White Dresses - First Painting Finished in 2011

I just completed the first painting in 2011 - White Dresses.  It continued on the white dress motif I started in 2005.  The dress is still floating in the air, but gets multiplied by large numbers and the flaming red is replaced by much duller green:


White Dresses
Oil on Canvas
22" x 28"
Completed in 2011

For comparison, below images is the one I completed in 2005 - White Dress:



White Dress
Oil on Canvas
20" x 16"
Completed in 2005

Journeyman Artists

Last week, I heard a fascinating story on NPR - Cake: Flying High After A Record Low, on the Californian rock band Cake.




According to the interview, "Cake unveiled its sixth album, Showroom of Compassion. Released on the band's own independent label, Upbeat Records, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. However, it did so after selling just 44,000 copies — the lowest No. 1 in the 20-year history of calculating record sales.
That revelation reflects a music industry deeply changed since Cake's last new release about seven years ago. As lead singer John McCrea tells All Things Considered host Melissa Block, he knew the band needed to proceed with caution."

The story continued on the McCrea's musing on his life - the difficulty of sustaining a nomadic touring life and the possibility of stopping touring.  

After two decades with Cake, McCrea has started to think about his life after the band — which might mean taking his interest in farming and gardening more seriously. "I think I want to live a little closer to the ground," he says. "There's something pretty healthy about working every day outdoors, and not being on an airplane all the time."

But for the moment, McCrea says he's content to keep playing. As for the dubious honor of making the lowest-selling No. 1 album ever, McCrea says that kind of contradiction is "perfect" for a band like Cake. "Optimism and pessimism are actually buddies sitting together on the same sofa," he says. "I mean, that's sort of what we're about."

This interview gave us a vivid picture of some very successful artists as journeymen.  I'm using the term journeyman in the loosest sense.  Real journeymen would have killed to achieve the level of success Cake has accomplished.  However, as McCrea notices, they were not at the same celebrity level as Lady Gaga.

According to Wikipedia,

A journeyman is a trader or crafter who has completed an apprenticeship. A journeyman was a craftsman who had fully learned his trade and earned money but was not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for judgment. If the work were deemed worthy, the journeyman would be admitted to the guild as a master.

The word "journeyman" comes from the French word journee, meaning the period of one day; this refers to their right to charge a fee for each day's work. They would normally be employed by a master craftsman, but would live apart and might have a family of their own. A journeyman could not employ others. In contrast, an apprentice would be bound to a master, usually for a fixed term of seven years, and lived with the master as a member of the household, receiving most or all of their compensation in terms of food and lodging.

In parts of Europe, as in later medieval Germany, spending time as a journeyman (Geselle), moving from one town to another to gain experience of different workshops, was an important part of the training of an aspirant master. Carpenters in Germany have retained the tradition of traveling journeymen even today, although only a small minority still practice it. In later medieval England, however, most journeymen remained as employees throughout their careers, lacking the financial resources to set up their own workshops[citation needed]. In France, they were known as Compagnons.

The terms jack and knave are sometimes used as informal words for journeyman. Hence "jack of all trades, master of none"—someone who is educated in several fields of trade, but is not yet skilled enough in any to set up their own workshop as a master.

In professional sport, the term "journeyman" refers to a player who is experienced, but has yet to achieve a major success. It is a term particularly used to refer to quarterbacks in American football; players such as Trent Dilfer, Kelly Holcomb and Tony Banks are recent examples of journeymen quarterbacks. Its also used in Pro Boxing/Wrestling.

From journeyman to master, in modern days, is not as well defined as before.  Skills, luck and temperament.  Then there are stars, and there are star of stars.

New York Times published a very touch tribute, A Last-Minute Juliette Stands Tall in Verona, to a star-journeyman operatic soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, who stepped in to sing Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera, when the marquee soprano Angela Gheorghiu canceled suddenly due to illness.

There are singers who hold an opera company together, and they’re not the ones you might think. These singers don’t star in new productions; their photos aren’t on the posters. They sing the supporting parts, the Zerlinas and Micaëlas, and when they do get leading roles, it’s often late in runs after the critics have gone home.

But they work steadily: the soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, one of the best and most indefatigable of these singers, has performed with the Metropolitan Opera no fewer than 348 times since her debut in 1984.

Stalwart artists like Ms. Hong are the ones ready to step in when international stars call in sick. On Wednesday, the soprano Angela Gheorghiu, citing an unspecified illness, announced that she was dropping out of the Met’s revival of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” which opened Thursday evening. She was replaced by Ms. Hong, who in true Met veteran style had gone on for another ailing Juliette back in 1996.

Ms. Hong rose to the occasion with an elegant, touching performance. Her voice is cool and slender, but the understated detail of her singing makes it feel more imposing than it is: the way she poignantly colored her farewell to Roméo at the end of the balcony scene; her dreamy murmur of his name in the bedchamber duet.

Though not the most galvanizing stage presence, she is a fine, subtle actress. It’s not easy for a 51-year-old singer to impersonate a teenager, but Ms. Hong was convincing and true, resisting every temptation to overplay. When she saw Roméo for the first time, her posture changed almost imperceptibly. She stood up taller; her gestures relaxed; she seemed to mature in front of your eyes. Her performance was full of such telling touches.

If the performance lacked a certain intensity and grandeur, it was still a pleasant night at the opera — a good way to be reminded of, and give thanks for, the quiet artistry of underappreciated singers like Ms. Hong.

I know it is silly to call a soprano who has sung at the Met for more than 348 times, in roles including the Countessa from The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Violetta from La Traviata.  However, considering her lower profile, comparing to Renée Flamings and Angela Gheorghius, what consisted of her career, is not unlike a journeyman.  This is not an insult, rather than a tribute to a wonderfully self-depreciating, even humble star singer and a very fine musician.

The world, art world or otherwise, cannot sustain itself, it is has only stars.  Stars attracts people to a world both masters and journeymen built together.  In the art world, particularly pre-Renaissance time, journeymen artists were those who left behind anonymous paintings in churches in remote and tiny villages, and one can still encounter them in their original settings in places like Italy.

Though some are more content to be on the "grass root" level and be happy with a low-pressured career, most craftsmen, artists and sportsmen would love to rise above journeyman status, and achieve stardom.  But the journeymen are really the pillar of our civilization, even though we have to admit that we do need megastars to keep any artistic aspiration alive.

What Chinese People's Daily Reported on Libya Crisis

The crisis in Libya have not generated much media coverage in China, for reasons one can only speculate.  Whatever little coverage on Chinese Communist Party's Official Throat and Tongue (Mouthpiece) - The People's Daily, the focus was squarely on the heroic feat Chinese government accomplished to evacuate its trapped citizens in Libya.

A typical store is 5 March story - Chinese Evacuation Efforts Inspired Fervent Patriotism (中国撤离行动激发强烈爱国热情).

The article made a incredible read and I will include the original after my translation:

On the occasion of triumphant accomplishment of evacuating 35,860 Chinese citizens from Libya, "People's Daily" on March 3rd published a long headline story "Save every compatriot's life -- a documentation of the action of evacuating Chinese citizens from Libya under the fortitude leadership of the Chinese (Communist) Party Central Committee and the State Council."  This report gave rise to intense reactions, and inspired the fervent patriotic enthusiasm in readers.

Many readers called or left messages online, claimed one after another, that the evacuation act demonstrated the philosophy of Chinese (Communist) Party and government -- "people first and governing for the people", and the country's (China's) development and stability was the solid foundation for this evacuation, and (we) must cherish and firmly seize the opportunities of important strategic development.

在胜利完成35860名中国公民撤离利比亚之际，《人民日报》3月3日在一版头条位置推出长篇通讯《珍惜每一位同胞的生命——在党中央国务院坚强领导下我在利比亚公民撤离行动纪实》。这篇报道引起强烈反响，在广大读者中激发了强烈的爱国热情。

许多读者来信来电或在网上留言，纷纷表示，撤离行动彰显了中国党和政府“以人为本，执政为民”的理念，国家的发展和稳定是此次撤离行动的坚实基础，一定要珍视并牢牢抓住重要的发展战略机遇期。

2011年3月3日晚，在约旦首都国际机场，等待出发的中国工人手举国旗。
图片：新华社发
The evening of 3 March 2011, in the Jordanian capital International Airport, departing Chinese workers waved national flags.
Photo: Xinhua News Agency 

Happy International Women's Day

Today is the International Women's Day.  I wish all the women a happy Women's day and the rest be reminded the sacrifices women usually make to maintain a career and be a caregiver.  Roles have changed but the basic societal role of women has not shifted much.  Below are a few paintings and drawings I made in the past, and I include them here to salute women:


Grandma
Oil on Canvas
40" x 30"
Completed in 2003


Woman in White Straw Hat
Oil on Canvas
28" x 22"
Completed in 1997


Aspects
Oil on Canvas
28" x 22"
Completed in 2006


Liberation Road
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Completed in 2010

The Modern Art Iraq (Online) Archive

Title unknown,
Khaled Albassam, 1958

A new online archive came to into existence in February 2011 - The Modern Art Iraq Archive (MAIA). The website states that its mission is to document Iraq's threatened modern artistic heritage. The site will house images, many of whose originals are now lost, from the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art, and other publications and documentation. The website states that "MAIA's goals are to raise awareness of the diverse body of modern works of Iraqi art, to help locate their current whereabouts, and to assist agencies working to prevent their illegal movement and sale. MAIA aims to reach a wide and participatory audience across the globe, and offers users the ability to document, discuss, explore, and enrich Iraqi artistic expressions and experiences."

MAIA was launched with over 700 works and documents and the archive continues to grow as new works will be add continuously and they invite people worldwide to contribute information about the works. Its homepage states:

The Modern Art Iraq Archive (MAIA) is a resource to trace, share, and enable community enrichment of the modern art heritage of Iraq. Explore the works by artist, browse through related textual materials, or add your own images or stories to the archive.

The website is not dissimilar to many artist community website in their visual presentation and it currently has the following categories:

• Oil on Canvas زيت على قماش
• Mixed Media مواد متنوعة
• Watercolor ألوان مائية
• Charcoal / Pencil فحم/أقلام رصاص
• Sculpture نحت
• Ink on Paper حبر على ورق
• Print طباعة
• Watercolor and Ink ألوان مائية وحبر
• Sculpture (Bronze?) نحت برونزي
• Pencil أقلام

Styles and themes vary greatly and there were many surprises, most significantly that it contains many figurative works and even nudes, in contrary to many people's preconception of what Iraqi art would be:


Title unknown, Faiq Hassan, Date unknown

The more unique part of this website is the "Texts" section, which includes fascinating documentations like these:

- Exhibitions 1940s - Documentary Materials (معارض ١٩٤٠ - وثائق)
- Personal Documentation (وثائق شخصيه)

• Letter from Jawad Salim to his sister Naziha, sent from London, 1948

- Magazine Articles (مقالات من مجلات)

Central to the development the of website, according to MAIA, "were ease of use, translation into Arabic, extensive and inclusive documentation, community contribution, and syndication of content elsewhere on the Web." One curious thing to know is if the translation done automatically or manually. This is a very convenient feature and could facilitate culture understanding amongst groups of people. On my personally website, I included titles in my first and third language - Chinese and German, respectively - together with English titles in my portfolio and it did increase hits. I did it manually, since the site where my portfolio module is hosted - Flickr - does not provide an automatic translation feature, nor do my alternative portfolio sites on ArtSlant or Saatchi Online. A multi-lingual website is always a cause for celebration.

The contribute page allows people to upload their own materials, including stories, images, video, and audio.

The website however did not elaborate on how it will "assist agencies working to prevent their illegal movement and sale," and it would be interesting to learn.

The San Francisco Chronicle just reported a story of tracing a 6 feet wide painting by Ralph Fasanella, previously displayed at the Oakland Public Library and the Oakland Museum of California. It took Laura E. Ruberto great effort to locate this "missing" art, in African American Museum & Library at Oakland, its home since 2003. Apparently, an provenance agency like MAIA is very important to help identify and catalog works of art.

Video Presentation of My Abstract Paintings

Abstraction is a highly cerebral activity that it intimidates me, a sensualist fundamentally.  But, over the years, not only my paintings started to become more abstract, by the natural development -- once you've painted any subjects and objects you fancies, what's next left do do -- I also made foray into purely abstract paintings as well.  Below is the video presentation of such efforts:



>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XXI: Oil Painting "Liberation Road" on Video
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XIX: One More Life Drawing Video from Last Year

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks