words, images, life
So, I’ve neglected my blog for the entire monthof 2010, but if you know what I’ve been up to, you’ll understand that it was impossible for me to keep up. There were too much going on! On top of a trip to Houston for meetings, finishing four paintings for an art show, being really busy at work, attending a conference with my boss, plus being part of a PSA (Publis Service Announcement) shoot, John and I also jointly brought a house in Las Vegas. 
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The National Christmas Tree in front of White House
I seem to always slow down on my posts when a year comes to its end. This was true last year, but it’s especially bad this year. By now there are 4 trips that I haven’t written a word about, plus loads of other going - ons that went un-documented.
Oh well, this means I am living a full life. As the weather cools down, the trees turned gold, and distant mountain tops covered with snow, I just want to slow down and “feel” evey waking moment. This is when I tend to negelect my blog.
Christmas was wonderful. It was full of family visits. Since this is the first Christmas since John and I got married, it was the usual merry jolly x 2. John and I spent good quality time with his family, his aunts + uncles + cousins + nieces+ nephews, plus my family. My dad, sister, and brother flew in to be with us, and it was very nice to have our whole family under one roof (which doesn’t happen often anymore). It was also nice to see John’s side of the extended family and feel a bit more acquainted with them. In addition to celebrating Christmas, one of John’s aunts celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary, plus there were 3 birthdays, therefore we had two cakes on top of all the festive food. Imagine the amount of eating…
But, all in all, it was nice. More »
As usual, the end of a year presents itself with many random thoughts. Some are not exactly positive, so consider yourself warned.
More later…
I’ve been really busy (doesn’t this sound familiar?). I’ve been real busy doing my favorite things such as taking trips, caring for Taiwan, spending time with my family, meeting up with friends, plus painting!!! Painting!!! And more painting!!!
In the past few months I’ve finished more paintings than I normally produce, because I have some deadlines to meet. Here’s one of them. It’s oil on canvas, 30″ x 24″, and titled “Many Colors of Zion”. It depicts the valley floor of Zion National Park in its autumn splendor, as the field receives a blanket of gold.
I am working on a series of paintings on Zion National Park. This one is #3. This painting, plus another recent landscape I did, will be in a group show this weekend in El Monte.
The joy is indescribable. I made a monumental leap in my painting tonight! I am so excited right now that I don’t think I can fall asleep tonight!
Lately I’ve been doing lots of reading, thinking, reflecting, and listening to other artists. I have a critique group and that really helped too. After weeks of meditating on some thoughts, there’s finally a break through today. I know now that from this day forward my paintings will be so much more alive, and engaging, than before. I am working on the 3rd painting in my Zion series right now, and boy, this third one is worlds above the first and second. The improvement is such a great leap that now I don’t like most of my recent works anymore.
To be honest, the past couple of months have been frustrating creativity-wise. Perhaps it was the busy life I lead, or the expectation I give myself, or the upsetting changes at work, I felt quite constraint. The creative energy that once infuse me seemed to have gone dried. I was quite frustrated with myself that I dealt with it not by taking a break, but by painting more, which probably added to the stress.
But today that layer of grey fog is officially gone, in replacement is the long-awaited rays of sunlight! This newly rekindled energy came just in time for my serious deadlines too, as I’ll be in two shows in December, then one in March 2010 (overseas), then another one in June 2010, then another one to get ready for in March 2011.
Yay!
Just when I finally finished writing about our honeymoon trip five months after we returned (and I only wrote about the essentials, been real busy), John and I visited a new country again (did I mention that there are two other domestic trips I haven’t had time to write about yet?).
We just returned from a 6-day trip to Costa Rica with several other folks.
We spent most of our time in Futuna, the central part of Costa Rica where the famous Arenal Volcano is. One thing that’s different about this trip was that for 4 out of those 6 days, internet was readily available, therefore I’ve written some entries already. Once the images are ready, you’ll see posting here from our very good start of the trip to the not noteworthy end of it. Not noteworthy how? Answer: travel companions matters…
Anyhow, for the most part it was very beautiful, enjoyable, and adventurous. John and I were really happy to visit Central America for the first time. Stay tunned for those entries.
Surrounded by this kind of gorgeous water, and enjoyed snorkeling 2-3 times a day, it didn’t take us too long to decide that we want to get certified in scuba diving. There’s a Dive Center on our resort island that offered full-service diving package with lessons given by multi-lingual instructors. It was all very convenient.
To get a scuba diving license we needed to take three lessons. Each lesson started with a video session, then the practice dive follows. It was a great decision to get certified in Maldives, because if we were to do the same at, let’s say, Sports Chalet, then we would practice in a pool. However, out in the Maldivian waters, all practice dives were out in the ocean. We dived the house roof on Coco Palm’s Dhuni Kolhu island, and it was superb!
I apologize that I don’t have great underwater pictures to show. We did have some taken, with those rolling underwater disposable cameras, but all pictures turned out so bleached out that they don’t do justice of the amazing underwater world at all, therefore I’ll only show the one that turned out the best.
See the little blue fishes? They were my favorites. More »
While taking a tour of a local village, our guide asked as a trivia question. He said whoever gets it right at the end of the tour will win a prize.
The question was: “How many different colors of coconut are there in Maldives?”
So, throughout the walking tour, I kept on looking up to observe the shades of colors of coconuts. I saw 9 different colors, but I suspect it was really around 12 to 16. At the end my answer was tweleve — tweleve different colors of coconut.
Ah I was so wrong! The guide said there was only four. Four only? Yes, four only he said. There’s the green, the yellow, the red, and the brown… what a boring answer I thought.
I saw different shades of green, yellow, red and brown. For example, the yellower green, the redder green, the browner green, the redder and browner green, the green with a slight tint of grey and blue….etc. How can there only be 4 different colors?
I guess as an art person, it’s innate in me to make more out of colors.
Our resort offers various excursions — picnic on a deserted island, a romantic night in a hut on a deserted island, trip to a local village (which we did), an evening with a Maldivian family, sunset dinners at the lagoon…etc. The one excursion I enjoyed the most, and will definitely remember forever, is traditional Maldivian line fishing at sunset. What a noble idea to sail out to the Maldivian waters during glorious sunset hour to fish!
Here’s how it works. We boarded a dhoni which took us out to a spot that our guide had previously dove and discovered a rich school of big fishes. Once reaching our spot, each person were given a roll of thick line with a big hook at the end of it. Baits, which were pieces of fish, had already been prepared for us. All we had to do was to hook the bait onto the hook, find a spot at the edge of the boat, threw the bait and hook into water, and wait for action!
The wait wasn’t too long. I felt fish pulling my line very soon after I dropped the line. And, perhaps instead of being patient, sometimes one needs to be a little agreesive when it comes to fishing. John, being the gentle person that he is, was perhaps a little too gentle to catch anything.
Me, on the other hand, pull the line up hard each time I felt something, so I caught a total of 5 fishes! More »
The story goes like this. The resort publishes a newsletter everyday, containing news of what’s going on on the island. I believe it was our first night there, there’s a heading in the newsletter that read “Come be the guests of Mr. & Mrs. Miyake”. It turns out that there was a “traditional Maldivian-style” wedding next day on a nearby deserted island, to unite a Japanese couple. The ceremony was to be held in the afternoon, ending at sunset.
The idea of going to a uninhibited island to witness a “traditional Maldivian-style” wedding sounded all too enticing, so….. John and I became THE ONLY TWO GUESTS at Mr. and Mrs. Miyaki’s very small wedding. Oh come on, don’t people read on their vacations?????
Anyhow, I didn’t want to “crash” someone’s wedding without doing some work for them, so I “volunteered” to be their photographer on the whimp, and took loads of pictures. Later on, I gave them my amateurish pictures on a portable disk, and they really liked it. Mrs. Miyaki told me that my shots were a lot better than those from the resort’s photographer. Yay!
Here are the pictures: More »
