" was made with willow twigs, but that would probably be too Patrick Dougherty, I think... I love her works, very contemporary English, sweet but tough! Of course, I am glad to see the senior sculptor all Taiwanese kids grew up with, Ju Ming has one of his signature Tai-Chi series in the Biennale, too.
If you live in the Vancouver region, don't miss it. The biennale runs til April 2007, also go online and vote for your favorite piece!

Ding-Ding-Ding

2007-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

It's a charm!
Had a lovely dinner with dear friend Trine last night, before heading for the South Biannual show. I would not tell you what we ate for dinner because it might freak you out... But I learned a little secret that Trine's paintings may fly to NYC very soon. woo-hoo! Very excited and bravo on smart-eyes me, I have a painting of Trine's in my studio, indeed an important investment!! Collectors out there, don't you hurry?

As I was preparing for the lecture for the Matrilineage Symposium in Syracuse university, I couldn't emphasize enough how important it is to help and celebrate each other in the art world. Seeing friends make a step higher and truly be happy for them is to allow ourselves to shine like they do, and to follow their steps to receive more good news for ourselves.
I believe in a win-win situation and mutual benefit. Therefore I continue to prove it by a piece of news coming in this morning that I got in a group show in Chicago's Woman Made Gallery, a place I've eyed for a long time.
Having a chance to show with other great women seems to always make me more joyous than showing in a cold-white-wall gallery dominated by celebrity male artists. It is a different kind of feeling, you know. One is joy like going to the park with Mom, having a picnic and draw birds in the whole afternoon; the other is cheer like having a promotion. Somehow something is lost when we increase our experience and body sizes; more money or fame simply can't afford the blissful memory from childhood (that is if one has blissful childhood). Anyway, I love the energy emitting from female artists. Perhaps it's because I live too far away from Mom and I miss her much.

Mom, a young Taiwanese lady in her army uniform in 1958.

Joy-Coated

2007-02-04T22:05:00.000-08:00

Finally, after some days of nausea and toxic fume inhaling, I learned to open the window, had both the fan and air filter on high and finish 99% of the new gummi piece. The last one, I think, to put an end to the gummi bear series. But somewhat feel addicted to melting and gluing the gummi bears... The poor baby has to endure my "branding" him with hot sizzling gummis, yet we seem to have cutivated an intimate relationship... Yes, we hug each other every day.

絹印很好玩!!

2007-01-23T21:57:00.000-08:00

這是上週末去學絹印當場即興創作的作品之一, 二
靈感來自唐朝仕女畫, 像那尊從山西帶回來的胖女像, 每天看顧著我的小柳樹!
我最喜歡綠色的那張, 但是同學喜歡黃色的今天從幫華美博物館翻譯晉級為編輯, 真高興有人賞識我的文筆哩~

絹印其實不難,比我3天才能畫一張畫快多了

2007-01-20T22:39:00.000-08:00

所以今明兩天要去學手工絹印
今天雖然很冷,卻滿載而歸
一個頭塞著滿滿的知識像有兩個大
但總比昨前天被燒焦的甘貝熊燻到反胃要來得舒服

能在陽光下讓影像曝光真是種健康的美德呀!!

學點新東西讓人神采奕奕, 接觸到許多其他不同領域的藝術家們
世界真大, 好多學有專精又和善的創意人

上課的老師比我還小, 卻已經做絹印十五年了
有時候想想如果我們不用考聯考, 現在想必也已經成精了!
莫札特如果要考聯考, 絕不會變天才兒童的, 因為他媽媽會逼他去上功文數學, 老師會因為他忘記給媽媽簽聯絡簿而打他手心, 所以就更別彈鋼琴了

Toxic burned gummi bears?

2007-01-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

working on the new gummi bear piece for days, I figured out that I can burn them and utilize the melting gummi as adhesive. After 2 days of working on gummis, Turbo the cat lost appetite and threw up some food, while I had nausea for 2 nights.
What is in the burned gummi? I have a theory: Food coloring came from petroleum, so burned gummi contains sulfur dioxide, which is a common pollutant in the air from power plants. But short concentrated exposure to sulfur dioxide "can cause stomach pain, menstrual disorders, watery eyes, inhibition of thyroid function, loss of smell, headache, nausea, vomiting, fever, convulsions, and dizziness. "
oh, my goddess, what am I getting myself into?